{"id":50325,"date":"2019-08-09T04:05:34","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T10:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=50325"},"modified":"2019-08-09T04:05:34","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T10:05:34","slug":"off-the-pulpit-peace-or-discontent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/off-the-pulpit-peace-or-discontent\/","title":{"rendered":"Off the Pulpit: Peace or discontent?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE<\/p>\n

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In 1946 Rabbi Joshua Loth Liebman wrote a bestseller called \u201cPeace of Mind\u201d in which he argued for balance and calm as religious objectives. In contrast two years before in \u201cHalakhic Man,\u201d Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik wrote that \u201cReligion is not, at the outset, a refuge of grace and mercy for the despondent and desperate, an enchanted stream for crushed spirits, but a raging, clamorous torrent of man’s consciousness, with all its crises, pangs, and torments.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many of the practices of Judaism \u2013 meditation, prayer, the entire Shabbat day \u2013 are devoted to seeking and maintaining equilibrium and internal peace, the prevailing sentiment is surely that of dissatisfaction with the state of the world and the state of one\u2019s soul. We are less for comfort than for challenge, and the prophetic calls to be better still ring in our ears.<\/p>\n

(Rabbi David Wolpe is the senior rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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