First published 2000
Rabbi David Goldstein struggles to reconcile his inner emotional world with the expectations of his Orthodox community. When a crisis of faith shakes his carefully ordered existence, he must navigate between traditional religious teachings and his authentic feelings. David faces pressure from his congregation, his family, and his own conscience as he questions whether true spirituality requires suppressing natural human emotions or embracing them fully. Through encounters with congregants dealing with their own emotional struggles, David discovers that the path to genuine religious experience may lie not in rigid adherence to rules, but in honest engagement with the full spectrum of human feeling. The novel explores whether faith and emotion can coexist, or if one must be sacrificed for the other.
Genres: fiction, drama, literary-fiction, contemporary, religion
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: crisis-of-faith, found-family, reconciliation
192 pages · Paperback · Hodder & Stoughton