Rating: 
Summary: A hearty "L'Chaim"!
Review: ("l'chaim" -- To Life! -- is the traditional Jewish toast, offered over a raised glass of something potent, a prayer that life will bring us good things and success)This is a great book for Jews or non-Jews... or anyone who loves life! Like Kushner's other work, this book makes you shake your head in wonder, thinking, "it all makes sense now..." Even if you've been Jewish your entire life, if you're still wondering where the joy is supposed to be in living Jewishly, you need to listen to what Kushner has to say. And if you're related to a Jew, married to a Jew, or thinking about becoming one yourself, this book will absolutely help you understand what it's all about.
Rating: 
Summary: Good reference
Review: As a Christian conducting serious study of the history of the church and the origin of the scriptures I wanted to hear about the Jewish traditions from a Jewish source. Furthermore I often wonder what it is my Jewish friends believe when looking at the same Hebrew scriptures that Christians call the "Old Testament." Rabbi Kushner's book does an excellent job providing this information. My one "complaint" is that he occasionally misrepresents Christianity in his endeavors to help us understand where Christianity and Judaism differ (for example, his references to Paul and the purpose of the Law). I am sure these are innocent errors, but they can be misleading to the uninformed reader.
Rating: 
Summary: Offensive to Christians; sure to widen the divide
Review: As a Christian with Jewish friends, I read the book hoping to learn more about the "life-centered" aspects of Judaism. The title drew me in. However, I found the book very offensive to Christians. Granted, the rabbi is writing about Judaism, but the "slams" against Christianity--as others have put it so well--have no place in the book. Kushner admits that some Jews believe this, others believe that, but his attitude seems to be that all Jews are very observant. I gather that Judaism is based on actions and, the rabbi thinks, that Christianity is based on faith alone. Devout Christians pray morning, noon, night and compline; read devotional texts based on scripture--both Hebrew Bible and New Testament; read special materials during the long period of repentance and reflecton we call Lent--not just a week or 10 days, but 40 days not counting Sundays; although we must repent each day and pray for forgiveness, and certainly do so each week in church, Lent calls us to 40 days of prayer, fasting and other disciplines--but it isn't supposed to be on display. Jesus opposed that; we hold a three-hour vigil on Passion Friday; say grace before meals and sometimes after. Our religion stresses the need to repent our sins, ask God for forgiveness (no "pagan" elements, thank you, Rabbi; just the One God). Do good works, be charitable. We have two to seven sacraments, dependng on the church, and many Holy Days, of which Easter is the holiest. Much of what Jesus taught is very similar to what Hillel and others taught. Kushner says Christians need Jews to remind us that there is more to religion than faith (something like that). We get it. And that Jews need Christians to remind them to share what is so great about Judaism ... except that if Judaism had spread widely, he said, it wouldn't be Judaism because it's a "community" as much as a religion ... an ethnic group. OK. I went into the book very open-minded, receptive even, looking for the "life," the joy I hear there is supposed to be in Judaism. Telling me that I was born a pagan, that I'm still part pagan because Christianity is part pagan, and slamming Christianity throughout the book, made me angry.
Rating:
Summary: Jewish Philosophy and Catholicism
Review: I enjoyed this book and learned much from it about the basis for many Jewish rituals and holidays. It was less helpful, however, for learning about the roots of Christianity. Unfortunately, Mr. Kushner, like many Jewish teachers, scholars and philosphers, seems to think of Christianity as Catholicism - period. Several of his comments are absolute - such as that Christians become Christians when they are baptized as infants, his comments about Lent, and so on. These are Catholic beliefs; there is a great gulf between these beliefs and the rest of Christianity. Catholicism isn't to Protestantism as Orthodox is to Reform or Conservative Judaism. Chapter 11 ("Jews and Christians in Today's World") will also be quite offensive to any devout Christian. Kushner prefaces his comments by saying the chapter "isn't a scholarly history of Christianity or an introduction to its theology. Neither is it an attempt to suggest to a Christian reader of this book that his beliefs may be wrong." However, after this statement, he goes on to lay the "history" as describing the New Testament account of Jesus's arrest and trial to be "slanted to impress a Roman audience". He also doesn't make any mention that the Christian Bible states Jesus rose again after his crucifixion, but describes Jesus's followers as having some visions and basically weaving a story that included everything from the concept of Original Sin to a gradually emerging story of Jesus now as the Son of God. Whether or not the author's beliefs are contrary to those of Christianity isn't the issue to me, but the fact that this is written as a book designed for both Jews and Christians who need each other - and then Kushner proceeds to belittle the text that Christians hold sacred by stating it is "slanted" and its claims of eyewitnesses of Jesus as friends who were upset and therefore hallucinated that he rose from the dead. If a Christian wrote a book supposedly for Jews and Christians and then went on to say that the Torah was obviously slanted and that the Ten Commandments were a result of Moses going up on Mt. Sinai, possibly eating some funky berries from a burning bush, and then hallucinating his meeting with God, and finally creating 10 laws to take back to the people so he wouldn't be empty-handed, Jewish readers would likely be rightly offended, too. These are the only reasons I gave this book less than 5 stars, but unfortunately they are quite significant. The book is excellent as a guide to Jewish customs and philosophy about religion and Christianity, however.
Rating:
Summary: To Harold Kushner
Review: I just finished this book about an hour ago. Every page of this book made me feel wonderful about my decision to be Jewish and to embrace the Jewish faith. I enjoyed his openess and his insite, and can not wait to read more by him. Even my non-jewih friends are interested in the book!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Insightful
Review: I loved this book. I read it and re-read it and now have highlights and notes all over it. I originally bought this book to gain insight into Jewish thought ( my sister-in-law and her family are Jewish). What a treat! I bought copies and gave her and her mother one. I also gave copies out to some of my friends from various Christian denominations. As a Christain, I could see where the church received many traditions, such as keeping Sacred time, liturgy, and even a couple of stories that Jesus tells in the Gospels. How wonderful that something I bought to help me understand Judaism, gave understanding to my own faith walk.
Rating:
Summary: fascinating, enlightening
Review: I picked this book up by chance when I fell in love with a Jewish man. I wanted to better understand the tradition that had so shaped his life. Rabbi Kushner's book achieved that impeccably, and also gave me much to think about regarding my own sense of spirituality. He treats Judaism as the joyful, holy system of living that it is, rather than as an outdated set of rules. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning about the shared Judeo-Christian heritage of the western world, and to anyone exploring what it is to be human.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointed
Review: I was very disappointed in this book! After reading When bad things happen to good people I thought for sure this would be another great read. I was so wrong. I found this book so triteful! I made the mistake of recommending this to my Christian wife (I'm Jewish) and her only comment was "Atleast his other book was insightful". After reading the first ten pages my only thought was 'no wonder so many of my people are converting to Christianity!'
Rating:
Summary: simple and profound
Review: I'm Christian and my husband is a Jew. I enjoyed in reading this book very, very much. It helps me, in a simple and profound way, to know better and to honor and to love more my own faith, as well as may husband's. Thank you.
Rating:
Summary: A blessing for all...
Review: In this book, Rabbi Harold Kushner (perhaps best known as the author of 'When Bad Things Happen to Good People') explores the traditions and practices of Judaism with wit and wisdom. 'To Life!' is his celebration of his heritage, and the heritage of his entire community. '"To Life!" conveys a sense of exuberance, a readiness to enjoy the pleasures of this world. It removes from wine, and from other pleasures, the taint of sin and self-indulgence, and invited us to look at all that God has created and find it good.' Judaism has a long history, longer than most continuing religious traditions in the world today. It is a testament to the foresight in Judaic teaching and wisdom that, despite its ancient origin, much of that wisdom is still relevant today. This may also have to do with the slow nature of change in the basic human nature, as well as the fact that timeless truths and problems are, well, timeless! This book is a very personal book for Kushner. He states in the first chapter his Rule One about how to answer the question What does Judaism say about...? -- ''The only correct answer will always begin: "Some Jews believe as follows, and other Jews believe something different." The reason fo this is not just that we are a highly individualistic, independent-minded people. The main reason is that we have never found it necessary to spell out exactly what we are supposed to believe.' A key difference between Judaism and many religions, including Christianity, is that it is an ethnically-based religion, not only in practice but in approach. The Jews were a people before they had a religion. With most every other religion, the converse is true. When Mordecai Kaplan asked Kushner and his rabbinical school fellow students to write down the ten greatest Jews of the twentieth century (the list included Einstein, Freud, Herzl, etc.) and then asked them to write down the synagogue each attended each week, the point was made clearly -- they were not Jews by virtue of religious observance, but through membership in a community. Kushner proceeds in a classic Jewish style -- to tell stories. The community is built up largely of the stories carried forward from generation to generation, about the community and its collective responsibility to God and to each other, with neither aspect able to be separated from the other. Story-telling is something that the Christian community has learned and taken to heart from this practice, and indeed, in carrying the Hebrew scriptures into the canon of Christian scriptures, tells many of the same stories. Kushner discusses sacredness and holiness -- he quotes Martin Buber who, in distinction from the thought of much of the world who believe there is the holy and the profane (unholy), believed the proper division exists between the holy and the not-yet-holy. Everything has a potential for holiness, as part of God's creation. 'Everything we do can be transformed into a Sinai experience, an encounter with the sacred. The goal of Judaism is not to teach us how to escape from the profane world to the cleansing presence of God, but to teach us how to bring God into the world, how to take the ordinary and make it holy.' Throughout the book, in his discussion of the calendar -- from which he discusses holidays and rituals of importance-- to the ways of prayer, the diversity of Jewish belief about God and humanity, and the ideas of the state of Israel and historical and continuing anti-semitism, Kushner approaches each subject with clarity, compassion, wit, and the love only a life-long devotion to Judaism can bring. His final chapter, 'Why You Need to be a Jew', is aimed largely at the assimilationists, those who would forego much of Jewish life in favour of the greater culture. In this chapter, one can find reasons for a reaffirmation of one's own religion, whatever it may be, and find arguments for taking it seriously. Kushner's book is a blessing to all who read it, of any tradition. Shalom.
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