Rating: 
Summary: A Very Unfortunate Book
Review: It is hard to believe, (but this book gives it credibility) that someone can be a leader in a religious group whose foundation is the Bible, and vilifies it as myths and stories. Who is to say what is or is not just myths? He has God down as an impotent being who has little control over his creation, and sits or stands by while chance or "luck" determines their miserable outcome; and this includes Kushners' own son to whom the book is dedicated. This book is according to the introduction, supposed to offer hope and peace to its readers; but all it seems to do is vilify God and His Word, on the one hand and then pats Him on the back and tells us now we can continue to love and serve Him, because He is not causing our suffering, just impotent to deal with it. I know that grief and suffering is hard to bear, but this is blasphemous!
Rating: 
Summary: Another Good Perspective
Review: Though not a religious person myself I found the words and thoughts of Rabbi Kushner very interesting. Immediately after the loss of my husband, when my world (as I had once known it) was shattered, reading his perspective of why bad things happen to good people enabled me to help define my own answer to the question.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad Things Do Happen To Good People
Review: When Rabbi Harold S. Kushner wrote, "When Bad Things Happen To Good People" I doubt he realized it would spend over 8 months on the New York Times bestseller list or become a book referenced by many. He wrote it out of his own need to find an answer to why God* made suffering happen to his family and why "should we turn for comfort to the same God who makes it happen?" Written in 1981, this short 148-page book dedicated to his son Aaron Zev Kushner (1963-1977) is amazingly powerful. I hesitated doing a review on it because I didn't want sadness to surround Mark when people are rallying around him. But the message in it seemed important and the fact is illness and death are sad. To read this review in it entirety, please go to and feel free to leave comments. Thanks....
Rating:
Summary: Responsibility
Review: "Sometimes, of course, a feeling of guilt is appropriate and necessary. Sometimes we have caused the sorrow in our lives and ought to take responsibility." The reviewer from Hessel, MI seems to have overlooked or discounted the above two little sentences tucked away in the midst of Chapter 6. Sometimes we ARE responsible for the conditions that facilitate the so-called "bad things" that happen to us. Certainly God cannot be blamed when "bad things" happen in our lives; and certainly people who do so-called "bad things" do not necessarily need to be branded as bad people. However, quite often bad behavior creates bad conditions wherein the likely fruits are "bad things." Therefore, one aspect of a spiritually mature person is a personal acceptance of one's own failings in behavior and attitudes in one's life. To put it bluntly, each individual has a responsibility for admitting their mistakes and trying to repair the damage done to others as a result of their mistakes. Too often, religion is used as a scapegoat, a sort of spiritual victimhood, where God is the puppeteer who forces His Will upon all creation, which is, of course, heresy. An authentically lived life is one where a person appreciates their true gifts, laments their actual shortcomings, and accepts responsibility for integrating both (see Jung's shadow work). One thing Kushner's book leaves you with is that disregarding either is living an inauthentic life. "The candles in churches are out,
The stars have gone out in the sky.
Blow on the coal of the heart
And we'll see by and by...."
Rating:
Summary: Great little book
Review: Great reality check, no nonsense, no spiritualizing. God indeed loves us, if we only loved ourselves. Great tool and help for those who might experience the lowest moments in thier lives. Great companion for those who simply look and search for more answers to this life. Sharing with perspective of once own trails and life adversities is Kushner's great strenght. To give new meaning and courage to those who struggle in life is Kushner's gift.
Rating:
Summary: this book does more to hurt than to help
Review: It is the position of this author that the only explanation for pain in this world is that God is not in control. He portrays a limited God who would like to end our suffering, but cannot. His writing sounds comforting at first, and is written from his own personal pain, but in the end it spreads a very dangerous idea. God is not limited, he cannot be. People coming to Rabbi Kushner for explanation and understanding will be disapointed. Seek another explanation, do not swallow his. God has his reasons for pain, life in this world is based in suffering, as the Buddha says. It makes us worthy of heaven and able to enjoy it ever so much more.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I have...
Review: ....because at different times of my life I found Rabbi Kushner's explanations of "Why Does God..." and "Why in the world I have to go thru this?" so appropriate. I first read this shortly after my older sister had died and I had to go on a work assignment at an oil shale retort facility outside of Laramie, Wyoming, leaving my family and friends to the demands of a godforsaken job detail on the midnight shift in the proverbial middle of nowhere. I was filled with many questions of why she had died so young and why the doctors could not do more for her...and having damaging, scary thoughts for a city kid in the middle of the mountains. I found this in a little convenience
store not too far from the hotel I stayed in. And I can say it helped me to find peace and it helped me to maintain what little sanity I had in those mountains. Sometimes things happen that are truly horrible and semmingly hard for us humans to bear, let alone understand. Kushner affirms that this does not mean we should love God any less or leave His side. Because even when we are not aware of his prescence--in the consul and aid of a fellow traveller, in the starting of a new day--He and His work will be felt. Many folks of faith already feel this, but Kushner admits even his faith was wavering as his kid was sucuumbing to a deadly, debilitating disease....and, he uses his pain and suffering to help other folks work thru their pain and suffering. And he uses his religion to explain how God works for you, me and the man on the street. That's why this book is so great. We all will go thru some kind of deep need to get thru a particularly painful period in our lives. This has helped me on many occasions and it will for you, too.
Rating:
Summary: An Introspective Journey to Comfort
Review: I initially picked up this book to help me find the words of comfort for a grieving relative of mine. Noone died but "why do bad things happen to me?" was the question she uttered. The "what if's" of this book are deeper than I expected. However, reading it at a mature time in my life, I'm neither offended or hurt by Kurhner's theories on GOD possibly being LESS than PERFECT but loving us no less because of this. Hmmm, but we were always told that GOD was omniscient and all powerful! I grew up never thinking of GOD having limitations. In Chapter 3 the author has an interesting take on Genesis: "on the seventh day He rested....But suppose God did not finish by closing time on the sixth day?" "Suppose that Creation, the process of replacing chaos w/order, was still going on?" NOW! That would mean that every now and again these RANDOM acts of BAD are the chaos that He has yet to bring under order. The author also underscores the meaning and message of Job and the challenge given to God by Satan. Job through all his suffering remains true to his belief in God. This book is a fast read and good to have for reference. It's also a great conversation piece. Being that religion is so personal, everyone probably won't agree w/Kushner's theories. I at least accomplished my goal. Not only did I pass on comforting words, I passed on the book as well!
Rating: 
Summary: Hardball questions to hardball answers.
Review: You must appreciate the good Rabbi’s desire for straight talk on this tough issue, when so many people give crooked answers and speak with a forked tongue. In the introduction, R. Kushner explains that the book had its beginnings when his son Aaron was diagnosed with Progeria, the rapid-aging disease. This book isn’t idle speculation or an academic toy, but was forged in the crucible of pain. You cannot fault anyone for asking these hardball questions—it is the glorious Jewish Chutzpah. Christianity speaks of “com[ing] boldly to the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16), and that is what Kushner does, asking these hardball question. Who hasn’t wondered about these things? Not being Jewish, and having heard R. Kushner speak at Brigham Young University, I was quite impressed with him, and finally dug down to read his most famous of books. The title is arresting, and says it all. Joseph Smith once said that it was an “unhallowed principle” to say people suffering comes from wickedness. We see this most pointedly with children. In Chapter One, he begins with an overview of the discussion and lists the normal explanations most religions have for why evil exists. The only problem I found it that R. Kushner, I believe, assumes too much when he reaches his conclusion. For example, when he discusses the punitive theory for evil, he assumes that people are good, with the sub-assumption that people cannot improve. I disagree—everyone can improve just a little in everything. For example, the last time I got a traffic ticket, I drove like a paranoid driver fro about a month. I felt awful, but my driving was at it’s best. I’ve slumped a little since then, but the punishment did get my act together and who knows how many traffic incidents for myself and for others since then? Yes, sometimes innocents do get involve, but some times guilty people do get involved also. Another area of disagreement is the “ending of a phase” argument, when a person is perfect in and area then gets moved on to heaven. How do we really know what state a person is in? That is the whole point of us not judging is that we don’t know the state of a person’s soul at anytime. We all have a vivid internal life that is also quiet and hidden from other people, this life of desires and whatnot is the real self. Conceivably, people who die are ready. Children suffering. How to put this without sounding like a Nazi or an Inquisitor? But Judaism is more a religion of the “here and now” and doesn’t deal with the afterlife. The afterlife does provide some answers to why we have suffering. Joseph Smith once said that all loses made up in the resurrection, and that is part of our hope. R. Kushner says that is there is no justice in this life. We are all agreed on this point. But what about the next life, an eternal, never-ending life? Can one year of pain be balanced against an eternity of bliss? Incidentally, I believe that PART of the reason why God lets things go on like this is that evil people can change. Look at St. Paul. What would have happened if God had zapped him early on? This painful waiting is par of God’s mercy. (...) Rabbi Kushner also discusses the notion that people die before that finish their life’s work. So what is the standard of important and unimportant work? We laud the cancer-curers or the scientists and artist, but doesn’t the burger-flipper have any vale with his life’s work? The value of a burger-flipper becomes apparent when you are hungry. Chapter Two is marvelous chapter on Job. No comment is necessary. In Chapter Three, he discusses the idea that life is a test, and how sometimes people fail life’s test. Well, first of all, are we sure that they have failed? What is the source of his information that they have failed? We keep on coming bat to “Judge not,” because we don’t have the information to assess everything about a person. Isn’t it possible that someone could be EXAGERATING his or her pain? In Chapter Four, he discusses the nature of creation. He makes a common mistake, that of equating the creation of Genesis chapters 1 and 2 with the creation in Genesis chapter 3. Most Christians understand that with the fall of Adam, all of creation was affected. We obviously are not dealing with Eden here, no matter how beautiful the leaves look in Fall. Indeed, Fall itself is an evidence of this fall of Adam. Thing basically went haywire with creations, hence the origins of natural evil. I agree with his assessment in Chapter Five about human freedom, and how misuse of freedom is the cause of moral evil in the world. Well, I didn’t intend to do a hack job, and I have tried to be as respectful of Rabbi Kushner’s opinion as I can, while still having integrity with my own beliefs. This is a knotty issue, and we sometimes wish God would give us better answers. Maybe he has given us the answer, and we don’t like it. I feel that the ultimate test of this book is how it works in a person’s life. (...)
Rating:
Summary: Author downplays certain losses.
Review: My son died at the age of 3 days in the spring of 2001. It has truly been the most difficult time of my life. This book was given to me by a couple of different people and recommended by several others. I found it a difficult read - as I believe my grief was too recent and I had a lot of anger. I didn't feel it was helping me deal with my loss. But because of the recommendations I soldiered on. I couldn't believe my horror on arriving near the end of chapter 4 "No exceptions for nice people". One page discusses the death of an infant by saying, "If he were to die shortly after birth, his parents would go home, saddened but not overwhelmed by the tragedy." Later on, referring to the same person now dying at 35 or 40, "Now his death causes more than a few days of sadness. It is a shattering tragedy for his wife and children, and a profoundly saddening event for all the other people in his life." How dare this man of God minimize the loss of my son. I belong to a baby loss support group and I definitely can say the losses we experience are overwhelming. It astounds me that a man who lost a child himself could show such little compassion. Instead of making me want to recommend this book to other bereaved parents, it made me truly sorry for any parents experiencing neonatal death who are members of his parish.
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