There Is No Messiah and You're It: The Stunning Transformation of Judaism's Most Provocative Idea

Rating:
Summary: Great Idea, good Analysis, somewhat repetitive
Review: The best part of this book is its title. Once you know the title, you pretty much don't have to read the book.
Definitely, once you read the first chapter you have the main idea which is this: The messiah is not a specific individual who will save the world but rather a belief that every person, doing his or her part, together can save the world.
The author does a good job exploring the evolution of the messianic idea in Judaism, although he is really just quoting from other books, mostly Gershom Sholem.
His thesis is that the messianic idea has continually swung between viewing the Messiah as a saviour independent (or despite) of the Jews' behavior versus the Messiah as a saviour who inspires Jews to become more holy.
The author obviously espouses the latter idea but takes it one step further- you don't need a specific person to inspire you, just do it now!
This is a wonderful idea which at this point is definitely not in line with the traditional/Orthodox view of the Messiah. However, the idea is very powerful and perhaps will become the mainstream idea in the future.
Definitely read this book to learn about this provative and inspring idea. However, to really understand the history of the Jewish Messianic idea, I would recomment more basic texts such as from Gershom Scholem.

Rating:
Summary: Great Idea, good Analysis, somewhat repetitive
Review: The best part of this book is its title. Once you know the title, you pretty much don't have to read the book.
Definitely, once you read the first chapter you have the main idea which is this: The messiah is not a specific individual who will save the world but rather a belief that every person, doing his or her part, together can save the world.
The author does a good job exploring the evolution of the messianic idea in Judaism, although he is really just quoting from other books, mostly Gershom Sholem.
His thesis is that the messianic idea has continually swung between viewing the Messiah as a saviour independent (or despite) of the Jews' behavior versus the Messiah as a saviour who inspires Jews to become more holy.
The author obviously espouses the latter idea but takes it one step further- you don't need a specific person to inspire you, just do it now!
This is a wonderful idea which at this point is definitely not in line with the traditional/Orthodox view of the Messiah. However, the idea is very powerful and perhaps will become the mainstream idea in the future.
Definitely read this book to learn about this provative and inspring idea. However, to really understand the history of the Jewish Messianic idea, I would recomment more basic texts such as from Gershom Scholem.