The Spirit of Renewal: Finding Faith After the Holocaust

Throughout its history, Judaism has been engaged in a search for the meaning of the simultaneous existence of God and evil. In this updated reissue of his 1991 classic, Rabbi Feld, Jewish chaplain at Princeton for 19 years, describes that quest. Dwelling on watershed events in Jewish history, especially on the Babylonian exile, the Bar Kochba revolution, the story of Job, the Holocaust and the birth of the State of Israel, Feld argues that Judaism has always adjusted to reflect changing historical realities and renew itself. In particular, he finds that, after the Holocaust, there was an urgent need for Judaism to redefine itself and, more significantly, that even in the very midst of that unspeakable cataclysm there were glimmers of holiness in ordinary acts of kindness performed toward others by ``the walking dead.'' This beautifully expressed book provides inspiration for all who grapple with the problem of belief in a just God in an unjust world. (Apr.)