Einstein and the Rabbi

July 10, 2017
Levy (To Begin Again), a rabbi and founder of Nashuva, a Jewish spiritual community in Los Angeles, uses an engaging framing device to begin this inquiry into the soul: her experience of reading a letter from Albert Einstein to Rabbi Robert Marcus, a chaplain who had been present at the liberation of Buchenwald and who had recently lost a child. The legendary scientist wrote that peace of mind could be achieved by overcoming the delusion that people are separate from the rest of the universe. That letter led Levy “on a journey that would deepen understanding of the soul and eternity” as she searched for the letter Marcus had written to Einstein that had prompted the physicist’s response. That pursuit eventually paid off, but some readers won’t follow Levy’s quest to the end. The intervening sections features advice that will strike many as platitudinous; for example, her five tools to help someone move from potential to action are praying, talking to others, being honest, listening and seeing, and feeling the pain. There are some genuinely moving sections, but too often Levy’s rose-colored vision comes across as too good to be true. Readers who are fans of Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul are most likely to find this volume of use.

July 1, 2017
A rabbi offers a program of soul-craft to get us through the "World of Separation," this reality where nothing quite works and nothing quite makes sense."If the soul is so wise then why do we stop listening to our souls?" That is not the only rhetorical question that LA-based rabbi Levy (Hope Will Find You: My Search for the Wisdom to Stop Waiting and Start Living, 2010, etc.) raises here. Pondering a letter written by Albert Einstein to a rabbi decades earlier, in which the renowned physicist mused about why we humans behave as if we were somehow disconnected from the whole, Levy proceeds to offer common-sensical suggestions to forge links to our better angels--by, for one thing, praying. To skeptical listeners in a class, she posed it as a challenge: "Why not approach it as an experiment? Try waking up and reciting a morning prayer for two weeks and we'll discuss it then." Bingo: logging the hours produces results. "If you long to connect to the divine," she continues, "begin studying, and you will receive timeless wisdom." The author occasionally drifts into the soft precincts of the Sedona set, as when she likens the "California Roll"--what elsewhere is called the "New York stop," drifting through a stop sign without ever quite stopping--as the way most of us rush through religious practice: "There is a tradition to stop and take three steps backwards at the start of the prayer. Why? We imagine our souls leaving this space and entering a holy space. Suddenly we are standing in the very presence of God." For all the cheerful exhortation, there's also serious reckoning with the big picture, with matters of life and death and the travails of daily life. Throughout, Levy comes off as a trustworthy guide, with just the right leavening (or perhaps unleavening) of humor and endless compassion. Like-minded readers will find Levy's blend of Old Testament and New Age appealing.

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July 1, 2017

Levy is a Los Angeles-based rabbi and founder and spiritual leader of Nachuva, a Jewish spiritual outreach movement, meaning she thinks a lot about the nature of the soul and its role in helping people lead fulfilling lives. The author's inspiration for this work comes from an unlikely source: Albert Einstein. Levy found a letter from Einstein to Rabbi Robert S. Marcus that she felt perfectly described the unity of existence and how our souls are essential to discovering that connection. Levy uses the three layers of the soul found in the Jewish mystical tradition--the life, love, and eternal forces--to structure the contents of this book. Weaving her journey to discovering the letter that prompted Einstein's response, stories of her own vulnerability, and her counseling experiences as a rabbi, Levy demonstrates the interconnectedness of these layers of the soul and how we can work toward understanding this relationship even through difficult times. VERDICT Spiritual seekers of any faith should find guidance and comfort in these intricately woven stories of love, loss, suffering, and success.--Amanda Folk, Ohio State Univ. Libs.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2017
Himself immortalized for his science, Einstein once offered spiritual counseling to a rabbi distraught over the untimely death of his son. Through this largely forgotten episode, Levyherself a rabbienters an intense human drama that draws readers into her own lifelong inquiry into the nature of the soul. That inquiry began when as a young college student Levy suddenly felt the spiritual presence of her murdered father beside her on a campus walkway, his spiritual presence ultimately guiding her toward study of the soul as the wellspring of love and wisdom. Engaged in that study, Levy discovers Einstein's letter to the distressed rabbi Robert S. Marcus, a decorated battlefield chaplain in WWII and a postwar activist for Holocaust survivors. Perplexed as to why Marcus sought solace, not from a Jewish religious leader but rather from Judaism's greatest scientist, when his 11-year-old son died, Levy wants to find the letter Marcus wrote to Einstein to establish interpretive context for the physicist's reply, an affirmation of a cosmic unity enveloping every soul. In the inspiring story of how she finally finds the long-lost letter, readers may glimpse astonishing evidence that the universe does weave souls together in one surprising tapestry. A stirring spiritual journey.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)