I’M GOD, YOU’RE NOT
Lawrence Kushner
Jewish Lights Publishing, 2010
This collection of short articles by one of the great contemporary teachers of Jewish spirituality, subtitled “Observations on Organized Religion & Other Disguises of the Ego,” is a quick way to get what Zalman Schachter-Shalomi calls “a window in the heart and soul of a man who models what it means to be a rabbi.” Kushner teaches that “the goal of all spiritual life is to get your ego out of the way — outwit the sucker; dissolve it; shoot it; kill it. Silence the incessant planning, organizing, running, manipulating, possessing, and processing” because these activities “preclude awareness of the Divine.” The Torah is the story of what happens to people when they forget God’s message: “I’m God, you’re not.” A pleasurable read that is often profound.