JHOM - Bookshelf Interview with Telushkin

Author Joseph Telushkin speaks about The Book of Jewish Values
(an event recorded at Barnes & Noble, Upper West Side, NYC, Wed. March 15, 2000)

In The Book of Jewish Values: A Day-by-Day Guide to Ethical Living, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin has combed the Bible, the Talmud, and the whole spectrum of Judaism's sacred writings to give a manual on how to lead a decent, kind, and honest life in a morally complicated world. Telushkin speaks to the major ethical issues of our time, issue that have, of course, been around since the beginning. The range of the book is as broad as life itself.

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, spiritual leader and scholar, is the author of Jewish Literacy, the most widely read book on Judaism of the last two decades.

[More about Rabbi Telushkin]

If you don't already have the Real Audio plug-in for your browser, you can download the free RealPlayer from Real Networks in order to hear the broadcast.

1. About The Book of Jewish Values. A book rooted in Jewish sources.

2. Moral imagination: The ability to imagine the right thing to do, to know and anticipate another's needs, even if you're not in a position to be empathetic.

3. Two stories about Moral Imagination: Lee Atwater and Shlomo Zalman Auerbach.

4. Everyday examples of Moral Imagination: The matchmaking friend; tipping the good waiter and the bad waiter, the hotel cleaning woman.

5. The talmudic teaching, "Receive everybody with a cheerful expression:" Moodiness, moody parents.

6. The commandment, Love your neighbor as yourself: Saying a prayer for others when you hear sirens; the example of Jethro, the first person to pray on someone else's behalf. Praying for other people.

7. The implicit commandments in the injunction " Love your neighbor as yourself:" (Love yourself and make it possible for your neighbor to love you.)

8. Gratitude and ingratitude: Cultivating gratitude in one's life.

9. Focusing on the good in your life.

10. Parents and children: praise, apologies, controlling anger.

11. Conclusion: "If we practice moral imagination, we won't spend so much time worrying whether or not Jewish life is going to survive in America, because we will be too busy flourishing."