Krause, Sam “Simcha”. “Hey Waiter…There’s God in My Soup!: Learning Kabbalah Through Humor “, 2010.
Laughing Toward Understanding
Amos Lassen
Kabbalah is one of the mystical aspects of Judaism and of late celebrities have begun to look to it as a way to answer spiritual questions. What makes this so interesting is that Kabbalah is not new and it was first written down in the second century with the goal of showing the deep and profound inner meaning of the written law of the Torah as well as to give some kind of explanation to the nature of God. Now I admit that this sounds very mysterious and as one who has tried to understand some of the Kabbalistic principles, I eagerly welcomed this book into my life.
Just as there is something mysterious about Kabbalah, Jewish humor seems an unlikely companion but I soon realize how wrong I was. Throughout history, Jews have loved to laugh and religion and humor many times have gone together hand in hand. Laughter, like spirituality, is transcendent and it has the ability to make us feel comfortable. When we laugh we are more at ease and more willing to accept ideas that may seem a bit foreign to us. Sam “Simcha” Krause keeps us laughing as we learn and I found this to be rewarding and certainly intellectually challenging.
As I began my quest to understand the mystical writings of the Kabbalah and at a recent visit to Barnes and Noble, I noticed that the Judaica section had about 35 volumes on Kabbalah (realize that I am in Arkansas where Jews are a premium so it was interesting to note that the number of books about Kabbalah was almost equal to the total number of books about Judaism).If Barnes and Noble is any indication of tastes, obviously they feel that someone is reading about Jewish mysticism.
As opposed to other books on Kabbalah this is a tiny volume but it contains the gist of all I felt I need to know. It is a guide to several complex ideas which when explained through humor become easy to understand. Krause takes us to the essence of the Jewish soul and he does so in a way that is pure fun. Kabbalah is regarded as the secret aspect of Judaism and was considered to be only for the very brightest. Learning it can be an experience in learning how to budget time, even for Jews, because the ideas are not in direct alignment with traditional Jewish thought. That indeed may have been the case before this book came along. This is a wonderful place to begin the study. The only problem I had was being able to hold the book as I laughed.
Divided into eleven chapters and with a foreword, a preface and an introduction, we are introduced to ideas such as God as an entity, the nature of existence, our purpose on earth, our relationship with God and each other, marriage, freedom of choice, death and others and all of this comes to us in a mere ninety-eight pages, a bargain that allows us to enter a secret world.
order the book at the website:
www.hey-waiter.com. or just drop by to read about it.
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