Table of Contents
Introduction 1
The Real Jewish New Year 4
Haggadah: When a Great Book Is Not Meant to Be Read 6
God's Business Card 8
The Craziest Dream Comes True: How We Live in Moses's World 10
Getting Ready: When the Preparation Is Part of the Event 12
Singing the Table of Contents: Why Highly Religious Married Women Are So Sexually Satisfied 14
Music and Food: The Theology and Science of Remembering 16
What We Can Learn from an Egg: The Logic of the Seder Plate 18
Invite That Self 20
The Greatest Principle of the Torah 22
Just Who Are You Calling a Stranger? 24
Love and Responsibility: Israel 26
Judaism in a Word: Newness 28
There Is Such a Thing as a Bad Question-and Sometimes a Good Reason for It 30
The Great Jewish Permission 32
The Greatest Seder of All 34
Feeling God's Pleasure 36
The Story Is Yours: Where Are Moses, Joseph, and the Women of the Exodus? 38
Living by Principles 40
Humility Can Be a Sin 42
When to Find God 44
Commitment 46
The Jewish Secret of Parenting 48
How Intellectual Inquiry Is of Limited Value: Considering the Wise Son 50
The Fundamental Principle of Judaism: Considering the Wicked Son 52
Who Is the Ideal Husband? Considering the Simple Son 54
What Should We Be Asking? Considering the Son Who Does Not Know How to Ask 56
Finding the Image of God (It's Not Hard) 58
Identify Enemies-and Also Friends 60
The Jewish Way of Learning 62
Destiny's Ingredients: Family and Dreams 64
Imagination: The Most Important Part of Reality 66
Judaism: A Religion of Character 68
You Are in the Story 70
Stars 72
Risking Congratulations 74
Why Did God Wait? When Bad Things Happen to Good People 76
Jew Hatred, Explained 78
The Prayer 80
What It Means to Know 82
The Unfinished: The Jewish Way of Life and Death 84
Why Jewish Boys Emerge from the Womb Uncircumcised 86
Why Any Plagues? 88
First, Harmless Magic 90
Rationality: Fighting Blood, Frogs, and Lice with … More Blood, Frogs, and Lice 92
Habits: How the Pharaoh Teaches Us to Live Freely 94
"All My Plagues": The Essence of God, Revealed in Hail 96
"Can't You See Egypt Is Lost?" When Change Is Harder than It Should Be 98
The Ninth Plague: When Even Lighting a Candle, to Save My Life, Is Impossible 100
Prelude to the Tenth Plague: Moses Becomes a Leader 102
Allegiances Build: The Architecture of Relationships, the Constitution of Society 104
Haste: The Moral Imperative of Speed 106
The Tenth Plague: What It Means That the Jews Are the Chosen People 108
Hovering, Rescuing, and Protecting: No One "Passed Over" Anything, and Why That Is Important 110
Watching: The Existential Experience 112
Why Political Arguments Are Usually a Waste of Time, or Worse 114
The Secret to Happiness and Goodness 116
"Dayenu": How to Express Gratitude 118
Always a Second Chance 120
About the Author 129
