Two Lessons (that are One) from my Book Tour

*With a stop for coffee*

My tour with my new book, The Shabbat Effect, took me to 45 cities in the US and Canada. (Europe comes later). It was an honour and a delight to meet with so many kindred souls in so many locations, and it lifted my heart in this moment when there is so much darkness in the world.

Somebody asked me if I had learned anything on that tour and my first response was, “Yes: I learned that I am not as young as I used to be.” It was gratifying, even exhilarating at times, but also very tiring, especially the travel. For example, one of my last stops was Cleveland, where my flight going to that city was cancelled. And when it came time to depart on a different flight, that flight was also cancelled. I had to scramble to get there, and then scramble some more to get away, all of which is exhausting.

Two other (more substantial!) lessons stand out for me.

I met hundreds of people, many of whom I got to speak with, if only for a few minutes, and the cumulative impression I have from those encounters is that the yearning for authentic Jewish spirituality is strong.

That message was conveyed to me in the numbers of people who attended my talks. Commonly, it would be 100 people or more. The question period was lively and sincere, as people asked questions that were genuinely important to them.

I also saw that the demand currently outstrips the supply. Many people are clamoring for guidance for their inner lives that has strong roots in the Jewish world. But because there are not yet enough teachers, materials or group leaders to meet that demand, I encountered people who were filling that void with practices and ideas that have no Jewish roots, like mindfulness meditation and various self-help approaches.

I – and I hope you join me in this – feel an obligation to keep working hard to give people access to Mussar teachings and guidance that we who grew up as spiritual orphans were not able to access early in our own searches.

There was a second lesson as well, which is that people are reaching the point of despair over the debased culture that slaps us in the face no matter which way we turn.

Listen to the foul-mouthed and demeaning politicians, starting right at the top, who clearly hold any idea of respect to be a sign of weakness and who have raised the cult of arrogance to new heights.

This phenomenon comes right down to street level. I’ll share an experience I had on the way home from the last talk on the tour. That was in Tacoma, WA, which is not far from Vancouver where I live, and so I drove down. When I set out for home the next day, I had three stops in mind before I hit the highway: synagogue for morning prayers,

Trader Joe’s, and coffee.

I finished the first two stops and then looked on my phone for a nearby café. The nearest one that popped up was called “Ladybug Espresso” and that seemed good to me because the word “espresso” implied a serious attitude to coffee. My phone guided me the few minutes to the café, and I arrived to find a kiosk, not a cafe. Even better! I can get coffee and be on the road even sooner.

I pulled up to the kiosk to find the door closed and the place looking desolate. Dejectedly, I start to drive away when the door sprung open, filling my eyes with the sight of a woman wearing nothing but a string around her waist from which hung a gauze triangle that hid nothing, while on top she had the same completely transparent cloth over her breasts, leaving everything in plain sight. Not even thinking for a second I exclaimed, “You’re naked!” to which she replied, “Yes. That’s how it works here. You didn’t know?” We talked — I stayed in the car — and it turns out that my phone had omitted one key word from the name of the place. It is actually called “Ladybug Bikini Espresso” and their thing is having virtually naked women serve the coffee. Or, as their website says, “Kickstart your morning with our Beautiful Baristas serving Beautiful Coffee!” There are several branches.

This is just an example of the unabashedly sordid things that are filling the public square these days.

I draw a link between these two lessons. The hunger for Jewish teachings to guide the inner life is fueled, in part, by the degradation we experience in public life that leaves many of us feeling soiled and dejected. And who wants to live a soiled and dejected life? Guide me out of here, please!

So, even though my book tour is done for now, I come away with a firm sense that there is still a lot of work to do on behalf of the Jewish people. Your partnership in that effort is precious to me.

Let me ask you: Do you think ethical and cultural standards in public life have sunk as much as I have portrayed? What have you experienced?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this….

With Gratitude,

Alan