The Telling: How Judaism's Essential Book Reveals the Meaning of Life

by Mark Gerson

Overview

In The Telling, Mark Gerson, host of The Rabbi’s Husband podcast and renowned Jewish philanthropist, shows us how to make the Seder the most engaging, inspiring, and important night of the Jewish year.

God didn’t design the Seder to put your kids to sleep.
Instead, the Seder is an experience your family should love, treasure and remember.

Have you ever wondered that there might be something more to Passover, the Seder and in the Haggadah—something that just might hold the secrets to living the life of joy and meaning that you were intended to?

By using this book, you’ll be able to:

· Lead the Seder with wisdom, confidence and fun that guests will remember
· Make the Haggadah burst alive with insight for our opportunities, questions and challenges
· Show Gentile friends the richness of the Jewish tradition
· Instill a lasting love of Judaism within your children
· Bring your family closer together and closer to God

The Telling will enable you to see what the Haggadah really is: The Greatest Hits of Jewish Thought. This understanding will enable you to provide your guests with the most interesting, insightful and practically helpful night of the year—with teachings and lessons that will continue to brighten in the year to come.

What leaders are saying about The Telling:

Senator Joseph Lieberman:
In The Telling, Mark Gerson brilliantly illuminates some of the big questions from the Haggadah whose answers can define what constitutes a meaningful life. By showing how the Haggadah enables its readers to deploy ancient Jewish wisdom to help answer the most contemporary questions, this book will help your Pesach to be what it can be: a life-guiding event, every year, for anyone who learns enough to give it the opportunity.

Yossi Klein Halevi, Author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor and Like Dreamers
Once a year, shortly before Pesach (emphatically not Passover!), Mark Gerson steps out of his role as a world-class entrepreneur and becomes a teacher of Torah—or more precisely, of the Haggadah. Those sessions have become legendary, and this book helps explain why. Here is Gerson's inimitable voice—passionate, erudite and most of all deeply in love with Jewish wisdom. Read this book to understand why the Haggadah has endured as a seminal Jewish text and why it remains no less relevant today than when it was first written.

Gordon Robertson - CEO, The Christian Broadcasting Network
"The Telling is the perfect introduction for those desiring to explore this aspect of Jewish life. This book is full of knowledge and thought-provoking questions and answers to the many mysteries that surround this sacred Jewish holiday."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250624246
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/02/2021
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	512,341
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.40(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

MARK GERSON, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, is the co-founder of Gerson Lehrman Group, African Mission Healthcare, and United Hatzalah of Israel. A graduate of Williams College and Yale Law School, Mark is the author of books on intellectual history and education. His articles and essays on subjects ranging from Frank Sinatra to the biblical Jonah have been published in The New Republic, Commentary, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. He writes a weekly Torah column for the Christian Broadcasting Network and hosts the popular podcast The Rabbi’s Husband, and recently launched Torah Academy, an online resource for channeling the Torah’s practical insight and wisdom to live a happier, more successful life. Mark is married to Rabbi Erica Gerson. They and their four children live in New York City.

Table of Contents

Contents
Author’s Note
The Methodology
The Real Jewish New Year
Haggadah: When a Great Book Is Not Meant to Be Read
God’s Business Card
The Craziest Dream Comes True: How We Live in Moses’s World
Getting Ready: When the Preparation Is Part of the Event
Singing the Table of Contents: Why Highly Religious Married Women Are So Sexually Satisfied
Music and Food: The Theology and Science of Remembering
What We Can Learn from an Egg: The Logic of the Seder Plate
Invite That Self
The Greatest Principle of the Torah
Just Who Are You Calling a Stranger?
Love and Responsibility: Israel
Judaism in a Word: Newness
There Is Such a Thing as a Bad Question—and Sometimes a Good Reason for It
The Great Jewish Permission
The Greatest Seder of All
Feeling God’s Pleasure
The Story Is Yours: Where Are Moses, Joseph, and the Women of the Exodus?
Living by Principles
Humility Can Be a Sin
When to Find God
Commitment
The Jewish Secret of Parenting
How Intellectual Inquiry Is of Limited Value: Considering the Wise Son
The Fundamental Principle of Judaism: Considering the Wicked Son
The Ideal Husband? Considering the Simple Son
What Should We Be Asking?: Considering the Son Who Does Not Know How to Ask
Finding the Image of God (It’s Not Hard)
Identify Enemies—and Also Friends
The Jewish Way of Learning
Destiny’s Ingredients: Family and Dreams
Imagination: The Most Important Part of Reality
Judaism: A Religion of Character
You Are in the Story
Stars
Risking Congratulations
Why Did God Wait?: When Bad Things Happen to Good People
Anti-Semitism, Explained
Remembering: The Prayer
What It Means to Know
The Unfinished: The Jewish Way of Life and Death
Why Jewish Boys Emerge from the Womb Uncircumcised
Why Any Plagues?
First, Harmless Magic
The Logic of Rationality: Fighting Blood, Frogs, and Lice with . . . More Blood, Frogs, and Lice
How the Pharaoh Teaches Us How to Live Freedom
“All My Plagues”: The Essence of God, Revealed in Hail
“Can’t You See Egypt Is Lost?”: When Change Is Harder Than It Should Be
The Ninth Plague: When Even Lighting a Candle, to Save My Life, Is Impossible
Prelude To The Tenth Plague: Moses Becomes a Leader
Allegiances Build: The Architecture of Relationships, the Constitution of Society
Haste: The Moral Imperative of Speed
The Tenth Plague: What It Means That the Jews Are the Chosen People
Hovering, Rescuing, and Protecting: No One “Passed Over” Anything, and Why That Is Important
Watching: The Existential Experience
Why Political Arguments Are Usually a Waste of Time, or Worse
The Secret to Happiness and Goodness
“Dayenu”: How to Express Gratitude
Always a Second Chance
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

"With a broad range of sources, deep insight and true wisdom, Mark Gerson renews for his readers the enchantment of the Passover celebration."
—Rabbi David Wolpe, Temple Sinai in Los Angeles and America’s Most Influential Rabbi (according to Newsweek survey)

"In The Telling, Mark Gerson brilliantly illuminates some of the big questions from the Haggadah whose answers can define what constitutes a meaningful life. By showing how the Haggadah enables its readers to deploy ancient Jewish wisdom to help answer the most contemporary questions, this book will help your Pesach to be what it can be: a life-guiding event, every year, for anyone who learns enough to give it the opportunity."
—Senator Joseph Lieberman

"The Telling is the perfect introduction for those desiring to explore this aspect of Jewish life. This book is full of knowledge and thought provoking questions and answers to the many mysteries that surround this sacred Jewish day."
—Tiki Barber, NY Giants, CBS and Kinky Boots

"The book touches on many topics from family and forgiveness to the futility of political wrangling....Gerson succeeds very well at his main objective: showing how to read the Haggadah at a deeper level. A fine book to bring to the table."
— Booklist

From the Publisher