“… it is possible to know that we are always there, arriving wholly in this moment, fully present in this step, alive to the miracle of the journey. We are there whenever we are awake.”
Are We There Yet?
Travel as a Spiritual Path
Paperback
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To order internationally, contact your online bookseller or Ben Yehuda Press (www.benyehudapress.com).
Table of Contents
Are We There Yet?
The Gully: My Training Ground for a Life of Travel
The Path of Pilgrimage
Driving
The Sense of Danger
Finding Laughter
Burnt Bagel Breakthrough
Flight
Four-Hour Layover
Open to the Miracle of Happenstance2
The Moshiach is Coming … Well, Maybe Not Yet
Planet Burger
Seeing
My Elemental Journey
The Cheerios Miracle
The Lessons of the River
Journey to the Amazon
Go and Bring Blessing
Ancestral Healing
Flora and Fauna Teachers and Friends
Here I Am!
The Path of Love
Coincidence
Walking
Paying Homage
At the Crossroads
The Unending Journey
Reviews
Association of Jewish Libraries News and Reviews, May/June 2020
Reviewed by Fred Isaac, Temple Sinai, Oakland, CA
Rabbi Shefa Gold is one of the most popular exponents of Renewal Judaism. This short book, her fourth, is both an autobiography and a description of her philosophy of life. Gold is a constant traveler, embracing life on the road; she is curious and welcoming, open to new experiences and people. Her story is non-linear, moving from place to place by way of a succession of invitations, serendipitous encounters, and mystic (magical?) intervention. Through it all, she finds inspiration and awe. A meeting in a café turns into a counseling session; a spirit quest in the desert reminds her of the awe in nature. Through it all, she reminds herself—and her reader—of the wonder in each encounter and all of life.
The stories she recounts are, at times, curious and, at others, quietly powerful. They serve to remind us to remain aware of our surroundings, and to be ready to respond to the world at every moment. The message is simple, as is the prose here. The book will appeal to all seekers, even those who do not know they are on the derecho (path).
Publisher’s Weekly, 12/24/2018
Access the online review from Publisher’s Weekly.
Praise
“Her spirituality infuses her travel with moments of being, just as her travel infuses her spirituality with movement and dynamism.”
Rabbi Jay Michaelson, author of The Gate of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path
“This is Rabbi Shefa at her quintessential, charismatic best: tour guide to life itself, demonstrating how every moment can open into discovery, awakening, revelation.”
Sylvia Boorstein, author of That’s Funny, You Don’t Look Buddhist: On Being a Faithful Jew and a Passionate Buddhist
“Go with Rabbi Shefa Gold on a powerful internal and external voyage. She will show you how to connect to nature, environment, God, and, ultimately, yourself. … through pain and uncertainty to gratitude and awe.”
Judith Fein, author of Life is a Trip and The Spoon from Minkowitz
“With Shefa Gold as our guide, … we transform desperation into inspiration, and wandering into wondering. … a travel guide for those who dare to walk not from here to there, but from here to here and here again.”
Rabbi Rami Shapiro, author of The Tao of Solomon
“Rabbi Shefa Gold takes us as happy companions on her globe-trotting adventures, and invites us into the inner journeys — hers and ours — that travel inspires.”
Rabbi Wayne Dosick, author Living Judaism and The Real Name of God