Harold S. Kushner is the author of several best-selling books. The 1986 first edition of this book had the subtitle “The Search for a Life That Matters.” It was a NYT bestseller for over 24 weeks. (For his books I’ve read, click on his name.)

This book was written for the many people who reach a point in their lives where they ask, “Is this all there really is? Was there something I was supposed to do with my life?” The second question is the title of Ch 1, which focuses on those whose efforts in life have focused on their own achievements of fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Kushner says their focus was off, for “Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. These rewards create almost as many problems as they solve. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how we are to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through it.”

Chapter 2 is The Most Dangerous Book in the Bible – a unique book, unlike all the others around it – Ecclesiastes. We know little of the book’s author (in Hebrew, Kohelet, a title meaning teacher, not a name) or when it was written, except that it was long after Solomon’s death, which rules Solomon out. To many people, the contents are disturbing without any organized pattern. [Some have said this indicates that Ecclesiastes was bipolar (a manic/depressive) due to the vacillation of themes in the book.] But Rabbi Kushner explains it as a very meaningful and powerful book. (If you hadn’t read the Book of Ecclesiastes recently, a good time to do so is along with reading this book by Kushner.)

In Ch 6 Kushner returns to Ecclesiastes: “We accompanied Ecclesiastes on five well-traveled paths that turned out to be dead ends: the way of selfishness and self interest, the way of renouncing all bodily pleasures, the way of wisdom, the path of avoiding all feeling in an effort to avoid pain, and the path of piety and religious surrender. The wise old man who wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes began by telling us of his disappointments. Neither wealth nor learning or piety gave him the satisfaction of knowing that his life would mean something, not in his lifetime nor beyond it. But he did not write his book to share his frustration with us nor was it included in the bible to persuade us that life is in fact pointless. Ultimately, Ecclesiastes has an answer and he shares it with us in these words:

‘Go, eat your bread in gladness and drink your wine in joy, for your action was long ago approved by God. Let your clothes always be freshly washed and your head never lack ointment. Enjoy happiness with a woman you love all the fleeting days of life that have been granted you under the sun. Whatever it is in your power to do, do with all your might. For there is no doing, no learning, no wisdom in the grave where you are going. (9:7-10).’

Kushner says that although this may sound like “eat, drink and be merry,” it is far deeper than that. He interprets it to mean “When we stop searching for the Great Answer, the Immortal Deed, which will give our lives meaning, and instead concentrate on filling our individual days with moments that gratify us, then we will find the only possible answer to the question, What Is Life About.” … “The author of Ecclesiastes spent most of his life looking for the Grand Solution, the Big Answer to the Big Question, only to learn after wasting many years that trying to find one Big Answer to the problem of living is like trying to eat one Big Meal so that you never have to worry about being hungry again.

Chapter 7 is Who's Afraid of the Fear of God? Here Kushner describes a God of fear and obedience as bad theology. I found the following to confirm what I have believed for years: "Ultimately, morality has to mean more than obedience. The fear of God may indeed be the beginning of wisdom and the consequences of proper living, as the Bible repeatedly states. But “the fear of God” does not mean being afraid of God. “The fear of God” is not fear as we use the word today, but awe and reverence. Fear is a negative emotion. It makes us either want to run away from whatever we are afraid of, or else want to destroy it. It makes us feel angry and resentful, angry at the person or thing that frightens us and angry at our own weakness which leaves us vulnerable. To obey God out of fear is to serve Him sullenly and with only part of ourselves. But awe is different." Kushner reveals his wisdom in saying this and it is the reason that I have been replacing “fear God” with “revere God” whenever I come across “fear” phrases in the Bible. To me, the God I envision invokes in me the concept that “to revere God is the beginning of wisdom.” Fear just doesn't go with God, but “awe” and “reverence” certainly do in the way that I (and Kushner and many, many others) envision God.

Returning to the Big Question, here is no Big Answer, but “there are answers: love and the joy of working, and the simple pleasures of food and fresh clothes, the little things that tend to get lost and trampled in the search for the Grand Solution to the Problems of Life and emerge, like the proverbial bluebird of happiness, only when we have stopped searching.” … “God gives us hope in a way that no human can. Among humans, Murphy’s Law operates: Anything that can go wrong will. But at the divine level, there is another opposite law: Anything that should be set right sooner or later will. God is the answer to the question.” … “The answer is that good deeds are never wasted and never forgotten.” Although this book did not inspire me as much as did book 297 by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, I still give it a very high recommendation (but not six stars).