"Seek My Face, Speak My Name"

I am currently working my way through a book called Seek My Face, Speak my Name by Rabbi Arthur Green. As far as I can tell, it is a book entirely about the first line of the Shema prayer. (Most often translated "Hear O Israel, the LORD is God, the LORD is one.") It is divided into units corresponding to the four letters of the Unpronounceable Name. (Think Jehovah's Witnesses; Jews simply say "Adonai", meaning "My Master", when we hit this name while praying.)

As usual, this book is slightly above my level of comprehension. I believe that if one really wants to learn a subject--not just understand, but really learn--one must read books that are too hard in order to broaden one's horizons and open one's mind. Books should not be too hard, of course; that was my problem with a Lawrence Kushner book I read in Israel. But a little too hard is good.

Today I finished the introduction to Seek My Face, Speak My Name. There were two parts I particularly liked. One is where Green said that God is not a conclusion we make about where wonder comes from; God is the name we give to that wonder. Green also said that he wants to have a hand in shaping what will be considered tradition by those who come after it. I never found those words for this idea before, but in my opinion it is so true: tradition must be always changing or the whole system will collapse.