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Be Still and Get Going: A Jewish Meditation Practice for Real Life
Written in a warm, accessible, and intimate style, Be Still and Get Going will touch those who are searching for an authentic spiritual practice that speaks to them in their own cultural language.
Lew is one of the most sought-after rabbis on the lecture circuit. He has had national media exposure for his dynamic fusion of Eastern insight and Bible study, having been the subject of stories on ABC News, the McNeil Lehrer News Hour, and various NPR programs. In the past five years there have been national conferences on Jewish meditation in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami where Lew has been a featured speaker.
Lew's first book, One God Clapping , was a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller and winner of the PEN Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence.
Publishers Weekly hailed him as "a perceptive thinker" for his "refreshing and sometimes startling perspective" in his last book, This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared .
Lew is one of the most sought-after rabbis on the lecture circuit. He has had national media exposure for his dynamic fusion of Eastern insight and Bible study, having been the subject of stories on ABC News, the McNeil Lehrer News Hour, and various NPR programs. In the past five years there have been national conferences on Jewish meditation in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami where Lew has been a featured speaker.
Lew's first book, One God Clapping , was a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller and winner of the PEN Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence.
Publishers Weekly hailed him as "a perceptive thinker" for his "refreshing and sometimes startling perspective" in his last book, This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared .
272 pages, Paperback
First published August 30, 2005
86 people are currently reading
395 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
January 18, 2019
Alan Lew remains one of the most re-readable authors in my life and one who has and will continue to influence my practice a lot. I'm sure I will be coming back to this book for a long time.
March 2, 2009
This book suffers three failings, one which may be irrelevant relative to the reader, the other two are absolute, not relative.
The one that is recoverable, is that the author is pretty far off the reservation with respect to Judaism. The book will be most interesting for the Bu-Jew reader, somebody who is looking for Jewish ritual infused with Buddhist meaning.
The second failing is that the book is poorly organized. It is composed from material over many years given as lectures at retreats and sermons and it reads like it. There is a lack of structure. Another reviewer called the book "loose," which is an apt description. The book goes from one Buddhist midrash on scripture to another without any real guiding principle other than the author's continual use of "I".
That incessant resort to biography is the final nail in the coffin. One is left thinking that the author is either a pathological narcissist or just misguided that his own personal life is the only guide to right-living.
The one that is recoverable, is that the author is pretty far off the reservation with respect to Judaism. The book will be most interesting for the Bu-Jew reader, somebody who is looking for Jewish ritual infused with Buddhist meaning.
The second failing is that the book is poorly organized. It is composed from material over many years given as lectures at retreats and sermons and it reads like it. There is a lack of structure. Another reviewer called the book "loose," which is an apt description. The book goes from one Buddhist midrash on scripture to another without any real guiding principle other than the author's continual use of "I".
That incessant resort to biography is the final nail in the coffin. One is left thinking that the author is either a pathological narcissist or just misguided that his own personal life is the only guide to right-living.
September 26, 2016
So illuminating! This is everything I feel Jewish spirituality is at its core, but we so often don't approach it this way. As a Jewish yoga practitioner, I have been searching for a way to integrate my yoga practice with my Jewish lifestyle and beliefs. This is THE book for doing that! Rabbi Lew presents his insight in such a practical way; I'm planning a trip to his meditation center ASAP!
May 30, 2011
Sensitively written and erudite, Be Still and Get Going is on my shelf among my favorite books that deal with the difficult, sublime topic of spirituality.
April 1, 2020
Really 3.5 stars
Lots I liked; surfacing a spirituality that was right there but for my ability to see it, straight forward connections of familiar things to spiritual ideas, the need for daily practice and community. Lew is a clear writer and it is very easy to understand his points.
If you are inclined to be critical, and have much learning in any of the things the book talks on, there’s a lot of ammunition for you.
All of that said, it was the right time for me to read the book and if you need an accessible and clear intro to spirituality generally, and in an explicitly Jewish context specifically, this is for you.
Lots I liked; surfacing a spirituality that was right there but for my ability to see it, straight forward connections of familiar things to spiritual ideas, the need for daily practice and community. Lew is a clear writer and it is very easy to understand his points.
If you are inclined to be critical, and have much learning in any of the things the book talks on, there’s a lot of ammunition for you.
All of that said, it was the right time for me to read the book and if you need an accessible and clear intro to spirituality generally, and in an explicitly Jewish context specifically, this is for you.
July 7, 2025
I just finished this book and look forward to reading it again soon. For someone who struggles with organized religion and traditional concepts of God, this book really spoke to me. Contemporary Jewish religious observance and popular forms of mindfulness meditation are both forms of spiritual practice whose practical, everyday applications are not always readily apparent to most people. Nor is it obvious to most people that Zen and Judaism intersect and overlap in delightful and insightful ways. Rabbi Lew sheds light in plain simple language, so that the book feels down-to-earth and rational, even to a guy like me.
October 24, 2019
I have been reading this book for over a year, though it’s been many months since I cracked. I finally forced myself through the last 60 pages, skimming plenty. I loved his book about the holidays, and as someone with an active meditation practice and strong Jewish identity, I thought this would speak more to me, enlighten me, move me. But nope. I found it totally dry and unmemorable.
October 31, 2018
I read this pretty simultaneously with This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared. There is a lot of overlap of material- so much so that if you’ve read one, maybe you don’t need to read the other? Or maybe just skim.
September 21, 2020
This wasn't at all the book I thought it would be when I bought it. I think the meditation practices are for folks who are already very practiced at it. I did find the interpretation of the Torah very interesting which is why I kept reading. I found the book interesting but not helpful.
December 31, 2017
Fantastic book
July 21, 2018
Found it boring
January 17, 2021
More rambling Torah commentary (some interesting, some less so) than Jewish meditation. I'd stick to Aryeh Kaplan on this issue.
January 29, 2023
One of the best books about the chaplaincy relationship. Too bad Reb Alan left us so soon. He was a great teacher.
May 31, 2013
At a time of radical change on the cusp of loss, grief and truly, leaving home, this book was handed to me. It served as a healing stick. Alan Lew weaves together the Exodus into householder life with a Buddhist philosophy made palpable, as it appeared I was living the experience.
I had just driven 4 ½ hours north, my longest solo drive. Exhausted upon arrival on a solo retreat, Susan my new friend must have recognized my state. She plucked this book from a vast library and put it in my hands.
The synchronicity was fine tuned as the book's language, Alan's words, knowledge, references and understanding with an open heart pointed the way. It allowed me to connect and deeply understand the essence of the experience emerging in me.
“Be still” a pursuit worthy of the wise, or would be wise, and “Get going” Huh? Yes. Embody life as paradox. How to reconcile and live in that nugget of understanding?
After reading the book, I learned that Lew, dropped dead of a heartache while out running one day.
I had just driven 4 ½ hours north, my longest solo drive. Exhausted upon arrival on a solo retreat, Susan my new friend must have recognized my state. She plucked this book from a vast library and put it in my hands.
The synchronicity was fine tuned as the book's language, Alan's words, knowledge, references and understanding with an open heart pointed the way. It allowed me to connect and deeply understand the essence of the experience emerging in me.
“Be still” a pursuit worthy of the wise, or would be wise, and “Get going” Huh? Yes. Embody life as paradox. How to reconcile and live in that nugget of understanding?
After reading the book, I learned that Lew, dropped dead of a heartache while out running one day.
September 4, 2009
One of the best books I've read. extraordinarily clearly written. the title is from one of the thundering utterances at Mt. Sinai. not a "how to" or "it really feels great" or "painful,daunting but worth it" book re mindfulness. but in actuality a real how to why to meditate, with stunning and heart-opening anecdotes and insights on almost any page. maybe I'm just going through middle-aged molting, but this book spoke incredibly strongly to me. my wife too, and we are very differently wired.
Mike T
Mike T
March 11, 2012
One of the most incredible books I've ever read - and probably the most underlined. The prose was INCREDIBLE, and the insights had me thinking broader and deeper about my life than I have in a good while - opened up places inside of me. Got me still. Got me going. Cannot give it enough stars to give it credit.
October 8, 2012
My only regret is that I found this book after Rabbi Lew had died because I would love to thank him personally for a wonderful take on the spiritual life. He has opened up new ways of thinking about traditional texts. I thank him now--and only wish I could have thanked him in person.
October 28, 2007
At the time, I was moved by this. Now, in retrospect, it seems too loose.
May 12, 2009
This book was even more fascinating than I thought it would be. I learned about meditation, about Jewish texts, and about Rabbi Alan Lew's life.
Want to read
June 15, 2009recommended by creighton
May 1, 2017
I've been meaning to read this for some time; the author was a beloved former rabbi of the neighborhood synagogue I have attended occasionally. Not easy to summarize or describe, but I found it to be a good attempt to tie mindfulness meditation practices to normative Jewish practice and textual sources, without succumbing to new-age mysticism or intellectually dishonest stretching. It's a text I now intend to revisit now and again.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews