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The Telling: How Judaism's Essential Book Reveals the Meaning of Life
Los Angeles Times Best-Seller
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
· 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 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
Senator Joseph
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 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."
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
· 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 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
Senator Joseph
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 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."
352 pages, Hardcover
Published March 2, 2021
111 people are currently reading
1117 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 16, 2022
Sigh. This is such a mixed bag. There's some *really great content* in here about the Haggadah and Passover traditions (4 stars for that) but you have to wade through some pretty cringey know-it-all tones and even cringier politics to get to it (a very generous two stars for that). There's also a strong theological point of view that won't rub everyone who celebrates Passover the right way (me included). Finally, the author does not always do a great job of connecting the dots or supporting his claims, even the ones I agree with! Readers' mileage will vary based on how many grains of salt they are willing to take with this and what they're willing to overlook in order to take the good stuff.
March 16, 2021
ARC provided by NetGalley and publisher in exchange for review.
I love pesach. I do! I seem to pick up a new haddagah every year, although this year I'm adding Mark Gerson's "The Telling," instead. It's a perfect addition, I think. I get the sense reading Gerson's book that he and I would have a great time chatting about our love of pesach, the haggadah, and seder -- a holiday often seen as stressful or overwhelming but that we just love. There's a lot of engaging storytelling, deep, reverberating enthusiasm for the haggadah, and seder. I really enjoyed reading this book, and it's a nice companion to have for the second year of socially distant seder.
I will say this: there are a lot - a lot - of Christian reviewers commenting. I'm glad if they enjoy the book too! But there seems to still be a common/lingering misconception: the haggadah and seder as we know it today did not exist in Jesus's time. While he certainly understood and celebrated the feast of unleavened bread, and would recognize the purpose of the "retelling" aspect, the seder itself developed later, historically speaking. I agree with the calls for interfaith community, but I do wish Gerson had perhaps addressed this more directly and discouraged Christians from appropriating the seder away from its Jewish roots. I'm happy to invite Christian friends to my seder after the pandemic ends! But I do believe it is harmful and appropriative for Christians to "christianize" the seder, which Jesus wouldn't have known. My own Rabbi was asked to lead a seder for a local church who wanted to learn more. He said he would do it -- on the condition that it was held at our synagogue, as he wouldn't lead it inside a church. It went great!
I love pesach. I do! I seem to pick up a new haddagah every year, although this year I'm adding Mark Gerson's "The Telling," instead. It's a perfect addition, I think. I get the sense reading Gerson's book that he and I would have a great time chatting about our love of pesach, the haggadah, and seder -- a holiday often seen as stressful or overwhelming but that we just love. There's a lot of engaging storytelling, deep, reverberating enthusiasm for the haggadah, and seder. I really enjoyed reading this book, and it's a nice companion to have for the second year of socially distant seder.
I will say this: there are a lot - a lot - of Christian reviewers commenting. I'm glad if they enjoy the book too! But there seems to still be a common/lingering misconception: the haggadah and seder as we know it today did not exist in Jesus's time. While he certainly understood and celebrated the feast of unleavened bread, and would recognize the purpose of the "retelling" aspect, the seder itself developed later, historically speaking. I agree with the calls for interfaith community, but I do wish Gerson had perhaps addressed this more directly and discouraged Christians from appropriating the seder away from its Jewish roots. I'm happy to invite Christian friends to my seder after the pandemic ends! But I do believe it is harmful and appropriative for Christians to "christianize" the seder, which Jesus wouldn't have known. My own Rabbi was asked to lead a seder for a local church who wanted to learn more. He said he would do it -- on the condition that it was held at our synagogue, as he wouldn't lead it inside a church. It went great!
March 3, 2021
Wow! This is not just a book for the Jewish audience. I am a Christian and have been so blessed by the spiritual insights and life application from this book. It is a fascinating look at the depths of meaning behind the Passover Seder, and in specific the Haggadah, the liturgy order of service for the Seder. The author takes what could seem like an archaic, ancient ceremony and brings it into brilliant living color, and relevance to us today. The thing I love about the way the book is arranged, is you don't need to feel pressured to read the whole book in one sitting. Every chapter is a "meal" in itself with so much insight and personal application. You can take your time and digest each nugget of wisdom and insight. And there is so much good stuff! The author thoroughly covers the many aspects of Exodus story from the ten plagues to the first Passover, but he also unpacks the many traditions, stories and principles that are contained in the Jewish celebration of the Passover Seder. I will never read the Exodus story the same way again.
March 22, 2021
It is a distinct pleasure to read Mark Gerson's book, The Telling. The book describing the Passover seder's Haggadah, has so many unexpected insights and counterintuitive theories about the Haggadah-- for example, the four questions are INTENDED to be boring--that it forms a searching, yet comprehensive framework for asking and helping answer what it means for one to be Jewish today. In some ways, the book reminds me of Yitz Greenberg's extraordinary book on the Jewish holidays, The Jewish Way, in that the meaning of what it is to be Jewish comes through in the doing, in the observance of the Jewish holidays. And the telling of the Passover story, in the myriad ways that Gerson's book describes, is part of the doing.
I have begun reading Homer's Iliad, an unlikely and serendipitous companion volume to The Telling. The story in both books focuses on how extraordinary people act under extreme pressure and where humanity and divinity can be found in the face of conflict. There is a commonality, in some ways, in the pain, the suffering, and the destruction. Yet the differences in the two stories are profound. The emphases in The Iliad reflect what is held in highest regard in ancient Greek society: excellence and power, virtue notwithstanding. The thrust in The Telling is the search for the answer of how to lead a good life, a moral life--the most highly prized goal of Judaism, and what we need our children to remember to do so.
Both books deal with the interplay of dreams and harsh reality. But Achilles' desire for revenge, for personal honor in the context of a massive Greek endeavor contrasts with the Haggadah's desire, in the context of a massive Hebrew endeavor, to trust in a force beyond oneself, to support community and "we-ness" and to reinforce the need for humility toward any one individual. Homer's lyricism, even allowing for a twenty-first century retrojection of modern values, illustrates that Achilles had the emotional intelligence of a Homer Simpson, at best. But Homer understands the zero sum nature of ancient Greek and Trojan life. As the Trojan warrior Sarpedon tells his friend, Glaucus, "Let's go forward, either to give glory to another man, or get glory from him." Achilles is a product of his culture. And that culture is static.
The Telling is not lyrical. It is didactic. It teaches with wonderful, unexpected stories how the Passover seder is meant to demonstrate, with the miracle of the Exodus story, infinite possibilities for change. Dreams can come true. Life need not be zero sum, nor static. Together, we can change for the better--as individuals, as part of a group, as part of society. It happened before. The telling and The Telling can help make it happen again.
I have begun reading Homer's Iliad, an unlikely and serendipitous companion volume to The Telling. The story in both books focuses on how extraordinary people act under extreme pressure and where humanity and divinity can be found in the face of conflict. There is a commonality, in some ways, in the pain, the suffering, and the destruction. Yet the differences in the two stories are profound. The emphases in The Iliad reflect what is held in highest regard in ancient Greek society: excellence and power, virtue notwithstanding. The thrust in The Telling is the search for the answer of how to lead a good life, a moral life--the most highly prized goal of Judaism, and what we need our children to remember to do so.
Both books deal with the interplay of dreams and harsh reality. But Achilles' desire for revenge, for personal honor in the context of a massive Greek endeavor contrasts with the Haggadah's desire, in the context of a massive Hebrew endeavor, to trust in a force beyond oneself, to support community and "we-ness" and to reinforce the need for humility toward any one individual. Homer's lyricism, even allowing for a twenty-first century retrojection of modern values, illustrates that Achilles had the emotional intelligence of a Homer Simpson, at best. But Homer understands the zero sum nature of ancient Greek and Trojan life. As the Trojan warrior Sarpedon tells his friend, Glaucus, "Let's go forward, either to give glory to another man, or get glory from him." Achilles is a product of his culture. And that culture is static.
The Telling is not lyrical. It is didactic. It teaches with wonderful, unexpected stories how the Passover seder is meant to demonstrate, with the miracle of the Exodus story, infinite possibilities for change. Dreams can come true. Life need not be zero sum, nor static. Together, we can change for the better--as individuals, as part of a group, as part of society. It happened before. The telling and The Telling can help make it happen again.
June 23, 2021
As a non-Jewish reader who was unfamiliar with the Haggadah, I found it helpful to read The Telling over several weeks in small sections, sometimes one chapter at a time depending on the content. Gerson’s writing style is terse and engaging. So, it was easy to pick up where I left off.
Initially, the lack of an organizing framework in the table of contents seemed inconvenient. However, I quickly realized that part of the book’s brilliance is that readers can decide for themselves how to synthesize and connect the content as they learn and process new insights about the meaning of life.
I have added The Telling to a very short list of contemporary books that I will read multiple times. Mark Gerson skillfully intertwines Biblical and practical wisdom with intellectual knowledge from history and other disciplines to stimulate readers to engage in multiple levels of reflection. The insights he shares about Jewish values and ethics, Jewish thinking, and Jewish traditions during and beyond Pesach (Passover) foster a greater appreciation for the Jewish people, their unique contributions to human civilization across the millennia, and their resilience in spite of constant opposition. This book can be read at any time; there is no need to wait until next Pesach (Passover).
Three eye-opening takeaways for me as a Christian who seeks to build bridges across faiths, cultures, etc. are:
(1) God’s purpose for the Exodus was much greater than freeing the Jews. Every Pesach, the Jews’ retelling and reliving of the Exodus is how the nations (all of humanity) learn about God and the freedom He has made available to everyone who is willing to accept the responsibility it demands.
(2) Gratitude is how we should relate to God our Creator as well as everything and everyone in the world.
(3) As humans, we are capable of self-transformation. The permission to begin again, is “an eternal and insistent invitation from God” (p. 102)
I plan to read The Telling again next year before Pesach (Passover). I look forward to reflecting on how I have grown by applying insights I gleaned the first time, but also expect to discover completely new insights each time I read this life-giving book.
Initially, the lack of an organizing framework in the table of contents seemed inconvenient. However, I quickly realized that part of the book’s brilliance is that readers can decide for themselves how to synthesize and connect the content as they learn and process new insights about the meaning of life.
I have added The Telling to a very short list of contemporary books that I will read multiple times. Mark Gerson skillfully intertwines Biblical and practical wisdom with intellectual knowledge from history and other disciplines to stimulate readers to engage in multiple levels of reflection. The insights he shares about Jewish values and ethics, Jewish thinking, and Jewish traditions during and beyond Pesach (Passover) foster a greater appreciation for the Jewish people, their unique contributions to human civilization across the millennia, and their resilience in spite of constant opposition. This book can be read at any time; there is no need to wait until next Pesach (Passover).
Three eye-opening takeaways for me as a Christian who seeks to build bridges across faiths, cultures, etc. are:
(1) God’s purpose for the Exodus was much greater than freeing the Jews. Every Pesach, the Jews’ retelling and reliving of the Exodus is how the nations (all of humanity) learn about God and the freedom He has made available to everyone who is willing to accept the responsibility it demands.
(2) Gratitude is how we should relate to God our Creator as well as everything and everyone in the world.
(3) As humans, we are capable of self-transformation. The permission to begin again, is “an eternal and insistent invitation from God” (p. 102)
I plan to read The Telling again next year before Pesach (Passover). I look forward to reflecting on how I have grown by applying insights I gleaned the first time, but also expect to discover completely new insights each time I read this life-giving book.
March 5, 2021
Fantastic! Moving! Inspiring! Incredible!
Mark Gerson's book is a MUST-READ for anyone who wants to be inspired or better understand the meaning of life!
This book has enriched my life and motivated me to want to better understand Judaism so I can be a better person and better fulfill the Jewish purpose of Tikkun Olam. Gerson teaches us that "the most systematic change can begin by just changing ourselves.... And if we can change our character...which we can...then we can change the world."
At a time when our world seems to be in the greatest need of healing, Mark Gerson gives us ancient wisdom that could not be more applicable today. He has made me more excited for Passover this year and the learning it will bring. But Mark Gerson's book is meant to be read all year round, for as he says "Pesach, like everything else meaningfully Jewish, is never finished."
Mark Gerson's book is a MUST-READ for anyone who wants to be inspired or better understand the meaning of life!
This book has enriched my life and motivated me to want to better understand Judaism so I can be a better person and better fulfill the Jewish purpose of Tikkun Olam. Gerson teaches us that "the most systematic change can begin by just changing ourselves.... And if we can change our character...which we can...then we can change the world."
At a time when our world seems to be in the greatest need of healing, Mark Gerson gives us ancient wisdom that could not be more applicable today. He has made me more excited for Passover this year and the learning it will bring. But Mark Gerson's book is meant to be read all year round, for as he says "Pesach, like everything else meaningfully Jewish, is never finished."
November 10, 2022
I heard Mark speak at a local Church over Zoom during the pandemic. I was so thrilled that he was able to tell us more about Passover, the Jewish holiday that occurs in the Spring. I found out that it's a holiday that Christians can also celebrate. In The Telling, Mark unpacks various lessons from the Passover story and applies them to today. This might be the importance of haste, the importance of order, the similarities between the development of America in the story of Exodus. The book is easy to read, the chapters are bite-sized and I recommend it to friends, religious or not, as there are so many life lessons to take away and apply to our world.
July 30, 2021
As someone outside that background (and likely outside the target audience), this book was FASCINATING. The tone is conversational and outsider-friendly and I feel like I know more now than I did when I started reading.
(Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book through a Goodreads Giveaway.)
(Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book through a Goodreads Giveaway.)
March 27, 2021
Dnf. I was incredibly excited about the thesis of this book, but the deeper into it I got, the more frustrated I got with the narrowness of the approach to that thesis. I honestly got more out of an interview about the book than I did out of the book itself
November 14, 2022
Such an excellent book. I didn’t know there was still more to learn about the Haggadah and Passover until I read this book. Turns out there’s a tremendous amount more and the lessons are endless. This book makes them accessible and inspiring. Will read before every Seder. Thank you!
November 24, 2022
If you want substantive discussions with family/friends across multiple generations at your seder table, I highly recommend buying this book. What a unique treasure... essential reading for anyone eating matzah!
March 3, 2021
Explores the lessons we can ALL learn from Passover. great read for anyone from any faith.
August 21, 2021
Great book. I'll re-read it every year in preparation for Pesach. That will keep the ideas and the learning fresh throughout the year.
September 29, 2021
This book is trash — if you want to read about Judaism and the Jewish people or the faith then read anything but this. The writing is terrible.
December 29, 2021
I can't express how boring I thought this sounded, nor how good it actually was.
December 30, 2021
DNF @ pg. 30
will reread next holiday!
will reread next holiday!
April 25, 2022
Good book. Very informative. A bit repetitive in places. I returned it to the library but plan on getting my own copy for next year to review for Pesach. Lots of good stuff.
July 18, 2022
The book is quite enjoyable at first, but over time insightfullness turns into an impulsive effort to over analize and explain everything. It ends up lacking cogesiveness.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews