Five Cities of Refuge

This challenging and inspiring book grows out of the Jewish tradition of the "kavannah," a short message of intention or devotion at the beginning of prayer or study. From each prescribed weekly reading of the Bible, Kushner and Mamet choose a few verses on which to comment: a kavannah that opens the text to a deeper understanding. Kushner speaks about the verses with often surprising honesty and a conversational enthusiasm that leads us from the Bible to psychology to eighteenth-century Hasidism. Mamet, with his inimitable wit, takes us far afield - from Freud to Jewish mysticism to the American judiciary--in order to see the text in a wholly new way. In a year of weekly readings, Kushner and Mamet comment on all aspects of the Bible: its richness of theme and language; its contradictions, commandments, and often unfathomable demands. Five Cities of Refuge is tremendously accessible - each week's comments can be read in a few minutes - but it is at the same time powerfully illuminating.