9.25.2010

The New Book

I'm extremely grateful to be able to announce that my book, G-d of Our Understanding: Jewish Spirituality and Recovery from Addiction, is now available on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/God-Our-Understanding-Spirituality-Addiction/dp/1602801533/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1

Please go check it out.

If you want to help me make some noise about this book, here are a few things you can do.


1) Tagging. Scroll down to the book's "tags." Agree with all of the tags that you believe apply to my book.
2) Reviewing. Write a review of the book. If you are the kind of person who needs to read a book before reviewing it, please contact my office at taubbooking at gmail dot com and I'll send you a manuscript.
3) Buying. This is especially helpful if you are also buying a related book, because then it will say on the other books page that customers who bought that book also bought my book.


If you do buy the book, please be aware that it has just gone to the printer and that actual hard copies do not yet exist. From what I'm told, we should be holding the physical books in our hands in 4-6 weeks. Again, if you can't wait until then, email my office (taubbooking@gmail.com)and if you review the book, I'll hook you up with an advance PDF.

Rabbi Shais Taub
http://www.chasidicthought.com/

9.19.2010

The Art of Forgiveness

By Rabbi Shais Taub

Last week, I spoke to an audience before Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) all about forgiving and being forgiven.

It was basically all Fourth Step stuff.

While speaking, I had an insight which I had actually not planned. I thought of another way of explaining why a tendency toward indignation is a sign of immaturity.

What is the first abstract concept that a child really gets a handle on? I mean, what is the first awareness that a child has beyond purely physical conditions like dark, light, cold, warm, wet, dry?

Justice.

Think about it. "She took my toy!" "Why does he get an extra cookie?" "They got to stay up later!" "It's not fair!"

Little children do not have the emotional tools to set and protect their boundaries, and so, in order that they not be taken advantage of, G-d gives them a sense of indignation. Children are suposed to be hypervigilant. But as we grow up and we learn how to take care of ourselves, we should lose our sense of indignation along with our baby teeth. It no longer serves us. It just holds us down. A major sign of maturity is when we can experience life's pain and not assume there is someone or something at fault that begs our condemnation.

WATCH The Art of Forgiveness by Shais Taub http://www.chabad.org/1296880

9.13.2010

God of Our Understanding

Hello, IOCC Friends,

I wanted to share with you some exciting developments that have already come along in this brand new year.

Back in the Spring of '09, the work I was doing in Milwaukee was covered on NPR. At the end of the interview, I mentioned that I was writing a book on Jewish spirituality and the Twelve Steps which I really was. I just hadn't started actually writing it yet.

So, I emailed our very own IOCC Blog editor, Gwen R., and asked her if I could use the blog as a forum to start pounding out some of my ideas. Here's a post from this blog from 3.23.09.

This post actually became part of a central part of my book which contains several chapters explaining the implicit theology of the Twelve Steps.

Anyway, I just received the proofs for the cover. This is not necessarily a final draft but it's cool to see.

Thank you all so much for reading and literally PULLING the creativity out of me. Writing this book has been a tremendous opportunity to be of service and I have already benefitted so much, thank G-d, from it all.

Rabbi Shais Taub
http://www.chasidicthought.com

9.06.2010

First or Last?

by Rabbi Shais Taub

Contrary to popular misconception, the Jewish New Year of Rosh
Hashanah does not celebrate the creation of the world. It celebrates
the beginning of G-d's relationship with human beings.

You see, this Wednesday night, September 8, 2010 at sundown, will be
the precise anniversary of the day that G-d created Adam and Eve.

The Torah says: "For six days G-d made the heavens and the earth and
all that is in them, and on the seventh day He rested." But of all
those six days, the one that G-d singled out to be His anniversary as
Creator is not the actual first day that the acts of creation were
begun but the day on which He made the human being.

Now, the first human being was called Adam. The Hebrew word for earth
is "adamah" and Adam means literally "from the earth." As the Torah
tells us, Adam was actually made from the dirt.

On the other hand, the name Adam is also related to the word "edameh"
-- "I will be G-d-like."

So which is it? Are we dirt or are we Divine?

Is there such a thing as Divine dirt?

It seems that the secret of being human is that we are the highest of
the high only when we embrace being the lowest of the low. Just like
we were created last of all the creations, and yet, it is only on the
anniversary of the day that we came into existence that G-d celebrates
creation.

It's sort of like the cycle of the year. You've got to get all the
way down to the very end in order to have a new beginning.

Rabbi Shais Taub
http://www.chasidicthought.com

9.01.2010

A NEW YEAR

It's September, and it's my turn to contribute to IOCC. On the Jewish calender, we happen to be just eight days away from a new year. Rosh Hashanah (which this year begins at sunset on September 8, 2010) is the anniversary of Creation. It is a time for renewal and a time for taking stock.

In recovery, we are familiar with the major inventory of the Fourth Step and the continued "mini-inventory" of the Tenth Step. It is interesting that in the Big Book, the way it describes the Eleventh Step meditation is also as an inventory of what's to be done during the day ahead upon arising and of how the day was actually spent upon retiring.

In the days leading up to the New Year, we Jews have a custom of doing a yearly inventory.

When I look back at last year, I see a lot of changes. Notably, our family moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin (where we had lived for six years) and relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Soon after that, we were blessed with the birth of -- thank G-d -- our fourth child, a daughter named, Chaya Mushka (which literally means "the spice of life.") Professionally, the nature of my work has changed quite a bit and I am now more focussed on writing and speaking all over the world as opposed to staying in one place and building a community. On a very exciting note, my book entitled G-d of Our Understanding: Jewish Spirituality and Recovery from Addiction is due to be released next month. (I will, G-d willing, post more about the book later.)

All of these changes are blessings. Change is life. But change can be scary. And that's why we rely so much on G-d so that we may have the "courage to change." When we remember to let G-d do His thing, and we just focus on doing our thing, then change becomes much more fluid, much more peaceful. In other words, life's gonna change regardless. How I deal with change is all in my head.

Indeed, the Hebrew word Rosh Hashanah which literally means "Head of the Year" also means "Head of the Change" since the words for "year" and "change" in Hebrew are so closely related. This Rosh Hashanah, I ask G-d to help me have a "head of change" -- a head that is able to deal with the movement of life and not get entrenched in what makes me comfortable now or how I want things to be. Having a head of change also means being able to quickly let go of opinions that I fought so hard to hold on to. I ask G-d to give me the maturity to realize when my outlook has been wrong and to quickly, gracefully move way from old ideas and thoughts.

And I ask to be able to see what it is that I can change in the world around me. Although "fixing" has gotten us into so much trouble in the past, there's a whole lot that we can fix, too. I can be of use to others. I can make someone's life better. Not because I have the power to change things for other people but because G-d who has all power sometimes chooses me as His agent to bring help to a fellow human being.

May your new year be full of new things and may you enjoy every minute of it.


Rabbi Shais Taub
http://www.chasidicthought.com