Finished reading another book today
The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time by Judith Shulevitz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Fabulous. An amazing blend of political, economic, religious and historical thought, suitable for the theist and the atheist, as an exploration into the way the modern world looks at time, inclusion, and separation. Though Shulevitz is a Jewish author, and writing from a Jewish perspective, this is not a “Jewish Book”, rather it is a book about societies past and present. It is about the tensions between puritanical views and 24/7 modernism. It is even about personal exploration, doubt and tension with the past, faith and god. I give it five stars, wishing I could give it more.
The Sabbath World is well written, easy to understand without being simplistic, and has a cadence that allows room for contemplation of the ideas Shulevitz is presenting and considering. Like many people, I bought this book after hearing the interview on Fresh Air, and I think I may have been expecting a bit more memoir and a bit less historical and journalistic approach, but Shulevitz is a researcher, a journalist, and that comes through in the book.
I highly, highly recommend reading this, getting other people to read it, and discussing it with them.
