Pearls of Jewish Wisdom on Living with Kindness

Shmuly Yanklowitz

Jun 2023 · Wipf and Stock Publishers

About this ebook

In this book, we will share forty lessons, each with its own unique theme. The common thread to the series is living with deeper kindness. How can the Jewish tradition inspire us to live with deeper love and compassion? How can Jewish pearls of wisdom inform how we care for one another? The book contains five sections: Kindness Toward Specific Individuals; Kindness Toward All Individuals; Kindness Through Restraint; Care for Our Environment; and Self-Improvement as a Catalyst for Kindness to Others. The first two sections address proactive kindness towards our fellow humans; the third addresses kindness by avoiding hurting others; the fourth, kindness towards all of God’s creations, including animals and nature, as kindness cannot be only people-directed; the fifth serves as a starting point and catalyst for all of the above, for without first being kind to ourselves and improving our general character we cannot be truly kind towards others. The argument is not only that God wants us to live with kindness and that Torah necessitates it, but that kindness has the greatest chance of bringing happiness and meaning to our lives.

About the author

Shmuly Yanklowitz is the president and dean of the Valley Beit Midrash (a national Jewish pluralistic adult learning and leadership center), the founder and president of Uri L'Tzedek (a Jewish Social Justice organization), the founder and president of Shamayim (a Jewish animal advocacy movement), the founder and president of YATOM (the Jewish foster and adoption network), and the author of twenty-four books on Jewish ethics. Newsweek named Rav Shmuly one of the top fifty rabbis in America and The Forward named him one of the fifty most influential Jews.