The Sacred Struggle: Jewish Responses to Trauma

Rabbi Lindsey Danziger · Rabbi Benjamin David

Jun 2025 · CCAR Press

About this eBook

How do we find the strength to continue when dealing with traumatic experiences? The Sacred Struggle: Jewish Responses to Trauma is a powerful anthology of personal stories, offering a deeply moving exploration of how Jewish wisdom can help us navigate life's most difficult moments. With stories including enduring the loss of a child, losing a loved one to suicide, surviving sexual assault, responding to a diagnosis of cancer, experiencing antisemitism and racism, and many more, this volume is rooted in vulnerability and resilience, revealing the profound ways Judaism offers tools for reflection, connection, and healing. Edited by Rabbi Lindsey Danziger and Rabbi Benjamin David, with a foreword by Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, The Sacred Struggle is a companion for anyone seeking comfort and hope in the face of trauma.

In this book you will find the genuine voices of life as it is lived--in pain, with struggle, and offering the wisdom to endure and prevail. A work of great range, it is a bracing book, an important book, and a gift to all of us.

---Rabbi David Wolpe, author of Making Loss Matter: Creating Meaning in Difficult Times

Who among us has not been touched by trauma? Violence? Natural disaster? Illness? Marginalization? Family dysfunction? In this challenging and thought-provoking book, rabbis reflect on the Torah of their lives, as well as the Torah of tradition, to give us insight into the ways we are all affected by trauma and the many different paths to healing.

---Rabbi Laura Geller, coauthor of Moments That Matter: Marking Transitions in Midlife and Beyond

Trauma may shatter us. It doesn't have to end us. ... There is a way forward. I pray that this volume can be a source of strength for you.

---From the foreword by Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, Temple Emanuel, Winston-Salem, NC