Overview

"Intense and deeply personal, this compilation of poetry, grapples with the reality of death, loss, and finding meaning in the face of life's finitude in contemporary times. For over three decades, Simcha Paull Raphael has written scholarly books on death and the afterlife, including his groundbreaking study Jewish Views of the Afterlife. In this collection of thirty-six poems, Raphael invites us into the inner sanctum of his own intimate wrestling with death and loss. As Rabbi Jill Hammer writes in the Foreword: ""Raphael has done the brave work of exposing his own emotional life, the inner workings of his drive to address mortality and immortality. In a sense, he has let us know the behind-the-scenes of his academic and spiritual work."" The poems herein reflect and wrestle with a spectrum of topics: the gamut of Jewish death rituals (funeral & shiva, Kaddish & Yizkor); personal tributes to the author's deceased parents; his journey of making meaning in the face of grief and loss; challenges of love and marriage; the vicissitudes of family life; and thoughtful poetic reflections on the state of the world today. As a book mirroring the universal journey of awakening to the reality of life's finality and eternity, Musings with the Angel of Death speaks to the heart and soul."

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9781953220387

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Reviews

"""Through decades of research, Simcha Paull Raphael brought us close to distant, ancient and esoteric Jewish texts that illumine our understanding of Jewish views of death and the afterlife. With this collection of poetry, he now invites us to sit by his side at a café, sipping a cup of tea or coffee, to reflect together on some of the most tender, precious and challenging moments of life. It is a sumptuous repast!"" Barbara E. Breitman, D. Min. Director of Jewish Spiritual Direction Training Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Wyncote, PA ""In this wry and wistful volume of poems Simcha Paull Raphael shares his existential musings on the mysteries and limitations of these mortal lives we live. Raphael's vulnerable, moving, often comical outpourings of the heart make us love him, love ourselves, and laugh knowingly at the human condition we share."" Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, Ph.D. Author of The Receiving: Reclaiming Jewish Women's Wisdom, and Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma ""From sitting shiva to sitting in Starbucks, from the challenge of birth to facing mortality, Simcha Paull Raphael reaches deep into his own heart to connect with our hearts through his poetry. Musings with the Angel of Death is a meaningful collection taking readers from heights to depths."" Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, City Shul, Toronto, ON Author of ReVisions: Seeing Torah Through a Feminist Lens ""Musings with the Angel of Death is an open-hearted, richly- textured collection of poetry, a grounded meditation on life, love, and loss. Simcha Paull Raphael takes his readers on a journey of discovery that reveals that the ordinary is the very thing that makes life exquisite, and extraordinary. Readers-sit by the fire, enjoy a poem, and discover that you are not walking the path of life alone."" Cole Imperi Founder, School of American Thanatology ""Simcha Paull Raphael's poetic voice is personal, intimate, courageous, and inviting. Each poem is a doorway inside the thirty-six room mansion of his soul as he gently takes us on a tour of his own inner life. The poems have the feel of a good friend inviting the reader to meet his family members, and inspiring us to reflect upon our own. Each poem lights up a unique mirror neuron so that we end up seeing ourselves, our families, our lives, our deaths through his. His conversational voice about death transforms fear into the desire to live life even more fully at every moment. Like a good collection of memorabilia, this anthology is one to save and savor."" Rabbi David Zaslow Havurah Shir Hadash, Ashland, OR Author of Reimagining Exodus: A Story of Freedom ""In Musings with the Angel of Death Simcha Paull Raphael gives voice to the deep and expansive layers of meeting and embracing the ""valley of shadows"" without fear. Exploring and encountering the fragility of life in the face of loss and mortality, he provides us with a gateway to the world most of us resist until the end. Raphael's poetry of love, life, and longing touch the heart and soul reminding us how we might live more fully with these angels of mortality in a way that makes life more precious. Take this journey and be enlivened by it!"" Rabbi Shawn Zevit Mishkan Shalom, Philadelphia, PA Author of Offerings of the Heart: Money and Values in Faith Community, and co-editor of Brother Keepers: New Perspectives on Jewish Masculinity"

Author Information

Simcha Paull Raphael, Ph.D. is Founding Director of the DA'AT Institute for Death Awareness, Advocacy and Training. He received a Master of Arts in History and Philosophy of Religion from Concordia University, a doctorate in Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and was ordained as a Pastoral Rabbi by Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. He has served as Adjunct Professor at LaSalle University, Temple University and in the Aleph Ordination Program. Currently, he works as a psychotherapist and spiritual director in the Philadelphia area, and is on faculty of the Art of Dying Institute of One Spirit Learning Alliance. He has written extensively on death and Judaism including the groundbreaking book Jewish Views of the Afterlife Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, is a scholar, ritualist, poet, midrashist, and dreamworker. She is the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion, a pluralistic seminary, and cofounder of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, a program in earth-based, embodied, feminist Jewish spiritual leadership. Her other works include Undertorah: An Earth-Based Kabbalah of Dreams; Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah; The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons; and Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women. She and her family live in Manhattan.

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