Dimensions
148 x 213 x 22mm
THE DECEMBER PROJECT is the fruit of two years of discussion about what it means to have a soul, to lose loved ones, and to come to terms with our inevitable mortality. At the core of these discussions is the meeting of two great minds.
A friend of Timothy Leary and the Dalai Lama, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi is the founder of the Jewish Renewal Movement, which reconnects modern Judaism with its mystical and Hasidic past.
A friend of Joan Didion and chronicler of the life stages of the baby boomers, Sara Davidson is a bestselling author, journalist, and television writer who is a spiritual seeker who is highly skeptical of the Judaism she learned as a youth. Still, after years earlier being mesmerized by one of Rabbi Zalman’s speeches, Sara jumped at the invitation by the rabbi who work together to chronicle the spiritual work that needed to be done when we approach the last stages of life.
Along the way, we hear anecdotes about Rabbi Zalman’s colorful past, from fleeing the Nazi’s in Austria to bringing the Jewish Renewal Movement to Berkeley in the 1970’s. And we watch Sara incorporate these teachings as she faces the death of her mother, a dangerous trip to Afghanistan, and becoming temporarily immobilized by disease, finally discovering what it means to give up worrying about death.
The result is a lively literary apprenticeship of learning from a rabbi on how to incorporate into our lives forgiveness, fearlessness, and letting go and live with a heightened sense of awareness and appreciation for every moment we have left.
