New York, January 18, 2012 -- Rabbi Richard Address has devoted his career to helping transform synagogues into caring communities. Now, in his most personal work to date, he explores how the notion of a caring community can be transformative for individuals, particularly baby boomers struggling with issues of aging and mortality.
In Seekers of Meaning, recently released by URJ Press, Rabbi Address delves into the existential questions that take on new relevance as we face the daunting challenges of our aging society. We are seeing the health of our parents decline. We are deferring retirement in a difficult economy. We are becoming caregivers for loved ones. We are struggling with our own issues of health and wellness. Where do we turn for guidance in navigating these uncharted waters? Where do we now seek meaning in our lives?
The answer, argues Rabbi Address, is to be found in our relationships. Using key texts from the Torah, he shows that the foundation of a happy and healthy life is the meaning we seek in it in the community of others--our family, our friends, our congregations--and in our most fundamental relationship, with the very mystery behind our own existence. This "theology of relationships" can bring much needed change to the Jewish communities that have nurtured us for so much of our lives, and help us make for ourselves an older adulthood that is healthy and sacred.
About the Author
Rabbi Richard F. Address, D.Min., is senior rabbi of Congregation M'kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and adjunct professor at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. Before returning to the pulpit in 2011, he served the Union for Reform Judaism for over three decades, first as director of the Pennsylvania region, then as founding director of the Department of Jewish Family Concerns. Rabbi Address is a renowned speaker and teacher, and author or editor of dozens of books and articles including That You May Live Long: Caring for Our Aging Parents, Caring for Ourselves, To Honor and Respect, and Caring for the Soul.
About URJ Press
URJ Press is the book publishing arm of URJ Books and Music, an independent publisher of books and music of Jewish interest and the official publisher of the Union for Reform Judaism. URJ Books and Music produces textbooks, program guides, children's books, non-fiction titles, songbooks, CDs, e-books, MP3s and other digital content used in religious schools, day schools, synagogues, and homes throughout the Reform community and the larger Jewish world.