In this collection of poems, Rabbi Bernstein-Goff invites you to laugh,
cry, kvetch and kvell as he celebrates a lifetime of encountering
unforgettable characters, both real and imaginary, along with his
perceptions and insights into events and issues that defined the 20th
century. Some of these poems like Doors of Perception deal with
encountering ones' death in the course of a psychedelic experience,
which in turn evokes the memory of the last significant words his father
spoke before his death ten years later. The rabbi shares his memories of
how confronting one's own death can be a healing experience, and shares
with the reader insights into the painful, sometimes funny ways by which
we acquire the elusive skill of learning how to lose. Other poems like
Hedi Schiff and Swords in the Sanctuary present the reader with a very
Jewish Jesus who desperately wants to reconnect with family and friends.
The poems also reflect many of the issues and problems the author
struggled with from childhood on: Jewish identity, Jewish and Christian
relations, antisemitism, Zionism, and the never-ending questions of
meaning and purpose.