Bookpleasures.com welcomesas our guest Rabbi Rachel Adler. Rabbi Adler is the David Ellenson Professor of Modern Jewish Thought at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles Campus.

She is the author of Engendering Judaism, the first book by a female theologian to win a National Jewish Book Award for Jewish Thought. She has recently published Tales of the Holy Mysticat: Jewish Wisdom Stories by a Feline Mystic.

Rabbi Adler has a PhD in Religion and Social Ethics from the University of Southern California, rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College.

Norm: Good day Rabbi Adler and thanks for participating in our interview.

What do you consider to be your greatest success (or successes) so far in your career?

Rabbi Adler: I am proud of Engendering Judaism, which is now considered a Jewish Thought classic. I am proud that I continue to work: nearly 60 published articles, and two more books in the works. I am proud of the students I have taught and loved, and I continue to marvel at their accomplishments and their courage.

Norm: What has been your greatest challenge (professionally) that you’ve overcome in getting to where you’re at today? 

Rabbi Adler: It is documented that academic women write fewer books and articles than men. Whereas scholarly men learned from childhood on that all their ideas were brilliant, women learned to question the value of their ideas.

Women are stereotyped as garrulous, so one learns to be brief. A male scholar might write a book about research that a female scholar will boil down to an article. My greatest challenge is to believe, despite rejections or contempt, that I have something worth saying and must persist in getting it heard.

Rabbi Adler: Anyone who is determined to learn inspires me. Anyone who is looking for God inspires me. The book of Psalms inspires me, because in it, everything prays: the hills, the trees, the animals, as well as the human beings. That is why it did not surprise me that the Mysticat prayed.

Norm: How many times in your career have you experienced rejection? How did they shape you? 

Rabbi Adler: I’ve experienced many rejections. When I wrote my first articles, rabbis scolded me for daring to write when I was so ignorant. I was ashamed of being ignorant, and I studied hard. Now after all these years, I still see myself as ignorant. I will never stop learning. But I will not shut up either. 

Norm: How do you find or make time to write? 

Rabbi Adler: I write because I am driven to it. I don’t enjoy it until the third or fourth draft. But when there are things that must be said, I sit down at my computer, sometimes in my pajamas, and make myself say them. 

When I write, I try to stay aware of the other voices saying, “another perspective might be . . .” But I finished all but my doctoral dissertation in English Literature, so Shakespeare and John Donne are always with me too. I also love Gerard Manly Hopkins, Emily Dickenson, and Adrienne Rich.

Norm: Has a reader ever told you something about anyone of your books that surprised you? 

Rabbi Adler: I assume you mean in addition to my surprise when some rabbinical readers of my prizewinning Engendering Judaism pronounced the book evil, heretical, and ignorant. I think the biggest surprise has been the reception of Tales of the Holy Mysticat, the book I never intended to write.

Norm: What are your thoughts as to why people read books on religion?

Rabbi Adler: There are different kinds of books on religion. Some are for scholars who already have a technical vocabulary and a deep knowledge of the text. Others are for non-experts.

I think people read those for the same reason precocious kids read books about sex. They sense there’s something valuable there that they don’t quite grasp and hope to learn the geography of it and be able to envision it as a prelude to being able to do it themselves.

Norm: How did you become involved with Tales of the Holy Mysticat: Jewish Wisdom Stories by a Feline Mystic?

Rabbi Adler: Tales of the Holy Mysticat was an accidental book. I wrote it as a series of Facebook posts to amuse my friends and to sneak additional Jewish knowledge past my students. One of those Facebook friends was my publisher, novelist Maggie Anton, and she was determined that Tales of the Holy Mysticat should be a book.

Norm: What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them? As a follow up, what do you hope will be the everlasting thoughts for readers who finish your book? 

Rabbi Adler: I intended Tales of the Holy Mysticat as a playful way of talking about the cycle of the Jewish year, Jewish liturgy, and Jewish ritual, all from the multiple perspectives of a feminist Jewish theologian and a Jewish mystic, now on his final incarnation.

He has assumed the most perfect form flesh and blood can take: the feline form, of course, and from his perspective, the human assistant/servant he has been allotted is not at all what he expected or deserved.

I suppose it was a subversive way of engaging with a tradition whose authoritative voices are almost exclusively male. In other words, when you write, you write what you intended (if you are lucky) but also much that you didn’t intend that just oozed out.

Norm: What was one of the most surprising things you learned in writing Tales of the Holy Mysticat: Jewish Wisdom Stories by a Feline Mystic?

Rabbi Adler: I was very surprised that so many people enjoyed and appreciated it.

Norm: Do you believe Tales of the Holy Mysticat: Jewish Wisdom Stories by a Feline Mystic is an important book at this time, and if so, why?

Rabbi Adler: I suppose it is important in the sense that coming to value Jewish learning is very important. Moreover, becoming comfortable enough with its texts and categories to play with them joyously is immensely important.

Perhaps many people find Judaism boring, not only because they don’t know much, but also because they don’t feel entitled to be playful about what they do know. In Tales of the Holy Mysticat I give a demonstration of holy play.

Norm: For those interested in exploring the subjects of your book, where should they start? 

Rabbi Adler: Aha! That is exactly why we have equipped the book with multiple appendices. Readers can find a Jewish Timeline extending over several millennia, a glossary, and small articles on how Jews read sacred text, what is Jewish mysticism/the Talmud/ Codes/the cycle of the Jewish Year and its meanings. As Hillel so famously said, “Go out and learn.” 

Rabbi Adler: MY WEBSITE 

Norm: As this interview comes to an end, what question do you wish that someone would ask about your Tales of the Holy Mysticat: Jewish Wisdom Stories by a Feline Mystic, but nobody has?

Rabbi Adler: Good question, but I don't know yet. The book doesn't come out until October 6.

Norm: Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

Follow Here To Read Norm's Review of  Tales of the Holy Mysticat: Jewish Wisdom Stories by a Feline Mystic