Audiobooks by Harold S. Kushner

Nine Essential Things I've Learned About Life

From the beloved author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, deeply moving and illuminating reflections on what it means to live a good life. As a congregational rabbi for half a century and the best-selling author of twelve books on faith, ethics, and how to apply the timeless wisdom of religious thought to everyday challenges, Rabbi Harold S. Kushner has demonstrated time and again his understanding of the human spirit. In this compassionate new work, his most personal since When Bad Things Happen to Good People, Kushner relates how his time as a twenty-first-century rabbi has shaped his senses of religion and morality. He elicits nine essential lessons from the sum of his teaching, study, and experience, offering a lifetime's worth of spiritual food for thought, pragmatic advice, inspiration for a more fulfilling life, and strength for trying times. With fresh, vital insight into belief ("there is no commandment in Judaism to believe in God"), conscience (the Garden of Eden story as you've never heard it), and mercy (forgiveness is "a favor you do yourself, not an undeserved gesture to the person who hurt you"), grounded in Kushner's brilliant readings of Scripture, history, and popular culture, Nine Essential Things I've Learned About Life is compulsory reading from one of modern Judaism's foremost sages. Distilling the wisdom of an extraordinary career, this profoundly inspiring yet practical guide to well-being is truly the capstone to Kushner's luminous oeuvre.

Harold S. Kushner (Author), Harold S. Kushner (Narrator)

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The Book of Job

From one of our most trusted spiritual advisers, a thoughtful, illuminating guide to that most fascinating of biblical texts, the book of Job, and what it can teach us about living in a troubled world. The story of Job is one of unjust things happening to a good man. Yet after losing everything, Job-though confused, angry, and questioning God-refuses to reject his faith, although he challenges some central aspects of it. Rabbi Harold S. Kushner examines the questions raised by Job's experience, questions that have challenged wisdom seekers and worshippers for centuries. What kind of God permits such bad things to happen to good people? Why does God test loyal followers? Can a truly good God be all-powerful? Rooted in the text, the critical tradition that surrounds it, and the author's own profoundly moral thinking, Kushner's study gives us the book of Job as a touchstone for our time. Taking lessons from historical and personal tragedy, Kushner teaches us about what can and cannot be controlled, about the power of faith when all seems dark, and about our ability to find God. Rigorous and insightful yet deeply affecting, The Book of Job is balm for a distressed age-and Rabbi Kushner's most important book since When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

Harold S. Kushner (Author), Harold S. Kushner (Narrator)

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Conquering Fear

From the best-selling author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, an illuminating book about fear-and what we can do to overcome it. An inescapable component of our lives, fear comes in many guises: fear of unemployment; fear of aging, illness, losing beauty; fear of a terrorist attack or natural disaster. In uncertain times, coping with these fears can be especially challenging, but in this indispensable, hopeful book, Harold S. Kushner teaches us to confront, master, and even embrace fear for a more fulfilling life. Drawing on the teachings of religious and secular literature and on the true stories of people who have faced their fears, Kushner helps us to see that fear can present us with extraordinary opportunities-to connect with our emotions, rethink our values, and change our lives, and the world, for the better. For those who fear helplessness, he suggests empowerment: through prayer, service, and education. For those who fear for mankind's future, he insists on hope and pragmatic measures, such as working to protect the environment. For those who fear death, he proposes life-lived boldly and purposefully. In Conquering Fear, we are again inspired by Harold S. Kushner's wisdom, at once deeply spiritual and eminently practical.

Harold S. Kushner (Author), Harold S. Kushner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Overcoming Life's Disappointments

From Harold S. Kushner, the author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, an audiobook that shows us how to be our best selves even when things don't turn out as we had hoped-that is, how we can overcome life's disappointments. Kushner turns to the experience of Moses to find the requisite lessons of strength and faith. Moses towers over all others in the Old Testament: he is the man on the mountaintop to whom God speaks with unparalleled intimacy, and he leads his people out of bondage. But he is also deeply human, someone whose soaring triumphs are offset by frustration and longing: his people ignore his teachings, he is denied entrance to the Promised Land, his family suffers. But he overcomes. Through the example of Moses' remarkable resilience, we learn how to weather the disillusionment of dreams unfulfilled, the pain of a lost job or promotion, a child's failures, divorce or abandonment, and illness. We learn how to meet all disappointments with faith in ourselves and the future, and how to respond to heartbreak with understanding rather than bitterness and despair. This is an audiobook of spiritual wisdom-as practical as it is inspiring.

Harold S. Kushner (Author), Arthur Morey (Narrator)

Audiobook

Overcoming Life's Disappointments

From Harold S. Kushner, the author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, an audiobook that shows us how to be our best selves even when things don’t turn out as we had hoped–that is, how we can overcome life’s disappointments. Kushner turns to the experience of Moses to find the requisite lessons of strength and faith. Moses towers over all others in the Old Testament: he is the man on the mountaintop to whom God speaks with unparalleled intimacy, and he leads his people out of bondage. But he is also deeply human, someone whose soaring triumphs are offset by frustration and longing: his people ignore his teachings, he is denied entrance to the Promised Land, his family suffers. But he overcomes. Through the example of Moses’ remarkable resilience, we learn how to weather the disillusionment of dreams unfulfilled, the pain of a lost job or promotion, a child’s failures, divorce or abandonment, and illness. We learn how to meet all disappointments with faith in ourselves and the future, and how to respond to heartbreak with understanding rather than bitterness and despair. This is an audiobook of spiritual wisdom–as practical as it is inspiring.

Harold S. Kushner (Author), Harold S. Kushner (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Lord is My Shepherd: Healing Wisdom of the Twenty-third Psalm

From the author of the best-selling When Bad Things Happen to Good People and Living a Life That Matters –a new book of practical spirituality, of inspiration and encouragement gleaned from what may be the best-known and best-loved chapter in the Bible: the Twenty-third Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. So begins the psalm that, for millennia, has been a source of comfort in grief and of courage in fear. Now Harold Kushner discovers what it has to teach us about living our day-to-day lives. Each chapter discusses one line of the psalm in the context of both the time when it was written and the present day, and illuminates the life lessons contained within it. For example, Kushner shows us that the phrase My cup runneth over is a declaration of our gratitude for what life has given us and a rejection of the envy we may feel for what others have. And he draws on the ideas and thoughts of various spiritual figures–from G. K. Chesterton to Martin Buber to Paul Tillich–to further expand our understanding of this great psalm and help us benefit from its everyday spiritual wisdom.

Harold Kushner, Harold S. Kushner (Author), Harold Kushner, Harold S. Kushner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Living a Life That Matters

From the author of the huge bestseller When Bad Things Happen to Good People, a profound and practical book about doing well by doing good. In this timely and compelling book, Harold Kushner addresses our craving for significance, the need to know that our lives and choices mean something. We do great things, and occassionally terrible things, to reassure ourselves that we matter to the world. We sometimes confuse fame, power, and wealth with true achievement. But finally we need to think of ourselves as good people and are troubled when we compromise our integrity to be successful and important. Rabbi Kushner suggests that the path to a truly successful and significant life lies in friendship, family, acts of generosity and self-sacrifice, as well as God’s forgiving nature. He describes how, in changing the life of even one person in a positive way, we make a difference in the world, give our lives meaning, and prove that we do in fact matter. Persuasive and sympathetic, anecdotal and commonsensical, Living a Life that Matters inspires and uplifts.

Harold S. Kushner (Author), Harold S. Kushner (Narrator)

Audiobook

When Bad Things Happen to Good People: 20th Anniversary Edition, with a New Preface by the Author

As a young theology student, Harold Kushner puzzled over the Book of Job. As a small-town rabbi he counseled other people through pain and grief. But not until he learned that his three-year-old son, Aaron, would die in his early teens of a rare disease did he confront one of life's most difficult questions: Where do we find the resources to cope when tragedy strikes?"I knew that one day I would write this book," says Rabbi Kushner. "I would write it out of my own need to put into words some of the most important things I have come to believe and know. And I would write it to help other people who might one day find themselves in a similar predicament. I am fundamentally a religious man who has been hurt by life, and I wanted to write a book that could be given to the person who has been hurt by life, and who knows in his heart that if there is justice in the world, he deserved better. . . . If you are such a person, if you want to believe in God's goodness and fairness but find it hard because of the things that have happened to you and to people you care about, and if this book helps you do that, then I will have succeeded in distilling some blessing out of Aaron's pain and tears."Since its original publication in 1981, When Bad Things Happen to Good People has brought solace and hope to millions. In his new preface to this anniversary edition, Rabbi Kushner relates the heartwarming responses he has received over the last two decades from people who have found inspiration and comfort within these pages.From the Hardcover edition.

Harold S. Kushner (Author), Harold S. Kushner (Narrator)

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Who Needs God?

CAN YOU BEAT THE ODDS? In today's high pressure world the odds are that you may feel overwhelmed, dissatisfied or unable to cope with unforeseen problems in your life. Harold Kushner's philosophy has brought inspiration to millions, and now he tells you how to live with more confidence and hope no matter what challenges you face in life. Whether you have no religious background or feel uncomfortable with the one you do have, whether you want to question your beliefs or develop your own relationship with God, Rabbi Kushner helps you understand how a spiritual commitment can make a real, practical difference in your life -- and how you can find more meaning and live better today!

Harold Kushner, Harold S. Kushner (Author), Harold Kushner, Harold S. Kushner (Narrator)

Audiobook