Can a seeker also be a skeptic? Can one believe without renouncing the responsibility to doubt? These eight essays argue that the answer is yes. They make the case that the most authentic way to search for meaning today is not to suppress our skepticism but to intensify it, not to give up our doubts but to sharpen them. In a bitterly-polarized world, these essays offer a middle way. They insist that we need not choose between religious searching and critical thinking. At the far side of skepticism, the two paths converge.
Industry Reviews
“In The Dancer and the Dance, Wasserman offers us an engaging, deep, and serious journey through experiences, thoughts, and emotions concerning doubt and faith all through a serious unpacking of classical Jewish texts. This book is an authentic existential and spiritual inquiry into the relationship between these human states, and sometimes the unity of opposites sparkles through his words.”
—Melila Hellner Eshed, Senior Fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute
“Michael Wasserman is a longtime rabbi who has remained a seeker. We need more like him! The Dancer and the Dance asks many of the hard questions that surround a contemporary life of faith. He offers no easy answers but presents a stimulating analysis of the journey. Definitely worth reading!”
—Arthur Green, Rector, Rabbinical School, Hebrew College
“Wasserman offers us a beautiful series of meditations on the different ways humans have of knowing and engaging with the world. He reminds us that detached observation is not inherently superior to committed seeing. . . . These are essays to be contemplated not with detachment but with passion. They are, in the best sense, ‘spiritual essays’ that prod us to see the world and our place within it in the new-old ways that religion uniquely makes possible.”
—Shai Held, author of Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence
“Can faith and skepticism be reconciled? Yes! insists Rabbi Wasserman, who argues they can even enrich each other. A remarkable collection of essays for anyone seeking a path through the seemingly endless culture wars between tradition and modernity.”
—Ariel Anbar, Geochemist, Arizona State University
“The Torah imagines the growth of faith as a journey through a forbidding wilderness toward a lush promised land. So, too, Rabbi Michael leads us directly into the most searching questions of contemporary faith. Without apologetics, mystification, or rhetorical manipulation, he forces us to acknowledge the paradox of religious truth. And then, with deft and gentle wisdom, he guides us toward a new vision of religious life. It is a journey well worth taking, again and again.”
—Ed Feinstein, Senior Rabbi, Valley Beth Shalom
