Rab­bi Jef­frey Salkin’s Invit­ing God In is an acces­si­ble guide to expe­ri­enc­ing Shab­bat as not only a week­ly rit­u­al, but also an ongo­ing spir­i­tu­al con­ver­sa­tion. The book guides read­ers through the Shab­bat litur­gy in a way that feels both ground­ed in tra­di­tion and sen­si­tive to the ques­tions of con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish life.

The book breaks down the major prayers and moments of Shab­bat, offer­ing his­tor­i­cal back­ground on each text, inter­pre­tive com­men­tary, and prob­ing ques­tions that invite per­son­al reflec­tion. Salkin not only explains each prayer; he also con­tex­tu­al­izes it in Jew­ish his­to­ry and then sug­gests how awor­shiper might con­nect to its themes today, espe­cial­ly in light of the impact of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and the trau­ma of the Octo­ber 7, 2023, attack in Israel. Salkin helps the read­er explore what it means to speak tra­di­tion­al words of pro­tec­tion, heal­ing, and peace after com­mu­nal expe­ri­ences of iso­la­tion, grief, and fear.

Through­out these expla­na­tions are vignettes from Salkin’s own life of prayer, rang­ing from mem­o­ries of dav­en­ing as a young per­son to reflec­tions on his rab­binate today. These pas­sages show how the same words can land dif­fer­ent­ly through­out one’s life. Through Salkin’s ques­tions, read­ers explore their own con­nec­tion to prayer and to Judaism as a whole.

In address­ing the Shab­bat morn­ing litur­gy, the Salkin frames par­tic­i­pa­tion as a means of expe­ri­enc­ing what Rab­bi Abra­ham Joshua Hes­chel called ​“rad­i­cal aware­ness,” allow­ing us to awak­en to an ​“ever-renew­ing sense of won­der at God’s pres­ence in the world and in our lives.” In dis­cussing the prayer for the State of Israel, Salkin asks us to con­sid­er the lives of poets Shaul Tch­er­ni­chovsky and Naf­tali Herz Imber. For him, the poets’ writ­ings on hope and redemp­tion are cen­tral to under­stand­ing the place of Israel in mod­ern Jew­ish life.

The book’s pri­ma­ry audi­ence is the adult who feels une­d­u­cat­ed or spir­i­tu­al­ly ​“stuck.” How­ev­er, Invit­ing God In may also be a resource for b’mitzvah prepa­ra­tion when used with adult guid­ance. A curi­ous teen, work­ing with a par­ent, tutor, or rab­bi, could use Salkin’s expla­na­tions and ques­tions to move beyond the orches­tra­tion of the ser­vice into under­stand­ing why these prayers mat­ter and how they might shape a Jew­ish life. The lan­guage is acces­si­ble enough for teen read­ers, but the ques­tions will stretch their think­ing and may require sup­port to address in a mean­ing­ful way.

Through Invit­ing God In, Rab­bi Salkin sug­gests that Shab­bat and its litur­gy remain a vital source for Jews seek­ing God and spir­i­tu­al­i­ty in a pro­found­ly uncer­tain world.