Non­fic­tion

Think Out­side the Lox: A Fresh Per­spec­tive on Jew­ish Teach­ings and Traditions

Boruch Cohen
September 1, 2023

Think Out­side the Lox, a Fresh Per­spec­tive on Jew­ish Teach­ings and Tra­di­tions, is a col­lec­tion of short cre­ative essays, explor­ing a daz­zling range of top­ics in a delight­ful lit­er­ary style. It is essen­tial­ly a book about Jew­ish mys­ti­cism, not by describ­ing it in abstract eso­teric terms, but by show­ing how it illu­mi­nates every aspect of Jew­ish life, includ­ing who we are and how we inter­act with oth­ers. Accord­ing­ly, the book, by design, is mul­ti­fac­eted, tak­ing play­ful advan­tage of the essay’s inher­ent­ly free form to gen­er­ate post­mod­ern ​“ver­bal col­lages”, almost spin­ning the reader’s head so that the sub­ject at hand is seen from entire­ly new angles. A person’s eyes nat­u­ral­ly widen when caught by sur­prise, and this book is full of sur­pris­es, con­tain­ing essays such as The Drunk­en Bug and Oth­er Mys­ti­cal Tales, The Muse­um of Bad Art, Duck Soup for the Soul, and A Fun­ny Thing Hap­pened on the Way Back from the Wall, each essay show­ing a dif­fer­ent ​“facet,” reflect­ing Judaism’s mys­ti­cal light, right before our eyes.

kab­bal­ah
mys­ti­cism
jbc net­work

Discussion Questions

Cour­tesy of Boruch Cohen

1. Would you rec­om­mend this book to some­one who was inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about Judaism or being Jew­ish? If so, what would you say makes it a ​“good read” for that person?

2. How did you read this book? From cov­er to cov­er? By skip­ping around at ran­dom? Or based on the titles in the table of con­tents? How would you sug­gest the book be read?

3. Sup­pose that you are the author sub­mit­ting this book for a book fair/​review/​award, and asked on the sub­mis­sion form to ​“Please pro­vide a brief descrip­tion of your book.” How would you describe it?

4. Sup­pose that you are a librar­i­an. In which sec­tion of the library you put this book: (a) Jew­ish Knowl­edge (b) Spir­i­tu­al­i­ty & Well-Being © Self Help (d) Mys­ti­cism & Kab­bal­ah (e) Psy­chol­o­gy (f) Phi­los­o­phy (g) Humor (h) Essay Col­lec­tions (i) Cook­books (j) Stream of Con­scious­ness (k) Mere Child’s Play (l) Other???

5. Was this book in any way about its author? Was it in any way about you, the read­er?

6. Was the book for you infor­ma­tive? insight­ful? inspir­ing? How about thought pro­vok­ing? Did you learn any­thing new, in the sense of, ​“Hey, I nev­er knew that”?

7. Was the book quirky enough for you? Too quirky? Not quirky enough? Were the odd­i­ties, over­all, an enhance­ment or dis­trac­tion to the book’s ideas?

8. Did you have fun with the cul­tur­al ref­er­ences, as one might have fun at a ​“scav­enger hunt,” or did you just zoom past them, as one might zip past a dri­ver going too slow in the right lane? Did you ​“google” any unfa­mil­iar ref­er­ences for more infor­ma­tion?

9. Any per­son­al ​“take-aways” from this book? Have you tried employ­ing any of the book’s ​“med­i­ta­tions” or ​“mantras” in deal­ing with life’s sit­u­a­tions? What about its prac­ti­cal tools for work­ing on char­ac­ter issues or inter­per­son­al rela­tion­ships? Has the book in any way helped you see ​“things” differently?

10. Did the book spark any self-reflec­tion about being Jew­ish, about pos­sess­ing a soul, about your rela­tion­ship with G‑d?

11. Do you have any favorite essays/​passages/​quotes? If yes, what made them favorites?

12. Did this book seem at all rel­e­vant to world events, such as the war in Israel or anti-Semi­tism? If so, in what way? If not, why not?

13. Would you agree that the book lives up to its sub­ti­tle, ​“A Fresh Per­spec­tive on Jew­ish Teach­ings and Tra­di­tions”? If so, how would you describe what this ​“fresh per­spec­tive” is?

14. Was your expe­ri­ence read­ing this book bet­ter than your expe­ri­ence going to Hebrew school?

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