Cour­tesy of Alden Solovy

1. How do you think the author defines divine encounter? Is it dif­fer­ent in the first half of the book, which is inspired by sacred text, com­pared with the sec­ond part of the book, inspired by our dai­ly lives and per­son­al expe­ri­ences? What is your def­i­n­i­tion of divine encounter? How has it been impact­ed by read­ing this volume?



2. Are the works in this book poet­ry or prayer? Is there a dif­fer­ence between poet­ry and prayer? If so, what are the hall­marks that iden­ti­fy a bit of verse as poet­ry and what are the iden­ti­fiers of prayer?



3. In his fore­word, Rab­bi Leon Mor­ris writes: ​“In the first half of This Pre­cious Life, the expe­ri­ence of our ances­tors serves as the foun­da­tion for our own encounter with God” (p. xii). Do the expe­ri­ences of one or more of our Hebrew ances­tors illu­mi­nate your per­son­al encounter with the Divine? Who? Why? Is there a par­tic­u­lar prayer-poem in the vol­ume that res­onates with your experience?



4. Rab­bi Mor­ris writes: ​“In This Pre­cious Life, Alden Solovy once again offers us his unique voice and does so in a way that calls us to find our own” (p. xiii). Has read­ing this book inspired or informed your per­son­al prayer prac­tice? How?



5. In ​“About the Rain­bow” (p. 5), the author sug­gests that God might have been sur­prised by the appear­ance of the first rain­bow. Can God be sur­prised by Creation?



6. In ​“The Next Gar­den” (p. 7), Solovy pos­es a ques­tion: What would we do dif­fer­ent­ly if we were read­mit­ted to Eden? What point do you think the author is try­ing to make?



7. “Where are You?” (p. 6) and ​“The Next Gar­den” (p.7) appear side-by-side in the vol­ume. What do you think the author’s goal was for plac­ing them together?



8. In ​“Sarah Imeinu” (p. 15), the matri­arch is por­trayed as strong and assertive, per­haps even angry at the role she’s been assigned and how she’s been treat­ed. How does this fit (or not fit) with your under­stand­ing of the char­ac­ter of Sarah?



9. In ​“Fleet­ing Moments” (p. 38), the author pos­es the poten­tial for divine encoun­ters to be ter­ri­ble, per­haps ter­ri­fy­ing. Does this res­onate as true? Or are divine encoun­ters sin­gu­lar­ly pos­i­tive and uplifting?



10. In ​“Is this the Fast” (pp. 56 – 57), Jew­ish hol­i­days are por­trayed through the lens of tikkun olam, heal­ing the world. Is this an appro­pri­ate lens through which to under­stand holy days and sacred cer­e­monies? Does it add to or detract from your sense of the mean­ing of the festivals?



11. The core of ​“To Bat­tle Injus­tice” (pp. 68 – 69) is an alpha­bet­ic acros­tic. Does the author use this anti­quat­ed tech­nique effec­tive­ly in this piece? Does the tech­nique still have pow­er or resonance?



12. “Tend­ing Gar­dens” (p. 78) and ​“Fresh Delights” (p. 79) appear side-by-side in the vol­ume. What do you think the author’s goal was for plac­ing them together?



13. What do you think the author was try­ing to say in the prayer-poem ​“Spir­i­tu­al Van­dals” (pp. 96 – 97)? What do you think the author means by ​“spir­i­tu­al van­dals,” not­ing that they are lat­er called ​“angels”?



14. What ingre­di­ents would you add to the ​“Recipe for a Life” (p. 107)? Are there any you would remove? Are there any direc­tions that you would add?



15. The last sec­tion of the book is called ​“Dis­cov­ery” (pp. 122 – 131). What is the author try­ing to achieve by con­nect­ing these pieces with the idea of dis­cov­ery? What is Solovy say­ing by end­ing the sec­tion and the entire book with ​“Wild Bro­ken Heart” (p. 130)?



16. What is your favorite prayer-poem in this vol­ume? What speaks to you about it?