Thirty-four years ago, the publication of When Bad Things Happen to Good People introduced Rabbi Harold Kushner as a voice of great empathy, wisdom, and understanding of the private pain and doubt with which we all struggle. 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 Kushner has demonstrated time and again his understanding of the human spirit.

In Nine Essential Things I’ve Learned About Life—a deeply moving and illuminating reflection on what it means to live a good life—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 readings of Scripture, history, and popular culture, Nine Essential Things I’ve Learned About Life is a distillation of all he has learned in his remarkable career. Book signing to follow.