The Year of Living Biblically

I've been wanting to read The Year of Living Biblically, by A.J. Jacobs for some time, and after waiting in vain for my name to come to the top of the library's hold list, a very kind friend gave me a copy for my birthday (Thanks Melissa!!) I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it interesting and thought provoking while smiling all the way through (and even laughing out loud a couple of times.) Jacobs decides to live the letter of the law for a year- the first eight months out of the Old Testament and the last four out of the New Testament. Some of the challenges that he faces are rather unexpected (determining whether his clothes have mixed fibers in them, for instance) and the way he tries to fit the Law of Moses into modern culture is quite creative. I really enjoyed his comments about keeping the sabbath and about prayer- how to begin and the discussion of whether it is taking the Lord's name in vain to pray if you don't really believe.

I wanted to include a short passage from the book to whet your appetite for it, and I had a difficult time picking just one... but here's one of my favorites...

I've been trying to be as compassionate as possible. Often this requries energy and planning- going to the soup kitchen, for instance.

But today God or fate gave me a big juicy softball: An old lady asked me to help her across the street. Never in my thirty-eight years has an old lady asked me to help her across the street. I didn't think those things happened anymore. I thought it was just and expression like kittens getting stuck in trees.

But after lunch, outside the Jewish Theological Seminary, where I was meeting an friend, this kindly old octogenarian woman tells me that whe is worried about making it across Broadway's six lanes alone, and could I maybe help.

I'd be glad to. Though actually ecstatic is a better word. She locks her arm in mine- I figure she's safely past the age when I can't touch her- and we walk across, me holding my right hand out in a stern stop-traffic position, which was totally unnecessary, since the cars were safely motionless at the red light.

I am so happy about the situation, I stay with her for another several blocks, which, oddly enough, doesn't creep her out.

Anyway, I can highly recommend this book with two thumbs up, and I have much sympathy for Jacobs' wife.