The Lord is My Shepherd: Healing Wisdom of the Twenty-third Psalm.

The Lord is My Shepherd: Healing Wisdom of the Twenty-third Psalm Harold Kushner Published by Alfred knopf, New York, 2003 ISBN: 1-4000-4056-6

Written in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, this book attempts to fathom the depths of consolation to be found in this beloved psalm. Through a series of meditations on each line, Kushner brings new insights to familiar words.

One way of reading the psalm, says Kushner, is as a drama in three acts. In the first act all is contentment--"green pastures and still waters." In the second, a time of trial, "the shadow of death" has arrived to disturb the peace, leaving the psalmist feeling anxious and alone. By the third act, the psalmist "realizes his understanding of God ... has matured...." Despite his loss, he discovers he never was really alone, and gratitude overwhelms him.

Intended as it is to appeal to a wide range of readers, the book is ecumenical, containing anecdotes from both Christian and Jewish sources. Without warning or apology, Kushner, a rabbi, refers to the New Testament, Mother Theresa, G.K. Chesterton, and Christian monks, as well as other rabbis and anecdotes from the Talmud.

In an effort to civilize the line "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies," Kushner reports the "creative misreading" of one Jewish thinker who, "once a year, convenes an imaginary dinner party in his mind, to which he invites everyone with whom he has had a run-in during the past year." At this "dinner" some guests evoke his thanks, others a self-examination on his part.

Kushner's own interpretation of this line is that the Hebrew word for the phrase "in the presence of [mine enemies]" ordinarily means "opposite." So we might interpret this line to mean, "You prepare a table before me in contrast to the people around me who disappointed me when I turned to them for consolation." Fine sentiments, but do they vitiate the raw honesty of the psalm?

Kushner's elucidation of the line "Thou anointest my head with oil" reveals that the original verb "to anoint" used in this psalm differs from the verb used in the expression "the anointed one" in the sense of messiah. The "anoint" in the psalm confers a "specialness" on the person, "but without the royal-messianic connotation." According to Kushner, there are three possible takes on the the question of messiahship: the messiah who would change the hearts, not the rulers, of men, i.e. Christ; the Jewish belief that says we will live in a pre-messianic world indefinitely; and finally the idea outlined by "Jewish mystics in the sixteenth century and endorsed by rational thinkers some time afterward," that, since the world's problems are too intractable for any one person to solve, "however gifted or powerful," each one of us must be a "messiah in miniature." The question of how we can fashion "miniature messiahs" of ourselves without a Model Messiah's example, he neither asks, nor answers. Neither, apparently, have the consequences of each one creating a messiah in his own image occurred to him.

It turns out that being a "miniature messiah" means volunteering at a soup kitchen, staffing a late night hot-line for despairing callers, tutoring disadvantaged children, setting aside our own priorities, and voting "for policies that will make ours a more compassionate society." In other words, the obligation to others remains, but the inspiration is absent.

In spite of these shortcomings, the book achieves its purpose of enhancing our understanding and