Eight Questions of Faith, by Niles Elliot Goldstein

For Rabbi Goldstein, the Bible is “a complex, existential expression of uncertainty and confusion, of yearning and hope, of wonderment, suffering, and joy. . . . It doesn’t offer us rigid answers; it graces us with fellowship.” Goldstein investigates Cain, Jeremiah, Job, and other biblical figures in the context of larger questions about meaning, knowledge, and ethics. How do we appropriately fear a merciful God? How might moral responsibility change as human knowledge evolves? In what ways might repentance involve returning? In the end, the questions linger. But the reader feels no longer alone in asking them.