When God Asks the Impossible: Parenting in a Dangerous World

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Can writing poetry bring us closer to the Divine? Poet David Silverman reflects on how the creative process provides clarification for his deepest thoughts and allows him to reconcile with some of the uncomfortable truths of this world. Using the story of the Akeida (the binding of Isaac), Silverman uses poetry to confront the realities of not always being able to protect your child, and how such a reality challenges both our faith in a G-d that calls us to commit acts of extreme sacrifice, and faith in a forefather who willingly rushed to do so.

David Silverman is an award-winning poet from Skokie, Illinois and the author of It's The Little Things: Poems About Love, Faith & Basketball. David's poems are carefully rendered appreciations for the transient nature of existence and the sheer randomness that dictates the circumstances of life. And, as a Jewish poet, his poems are informed by the history, religion, national aspirations, spiritual longings and cultural mores of the Jewish people. But as much as his work is an attempt to take on some of the great, existential questions of the human condition, he is sufficiently satisfied when his writing makes his wife and children laugh out loud.
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