‘Torah Wrestling is as relevant as the daily headlines we are reading’

Rabbi Roy Furman reminds us that Jews, Christians and Muslims share in God’s call to pursue justice

We invited Rabbi Roy Furman to introduce the importance of this week’s launch of his book Torah Wrestling. Here is what he said:

“Right now, all of us are experiencing ‘powers’ who are telling us that some people who are different from ‘us’ in some way are also less deserving than we are—and that their lives do not matter, so we do not need to be concerned about them. And this leaves so many vulnerable people around the world abandoned—or, as the Christian theologian Howard Thurman put it—with their backs against the wall. In my new book, Torah Wrestling,  I am showing readers why we always—in all times—need to struggle against the dangerous assumption that others’ lives are of less value than our own.

“Of course, this is not a new struggle—it’s a struggle that has been going on for a long, long time. All we have to do is open the Bible to read about powers that oppressed and discounted and marginalized people. If you read Torah Wrestling as a Christian familiar with Jesus, you will recognize that the sayings and actions of Jesus were confronting the same problems in his day. And I have to say: Like Dr. David Gushee in his wonderful Palm Sunday sermon this year, I am not trying to be political. Yet, both of us—Dr. Gushee and myself—certainly are speaking to the time in which we find ourselves. With the rise of such dangerous ‘powers,’ once again, this makes Torah Wrestling as relevant as the daily headlines we are reading.

“That is where I see hope as we publish Torah Wrestling. I am hopeful if people take seriously what I am writing—and are inspired to stand up and say: The victimization of vulnerable people is immoral, unacceptable and we are called to live our lives differently than that. If the work that we do in teaching, preaching and writing helps to transform the way people treat ‘others’ in our world—if we help people to reclaim empathy for ‘others’—then there is hope for all of us in what, right now, is a very troubling time.”

So, please: If Rabbi Furman’s introduction moves you, please click here to visit his new “homepage” online, where you can order a copy of Torah Wrestling in paperback, hardcover or in Kindle editions. You also can read a sample chapter, download a free discussion guide—and learn more about getting in touch with Rabbi Furman if you would like him to speak to your group.

And, if you care to learn more about that Palm Sunday 2025 sermon by Dr. David Gushee, the leading Christian ethicist and author of Changing Our Mind, then click here to visit Dr. Gushee’s website where he provides a video of his Palm Sunday message.

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