The Jewish Pilgrimage – Book Review

The Jewish pilgrimage: an exploration of reality, mainly in verse

Geoffrey Hoffman’s Jewish Pilgrimage is clearly written to inspire philosophical discussion. This book describes the author’s personal journey to find some form of understanding about man, our various versions of God and how this affects society and the use of his knowledge. He debates moral issues and provokes deep thought in various areas that will never leave my mind as I travel my own path.

Geoffrey questions the justice of creation itself and the gift of consciousness. He also cleverly uses metaphors when representing various parts of himself using the universe, planets, and astrological colors. Without a doubt, this student of life enjoys nature. Throughout the book, the author makes his astonishment at the vastness of the universe quite clear.

My personal favorite piece was Beautiful Among The Buildings, which used powerful visual statements such as:

“The night stretches between the shattered lives that line the broken street; The lonely and helpless men whose waste is our defeat. The men stagger from the damp cellars; the men, imprisoned in their cars, They go roaring into the dark, without pay attention to the stars. “

And the equally powerful anti-war piece, No Frontiers:

“The father carrying the inert body of his son, The soldier staring at his amputated hand, The girl among the bloody pieces of her parents -What does it matter if they are from one side or the other? Dogma cannot cry. It is the pain of the burning individuals “.

I was also very appreciative of Half Sight, who spoke of the inability to witness good and love in life when there is so much distracting horror. Today, Near Watford Market was a very moving piece for me as it was very visual. Describes an event in which the author sees a man speaking to the public about his lack of faith in religion. And “circling like wolves, the true believers snarled, criticizing both his arguments and him.” However, near her, an old woman fell down and dropped her shopping items on the ground around her. The unbeliever ran to her side and helped her on her way, “pushing himself to her aid through immobile rows of faithful ice.” It is a beautiful story about seeing God where you least expect it.

In the later part of the book, the author turns away from poetry and into verse debating who the Jews are, what they are perceived to be, and the persecution of this group of people throughout the centuries. His interesting look at the holocaust does not focus on the pain or loss of people, but rather focuses on the people themselves.

By far, Jews are not the only race of people who have suffered at the hands of man and I think the author wants to use the example as a tool to accelerate the intellectual growth of humanity.

ISBN Number: 1-4137-7281-1
Author: Geoffrey Hoffman
Publisher: Publish America