Book Reviews: "The Year of Living Biblically" and "My Jesus Year"

There are two books that I decided were "must reads" during my spiritual quest. One was The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs and the other was My Jesus Year by Benyamin Cohen.

A.J. Jacobs is the editor at large for Esquire magazine. He is also a secular Jew. Benyamin Cohen is the son of an orthodox rabbi. He is the editor of American Jewish Life and the online magazine Jewsweek.

Both writers took on different, but similar year-long projects.

Jacobs decided to live one year attempting to keep every commandment in the bible. He decided to explore the Hebrew scriptures and also the Christian bible. Cohen, with the blessing of a rabbi, visited churches and "Christian places" of all kinds for a year.

I heard about Cohen's book shortly after Moishe Rosen died, and I was intrigued. I admit I was a bit bored when I read My Jesus Year since, like Cohen, I have visited many churches. His descriptions were not all that new to me; however, I related to Cohen's curiosity. As a child, I had always wondered what went on inside of churches and had to go inside to find out. Cohen's description of "doing Christmas all the way" during his "Jesus Year," especially amused me and brought a smile to my face. (I always wanted a cute and colorful Easter dress or a huge Christmas tree.)

At the end of My Jesus Year, the writer uses the parable of The Prodigal Son to describe his conclusions after his year of "checking out Jesus." He realizes and decides that Judaism is "home," and that he is like the Prodigal Son returning to his father. (In fact, his relationship with his own father improved after his "Jesus Year.")

Now, on to A.J. Jacobs's quest:

I believe his search was not all that different than mine. (Although his quest was much more extreme!)

Unlike Cohen, Jacobs is a secular Jew. He describes his relation to Judaism the way an Italian would relate to The Olive Garden Restaurant! I always considered myself more religious than that, but when I first began searching for God, I knew little about Judaism (even though I am Jewish).

Jacobs dipped a bit into all forms of Judaism in the first part of his book. He lives in New York City, so it was easy for him to find Orthodox Jews who were more than happy to teach him how to be Jewish. Like me, he attended Chabad events.

He grew a long beard. He even got to take part in the ritual where Orthodox Jews take a live chicken and put it over their heads and then kill it on Yom Kippur to substitute for the ritual of doing sacrifices for atonement in the now destroyed Temple!

He also decided to eat kosher and keep the Sabbath. He took part in Jewish prayer rituals every day. He went to Israel too.

But...in addition to trying hard to live as a Jew, Jacobs also learned everything he could about Christianity and Jesus. He visited churches all over the United States, went to bible studies of all kinds, interviewed pastors, and even took a trip to visit the Amish.

A.J. Jacobs and Beyaimin Cohen both heard the Gospel, but their Jewishness told them, that they could not go that route.

My story is a bit different. It's taken awhile and I've searched and searched. I now truly believe that Jesus is the Jewish messiah. The only thing is, I don't seem to be ready to "dive" into church and the gentile way of life. I have visited "those places" before and don't seem to want to really "go back."