How Do You Spell God? - Hardcover

Rabbi Gellman holds an earned doctorate in philosophy from Northwestern University. Rabbi Gellman is married to Betty Schulson and has two children, Mara and Max. He is the senior rabbi of Temple Beth Torah in Melville, New York. He will be the next president of the New York Board of Rabbis.

"A beautiful, wise, and eminently readable book that will appeal to anyone of any age." -- -- Mary Higgins Clark

Gr 6-9. Comparative religion for the middle school set? Yes, and brilliantly done by Gellman and Hartman, who expertly simplify, without reducing, their complex subject. The authors celebrate the varied beauties of holiness with a genius for clarifying the abstract (e.g., characterizing religions by the questions they most want to answer, or categorizing them as "tribal" v. "open"). The holy books, teachers, places, and days of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism are described with appreciation, liveliness, and humor in a direct, conversational style that eschews both contractions and big words, but leans real often on an adverbial "real." If you don't mind this bit of grammatical freethinking, then there's only one major drawback to the book. A two-page discussion of ordination never mentions women priests in the Anglican Communion and nuns and non-Orthodox female rabbis rate the same brief nod given to altar girls. If feminists will be displeased, so will animists: African and Native American wisdom is occasionally quoted, but no serious consideration of these religious orientations is offered. Nevertheless, this extraordinary title is so full of wisdom, good sense, bad jokes, and great stories-not to mention solid information-that it deserves to earn its authors a star in their heavenly crowns. -- School Library Journal, 5/95

The garden variety of children's books on comparative religion focus on history and ritual, but this title emphasizes the philosophical underpinnings of the major religions of Indo-Eurasian origin. Gellman (a rabbi) and Hartman (a monsignor) contend that all religions seek answers to questions concerning afterlife, ethical living, prayer, and the individual's place in the world; through chapters such as "Can I Talk to God?" and "What Happens After We Die?" the authors demonstrate how religions agree and diverge on their answers, and how differences among religions are often matters of emphasis rather than substance. While enthusiastic in their approbation of organized religion and moral living, the two clerics never proselytize for a particular denomination. Issuing an opening caveat to those who prefer their religion solemn, Gellman and Hartman infuse their text with humorous commentary which stumbles uncertainly from wry ("The father says a prayer to thank God for the commandment to circumcise his son. The baby does not say thank you!") to misleading ("The only people who have ever gotten a good look at the ark [of the Covenant] were Moses, King David, King Solomon, and maybe Indiana Jones"). The authors seem undecided about their audience's level of sophistication: readers are expected to handle terms such as vedas and upanishads without the aid of a glossary or index, while types of prayer are patronizingly referred to as Thanks, Oops, Gimme, and Wow. Librarians considering this purchase may wish to excuse these foibles, however, in light of the fact that the volume digs deeper into the fundamental beliefs of world religions than many of its cousins on the 200s shelf. -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, July/August 1995