An Interrupted Life
An Interrupted Life: The
Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-43
“How can one reconcile the goodness and love of God with the horrors we witness in creation?” is a question often heard and pondered. Etty Hillesum, a young Jewish Dutch woman during the Holocaust, found the answer, lived the answer and recorded her testimony for those who would survive.
Initially a young woman with the life concerns of most modern young women, working and living a relatively sophisticated and intellectual life in a cosmopolitan environment, she here describes her developing trust in God, her opening in God, her becoming One with God. Demonstrating our Center’s spiritual principles of attention, commitment, detachment and surrender, she shows how to live one day— one moment — at a time, releasing what is not truly important and finding solace in growing union with God. She confesses that, through determination to meet directly the life she has been given— that of a Jew in Nazi territory —her nourishment increasingly came from God and she sought to serve those around her through teaching them this truth. Even this desire, however, was eventually surrendered, as most could not hear her message; and her service was refined to simply giving what comfort she could in the moment and assisting with the practical matters evident in the chaos of the camps. Throughout this final process of her life, she testified to the beauty in life and her gratitude for the richness of her life in God.
The library contains several loan copies in addition to a talk recorded by Joel about this book.
— reviewed by Dawn Kurzka
To visit the blog and see more reviews and quotes from books in the collection of Center for Sacred Sciences' Library, click here https://centerforsacredscienceslibrary.blogspot.com
by Etty Hillesum
Washington Square Press, Pocket Books, New York, New York © 1991 281 pp.“How can one reconcile the goodness and love of God with the horrors we witness in creation?” is a question often heard and pondered. Etty Hillesum, a young Jewish Dutch woman during the Holocaust, found the answer, lived the answer and recorded her testimony for those who would survive.
Initially a young woman with the life concerns of most modern young women, working and living a relatively sophisticated and intellectual life in a cosmopolitan environment, she here describes her developing trust in God, her opening in God, her becoming One with God. Demonstrating our Center’s spiritual principles of attention, commitment, detachment and surrender, she shows how to live one day— one moment — at a time, releasing what is not truly important and finding solace in growing union with God. She confesses that, through determination to meet directly the life she has been given— that of a Jew in Nazi territory —her nourishment increasingly came from God and she sought to serve those around her through teaching them this truth. Even this desire, however, was eventually surrendered, as most could not hear her message; and her service was refined to simply giving what comfort she could in the moment and assisting with the practical matters evident in the chaos of the camps. Throughout this final process of her life, she testified to the beauty in life and her gratitude for the richness of her life in God. The library contains several loan copies in addition to a talk recorded by Joel about this book.
— reviewed by Dawn Kurzka
To visit the blog and see more reviews and quotes from books in the collection of Center for Sacred Sciences' Library, click here https://centerforsacredscienceslibrary.blogspot.com