Yocheved's Bookshelf

WORLDSTORM by Roy S. Neuberger
Reviewed by Yocheved Golani

WORLDSTORM took the Orthodox Jewish world by storm, and tempting as it is to give the book an unequivocal "pass," I have reservations about the fascinating text situated in Madison Avenue literary form.

Neuberger first made his mark on the global community in 2000, with his first book From Central Park to Sinai: How I Found My Jewish Soul. Like his second work, it is one happy man's declaration that Judaism teaches the truth about Reality, i.e., G'D. The author also uses WORLDSTORM as a platform to explain world, and specifically Jewish, destiny. It is to reclaim the Paradise we lost after Adam and Eve transgressed the only limitation G'D had bequeathed to them.

As an Orthodox Jew educated in classic non-Jewish literature, I know that WORLDSTORM is well-researched! Footnoted properly! In agreement with noted authority figures in the Jewish world! An enthusiastic send-up about where history and the global community are heading in the foreseeable and eternal future, considering present headlines! And it is riddled with an overabundance of exclamation points and rhetoric that are usually the hallmark of lame advertising gimmicks and poorly or completely unsubstantiated theses.

That said, the curmudgeonly aspect of this review is henceforth arrested for one salient reason. The same Torah sources that Neuberger extols also teach that successive generations of humans following Adam and Eve lack the intellectual capacity of preceding generations. Jewish smarts, let alone everyone else's, have degraded so much by 2004's historic juncture that it is unreasonable to expect largely uneducated Jewish masses to be capable of absorbing more sophisticated material. It is therefore a safe bet that Neuberger's near-huckster writing style is appropriate to his intended readership, the Jewishly illiterate majority of Jews in their various manifestations of assimilation. Besides, it bears the imprimatur of several noted Torah authorities.

The author's expertise on Judaism comes despite an upbringing bereft of Jewish pedagogy. As an adult, Neuberger studied with Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis' Hineni Center and other Orthodox auspices. The stunning realizations that his Jewish learning experiences left upon him led to his total change in lifestyle and worldview.

WORLDSTORM is a breathy trip through history and around the globe. Told in an engaging manner, it has much to teach its readers. The book begins in the Garden of Eden, takes readers to post-9/11 headlines, returns to Eden and leads us to the Messianic Era in 288 pages. Better still, it leaves the reader turning the pages for more of the dramatizations regarding the advent of the Messiah, the reincarnation of the Jewish forefathers and mothers, and looking for their own face in the crowd of Jews vindicated by an All Loving G'D.

Lest the mounds of referenced texts pinpointing the accuracy of Neuberger's 33-page redemption scenario leave the reader bewildered, the author thoughtfully describes four essential keys for the imminent redemption. Interspersed throughout the redemptive abstract, they are Unity among the various streams of Jews, Attachment to the Holiness of G'D, Prayerful focus and the Sanctification of G'D's Name.

As murderous Muslims dominate the headlines with their global and merciless terror tactics, the remains of the civilized world agonize for G'D to make the world right. With that fear and longing come a sense of vulnerability and increasing anxiety. Neuberger assures us that in the reclaimed Eden "Every person in that vast assembly" will be "gripped by a force of life so powerful" that they'll see the how the spiritual will prevail over the material.

Until the completion of the Messianic Era, WORLDSTORM instructs us, the world is in for cataclysm upon worsening cataclysm. Neuberger's isn't the only voice regarding the difficult, impending salvation of humankind, however. Coupled with other doomsday-salvation predictions, WORLDSTORM could, in a worst-case scenario, terrify some of its readers. To calm uncertain members of the public, be they readers of WORLDSTORM, victims of terrorism or frightened television audiences, Rabbi Pinchas Winston has prepared an informative and reassuring website, www.thirtysix.org. Here, 'Net surfers will find essays, books, CDs, interactive presentations, and ideas that will change the way they look at history and themselves, in a positive and fulfilling manner. I recommend one with the other so that night terrors will not haunt the newly informed.

Available as a hardcover in book outlets around the world and at Neuberger's site, WORLDSTORM is bound to captivate growing numbers of readers.