Book Review by Robin K. Levinson
Jewish Book World
Winter 5763/2003

The Lord Is My Shepherd:
Why Do I Still Want? Ancient Wisdom for the Modern Soul

In The Lord is My Shepherd, by Rabbi Paul Plotkin reveals this power by reaching back through the ages to put himself in the shoes (sandals, really) of our sages. He tries to imagine the circumstances that might provoke the raw, intense emotions expressed through the book of Psalms. He tries to feel the kind of love, anxiety and fear of God that people who lived thousands of years ago might have possessed. He points to the universality of human responses to euphoric moments and to tragic ones. But most importantly, Plotkin uses his many-chaptered book to apply the wisdom contained in the Psalms to all kinds of contemporary situations, from mundane (Ch. 10: ‘Geeks, Nerds, and High School') to the extraordinary (Ch. 2 ‘Abandonment'; Ch. 3: ‘Suffering'). Plotkin maintains that if the ancients can find some sort of equilibrium through a connection with the Divine, so can we.

In Psalm 188 - ‘With the Lord on my side as my helper, I will see the downfall of my foes...', the writer seems to be discussing some kind of battle. Plotkin interprets it by using a football analogy: "Being a true, dedicated fan of the NFL is just the same as living and believing in God's word. Ask the psalmist. He feels the same way, only to him, the coach is called God."

In another chapter, on slander, Plotkin describes an e-mail message sent to him (and to untold others) claiming that a guest on Oprah made anti-Semitic remarks. The guest was a clothing designer, and the e-mail implored people to boycott the person's line of clothing. Plotkin, senior rabbi of Temple Beth Am in Margate, Fla., and past president of the Rabbinical Assembly of America's Southeast Region, investigated and learned that it was a malicious hoax. Anyone who forwards that kind of e-mail message becomes a party to gossip and slander, he points out. (Plotkin did not forward it.) "What if it was a message about your father or mother and his or her company?" Plotkin asks. "What if it caused the business to fail...How many lives would have been ruined."

While using e-mail to gossip is a recent technological jump, the human inclination to destroy reputations is nothing new, revealed in Psalm 64." ...Hide me from band of evil men, from the crowd of evil doers, who whet their tongues like swords they aim their arrows–cruel words–shoot from hiding at the blameless man.

Plotkin, who produced and hosted weekly TV show called "The Temple Israel Hour," lectures widely on death and dying, Jewish myth, magic and superstition, Kashrut, and Kabbalah. After reading the book, you'll better understand why the Psalms' important messages coupled with their poetry make them a favorite source for contemporary prayer books.