Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Illustrations ix
4. Acknowledgments xi
5. Introduction 1
6. Part I. First Sermon
7. 1. Chapel Sermon, October 30, 1948 35
8. Part II. Inspirations
9. 2. Sigmund Freud, May 11, 1956 43
10. 3. Bertrand Russell’s Autobiography: Three Passions in Life 47
11. 4. Looking at Kafka, January 8, 1982 49
12. 5. The Legacy of MLK, January 15, 1982 54
13. 6. First Encounter with George (Regas), April 13, 2005 60
14. 7. Why the Prophets Are Important, May 20, 1983 62
15. Part III. Faith, Doubt, and Duty
16. 8. Handwritten Reflections on Doubt, undated 67
17. 9. Can We Excommunicate God? April 30, 1965 69
18. 10. Duty of the Rabbi, undated 75
19. 11. From the Diary of a Leo Baeck Temple Rabbi, February 5, 1971 77
20. 12. Rabbi Beerman’s To-Do List 83
21. 13. Yom Kippur Eve—Vocation of a Rabbi, September 17, 1972 85
22. 14. Fast between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to Protest Munich and Vietnam, September 1972 92
23. 15. My Troubles with God; God’s Troubles with Me, February 9, 1979 94
24. 16. The Beginnings of an Outline for Jews to Consider, undated 104
25. Part IV. Social Justice
26. 17. The Kindest Use a Knife, October 16, 1953 109
27. 18. Is There a Relationship between Judaism and Social Justice? April 14, 1954 116
28. 19. The Problems of the City: A Jewish Dilemma, February 4, 1966 121
29. 20. UCLA Teach-In on Vietnam War, March 24, 1966 129
30. 21. Notes for Symposium on Black Power, January 6, 1967 136
31. 22. Letter to President Lyndon Johnson, April 13, 1967 139
32. 23. Rosh Hashanah Eve, September 30, 1970 (5731) 142
33. 24. How I Lost the Election in St. Louis, July 9, 1971 150
34. 25. Invocation for Religious Leaders for McGovern, June 1, 1972 156
35. 26. Survival in a Nuclear Age, February 17, 1984 159
36. 27. California People of Faith against the Death Penalty, October 16, 2001; April 20, 2002 164
37. 28. Piece on Human Condition Written for the Office of the Americas, November 2, 2002 169
38. 29. A Vision for a Bewildering Time: Commencement Address at Washington & Jefferson College, May 18, 2007 172
39. 30. Letter to President George W. Bush, April 11, 2008 178
40. 31. Human Rights Watch, November 17, 2009 180
41. 32. A Sermon for All Saints, July 3, 2011 183
42. Part V. Israel/Palestine
43. 33. Time in Israel, Parts I and II, November 1967 191
44. 34. CCAR Breira Statement, 1977 199
45. 35. Yom Kippur Morning, October 11, 1978 203
46. 36. Yom Kippur Eve, September 26, 1982 210
47. 37. Visions of Peace in the Middle East, October 31, 1992 220
48. 38. A Sermon for Yom Kippur Morning, October 1, 2006 226
49. 39. Exchange of Letters with Bruce Ramer, October 2006–January 2007 234
50. 40. A Sermon for Yom Kippur Morning, October 4, 2014 238
51. Sayings of Leonard I. Beerman (Left on the desk of his study) 247
52. Notes 251
53. Contributors 259
54. Index 263