Rabbi Steven Bob will speak on Jonah and the Meaning of Our Lives

In Pirke Avot 5:26 Ben Bag Bag famously teaches, “Turn it Turn it for it contains everything.” While most people take these words to describe the Torah, for Rabbi Steven Bob they describe the Book of Jonah. This short book of the Bible, along with the explanations of the classic commentators, provides answers to the most important questions that people ask about their lives: Who am I? Why am I here? What provides meaning to my life? Rabbi Bob will explore these Big Questions, drawing upon the commentaries to Jonah and other biblical and rabbinic sources, personal anecdotes, literature, history, and popular culture.

Rabbi Steven Bob is the author of Jonah and the Meaning of Our Lives: A verse by Verse Contemporary Commentary (JPS 2016) and Go To Nineveh: Medieval Jewish Commentaries on the Book of Jonah (Wipf and Stock 2013). Rabbi Bob served as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Etz Chaim in Lombard, Ilinois for 35 years.

Rabbi Bob is currently an adjunct faculty member at Wheaton College and Elmhurst College. He is a leader of the faculty of Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute and a recipient of the Samuel Cook Award for Lifetime Achievement in Youth Work from the CCAR and Rabbi Mordecai Simon Award from the Chicago Board of Rabbis.