"Danny Siegel is a magician and this book is a collection of his best tricks. Open it to any page and smile or weep. Read any essay or piece of poetry and recognize humanity at its most open-hearted. This volume should be in every library and many personal collections. Rabbis can mine its contents for sermons. Students, synagogues and schools can find ideas for individual and community projects. Foundation professionals can find inspiration for difficult moments (which we especially need now)."—Fred Isaac, Association of Jewish Libraries News and Reviews
“No one has inspired the Jewish community to perform acts of kindness more than Danny Siegel, and this comprehensive collection of his most radiant works sings out to us all. Radiance is a spiritual masterpiece!”—Rabbi David Ellenson, chancellor emeritus, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion
“This volume is a unique mix of prose, poetry, classic texts, Torah insights, models of good deeds, portraits of Mitzvah heroes, and Danny Siegel’s unflagging affirmation of the good in people and in living. In a classic comic book trope, a hitherto ordinary person is hit by a powerful, mysterious ray and becomes endowed with superpowers. If you allow yourself to be hit by this collection’s rays of love and life wisdom, you will emerge a Mitzvah superhero.”—Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, author of For the Sake of Heaven and Earth: The New Encounter between Judaism and Christianity
“It’s impossible to think about Mitzvah heroes and the way they inspire others to change the world without the work of Danny Siegel. Through his poetry, his stories, and, perhaps most of all, his person, Danny helps us to believe in the possibility of tikkun—healing and repair—for everything that is broken. Radiance is aptly named: this beautiful collection fills the reader with light and hope!”—Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback, Stephen Wise Temple, Los Angeles
“In today’s world Siegel’s Radiance is a much-needed guide—each text becomes a source of action, and any Mitzvah, no matter how ostensibly small, changes the world.”—Harlene Appelman, executive director, Covenant Foundation
“Danny Siegel was one of the first people in the 1960s to call for a new approach to Jewish communal life: seeking out ways to give and ‘do’ Tzedakah. Within a short time, young people, their parents, and entire communities were thinking differently about Tzedakah. Radiance, the best of Siegel’s transformational teachings through the years, is a welcome volume that continues to challenge and teach us today.”—Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies, Emory University
“Danny Siegel is that rare writer who dazzles us by spelling out timeless values and inspiring suggestions that can change our lives—and the lives of those who may need our help.”—William Novak, coauthor of the best-selling memoirs of Lee Iacocca, Tip O’Neill, Nancy Reagan, Oliver North, Magic Johnson, and others
“My father, Rabbi Noah Golinkin z”l, was one of Danny Siegel’s Tzedakah rebbes; Danny Siegel is my Tzedakah rebbe. We have learned in the Talmud: ‘Greater is one who convinces others to do [Tzedakah] than one who does’ (Bava Batra 9a). ‘One who learns in order to do, they enable him to learn and to teach, to observe and to do’ (Avot 4:5). Danny Siegel has taught tens of thousands of people how to do Tzedakah. May he continue to learn, to teach and to do—ad meah v’esrim, until 120.”—Rabbi David Golinkin, president, Schechter Institutes, Jerusalem
