{"id":23802,"date":"2014-08-08T12:02:31","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T16:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pbs-wnet-preprod.digi-producers.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=23802"},"modified":"2014-08-13T15:13:35","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T19:13:35","slug":"august-8-2014-december-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pbs-wnet-preprod.digi-producers.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2014\/08\/08\/august-8-2014-december-project\/23802\/","title":{"rendered":" The December Project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Sara Davidson is a best-selling writer and journalist who confesses she felt completely unprepared to face the reality of her own mortality. In 2009, she met Jewish Renewal founder Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. They spent every Friday together for two years discussing what the spiritual teacher believed helps one prepare for death. The rabbi died this summer on July 3 at the age of 89. Their conversations culminated in Davidson&#8217;s book\u00a0<\/span><em>The December Project<\/em><span style=\"color: #000000\">, named for what Reb Zalman referred to as the December of life. &#8220;When you feel you\u2019re coming to the end of your tour of duty, what is the spiritual work of that time,&#8221; he asked, &#8220;and how do we prepare for the mystery?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Best-selling writer and journalist Sara Davidson felt completely unprepared for the reality of dying. Then she met Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal movement. Their weekly conversations about mortality led to their book &#8220;The December Project.&#8221; &#8220;When you feel you\u2019re coming to the end of your tour of duty, what is the spiritual work of that time,&#8221; asked Reb Zalman, &#8220;and how do we prepare for the mystery?\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/pbs-wnet-preprod.digi-producers.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2014\/08\/08\/august-8-2014-december-project\/23802\/\" class=\"more\">More <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":22985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6569],"tags":[1385,5107],"class_list":["post-23802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videocast","tag-death","tag-mortality","topics-faith-and-spirituality","topics-literature-and-the-arts","topics-religious-leaders","faith-jewish"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>August 8, 2014 ~ The December Project | August 8, 2014 | Religion &amp; 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