Both books epitomize the effort to contribute something exciting and new to a traditional canon while still maintaining deep respect and affection for the tradition you are building upon. Perhaps Rav Aharon Lichtenstein chose to channel Whitman with the name Leaves of Faith for his collection of moral essays, based on more than the title’s pithy cadence. Yet the book has an “original energy” that is undeniable, and offers a model of how to radically innovate while still building on and channeling a tradition that stretches far back. They certainly could still cause discomfort to a religious person reading them today. Why this is The Best: Whitman’s exploration of human sensuality and his irreverence for traditional Christian dogma generated controversy when Leaves of Grass was first published. He seeks to get to “the origin of all poems,” a deeper mode of consciousness that precedes our culture and our beliefs, which also celebrates the very same culture and beliefs. He mentions God frequently, but he is not a conventional believer. In them, Whitman explores his own unique voice and his relation to the people around him, the literary past, the still new country of the United States, and the universe. He spent much of his life revising and working on it – the final product includes more than 400 poems. Summary: Leaves of Grass is a sprawling collection of poems written by the 19th century American poet Walt Whitman.
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