It takes a writer with the sophistication, learning and sensitivity of Danielle Berrin to capture the Jewish themes in the pop rocker’s “spiritual evolution.”
She writes as only she can (truly nobody else in the world could write like this):
How he achieved the seemingly impossible—that is, a fairly normal life for a rock-and-roll superstar; he is long-married with three kids—reads a lot like a religious journey. He begins in the bondage of his youth, journeys through the wilds of his ascending star and lands, at 62, in a contented place that balances his need for idolatry with his need for intimacy. You might say, Springsteen had to transcend himself in order to live with himself. Though he is not Jewish, his journey echoes Jewish texts and teachings.
In his telling, no amount of fame or fortune could erase the demons of his childhood, in which a tortured, wavering relationship with his bipolar father was paramount—though not unrivaled by growing up poor or the potential dangers stalking behind the frissons of his ambition.
Yisroel Pensack points out that “Berrin apparently means his need to be idolized, or his need for idolization.”
