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Moses parted the Red Sea, and God still didn’t let him into the Promised Land.

But it didn’t ruin him.

If the wise, biblical Moses weathered such monumental disappointment, Rabbi Harold Kushner writes in his new book, then humans can withstand modern-day frustrations like divorce, rejection from a top college or financial woes.

“I wanted to give people a much more mature, well-rounded view of Moses, not just the Sunday school stories or the Haggadah,” Kushner said last week by phone from his home near Boston. “He constantly encountered frustration and anger … and he is able to get over it.”

The best-selling author of “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People” turns to one of the Torah’s most well-known characters in his new book, “Overcoming Life’s Disappointments.”

“Moses could look back on his success and failure and take pride in that success instead of being weighed down by his failures,” the rabbi said.

Kushner, not to be confused with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner of Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco, will speak and sign books Tuesday, Nov. 7 at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, and Wednesday, Nov. 8 at Congregation Beth David in Saratoga.

He began the book much like his others — he listened. He was soon struck by how many of his Massachusetts congregants struggled to cope with disappointment and frustration, how they were consumed by one failed element of their life. So he began to write about how to live with this internal conflict.

“What I’m trying to teach people is that you can fail at one thing and that doesn’t make you a failure with a capital F,” he said.

Kushner said it’s challenging to relate the ancient story of Moses with life in the 21st century, but that it’s something nearly all rabbis deal with as they counsel their congregants. He said Moses’ story became more relevant the more he studied his life.

Today’s world intensifies disappointment, Kushner said. Life gives us more than we’ve ever had — modern conveniences, technology, advanced health care — and with these gains, our expectations have grown, too. Kushner said this leads many people to set goals out of their reach. They are crushed when not everything works out as planned.

“It may be that instead of giving us a friendly world that would never challenge us and therefore never make us strong, God gave us a world that would inevitably break our hearts and compensated for that by planting in us the gift of resilience,” he wrote.

Kushner has worked at a Boston-area synagogue for 24 years. He is the author of nine other books, including the 1996 bestseller “How Good Do We Have to Be?”

Kushner said looking for happiness is a mistake.

“Happiness is never a goal. It is always a byproduct. You don’t become happy by striving for happiness. You become happy while striving for meaning, and happiness creeps in the back door while you’re living life.”

Rabbi Harold Kushner will sign books and answer questions 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7 at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California St., S.F. Tickets: $10-$20. Information: (415) 292-1299 ext. 1163. He will also speak and sign books 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8 at Congregation Beth David, 19700 Prospect Road, Saratoga. The event is free. Information: (408) 257-3333.