Diamant anticipates all the questions, doubts, and concerns, and provides a comprehensive explanation of the rules and rituals of conversion.

    This book willtouch your heart like no other.

    The words in this book come from the heart--mine and the hearts of others. I pray that you will find within them a spark that will ignite the flame of hope and the passion for healing that lies within us all."Naomi Levy was a spirited fifteen-year-old when her father was murdered in a senseless holdup that destroyed not only his life but her trust in a loving God. Healing took a long time, yet from her struggles with grief, anger, and depression, she forged the wisdom that made her, at twenty-six, a beloved rabbi--and now makes her book a miracle of honesty, recovery, and compassion.Where do we find the strength to meet tragedy? Can we rekindle hope? Innocence? Faith? The answers, illustrated with many moving, true stories drawn from Rabbi Levy's experience and the lives of her congregants, provide sanity, peace, and a safe harbor where we can heal and grow. Remember: "Death is a great tragedy. But to die while we are still living, that is the greatest tragedy of all."

    As well as a testament to a victimized people, the book is a living history - the author lived in Eishyshok until the age of four when the Nazis murdered all the inhabitants except for herself and a few others who escaped.

    There are also chapters on coping with particular losses--such as the death of a child and suicide--and on children as mourners, mourning non-Jewish loved ones, and the bereavement that accompanies miscarriage.Diamant also offers advice on how to apply traditional views of the sacredness of life to hospice and palliative care. Reflecting the ways that ancient rituals and customs have been adapted in light of contemporary wisdom and needs, she includes updated sections on taharah (preparation of the body for burial) and on using ritual immersion in a mikveh to mark the stages of bereavement. And, celebrating a Judaism that has become inclusive and welcoming. Diamant highlights rituals, prayers, and customs that will be meaningful to Jews-by-choice, Jews of color, and LGBTQ Jews. Concluding chapters discuss Jewish perspectives on writing a will, creating healthcare directives, making final arrangements, and composing an ethical will.

    

    Even if we don't have time to bake on a regular basis, holidays are something different--special occasions that encourage us to pull out the cake pans and present our family and friends with a gift of homemade love. And this is particularly true of the Jewish holidays, which are so centrally focused on special foods--and, of course, special desserts. From the round raisin challah that symbolizes the sweetness and continuity of life for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, to triangular, jam-filled hamantaschen for Purim, to a Chanukah dreidel cake, to the best flourless Passover cakes in the world, Marcy Goldman offers recipes that are traditional as well as those with an innovative flair. Jewish or European-style baked goods--coffee cakes, strudels, cheesecakes, rugelach--are so universally popular that they have become as American as apple pie, and now, with A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking, every home baker will have access to the secrets of how to make them. As if she were a mother passing down techniques to her own children, Marcy Goldman's voice is warm, encouraging, and inviting, as well as authoritative, clear, and knowledgeable. She provides not only detailed instructions that yield delicious baked goods every time, but also a wealth of information on holiday customs and history. Here is, indeed, a treasury to be welcomed by those who grew up with such recipes, those who are seeking to reestablish traditional holiday celebrations in their own home, and those who simply want to know the secrets for producing a wide range of delicious cakes, pastries, and pies. From the Hardcover edition.

    How can women's full participation transform Jewish law, prayer, sexuality, and marriage? What does it mean to "engender" Jewish tradition? Pioneering theologian Rachel Adler gives this timely and powerful question its first thorough study in a book that bristles with humor, passion, intelligence, and deep knowledge of traditional biblical and rabbinic texts.

    At once deeply human and profoundly spiritual, Lawrence Kushner's books are a treat for the soul. For nourishment and inspiration-- Eyes Remade for Wonder opens wide the gates of Jewish mysticism and spirituality, helping us peel back the layers of meaning that animate our lives.Few writers are more closely identified with the boom of spirituality in America in the past twenty-five years than Lawrence Kushner. With his first book--the now-classic introduction to Jewish mysticism, The Book of Letters--Kushner established himself as one of the most creative religious thinkers in America. He is now read worldwide by people searching to understand the connection between the sacred and the ordinary.With an inspiring Introduction by Thomas Moore, author of the best-selling books Care of the Soul and The Soul of Sex, Eyes Remade for Wonder offers something unique to both the spiritual seeker and the committed person of faith, and is a collection to be treasured and shared.

    These works constitute the very core of our cultural consciousness and in every century have been hidden from us -- first by priests, then by fundamentalists, and now by narrow scholars.Here, with biting irreverence for prejudice and pretension, Donald Akenson renews our sense of awe before these sacred works by encountering them head-on, by setting them in their historical and political context -- and by daring to speculate that there was one author-editor of the Hebrew scriptures, and one for the Christian New Testament, and that the inventor of the Hebrew scriptures should be credited with constructing the very foundations of Western culture. He simultaneously restores their spiritual power through a just appreciation of the authors' achievement and provides a brilliant expose of how theologians and biblical scholars abuse historical reasoning and evidence in their treatment of the sacred texts.Using images that range from Winnie-the-Pooh to tractor mechanics, this world-renowned historian creates for us a radical reformation of the sacred texts as he breathes new life into our religions and helps us understand, and revere, the heritage that flows from Jerusalem.

    Driven to explore th origins of the kaddish, from the ancient legend of a wayeard ghost to a 17th-century Ukranian pogrom, he offers as well a mourner's response to the questions of fate, freedom, and faith stirred up in death's wake. Lyric, learned, and deeply moving, Kaddish is suffused with love: a son's embracing of the traditon bequethed to him by his father, a scholar's savoring of its beauty, and a writer's revealing it, proudly unadorned, to the reader.

    Here we witness the harsh decrees, the miracles of the Ten Plagues, the thunderous splitting of the sea. Extensively researched and annotated.

    The cuisine that developed in their households is a remarkable melange of kosher traditions and the distinctive flavors of Italy, the Middle East, and Spain. For the first time, this wonderfully rich, little-known culinary heritage is given the attention it has long deserved. With Cucina Ebraica, celebrated chef Joyce Goldstein offers a substantive collection of superb (and completely kosher) Italian Jewish dishes, as well as a compelling and important culinary history. Exploring the ancient intertwining of two venerable food traditions, we discover that many Italian dishes have Jewish roots. Familiar and yet entirely new, this is a robust and delicious new side of a beloved region's cuisine. Filled with painterly photographs that evoke the richness of the Italian Jewish heritage, Cucina Ebraica is a mouthwatering collection of distinguished recipes, a reference on an extraordinary tradition, and an invitation to unexpected joys and secrets about both Italian and Jewish cookery.

    He describes in understandable terms the parallels between modern cosmology and ancient Kabbalah. He shows how science and religion together can enrich our spiritual understanding.We "embody the energy" of the big bang, writes Matt. Furthermore, "God is not somewhere else, hidden from us. God is right here hidden from us." To discover the presence of God, Matt draws on both science and theology, fact and belief, and on the truths embodied in Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, as well as Judaism.A rich dialogue between the physical and the spiritual, God & the Big Bang takes us on a deeply personal, thoughtful and inspiring journey that helps us find our place in the universe--and the universe in ourselves.

    A linear exposition and commentary on Tanya based on a popular weekly radio series in Yiddish. Rabbi Wineberg's commentary draws upon the teachings he received from Chasidic scholars at the renowned academies of Lubavitch in Europe and on the writings of seven generations of Chabad Rebbes. Each of the lectures was examined and amended by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, so that much of the material includes the Rebbe's insights and explanatory comments. Lessons In Tanya leads the reader through every paragraph and page, illuminating the mystical, often allusive Talmudic, Kabalistic and Scriptural verses and concepts. It fills many gaps in what the terse Tanya text assumes to be the reader's background knowledge. This set comes in a beautiful slip-cased set, with ribbon-markers to aid with study.

    Green’s personal insightful commentary on the words of the Sefat Emet create a remarkable work of Jewish scholarship, bringing the teaching of this insightful master to a wide audience.

    Edward K. Kaplan and Samuel H. Dresner trace Heschel’s life from his birth in Warsaw in 1907 to his emigration to the United States in 1940, describing his roots in Hasidic culture, his experiences in Poland and Germany, and his relations with Martin Buber. “This first volume of a remarkable biography of one of the greatest Jewish thinkers and social activists of his generation must take its place in every home, in every library, Jewish and gentile alike. Written with warmth, passion, and grace, it offers the reader an insight into the man Heschel, whose teaching has uniquely influenced modern theology and inspired moral commitment.”—Elie Wiesel "This book is simply stunning! . . . The authors . . . have a profound understanding of Heschel’s inner life, and they use all this information in order to craft a powerful portrait of a human being.”—Jack Riemer, Commonweal “Th[is] long-awaited biography of Heschel cover[s] the author’s youth in Warsaw and education in Vilna and Berlin. . . . Kaplan and Dresner’s biography will hold broad popular interest while providing academics an important starting point from which to investigate critically the life and thought of this important thinker.”—Zachary Braiterman, Religious Studies Review “Critical, careful attention [is paid] to Heschel’s words.”—Laurie Adlerstein, New York Times Book Review

    In this work Dan Rottenberg proves that they are wrong and shows how to do a successful search for probing the memories of living relatives, by examining marriage licenses, gravestones, ship passenger lists, naturalization records, birth and death certificates, and other public documents, and by looking for clues in family traditions and customs. Supplementing the "how to" instructions is a guide to some 8,000 Jewish family names, giving the origins of the names, sources of information about each family, and the names of related families whose histories have been recorded. Other features included a country-by-country guide to tracing Jewish ancestors abroad, a list of Jewish family history books, and a guide to researching genealogy in Mormon records and in Israel.

    The variety of tales captured here is stunning. Readers will find stories such as A Yom Kippur Scandal by Sholem Aleichem, the father of Yiddish literature; Before the Law by Franz Kafka; Looking for Mr. Green by Saul Bellow; The Spinoza of Market Street by Isaac Bashevis Singer; and Midrash on Happiness by Grace Paley. Stavans has included many pieces by Americans, including such markedly different writers as Cynthia Ozick, Bernard Malamud, Moacyr Seliar, Stanley Elkin, Delmore Schwartz, Dan Jacobson, Francine Prose, Allegra Goodman, and Philip Roth. And here too are pieces from around the globe, by writers no less varied: Isaac Babel, Italo Svevo, Primo Levi, Elias Canetti, Amos Oz, and Danilo Kis. What emerges in the end is proof of an observation by Ba'al Makshoves--that the Jews may have many languages and a dozen echoes in foreign tongues, but only one literature. And it is one of the finest in the world.The many marvelous tales that fill The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories affirm that a shared identity can exist without sterile uniformity--and that writers can engage their religious and cultural heritage without losing touch with those rich, complex ambiguities that inhabit the heart.

    In this sumptuously illustrated retelling of the lives of 18 women in the Hebrew Bible, we are reunited with Deborah, the warrior prophetess, Tamar, the sacred prostitute, Esther, the harem girl turned savior queen, and many other remarkable female figures. Author Miki Raver pairs each of these vibrant and daring tales with an eloquent meditation on their meaning for modern women. Beautiful reproductions of classic biblical art from such masters as Rubens, Blake, Brueghel, Raphael, Rembrandt, and Chagall illustrate these powerful women's dramatic stories. Including a foreword by Lynn Gottlieb, this rich marriage of art, literature, and spirituality offers substantive and entertaining reading, as well as a fresh entry into traditional faith. The perfect Chanukah or Bat Mitzvah present, Listen to Her Voice is a provocative book to treasure and share.

    Oma's bunkmate then, Raizel, muses that she could make a menorah out of spoons, but "in the camp, spoons were valued like gold." In the cold, harsh setting of the camp, the procurement of nine spoons is fraught with drama. A kitchen worker steals two rusty spoons from the garbage-despite the threat of punishment if she were to be caught; another woman bargains away her extra scraps of food. The night before Chanukah, the ninth spoon is found, and by twisting them together Raizel fashions a strangely beautiful menorah, and "the children had a Chanukah to remember." As Oma tells the family story, her grandchildren chime in with the parts they know, promising always to remember. Softly colored illustrations depict the joyful contemporary Chanukah celebration, while muted browns and grays dominate the camp scenes of thin-faced prisoners in ragged clothes. An author's note tells that the story is based on an actual incident and that the prisoners would have appeared even more emaciated in reality, but "the book was designed with sensitivity to our very young audience." The respectful and dramatic narrative conveys the bonds of faith and community that rose from despair to forge a sign of hope.

    Book annotation not available for this title.

    The mission of the ISSR Library is "to provide a comprehensive resource for scholars, students, and interested lay readers in the area of science and the human spirit. The incredible medical breakthroughs of today, like genetic engineering, in-vitro fertilizations, and cloning have transformed long-held beliefs on the nature of both life and death, raising difficult moral and religious questions. In Matters of Life and Death Elliot Dorff thoroughly addresses this unavoidable confluence of medical technology and Jewish law and ethics.

    Mentioned in the Talmud and elaborated on in the Midrash and Kabbalistic writings, Lilith is said to be Adam's first partner. While the figure of Lilith may be as old as Jewish culture itself, until recently her stories were told primarily by men and their depiction of Lilith was consistent: she was a witch, a temptress, a dangerous, evil woman. This anthology offers a vivid, provocative, and enlightening sampling of Jewish women's responses to the Lilith myth.

    With Roots in Heaven, is the story of that journey, a fascinating and moving account of a courageous woman with strong convictions and a passion to know and feel God. It is also a book that goes beyond one person's story of wandering and redemption to explore the dangers of modern religion and the joys and conflicts of intermarriage and raising interfaith children. An unforgettable story of love, sacrifice, and transformation -- of grace sought and found -- With Roots in Heaven offers hope, wisdom, and encouragement to anyone seeking deeper spiritual meaning in today's world.

    Yet Jewish cooking is always changing, encompassing the flavors of the world, embracing local culinary traditions of every place in which Jews have lived and adapting them to Jewish observance. This collection, the culmination of Joan Nathan's decades of gathering Jewish recipes from around the world, is a tour through the Jewish holidays as told in food. For each holiday, Nathan presents menus from different cuisines--Moroccan, Russian, German, and contemporary American are just a few--that show how the traditions of Jewish food have taken on new forms around the world. There are dishes that you will remember from your mother's table and dishes that go back to the Second Temple, family recipes that you thought were lost and other families' recipes that you have yet to discover. Explaining their origins and the holidays that have shaped them, Nathan spices these delicious recipes with delightful stories about the people who have kept these traditions alive.Try something exotic--Algerian Chicken Tagine with Quinces or Seven-Fruit Haroset from Surinam--or rediscover an American favorite like Pineapple Noodle Kugel or Charlestonian Broth with "Soup Bunch" and Matzah Balls. No matter what you select, this essential book, which combines and updates Nathan's classic cookbooks The Jewish Holiday Baker and The Jewish Holiday Kitchen with a new generation of recipes, will bring the rich variety and heritage of Jewish cooking to your table on the holidays and throughout the year.

    Dubner wrote a cover story for The New York Times Magazine called Choosing My Religion. It became one of the most widely discussed articles in the magazine's history. Turbulent Souls, the book that grew out of that article, is an intimate memoir of a man in search of a Jewish heritage he never knew he had. It is also a loving portrait of his parents.Stephen Dubner's family was as Catholic as they come. His devout parents attended mass at every opportunity and named their eight children after saints. Stephen, the youngest child, became an altar boy, studied the catechism, and learned the traditional rituals of the Church -- never suspecting that the religion he embraced was not his by blood.Turbulent Souls is Dubner's personal account of his family; tumultuous journey from Judaism to Catholicism -- and in his own case, back to Judaism -- and the effects, some tragic, some comic, of those spiritual transformations. His parents were Jews, born in Brooklyn to immigrant parents, but -- independent of each other and, indeed, before they met -- each converted to Christianity, only to be shunned by their families. After their marriage, they closed the door on Judaism so firmly that their children had no inkling that their background was far different from what it seemed: They didn't know, for instance, that their mother had a first cousin named Ethel Rosenberg, who was executed for treason in one of the most controversial cases of the cold war era.Stephen Dubner's is a story about discovery: of relatives he never knew existed, of family history he'd never learned, and of a faith he'd never thought of as his own and, in fact, knew nothing about. It's a fascinating, thoughtful, and thought-provoking exploration of a subject of intense interest to spiritually minded men and women everywhere.

    Noted economist and rabbinical scholar Meir Tamari explains that the moral and religious tenets of Judaism have, in fact, created a unique economic framework within which Jews have worked successfully for thousands of years, combining free market practices with social welfare, competition with compassion.

    With 102 beautiful full-color illustrations, A CELEBRATION OF JUDAISM IN ART is an artistic tribute to the legacy of Judaism around the world.

    Although a lot of information about the Masorah is available in print, most of it is in technical professional journals or encyclopedia articles. Scattered about in disparate sources, often not in English, this literature is easier to ignore than it is to incorporate into introductory Hebrew classes. As a result, most students of Biblical Hebrew complete their studies without any background on the Masorah. This volume fills this gap by providing an introduction and glossary to the Masorah of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Although the volume could be used by any student of the Hebrew Bible, it is specifically designed to be helpful for students who are just learning Hebrew. Thus it can serve as an important parallel text for second semester or second year Hebrew courses. The introductory chapters give an overview of the field of Masoretic studies and explain the mechanics of using the Masorah of BHS. The annotated glossary provides students with definitions and explanations for most of the terms used in BHS, including examples.

    Norman Stillman has produced a comprehensive and articulate history of the turbulent and complex relationships in the Middle East that brilliantly captures the people and the history.

    Selected from a range of subjects covered in the Talmud--from marriage and civil law to science and politics--the parables contained here focus on three major segments of an individual's life: the path to wisdom, the role within a community, and the relationship to God. This collection is ideal for readers interested in understanding the basics of traditional Jewish values and their application in the contemporary world.

    They explore the text from the perspectives of ancient Rabbis and modern theologians, as well as feminist, halakhic, medieval, linguistic, biblical, Chasidic, mystical, and historical perspectives.

    

    So argues Don Herzog in this arrestingly detailed exploration of England's responses to the French Revolution. Poisoning the Minds of the Lower Orders ushers the reader into the politically lurid world of Regency England.Deftly weaving social and intellectual history, Herzog brings to life the social practices of the Enlightenment. In circulating libraries and Sunday schools, deferential subjects developed an avid taste for reading; in coffeehouses, alehouses, and debating societies, they boldly dared to argue about politics. Such conservatives as Edmund Burke gaped with horror, fearing that what radicals applauded as the rise of rationality was really popular stupidity or worse. Subjects, insisted conservatives, ought to defer to tradition--and be comforted by illusions.Urging that abstract political theories are manifest in everyday life, Herzog unflinchingly explores the unsavory emotions that maintained and threatened social hierarchy. Conservatives dished out an unrelenting diet of contempt. But Herzog refuses to pretend that the day's radicals were saints. Radicals, he shows, invested in contempt as enthusiastically as did conservatives. Hairdressers became newly contemptible, even a cultural obsession. Women, workers, Jews, and blacks were all abused by their presumed superiors. Yet some of the lowly subjects Burke had the temerity to brand a swinish multitude fought back.How were England's humble subjects transformed into proud citizens? And just how successful was the transformation? At once history and political theory, absorbing and disquieting, Poisoning the Minds of the Lower Orders challenges our own commitments to and anxieties about democracy.

    Among the most popular of venues for these lectures was the Kinus Teshuvah, where the Rav would weave halakhah and homiletics so compellingly that the line between them blurred and often disappeared entirely. Presented in Yiddish, these discourses (teshuvah derashot) combined halakhic depth with emotional power, leaving an enduring imprint on all who attended. From 1962 through 1980, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt"l annually presented a two- to- three hour lecture in Yiddish at the Kinus Teshuvah (Repentance Convocation) sponsored by the Rabbinical Council of America. These lectures (derashot) were delivered between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur on the topic of repentance and the Days of Awe.Many of the earlier derashot presented through 1972 were summarized by Rabbi Pinchas Peli inhis classic work Al Hateshuvah, later translated into English as On Repentance. This long-awaited volume is a summary of the derashot delivered from 1973 through 1980. Dr. Arnold Lustiger has organized the teshuvah derashot topically, from the pre-Rosh Hashanah Selihot prayers through the Yom Kippur Avodah and concluding Neilah services. He has included Biblical, Talmudic and Midrashic sources. He provides cross-references, with citations from Pelis On Repentance as well as from Rabbi Soloveitchiks written works that address and amplify important themes in these lectures in different and often greater detail. With the publication of this book, an audience anxious to see more of Rabbi Soloveitchiks thoughts in print can once again appreciate use of the definite article when his students and followers refer to him simply as "the Rav".