Also, blessings for the Torah and haftarot, full-color maps, glossary, timeline of biblical events, and indexes.

    Rabbi Kushner suggests that the path to a truly successful life lives in friendship, family, acts of generosity and self-sacrifice, as well as God's forgiving nature.

    Richard Elliott Friedman, the bestselling author of Who Wrote the Bible?, integrates the most recent discoveries in biblical archaeology and research with the fruits of years of experience studying and teaching the Bible to illuminate the straightforward meaning of the text -- "to shed new light on the Torah and, more important, to open windows through which it sheds its light on us."While other commentaries are generally collections of comments by a number of scholars, this is a unified commentary on the Torah by a single scholar, the most unified by a Jewish scholar in centuries. It includes the original Hebrew text, a new translation, and an authoritative, accessibly written interpretation and analysis of each passage that remains focused on the meaning of the Torah as a whole, showing how its separate books are united into one cohesive, all-encompassing sacred literary masterpiece. This landmark work is destined to take its place as a classic in the libraries of lay readers and scholars alike, as we seek to understand the significance of the scriptural texts for our lives today, and for years to come.

    in English literature from Cambridge University. The Particulars of Rapture, the sequel to her award-winning study of the Book of Genesis, takes its title from a line by the American poet Wallace Stevens about the interdependence of opposite things, such as male and female, and conscious and unconscious. To her reading of the familiar story of the Israelites and their flight from slavery in Egypt, Avivah Zornberg has brought a vast range of classical Jewish interpretations and Midrashic sources, literary allusions, and ideas from philosophy and psychology. Her quest in this book, as she writes in the introduction, is "to find those who will hear with me a particular idiom of redemption," who will hear "within the particulars of rapture . . . what cannot be expressed."Zornberg's previous book, The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis, won the National Jewish Book Award for nonfiction in 1995 and has become a classic among readers of all religions. The Particulars of Rapture will enhance Zornberg's reputation as one of today's most original and compelling interpreters of the biblical and rabbinic traditions.From the Hardcover edition.

    Judah Folkman saw something while doing medical research in a United States navy lab that gave him the first glimmering of a wild, inspired hunch. What if cancerous tumors, in order to expand, needed to trigger the growth of new blood vessels to feed themselves? And if that was true, what if a way could be found to stop that growth? Could cancers be starved to death? Dr. Folkman had ample reason to be self confident — second in his class at Harvard Medical School, he was already considered one of the most promising doctors of his generation. But even he never guessed that his idea would eventually grow into a multibillion-dollar industry that is now racing through human trials with drugs that show unparalleled promise of being able to control cancer, as well as other deadly diseases. For the creation of this book, Dr. Judah Folkman cooperated fully and exclusively with acclaimed science writer Robert Cooke. He granted Cooke unlimited interviews, showed him diaries and personal papers, and threw open the doors of his lab. The result is an astonishingly rich and candid chronicle of one of the most significant medical discoveries of our time and of the man whose vision and persistence almost single-handedly has made it possible. Dr. Folkman's radical new way of thinking about cancer was once considered preposterous. So little was known about how cancer spreads and how blood vessels grow that he wasn't even taken seriously enough to be considered a heretic. Other doctors shook their heads at the waste of a great mind, and ambitious young medical researchers were told that accepting a position in Folkman's lab would be the death of their careers. Now, though, the overwhelming majority of experts believes that the day will soon come when antiangiogenesis therapy supplants the current more toxic and less-effective treatments — chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery-as the preferred method of treatment for cancer in patients around the world, and Dr. Folkman's breakthrough will come to be taken for granted the way we now take for granted the polio vaccine and antibiotics. Dr. Folkman's War brilliantly describes how high the odds are against success in medical research, how vicious the competition for grants, how entrenched the skepticism about any genuinely original thinking, how polluted by politics and commerce the process of getting medicine into patients' hands. But it also depicts with rare power how exalted a calling medicine can be and how for the rare few—the brilliant, the tireless, and the lucky — the results of success can be world-changing.

    It included Hebrew, a touch of the Romance and Slavic languages, and a large helping of German. In a world of earthly wandering, this pungent, witty, and infinitely nuanced speech, full of jokes, puns, and ironies, became the linguistic home of the Jews, the bond that held a people together.Here is the remarkable story of how this humble language took vigorous root in Eastern European shtetls and in the Jewish quarters of cities across Europe; how it achieved a rich literary flowering between the wars in Europe and America; how it was rejected by emancipated Jews; and how it fell victim to the Holocaust. And how, in yet another twist of destiny, Yiddish today is becoming the darling of academia. Yiddish is a history as story, a tale of flesh-and-blood people with manic humor, visionary courage, brilliant causes, and glorious flaws. It will delight everyone who cares about language, literature, and culture.

    Drawing from the ancient tradition of midrash, the author brings to life the inner world and the experiences of these women, weaving rabbinic legends and her own imagination into the biblical texts. Readers will discover Lilith—not as the night demon alluded to in Isaiah, but as another aspect of Eve herself. Sarah is a moon priestess and as great a prophet as Abraham. Miriam is not merely a figure of song and dance, but also one of revelation, a source of Torah. These stories were written to give biblical women the honor they deserve—due to them as prophets, rulers, and teachers. The Introduction to Sisters at Sinai offers the rationale and the need for midrash - the writing in the margins - expressing how it can be liberating as well as deeply comforting. Perfect for women’s studies courses, adult study groups, confirmation classes and book groups.

    Rabbi Bradley Artson, one of the truly inspirational and knowledgeable teachers of Torah of our time, weaves together the insights of ancient rabbis and sages, medieval commentators and philosophers, and modern scholars and religious leaders. The reflections in this collection offer three different commentaries on each of the 50 Torah portions, enlightening you into the Torah's infinite layers of meaning and offering opportunities to discover interpretations of your own.The Bedside Torah is an introduction to Jewish text study that is both learned and engaging . . . The language is conversational, the insights provocative, and the chapters are just the right length for reading before an inspired night's sleep. --Anita Diamant, author of The New Jewish Wedding, Choosing a Jewish Life, How to Be a Jewish Parent, The Red Tent, and Good HarborBradley Artson is one of the most insightful and articulate rabbis of his generation, as this volume clearly attests.--Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good PeopleIn The Bedside Torah, Rabbi Artson combines wisdom garnered from traditional Jewish sources and commentaries with anecdotes and insights drawn from his own life as well as the lives of all those he has served. In so doing, he has turned each weekly Torah portion into a series of revelations for the reader. The Bedside Torah is a treasure that will surely enrich the religious life of Jews as well as all those who seek comfort and guidance from Jewish scriptures.--Rabbi David Ellenson, Ph.D., president, Hebrew Union College--Jewish Institute of Religion

    When a tree he knocks over destroys the children's garden, he seeks God's help to fix things. Bring me the hardest word, God instructs him, and the Ziz flies off to search. He brings back words like rhinocerous, rock, and Rumplestiltskin, but none is acceptable, until he makes an important discovery.

    Rabbi Nissel provides answers to questions like "if a woman has limited time, what prayers should take priority?" with rulings by eminent Torah scholars covering Ashkenaz, Sefard-Chasidi and Sefardi nusachs and extensive footnotes for those interested in studying the original sources.

    This groundbreaking volume draws upon both Jewish tradition and the classical foundations of pastoral care to provide invaluable guidance.Offering insight on pastoral care technique, theory and theological implications, the contributors to Jewish Pastoral Care are innovators in their fields, and represent all four contemporary Jewish movements.This comprehensive resource provides you with the latest theological perspectives and tools, along with basic theory and skills for assisting the ill and those who care for them, the aging and dying, those with dementia and other mental disorders, engaged couples, and others, and for responding to issues such as domestic violence, substance abuse and disasters.Contributors: Barbara Eve Breitman, MSW, LSW - Anne Brener, MAJCS, MA, LCSW - Rabbi Amy Eilberg, MSW - Rabbi Nancy Flam, MA - Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman, MSW, MAJCS, BCC - Gus Kaufman, Jr., PhD - Rabbi Myriam Klotz, MA - Rabbi Yaacov Kravitz, EdD - Rabbi Ellen Jay Lewis, NCPsyA - Wendy Lipshutz, LMSW - Rabbi Sheldon Marder - Rabbi Joseph S. Ozarowski, DMin - Simcha Paull Raphael, PhD - Rabbi Stephen Roberts, BCC - Rabbi Rochelle Robins - Rabbi Drorah Setel, MTS - Rabbi Jeffery M. Silberman, DMin - Marcia Cohn Spiegel, MAJCS - Rabbi Karen Sussan - Rabbi Bonita E. Taylor, MA, BCC - Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, CSW - Rabbi David J. Zucker, PhD, BCC

    Appelfeld found that it was only in a cafe - and only in a Jerusalem cafe - that he could write his novels, shaping meaning and wholeness out of the fragments of his painful past. A TABLE FOR ONE is an interchange between one artist and another, father and son, about their city, Jerusalem. It brings together an unknown side of Aharon Appelfeld's writing, with the subtle, haunting paintings of his son, Meir Appelfeld, who studied fine art at the Royal Academy of Art, London, and exhibits widely.

    This collection of three stories interlaces the history of one Aleppo family?the author's own?with the social and political turmoil spanning over a century, reaching from Syria to France to Israel. A master of Hebrew ancient and modern, Sabato has been hailed as Agnon's successor. Philip Simpson's translation from the originally entitled Emet Mi Eretz Titzmach lifts a veil on a lost world.

    One was named Cain, the other, Abel. They were the first children. The first brothers."We know the story well. But what can it mean for us--and for our children--today? Award-winning author Sandy Eisenberg Sasso recasts the biblical tale of Cain and Abel in a way that invites adults and kids to a conversation about anger and our power to deal with it in positive ways.Cain and Abel were born into God's garden called Earth, a world of bright days for working in their fields and peaceful nights to share the stories of their dreams. The first children, the first brothers, they were so much alike yet so different--Cain a shepherd, Abel a farmer.They lived side by side, surrounded by trees where wonderful, exotic fruits of many kinds grew: everywhere orapples, rasdew, and banangerines ripened all on a single branch. The air was sweet with the smell of pinango, limeberry, and waterloupe.But jealousy, anger, and fear took all this away. Cain and Abel's happiness came to an end, and with it, the trees' ability to grow these special fruits.In a world often hurt by violence, this retold biblical story gives children and adults a starting point for discussing anger and its effects on those around us. By harnessing the power we have to deal with our emotions in positive ways, we can once again cultivate the fruits of peace--and change the world for the better.

    Many of these refugees landed in northern Africa, specifically Morocco, and a unique cuisine was born of the marriage of Spanish, Moorish, and traditional Jewish culinary influences. SCENT OF THE ORANGE BLOSSOMS celebrates this cuisine, presenting the elegant and captivating flavors passed down through generations of Jews in Morocco. The mouthwatering recipes include Fresh Fava Bean Soup with Cilantro for Passover, Chicken Couscous with Orange Blossom Water for Yom Kippur, and Honey Doughnuts for Hannukah. Illuminating the important connection among food, family, and tradition, the recipes are interspersed with letters between mothers and newly married daughters, discussing special events and menu planning. ‚Ä¢ Features black-and-white photography of traditional Sephardic families.‚Ä¢ Includes sample menus for all major Jewish holidays.

    John H. Elliott, a leading authority on this letter, brings its significance to life in this magnificent addition to the renowned Anchor Bible Commentaries. Elliott sets the letter into context, covering its literary, historical, theological, and linguistic elements. In detailed, accessible discussions, he draws on the latest research to illuminate the social and cultural influences on the Church in its initial years. Treating such important Petrine concerns as living honorably in a hostile society, finding meaning in suffering, and resisting social assimilation as the elect and holy family of God, the translation, notes, and commentary in this volume will help readers appreciate the powerful and enduring message of this fascinating letter.

    It gives an overview of wedding rituals and customs practiced by Jews through the centuries and describes how Jewish weddings are responding to the evolving family composition.

    His research spans the breadth of biology - from deciphering the genetic code to establishing the role of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism for developmental biology. This entertaining account charts Brenner's life, in his own words, from early experiments in the back room of his father's shoe shop to his election as Director of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK and beyond. It offers a fascinating and intimate portrait of one of the giants of modern biology.

    It demonstrates how those who affirm the dead Rebbe's messiahship have abandoned a Jewish core belief in favor of the doctrine of a second coming. It also decries the equanimity with which the standard- bearers of Orthodoxy have legitimated this development by continuing to recognize such believers as Orthodox Jews in good standing. This abandonment of the age-old Jewish resistance to a quintessentially Christian belief is a development of striking importance for the history of religions, and it is an earthquake in the history of Judaism. David Berger chronicles this development from a personal viewpoint. He describes the growing concern that impelled him to undertake an anti-messianist campaign - publications, correspondence, and the sponsorship of a Rabbinical Council of America resolution excluding this belief from authentic Judaism. He argues that a large number, almost certainly a substantial majority, of Lubavitch hasidism believe in the Rebbe's messiahship; a significant segment, including educators in the central institutions of the movement, maintain a theology that goes beyond posthumous messianism to the affirmation that the Rebbe is pure divinity. While many Jews see Lubavitch as a marginal phenomenon, its influence is in fact so remarkable that its representatives are poised to dominate Orthodox religious institutions in several major countries throughout the world. This book analyzes the boundaries of Judaism's messianic faith and its conception of God. It assesses the threat posed by Lubavitch messianists and points to the consequences, ranging from undermining a fundamental argument against the Christian mission to calling into question the kosher status of many foods and ritual objects prepared under Lubavitch supervision. Finally, it proposes a strategy to protect authentic Judaism from this assault. David Berger is Professor of History at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is a Fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research, and from 1998 to 2000 was President of the Association for Jewish Studies. He is the author of The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages and co-author of Judaism's Encounter with Other Cultures: Rejection or Integration?.

    Descended from a common ancestor, Jews and Muslims share a special relationship and practice religions that exhibit remarkable moral and theological resemblance. But most Muslims know little about Judaism. In his volume, Rabbi Firestone presents Judaism with a Muslim sensibility in mind, and thus establishes unprecedented intimacy between Jewish and Muslim consciousness and worldviews. His work is the first of its kind to offer a comprehensive introduction to Judaism with a special emphasis on issues of particular concern to Muslims. A publication of the Harriet and Robert Heilbrunn Institute for International Interreligious Understanding of the American Jewish Committee.

    You can walk the path of blessing with the next generation and serve as priests. Learn to hold God in awe, keep His commands, hear His voice, and cleave to Him. In return, God promises long life in the Land, from generation to generation, to the end of time.

    Stephanie and Sidney have been studying with Moshe Katan, a kabbalist who shared his learning only when he perceived that a kabbalistic intervention might be necessary to save the life of Rivkah, his wife. What has happened to Moshe and Rivkah we do not know, only that their house is now being used for an extraordinary storytelling, a spiritual discipline to share with those willing to risk examining the very core of their beliefs.

    Yet very few realize that Andrew Goodman had been in Mississippi for one day when he was killed; Rita Schwerner, Mickey's wife, had been organizing in Mississippi for six difficult months.Organized around a rich blend of oral histories, Going South followsa group of Jewish women--come of age in the shadow of the Holocaust and deeply committed to social justice--who put their bodies and lives on the line to fight racism. Actively rejecting the post-war idyll of suburban, Jewish, middle-class life, these women were deeply influenced by Jewish notions of morality and social justice. Many thus perceived the call of the movement as positively irresistible.Representing a link between the sensibilities of the early civil rights era and contemporary efforts to move beyond the limits of identity politics, the book provides a resource for all who are interested in anti-racism, the civil rights movement, social justice, Jewish activism and radical women's traditions.

    Abramowitz - Bradley Shavit Artson - Leila Gal Berner - Jonathan Jaffe Bernhard - Tsvi Blanchard - Barry H. Block - Terry A. Bookman - Herbert Bronstein - Ayelet Cohen - Jerome K. Davidson - Avram Davis - Lavey Derby - Malka Drucker - Amy Eilberg - Edward Feinstein - Yehudah Fine - Mordecai Finley - James A. Gibson - Melvin J. Glazer - James Scott Glazier - Edwin C. Goldberg - Elyse Goldstein - James Stone Goodman - Irving Greenberg - Daniel Gropper - Judith HaLevy - Brad Hirschfield - Elana Kanter - Stuart Kelman - Francine Klagsbrun - Peter S. Knobel - Jeffrey Korbman - Jonathan Kraus - Irwin Kula - Neil Kurshan - Mark H. Levin - Levi Meier - Steven Heneson Moskowitz - David Nelson - Vanessa L. Ochs - Nessa Rapoport - Jack Riemer - Jeffrey Salkin - Nigel Savage - Ismar Schorsch - Harold M. Schulweis - Rami Shapiro - Rick Sherwin - Jeffrey Sirkman - Marcia Cohn Spiegel - Liza Stern - Michael Strassfeld - Michael White - Arnold Jacob Wolf - Joel H. Zaiman - Josh Zweiback - Raymond A. Zwerin

    With dramatic photographs, Tova Friedman, Frieda Tenebaum, and Rachel Hyams document the story in their own words.

    The short stories, fables, and anecdotes are drawn from Gelberman’s lifelong experiences. The characters—Adam and Eve, a Jewish St. Francis of Assisi, a barefoot Hungarian boy, the Buddha, and others—illustrate moments of truth with uplifting results. Beautifully illustrated by Catherine Rose Crowther.

    vii.3). To walk Leviticus, we must find a balance between two worlds -- the pure and the impure, the holy and the common. Ours is a priestly calling, to be holy ones, just as God is holy!

    Eliot Freidson formalizes professionalism by treating it as an ideal type grounded in the political economy; he presents the concept as a third logic, or a more viable alternative to consumerism and bureaucracy. He asks us to imagine a world where workers with specialized knowledge and the ability to provide society with especially important services can organize and control their own work, without directives from management or the influence of free markets.Freidson then appraises the present status of professionalism, exploring how traditional and national variations in state policy and organization are influencing the power and practice of such professions as medicine and law. Widespread attacks by neoclassical economists and populists, he contends, are obscuring the social value of credentialism and monopolies. The institutions that sustain professionalism in our world are simply too useful to both capital and state to dismiss.

    Stahl's potato knishes, the Dodgers, Barbra Streisand and Woody Allen, front stoops and back porches, Hasids and Socialists, a place, a feeling, a state of mind -- Brooklyn and American Jewry grew up together in the 20th century. From the first documented settlement of Jews in Brooklyn in the 1830s to the present day, Jewish presence -- always between a quarter to a third of Brooklyn's entire population -- has been key to the development of the borough. Jewish families and foodways, businesses, schools, and synagogues, simchas and celebrations, have been an essential component of Brooklyn life. In Jews of Brooklyn, over forty historians, folklorists, museum curators, musicians, and ordinary Brooklyn Jews with something to say about egg creams and Brooklyn accents, present a vivid, living record of this astonishing cultural heritage. Essays in the first section, "Coming to Brooklyn" explore the creative and often bewildering foundations of immigrant life. Juxtaposed are arrival experiences of eastern European Jews, Syrian Jews, Jews from Israel, and Holocaust survivors, and the kinds of shops, factories, synagogues, and schools they established there. "Living in Brooklyn," looks at neighborhoods, culture, and institutions from the 1930s to the present. Evocative portraits of Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Brighton Beach, Brownsville, Canarsie, Crown Heights, Flatbush, and Williamsburg describe street life and local characters, offering an intimate look at Jewish family life, even as they convey a sense of evolving neighborhoods and changing times. "Leaving Brooklyn / Returning to Brooklyn" features essays on famous Brooklynites such as Barbra Streisand and Danny Kaye as well as numerous personal reminiscences and family portraits of ordinary folk, making it clear that Brooklyn, for better and for worse, maintains a lasting presence in the lives of Jews born and raised there. Ilana Abramovitch's Introduction provides general historical context. The book also features a detailed timeline of Jewish immigration to and settlement in borough's neighborhoods, and of key events and turning points in the history of Jewish Brooklyn, as well as a Selected Bibliography.

    He uses the books of Genesis and Judges as test cases, working with texts that offer clear moral guidance as well as those in which the ethical teaching is at first glance dubious. This accessible book will help seminarians, pastors, and other students of the Bible use Old Testament narratives responsibly.

    Making these ancient truths accessible to modern readers, Seeing God also provides simple exercises to put the principles into practice... * overcome childhood fears about God that stifle our happiness and spiritual fulfillment * reclaim God's love and compassion and infuse life with greater creativity and vitality * achieve new clarity and greater awareness-in order to see and enjoy the extraordinary in the ordinary * tap into the Divine Life Force, the only true source of love, wisdom, and success "Inspirational, wise, warm, and witty...David Aaron gives us a down-to-earth understanding of the Kabbalah, revealing the secrets to living a soulful, happy, and more meaningful life." (Deepak Chopra, author of How to Know God) "After reading this superb book, for the first time I actually felt the spiritual powers of which the Kabbalah teaches-a change for me from an abstract philosophical exercise to a visceral reality." (Dr. Gerald Schroeder, author of The Hidden Face of God)

    Long considered beyond the pale of Jewish historiography, converts played a central role in shaping both noxious and positive images of Jews and Judaism for Christian readers. Focusing on German Jews who converted to Christianity in the sixteenth through mid-eighteenth centuries, Elisheva Carlebach explores an extensive and previously unexamined trove of their memoirs and other writings. These fascinating original sources illuminate the Jewish communities that the converts left, the Christian society they entered, and the unabating tensions between the two worlds in early modern German history. The book begins with the medieval images of converts from Judaism and traces the hurdles to social acceptance that they encountered in Germany through early modern times. Carlebach examines the converts' complicated search for community, a quest that was to characterise much of Jewish modernity, and she concludes with a consideration of the converts' painful legacies to the Jewish experience in German lands.

    Born in Poland to a rabbinic family, Reb Yosef was a student of Reb Simcha Bunem of Pshiske. It was from Reb Bunem that he received the well springs of the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the hasidic movement.

    As both physicians and patients, Jews exerted a great influence on the formation of modern medical discourse and practice. This fascinating book investigates the relationship between German Jews and medicine from medieval times until its demise under the Nazis. John Efron examines the rise of the German Jewish physician in the Middle Ages and his emergence as a new kind of secular, Jewish intellectual in the early modern period and beyond. The author shows how nineteenth-century medicine regarded Jews as possessing distinct physical and mental pathologies, which in turn led to the emergence in modern Germany of the 'Jewish body' as a cultural and scientific idea. He demonstrates why Jews flocked to the medical profession in Germany and Austria, noting that by 1933, 50 percent of Berlin's and 60 percent of Vienna's physicians were Jewish. He discusses the impact of this on Jewish and German culture, concluding with the fate of Jewish doctors under the Nazis, whose assault on them was designed to eliminate whatever intimacy had been built up between Germans and their Jew

    It challenges the prevailing view that Jews everywhere in the Middle East were second-class citizens, and were persecuted after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The Jews of Lebanon were just one of Lebanon's 23 minorities with the same rights and privileges, and subject to the same political tensions. The author discusses the Jewish presence in Lebanon under Ottoman Rule; Lebanese Jews under the French mandate; Lebanese Jewish identity after the establishment of the State of Israel; the increase of the community through Syrian refugees; the Jews' position in the first civil war; their involvement in the ex filtration of Syrian Jews; the beginning of their exodus after the 1967 War; the virtual extinction of the Jewish community as a result of the prolonged 1975 second civil war and the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon; and finally the community's memory of their Lebanese past.