This practical guide covers such topics as mantra meditation, contemplation, and visualization within a Jewish context. It shows us how to use meditative techniques to enhance prayer using the traditional liturgy—the Amidah and the Shema. Through simple exercises and clear explanations of theory, Rabbi Kaplan gives us the tools to develop our spiritual potential through an authentically Jewish meditative practice.

    It provides practical advice on how to manage a Jewish home in the traditional way and offers fascinating accounts of the history behind the tradition. In a warm, personal style, Blu Greenberg shows that, contrary to popular belief, the home, and not the synagogue, is the most important institution in Jewish life. Divided into three large sections—"The Jewish Way," "Special Stages of Life," and "Celebration and Remembering"—this book educates the uninitiated and reminds the already observant Jew of how Judaism approaches daily life. Topics include prayer, dress, holidays, food preparation, marriage, birth, death, parenthood, and many others. This description of the modern-yet-traditional Jewish household will earn special regard among the many American Jews who are re-exploring their ties to Jewish tradition. Such Jews will find this book a flexible guide that provides a knowledge of the requirements of traditional Judaism without advocating immediate and complete compliance. How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household will also appeal to observant Jews, providing them with helpful tips on how to manage their homes and special insights into the most minute details and procedures in a traditional household. Herself a traditional Jew, Blu Greenberg is nevertheless quite sympathetic to feminist views on the role of women in Jewish observance. How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household therefore speaks intimately to women who are struggling to reconcile their identities as modern women with their commitments to traditional Judaism.

    In attempting to understand the Scriptures, scholars of the last three hundred years have intensively studied both these sacred texts and other related ancient writings. A cursory examination reveals that their authors depended on other sources, some of which are lost and some of which have recently come to light. Part of these extant sources are the pseudepigrapha. Though the meaning of the word can be disputed by scholars, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha is a collection of those writings which are, for the most part, Jewish or Christian and are often attributed to ideal figures in Israel’s past.The publication of Volume 2 now completes this landmark work. Together with Volume 1, Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments, these new translations present important documents, many for the first time in English, for all those “People of the Book” to study, contemplate, and understand.This second volume contains: Expansions of the “Old Testament” and Legends Clarifications, enrichments, expansions, and retellings of biblical narratives. The primary focus is upon God’s story in history, the ongoing drama in which the author claims to participate. Wisdom and Philosophical Literature Various collections of wise sayings and philosophical maxims of the Israelites. Prayers, Psalms and Odes Until recently, the Davidic psalms were considered to be the only significant group of psalms known by the Jews. This is no longer true. This section presents other collections of hymns, expressions of praise, songs of joy and sorrow, and prayers of petition that were important in the period 100 b.c. to a.d. 200. Fragments of Lost Judeo-Hellenistic Works After the Babylonian exile, Judaism increasingly began to reflect ideas associated with the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, often filtered through the cultures of Syria and Egypt. These fragments are examples of how this mix of cultures influenced Jewish writings.Together, both volumes of The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha present literature that shows the ongoing development of Judaism and the roots from which the Christian religion took its beliefs. Using the very latest techniques in biblical scholarship, this international team of recognized scholars has put together a monumental work that will enhance the study of Western religious heritage for years to come.

    Continuing his explorations of the art of the Bible, Robert Alter provides an interpretation of the poetry of the Old Testament and an account of how biblical poetry works.

    Her loving parents, both fervent radicals, fill her with the fiercely bright hope of a new and better world. But as the deprivations of war and depression take a ruthless toll, Davita unexpectedly turns to the Jewish faith that her mother had long ago abandoned, finding there both a solace for her questioning inner pain and a test of her budding spirit of independence.From the Paperback edition.

    Rebbe Nachman practiced this ancient method to perfection. More elaborate than any of his previous teachings, the stories are fast-moving, richly structured and filled with penetrating insights -- while spellbinding and entertaining. Rabbi Kaplan's translation is accompanied by a masterful commentary drawn from the works of Rebbe Nachman's pupils. For the first time the English-speaking reader has access to authentic interpretations of the stories.

    Ten lessons teach students how to pronounce any Hebrew word. 104 pages.

    He was famous for encouraging interruptions of the solitary task of writing. These twenty-four welcomed interruptions are representative of the many he allowed over a twenty-five-year period. Included here are his conversations with such interviewers as Irving Howe, Laurie Colwin, Richard Burgin, and Herbert R. Lottman. In these talks Singer discusses the nature of his writing, its ethnic roots, his demonology, the importance of free will, and the place of storytelling in human life. The interviews with Singer reveal both his impish sense of humor and a determination that sustained him through many years of limited acclaim and comparative neglect by critics. Yiddishists often faulted him for refusing to use his talent as a force for change in the world, Jewish readers often deplored his use of pre-Enlightenment folk material, and academics could not take too seriously a writer who insisted on telling stories that emphasized plot and character. Yet he was not deterred from his astonishing and beloved work, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

    Reprint. NYT.

    No markings. Pages are clean and bright.

    It provides new answers to old questions - questions about the essence of Jewish identity, about the real meaning of Jewish history, the significance of the Jewish personality, and, not least, it includes questions about the nature of Jewish ethics. It also provide a radical new way of being Jewish - new ways of celebrating Jewish holidays and ceremonies of the Jewish life cycle, a new approach to dealing with intermarriage and conversion, a new way of reinforcing Jewish identity.

    

    These letters represent Maimonide’s response to three issues critical to Jews in his day and ours; religious persecution, the claims of Christianity and Islam and rational philosophy’s challenge to faith.

    A biography of the Jewish heroine whose mission to help rescue European Jews in World War II cost her her life.

    It is therefore no surprise that The Tales of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, retold with commentary by a world-renowned rabbi such as Adin Steinsaltz, is a remarkable volume. Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav (1772-1810) emerged from the hasidic world as a great leader with devoted followers both in his lifetime and to this very day. He produced several masterpieces of religious writing, but of all his works, his tales are considered to be at the peak of his creative life. As Rabbi Steinsaltz writes: "These stories, which are essentially fairy tales dating from Nachman's last years, are a mixture of intellectual and poetic imagination, simplicity of form, and complexity of content. On the one hand, any child can read them as one would a tale of ancient days, as the author himself put it; and, on the other hand, one can as an adult read them again and again, analyze and study them, and constantly discover in them layer upon layer of hitherto unrevealed symbol and meaning." Rabbi Nachman's tales were originally told in Yiddish. They were recorded by his outstanding pupil, Rabbi Nathan, who translated them into Hebrew and published them after Rabbi Nachman's death. While these tales are structurally similar to folk or fairy tales, they include highly compressed and clearly defined Torah teachings expressed in literary and poetic form. Rabbi Nachman's stories are a medium for conveying hidden aspects of Torah, yet in such a veiled way that the content is not outwardly apparent. These complex allegories, intended by their author to have several dimensions, are presented here by Rabbi Steinsaltz with his own commentary, pointing the way for the modern reader to begin to grasp Rabbi Nachman's profound tales. Of the thirteen major tales by Rabbi Nachman, this volume offers six of them, each with extensive commentary

    This book tells of the author's liberation from Aushwitz by soldiers of the Russian army, her encounters with Polish anti-Semites, her departure from Russia, five-week transatlantic voyage, and final arrival in America.

    It is the first study written in modern Hebrew by a gentile scholar. ... The writer is stepping into the lion's den of the Rabbis and into the fiery furnace of the liberal theologians. But he hopes that others will follow him and promote a similar dialogue in the spirit of tolerance and spiritual democracy." (back cover of book)

    In A Living Covenant, Hartman challenges this approach revealing a Judaism grounded in a covenant-a relational framework-informed by the metaphor of marital love rather than that of parent-child dependency. This view of life places the individual firmly within community. Hartman shows that the Judaic tradition need not be understood in terms of human passivity and resignation, but rather as a vehicle by which human individuality and freedom can be expressed within a relational matrix."With passion and erudition, David Hartman argues for a version of Judaism that is at once faithful to the tradition and fitted to the requirements of modernity. He writes like Jacob wrestling with the angel, and the result, for the reader, is an exhilarating experience." --Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton"This deep philosophical treatise-filled with new, nuanced interpretations of Torah and Talmud-reads like a novel that one cannot put down until reaching the very last page." --Judith Hauptman, Rabbi Philip R. Alstat Associate Professor of Talmud, The Jewish Theological Seminary; author of Rereading the Rabbis: A Woman's Voice"I learned much from this book, and I appreciate its theo-logical courage and originality." --Harold M. Schulweis, Rabbi, Cong. Valley Beth Shalom, Encino, Calif.; author of For Those Who Can't Believe

    We are Christians or Jews, Michael Goldberg maintains, not principally because we embrace different creeds, but because we have gained an understanding of the world from one of two distinct master stories - for Jews, the Exodus; for Christians, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The author demonstrates what each master story ultimately reveals about who God is, what humanity is, and how humanity should therefore act in God's world.

    'The Little Midrash Says' series was created to facilitate the child's understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of the weekly parsha. Mr.S. Forst's striking illustrations will help the child visualize the scenes described in the text. Parents and educators are urged to regard the text merely as a springboard and guide,and to elaborate on it. The weekly quizzes ('Are you a Parsha expert?') and the 'problem of the week' should stimulate a family-wide discussion of the weekly Torah-portion. Full page illustrations. Enjoyable to tell, enjoyable to listen to, enjoyable to read !!