Best of
Judaism

1993

The Chumash (ArtScroll) The Torah: Haftaros and Five Megillos with a Commentary Anthologized from the Rabbinic Writings


Nosson Scherman - 1993
    The entire Chumash, newly reset, in one beautiful volume with a new, contemporary English translation of the Torah, faithful to Rashi and the classic Rabbinic commentators, and an anthologized commentary by a team of scholars, under the editorship of Rabbi Nosson Scherman. This commentary draws on the spectrum of biblical commentaries, from the Talmud, Midrash, and the classic Rabbinic commentators, and includes insights of contemporary greats. Also includes: Hebrew/Aramaic texts of Rashi and Onkelos, newly set according to the most accurate texts. Haftaros with new translation, and introductory comments introducing the haftarah and relating it to the Torah reading. The Five Megillos with translation and commentary. Comprehensive index. Lightweight, opaque, acid-free paper for decades of quality use. Special section for your own genealogy and family milestones. Ultra-reinforced binding, using the most durable materials. Elegantly gilded page heads. Ribbon place-marker. The Chumash of choice for synagogue and home

To Life: A Celebration of Jewish Being and Thinking


Harold S. Kushner - 1993
    Both practical and spiritual, Kushner makes Jewish tradition relevant to a new generation as he explores its many facets.

Living Inspired


Akiva Tatz - 1993
    Living Inspired Akiva Tatz Ever wondered why there is no parking on Golders Green Road on Wednesday nights? Because Wednesday night is Coffee Lounge and Deluxe Desserts with..

Mourning & Mitzvah: A Guided Journal for Walking the Mourner's Path Through Grief to Healing


Anne Brener - 1993
    As they walked, they came face to face with all the other members of the community, who greeted them with the ancestor of the blessing, "May God comfort you among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem." In this way, the community embraced those suffering bereavement, yet allowed for unique experiences of grief.

Waters of Eden: The Mystery of the Mikveh


Aryeh Kaplan - 1993
    

Pirke Avot: A Modern Commentary on Jewish Ethics


Leonard Kravitz - 1993
    Along with traditional commentaries from Rashi and Maimonides, readers encounter the wisdom of Eugene Borowitz, Emil Fackenheim, Lawrence Kushner, Anne Roiphe, Judith Plaskow, Maurice Eisendrath, and many others. Ideal for college and adult study.

Passover Haggadah


Elie Wiesel - 1993
    Read each year at the Seder table, the Haggadah recounts the miraculous tale of the liberation of the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, with a celebration of prayer, ritual, and song. Wiesel and Podwal guide you through the Haggadah and share their understanding and faith in a special illustrated edition that will be treasured for years to come. Accompanying the traditional Haggadah text (which appears here in an accessible new translation) are Elie Wiesel's poetic interpretations, reminiscences, and instructive retellings of ancient legends. The Nobel laureate interweaves past and present as the symbolism of the Seder is explored. Wiesel's commentaries may be read aloud in their entirety or selected passages may be read each year to illuminate the timeless message of this beloved book of redemption. This volume is enhanced by more than fifty original drawings by Mark Podwal, the artist whom Cynthia Ozick has called a "genius of metaphor through line." Podwal's work not only complements the traditional Haggadah text, as well as Wiesel's poetic voice, but also serves as commentary unto itself. The drawings, with their fresh juxtapositions of insight and revelation, are an innovative contribution to the long tradition of Haggadah illustration.

The Book of Words (Sefer Shel Devarim): Talking Spiritual Life, Living Spiritual Talk (The Kushner series)


Lawrence Kushner - 1993
    In the incomparable manner of his award-winning "The Book of Letters: A Mystical Alphabet", Kushner now lifts up and shakes the dust off 30 primary religious words used to describe the spiritual dimension of our lives.

Maimonides Principle: Fundamentals of Jewish Faith


Aryeh Kaplan - 1993
    An anthology of Maimonides' own writings, appearing in his Commentary to Mishnah Sanhedrin, explaining the Thirteen Principles of Faith.

We the Black Jews


Yosef A.A. Ben-Jochannan - 1993
    Ben destroys what he says is the myth of a "white Jewish race" as he says that whites are descended from brutal thugs who lived in frigid climates, and the bigotry that has denied the existence of an African Jewish culture. He establishes the legitimacy of contemporary Black Jewish culture in Africa and the diaspora and predates its origin before ancient Nile Valley civilizations.

Thank You, God!: A Jewish Child's Book of Prayers


Judyth Groner - 1993
    Contains blessings for a new day, bounty of our food, Sabbath, and holiday rituals.

The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity


Jon D. Levenson - 1993
    In this highly original book, Jon D. Levenson explores how this notion of child sacrifice constitutes an overlooked bond between the two religions.Levenson argues that although the practice of child sacrifice was eradicated during the late seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E, the idea of sacrificing the first-born son (or the late-born son whose preferential treatment promotes him to that exalted rank) remained potent in religious literature. Analyzing texts from the ancient Near East, the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and rabbinic literature, Levenson shows how tales of the son handed over to death by his loving father in the Hebrew Bible influenced the Church's identification of Jesus as sacrificial victim. According to Levenson, the transformation of the idea of child sacrifice was central to the accounts given by the people Israel and the early Church of their respective origins, and it also underlay the theologies of chosenness embraced, in their differing ways, by the two religions. Furthermore, the longstanding claim of the Church that it supersedes the Jews, says Levenson, both continues and transforms elements of the old narrative pattern in which a late-born son dislodges his first-born brothers. Levenson's book, which offers novel interpretations of several areas crucial to biblical studies, will be essential reading for scholars in the field.

Jewish Holidays


Michael Strassfeld - 1993
    . . with a greater devotion and joy."--Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler

Gabriel's Palace: Jewish Mystical Tales


Howard Schwartz - 1993
    Now, in Gabriel's Palace, scholar Howard Schwartz has collected the greatest of these stories, sacred and secular, in a marvelously readable anthology. Gabriel's Palace offers a treasury of 150 pithy and powerful tales, involving experiences of union with the divine, out-of-body travel, encounters with angels and demons, possession by spirits holy and pernicious, and more. Schwartz provides an informative introduction placing these remarkable tales firmly in the context of centuries of post-biblical Jewish tradition. The body of the text presents spellbinding tales from the Talmud, Zohar, the Hasidic masters, and an enormous range of other sources. Here are stories of Shimon bar Yohai, reputed to be the author of the Zohar; Isaac Luria, known as the Ari, who was the central figure among the Safed mystics of the 16th century; Israel ben Eliezer, known as Baal Shem Tov, who founded Hasidism; Elimelech of Lizensk, possessor of legendary mystical powers; and Nachman of Bratslav, the great storyteller whose wandering spirit is said to protect his followers to this day. Together, these tales paint a vivid picture of a world of signs and symbols, where everything that took place had meaning, a world of mythic proportions....A world in which the spirits of the dead were no longer invisible, nor the angels, where the master and his disciples labor to repair the world so that the footsteps of the Messiah might be heard. Drawn from rabbinic, kabbalistic, folk, and Hasidic sources, these collected tales form a rich genre all their own. In Gabriel's Palace, the powerful tradition of Jewish mysticism comes to life in clear, contemporary English.

NCSY Bencher Pocket Size: A Book of Prayer and Song


David Olivestone - 1993
    With clear Hebrew and English type, a new translation, and complete, easy-to-read transliteration of the benching, kiddush, blessings, zemiros, and songs for all occasions, it is available with white, silver or full-color covers. May be imprinted. Newly revised with added zemiros and popular songs.

The Always Prayer Shawl


Sheldon Oberman - 1993
    And some things don't."That simple truth, whispered in a synagogue, echoes throughout this deeply felt picture book. Adam, a young Jewish boy in czarist Russia, must flee his ancestral home at the outbreak of the revolution. Before he sets sail for a new land, his grandfather gives him a prayer shawl that was handed to him by his own grandfather, who was also named Adam. And so the life of Adam and his prayer shawl unfolds from time past to time present, when Adam has a grandson of his own. Some things change and some things don't. Sheldon Oberman's picture book about the strength of tradition and the passing of generations is given powerful expression in Ted Lewin's atmospheric illustrations.

Immortality, Resurrection, and the Age of the Universe: A Kabbalistic View


Aryeh Kaplan - 1993
    At his death he left many unpublished articles and other works. This collection contains some of his most provocative insights, combining ancient Kabbalistic teaching with the discoveries of modern science. Among the topics covered in this volume are such basic concepts as the Jewish and Kabbalistic view of immortality, resurrection of the dead, the age of the universe, and astrology. All are published for the first time. The book also includes a translation of Rabbi Israel Lipschitz' 1845 article on resurrection, which deals in part with the paleontological discoveries of the first half of the nineteenth century. It is thus one of the earliest such treatments by an Orthodox thinker, one which Rabbi Kaplan referred to and uses as a precedent for his own views.

Reb Yaakov: The Life and Times of HaGaon Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky


Yonason Rosenblum - 1993
    The inspiring life-story of Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky.

Teaching Your Children About God: A Modern Jewish Approach


David J. Wolpe - 1993
    In fact, parents may feel they don't know the answers to such questions for themselves, much less for their young children. In Teaching Your Children About God, Rabbi David Wolpe shows Jewish parents how to openly explore the idea of God with their children. Through poignant anecdotes and practical exercises, Wolpe teaches how parents can guide children in the practice of prayer and create an atmosphere in which children feel comfortable questioning and wondering about God, life, and death. Wolpe also offers invaluable insights into children's spiritual needs, reveals the powerful effect faith can have on a child's self-esteem, and enables parents to understand their children's fears, dreams, and hopes. Perhaps most important, this wise and potentially life-changing book shows parents who may feel something missing In their own spiritual lives that it is possible to nourish their own souls even as they nurture their children's.

The Atlas of Jewish History


Martin Gilbert - 1993
    Maps provide information on the history, migrations, achievements, and current state of the Jews.

The Work of the Kabbalist


Z'ev Ben Shimon Halevi - 1993
    This work sets out the process of acquiring knowledge and the technique for how to use it for different purposes and at various levels.

The Complete Lyrics of Ira Gershwin


Ira Gershwin - 1993
    50 photographs in text.

One People?: Tradition, Modernity and Jewish Unity


Jonathan Sacks - 1993
    This text is a study of the background to this and related controversies. It traces the fragmentation of Jewry in the wake of emancipation and enlightenment, the development of heterodox religious denominations and secular Zionism, the variety of Orthodox responses to these challenges and the resources of Jewish tradition for handling diversity. It sets out the intractability of the problem and ends by examining strands in both Orthodox Jewish thought that might make for convergence and conciliation. The analysis employs a variety of disciplines - history, sociology, theology and halakhic jurisprudence - to comment on a subject in which these dimensions are inextricably interwoven.It also explores key issues such as the underlying philosophy of Jewish law and the nature of the collision between tradition and modern consciousness in the clash of perceptions between Orthodox and Reform. Written for general readers as well as the academic, this book aims to present a thought-provoking presentation of the dilemmas of Jewish Orthodoxy in modernity.

The Malbim Haggadah


Meir Loeb ben Jehiel Michael Malbim - 1993
    As a halachic guide, it is unintelligible. It looks as if it's a randomly compiled and cryptic mosaic crying for order or explanation. This English rendition of the Malbim Hagaddah clears the confusion with its introductory essay's breathtaking and brilliant analysis of the Pesach seder's structure. Adapted from a recently rediscovered and rare edition of the Malbim's commentary, this work demonstrates the Divine inspiration and wisdom behind the words of the Sages who redacted the Haggadah. While worth reading for the overview alone, the Hagaddah continues with the Malbim's unique question-and-answer style of analysis, and grants us a deep, original, and insightful understanding of the Jewish Passover seder.

Laws of Kashrus


Binyomin Forst - 1993
    Includes copious diagrams and a listing of appliances.

The Weekly Midrash: Tz'enah Ur'enah the Classic Anthology of Torah Lore and Midrashic Commentary


Miriam Stark Zakon - 1993
    

More Kinky Friedman


Kinky Friedman - 1993
    The three novels included in this volume are Musical Chairs, Frequent Flyer, and Elvis, Jesus & Coca-Cola.

Conservative Judaism: The New Century


Neil Gillman - 1993
    The concerns, changes, and achievements of Conservative belief and practice since the turn of the century, and how the movement is confronting today's most challenging issues, including:*The role of women in the synagogue*Homosexuality*Patrilineal descent*The State of IsraelHistorical and contemporary photographs illustrate the growth of the movement.

Wisdom of the Jewish Sages: Modern Reading of the Pirke Avot


Rami M. Shapiro - 1993
    That is what Rami Shapiro has done by rereading, retranslating, and renewing Pirke Avot, which comes alive and glowing in his hands."-- Arthur Waskow, author of Down-to-Earth Judaism and Seasons of Our JoyWisdom of the Jewish Sages is a fresh interpretation of Judaism's principal ethical scripture, Pirke Avot or The Sayings of the Fathers -- a treasury of maxims on justice, integrity, and virtue. Gathered into one volume in the third century, it represents the essential spiritual teaching of sixty-five remarkable rabbis who spanned the preceding six hundred years. For centuries it has been the most widely studied book in traditional Jewish homes. Now Rabbi Shapiro's modern reading of Pirke Avot makes its timeless knowledge available to a new generation of seekers.

The Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and Historical Criticism: Jews and Christians in Biblical Studies


Jon D. Levenson - 1993
    He focuses on the relationship between two interpretive communities--the community of scholars who are committed to the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation and the community responsible for the canonization and preservation of the Bible.

Comrades and Chicken Ranchers


Kenneth L. Kann - 1993
    It had been a small-town agricultural community, where Jewish chicken ranchers and radicals enjoyed a vigorous Yiddish cultural life, maintained intense political commitments, and took part in sharp conflicts among themselves and with the society beyond.In this unique work of oral history, Kenneth Kann has ingeniously arranged and edited interviews with more than two hundred people, some of them telling their life stories in their own Yiddishized English. We meet an array of striking characters and families of three generations--East European immigrant settlers, their children, and their grandchildren.The narrative begins with the immigrant generation's flight from the Old World and traces the immigrants' long, uneasy adjustment to life in America. It describes the dilemma of the members of the second generation, who find themselves torn between the ways of their parents and the gentile world around them. The book concludes with accounts of the third generation, who feel distant from their grandparents but who struggle to recover lost ethnic roots and are uncertain how to raise their children.In this compelling chorus of voices, we find a Jewish Communist who describes being tarred and feathered in the 1930s and his grandson, recalling his own encounters, during the anti-war movement of the 1960s, with the grandchildren of the vigilantes who carried out the earlier assault. An immigrant proudly explains why she taught her children Yiddish, and a grandchild scolds his parents because they did not. One young woman finds the Jewish community too gossipy and confining; another is warmed by its closeness.The cast is vibrant, their words both touching and often hilarious. Comrades and Chicken Ranchers is a delight.

While Standing on One Foot: Puzzle Stories and Wisdom Tales from the Jewish Tradition


Nina Jaffe - 1993
    When you've done your best, the authors give you answers that have come down through time. Can you outthink the sages, or will they help you out of a tight spot?

Religion And Society In T'ang And Sung China


Patricia Buckley Ebrey - 1993
    The economy flourished, the population doubled, printing led to a great increase in the availability of books, Buddhism became a fully sinicized religion penetrating deeply into ordinary life. This volume represents a collaborative effort of nine scholars of Chinese religion, history, and thought to begin addressing the question of how changes in the religions of the Chinese people were implicated in the momentous social and cultural changes of this period.

More Precious Than Pearls: Selected Insights Into the Qualities of the Ideal Woman: Based on Eshes Chayil


Tziporah Heller - 1993
    

Viktor E. Frankl: Life with Meaning


William Blair Gould - 1993
    Gould discusses philosophers from Socrates to Sartre and psychologists from Sigmund Freud and William James to Abraham Maslow and Rollo May. Viktor E. Frankl: Life with Meaning is an informative resource for teachers of psychology, philosophy, theology, counseling, and social work; presents a valuable discussion for those exploring the interrelation of contemporary philosophy and psychology; a vital resource for practicing medical, religious, and family counselors and a reliable reference for anyone interested in the development and joint mission of philosophy and psychology in the 1990s.

Original Sins: Reflections on the History of Zionism and Israel


Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi - 1993
    No

100 Blessings Every Day: Daily Twelve Step Recovery Affirmations, Exercises for Personal Growth & Renewal Reflecting Seasons of the Jewish Yeara


Kerry M. Olitzky - 1993
    In this helpful and healing book of daily recovery meditations, found in the Bible and Jewish tradition, Kerry Olitzky gives us words to live by day after day, throughout the annual cycle of holiday observances and special times of the Jewish calendar. Its "exercises" help us move from thinking to doing.

Eat and Be Satisfied: A Social History of Jewish Food


John Cooper - 1993
    John Cooper explores the traditional foods-the everyday diets as well as the specialties for the Sabbath and festivals-of both the Ashkenazic and Sephardic cuisines. He discusses the often debated question of what makes certain foods "Jewish" and details the evolution of such traditional dishes as cholent and gefilte fish.

Feminist Revision and the Bible: His Life and Legacy


Alicia Suskin Ostriker - 1993
    The author proposes that women writers relate to the Bible in complex ways, which both critique biblical misogyny and stem directly from elements of transgressive writing within scripture iteself. Ultimately Ostriker suggests that feminist reinterpretations of scripture are the inevitable consequence of spiritual values which ask us to turn from institutions to the meaning of the original revelation.

Facets and Faces


Aryeh Kaplan - 1993