Best of
Judaism

1996

The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York


Claudia Roden - 1996
    The 800 magnificent recipes, many never before documented, represent treasures garnered bu Roden through nearly 15 years of traveling around the world. 50 photos & illustrations

Words That Hurt, Words That Heal: How to Choose Words Wisely and Well


Joseph Telushkin - 1996
    With wit and wide-ranging intelligence, Rabbi Telushkin explains the harm in spreading gossip, rumors, or others’ secrets, and how unfair anger, excessive criticism, or lying undermines true communication. By sensitizing us to subtleties of speech we may never have considered before, he shows us how to turn every exchange into an opportunity.Remarkable for its clarity and practicality, Words That Hurt, Words That Heal illuminates the powerful effects we create by what we say and how we say it.

Tanach: The Torah, Prophets, Writings -- The Twenty-Four Books of the Bible, Newly Translated and Annotated (The ArtScroll Series)


Nosson Scherman - 1996
    Author is Nosson Scherman Title is Tanach: The Stone Edition/Black The Torah/Prophets/Writings The Twenty-Four Books of the Bible Newly Translated and Annotated ISBN is 0899062695 Excellent condition, brand new.

Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays


Abraham Joshua Heschel - 1996
    This first collection of Heschel's essays - compiled, edited and with an introduction by his daughter Susannah Heschel, is a stunning reminder of the virtuosity of one of the most well respected minds in Judaic studies.

Smith Wigglesworth: Complete Collection of His Life Teachings


Smith Wigglesworth - 1996
    This books is one of the top ten Biblical reference books, endorsed by the Wigglesworth family, includes never before seen photos, and has topical and alphabetical indexes. This complete collection of his powerful sermons is sure to be a classic treasure for countless generations.

How Good Do We Have to Be?: A New Understanding of Guilt and Forgiveness


Harold S. Kushner - 1996
    How Good Do We Have to Be? is for everyone who experiences that sense of guilt and disappointment. Harold Kushner, writing with his customary generosity and wisdom, shows us how human life is too complex for anyone to live it without making mistakes, and why we need not fear the loss of God's love when we are less than perfect. Harold Kushner begins by offering a radically new interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve, which he sees as a tale of Paradise Outgrown rather than Paradise Lost: eating from the Tree of Knowledge was not an act of disobedience, but a brave step forward toward becoming human, complete with the richness of work, sexuality and child-rearing, and a sense of our mortality. Drawing on modern literature, psychology, theology,,and his own thirty years of experience as a congregational rabbi, Harold Kushner reveals how acceptance and forgiveness can change our relationships with the most important people in our lives and help us meet the bold and rewarding challenge of being human.

Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes


John Shelby Spong - 1996
    He offers convincing evidence that the Gospels are a collection of Jewish midrashic stories written to convey the significance of Jesus. This remarkable discovery brings us closer to how Jesus was really understood in his day and should be in ours.

501 Hebrew Verbs


Shmuel Bolozky - 1996
    Selected on the basis of conjugation type and scientifically established frequency of use, every verb is illustrated with sentences or short paragraphs that suggest its optimal use.

Torah Studies


Menachem M. Schneerson - 1996
    To hear or read such a discussion is to embark on a journey in which we are challenged and forced to move, and at the end stand far from where we began. Here, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, serves as guide to that journey, elucidating the question in each discourse and explaining its context. In this collection of lucid adaptations of the Rebbes talks on the weekly Torah readings and Jewish holidays, each question is not only resolved but also revealed to be the starting point of a major spiritual search, a journey to the inner sanctum of Torah.With descriptive introductions to each chapter and extensive indexes, Torah Studies is an important gateway to the Rebbes teaching and legacy.

Invisible Lines of Connection: Sacred Stories of the Ordinary


Lawrence Kushner - 1996
    Most of the time, we are unaware of it. Yet, every now and then, on account of some fluke, we are startled by the results of its presence. We realize we have been part of something with neither consciousness nor consent. It is so sweet and then it is gone. You say, But I don t believe in God. And I ask, What makes you think it matters to God?" fromLawrence Kushner, whose previous books have opened up new spiritual possibilities, now tells us stories in a new literary form.Through his everyday encounters with family, friends, colleagues and strangers, Kushner takes us deeply into our lives, finding flashes of spiritual insight in the process. Such otherwise ordinary moments as fighting with his children, shopping for bargain basement clothes, or just watching a movie are revealed to be touchstones for the sacred.This is a book where literature meets spirituality, where the sacred meets the ordinary, and, above all, where people of all faiths, all backgrounds can meet one another and themselves. Kushner ties together the stories of our lives into a roadmap showing how everything ordinary is supercharged with meaning if we can just see it.

The Counting of the Omer: Forty-Nine Steps to Personal Refinement According to the Jewish Tradition


Simon Jacobson - 1996
    This book will change your life as it guides you through a mystical yet accessible, practical 49-step journey through the human personality, refining and perfecting your emotions and behavior allowing you to grow and better cope with life's daily challenges.

God of Israel and Christian Theology


R. Kendall Soulen - 1996
    Along with this first full-scale critique of Christian supersessionism, Soulen's own constructive proposal regraps the narrative unity of Christian identity and the canon through an original and important insight into the divine-human covenant, the election of Israel, and the meaning of history.

The Jps Torah Commentary: Deuteronomy : The Traditional Hebrew Text With the New Jps Translation (J P S Torah Commentary)


Jeffrey H. Tigay - 1996
    Written by four outstanding Bible scholars, it represents a fusion of the best of the old and the new, utilizing the most advanced knowledge of the day to enhance our understanding of the biblical text. The JPS Torah Commentary is a text of our time -- a new English-language commentary on the first five books of the Bible. Each of the five volumes is the work of a scholar who stands at the pinnacle of his field, surveying the full range of material that illuminates the exciting exploration of the Bible. The commentary series will guide you through the words and ideas of the Bible. Each volume also contains supplementary essays that elaborate key words and themes, a glossary of commentators, and sources, extensive bibliographic notes, and maps.

Living History: A Memoir


Chaim Herzog - 1996
    Now he gives readers a candid and acutely observant account of that life in all its historic and personal richness. Uniquely qualified to put a human face on history, Herzog provides insights into the people with whom he has played a part in the creation of that history. b&w photos.

My Father, My King: Connecting with the Creator


Zelig Pliskin - 1996
    This is a book that will enlighten both the beginner and the scholar.

The Book of Blessings


Marcia Falk - 1996
    Steeped in dialogue with rabbinic tradition, it is for those who seek a more contemporary, egalitarian approach to traditional liturgy. "[Falk] manages to create extraordinarily beautiful prayers--in Hebrew and English--that are both radically new and deeply resonant with Jewish tradition." --Judith Plaskow, The Women's Review of Books "Marcia Falk's work in Hebrew blessings is as beautiful as it is innovative; and it is innovative in the sweetest, most nourishing sense, sat urated in love for the language itself (its overtones and melodies as well as its deep structure), its history, its people. Even those who do not hear the traditional liturgies as exclusionary will respond to the meticulously flowering poet's passion of Marcia Falk's wholly original contribution."--Cynthia Ozick "A truly magisterial and exciting collection of brakhot . . . that invites us to re-encounter not only the blessing, but the Source of blessing. . . . Falk rekindles the flame of Jewish ardor and devotion."--Hadassah "[Falk's] prayers are re-creations of traditional prayers, her versions striking in the beauty and power of their language, in English and Hebrew: this is a poet's siddur, full of profound meaning."--Sandee Brawarsky, Jewish Week

From Ashes to Healing: Mystical Encounters with the Holocaust


Yonassan Gershom - 1996
    Fifteen gripping stories of people who have found healing through past-life recall of the Holocaust.

The WORLD OF JEWISH COOKING: More Than 500 Traditional Recipes from Alsace to Yemen


Gil Marks - 1996
    As well as everyday recipes Gil Marks includes special festive and exotic recipes for all to learn. Full description

Preparing Your Heart for the High Holy Days: A Guided Journal


Kerry M. Olitzky - 1996
    This spiritual guided journal will help you prepare your heart and soul for the Jewish New Year.

The JPS Torah Commentary Series, 5-volume set


Jewish Publication Society - 1996
    Utilizing the latest research to enhance our understanding of the biblical text, it takes its place as one of the most authoritative yet accessible Bible commentaries of our day.This JPS Torah Commentary series guides readers through the words and ideas of the Torah. Each volume is the work of a scholar who stands at the pinnacle of his field.Every page contains the complete traditional Hebrew text, with cantillation notes, the JPS translation of the Holy Scriptures, aliyot breaks, Masoretic notes, and commentary by a distinguished Hebrew Bible scholar, integrating classical and modern sources.Each volume also contains supplementary essays that elaborate upon key words and themes, a glossary of commentators and sources, extensive bibliographic notes, and maps.

The Five Books of Miriam: A Woman's Commentary on the Torah


Ellen Frankel - 1996
    Here are Miriam, Esther, Dinah, Lilith and many other women of the Torah in dialogue with Jewish daughters, mothers and grandmothers, past and present. Together these voices examine and debate every aspect of a Jewish woman's life -- work, sex, marriage, her connection to God and her place in the Jewish community and in the world. The Five Books of Miriam makes an invaluable contribution to Torah study and adds rich dimension to the ongoing conversation between Jewish women and Jewish tradition.

The Jews of Chicago: FROM SHTETL TO SUBURB


Irving Cutler - 1996
    This edition of Irving Cutler's definitive historical volume also includes a new foreword written by the author. The first comprehensive history of Chicago's Jewish population in eighty years, The Jews of Chicago brings to life the people, events, neighborhoods, and institutions that helped shape today's Jewish community. Cutler intertwines neighborhood histories with representative biographical vignettes of some of Chicago's best known figures, such as Edna Ferber, Saul Bellow, Benny Goodman, Mel Tormé, Studs Terkel, Paul Muni, Mandy Patinkin, Emil G. Hirsch, Julius Rosenwald, Dankmar Adler, Arthur Goldberg, Philip Klutznick, and many others. From their roots in the Old Country to their present-day communities, Cutler captures in extraordinary detail the remarkable saga of the Jews of Chicago.

Theresienstadt: The Town the Nazis Gave to the Jews


Vera Schiff - 1996
    

A Big Quiet House


Heather Forest - 1996
    With a tiny, cluttered house, giggling children, and a snoring wife, one man can't get a good night's sleep. "If only," he thinks, "I had a big quiet house!" He throws off his covers and decides to visit the wise old woman at the edge of the village. Surely she can help him solve his problem and she does, but not without giving him some very unusual advice.The woman convinces the man to fill his house with rambling animals, none of which cure his sleeping problem. Until one day, the man takes the animals back to where they belong, and he welcomes the rhythmic sound of his wife's snoring. This ancient Yiddish folktale proves that quite often, nonsense makes the best sense of all. Susan Greenstein's bold illustrations--white pencil on black surface with watercolor - carry the reader through the warm interiors and peaceful nights of the shtetls of Eastern Europe. This story highlights the importance of perspective. Everyone has problems, however attitude can dramatically affect perception. It is the man who changes, and the world he perceives is transformed.

Noahs Flood: The Genesis Story in Western Thought


Norman Cohn - 1996
    It includes accounts of the scholars and theologians who have endorsed or rejected the flood story.

Founder of Hasidism: A Quest for the Historical Ba'al Shem Tov


Moshe Rosman - 1996
    As the progenitor of Hasidism, the Ba'al Shem Tov is one of the key figures in Jewish history; to understand him is to understand an essential element of modern Jewish life and religion.Because evidence about his life is scanty and equivocal, the Besht has long eluded historians and biographers. Much of what is believed about him is based on stories compiled more than a generation after his death, many of which serve to mythologize rather than describe their subject. Rosman's study casts a bright new light on the traditional stories about the Besht, confirming and augmenting some, challenging others. By concentrating on accounts attributable directly to the Besht or to contemporary eyewitnesses, Rosman provides a portrait drawn from life rather than myth. In addition, documents in Polish and Hebrew discovered by Rosman during the research for this book enable him to give the first detailed description of the cultural, social, economic, and political context of the Ba'al Shem Tov's life.

The Body of Faith: God and the People Israel


Michael Wyschogrod - 1996
    Basing his work on biblical and rabbinic sources, twentieth-century philosophy, and Christian theology, Michael Wyschogrod focuses on the depiction and personification of God. Rather than looking at God as a depersonalized omniscient being, Wyschogrod depicts God as engaged in human history and as a partner in a covenant with the Jewish people. The similarities and differences between Jewish and Christian teaching about God's presence in the world are discussed in great depth.

Fortress of My Youth: Memoir of a Terezín Survivor


Jana Renee Friesova - 1996
    Her memoir unfolds before us the poignantly familiar picture of a young girl who, even under the most abominable circumstances, engages in intense adolescent friendships, worries with her companions over her looks, and falls in love. Raised a Catholic by secular Jewish parents, she did not even know she was a Jew until the German occupation of her country in 1939 when she was twelve.    Whereas Anne Frank’s diary ends with deportation to a concentration camp, Fortress of My Youth is the story of another young girl who tells us how she and her family were taken to Terezín, what food she ate there, what work she did, how her friends died from disease, how thousands were sent from there to Auschwitz, how her family members were killed, and how she escaped the gas chamber. But she also tells of love, joy, and sacrifice: musicians, writers, and intellectuals among the inmates who were determined to pass on their cultural heritage to the youth in Terezín; a network of Czechs outside the walls who smuggled in food; her singing in performances of Smetana’s Bartered Bride and Verdi’s Requiem, the most profound experiences of her life.

The Holocaust in Latvia, 1941-1944 : The Missing Center


Andrew Ezergailis - 1996
    

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch: Architect Of Judaism For The Modern World (Artscroll History Series)


Eliyahu Meir Klugman - 1996
    The inspiring life-story of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch.

The Book and the Sword: A Life of Learning in the Throes of the Holocaust


David Weiss Halivni - 1996
    Before he was five he began his studies; by the time he was ten he had outgrown the town's teachers and started to learn at home with his scholarly, impoverished grandfather. Even before his ordination at the age of fifteen, in 1943, he was famous for his erudition. But when the Nazis crushed the Jewish community of the Carpathians in 1944, he closed his Talmud. Halivni taught in the concentration camps and risked his life to save a scrap of paper from a sacred book. But adherence to the fundamentalist worldview that insists on reconciling every apparent contradiction in the text -- troubling to him even as a child -- had become impossible for him now. When he arrived in New York after the war, he began struggling toward the window of secular learning. From that synthesis emerged his original approach to critical study of the Talmudic text not only in its modern printed form but as it was in its original form, the Oral Torah from the mouths of countless sages.

God's Mailbox: More Stories about Stories in the Bible


Marc Gellman - 1996
    Original, sensitive, and disarmingly funny, Gellman's stories make the messages of the Old Testament come alive to chrilden and adults alike. Illustrations.

On Repentance: The Thought and Oral Discourses of Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik


Pinchas H. Peli - 1996
    His understanding of both traditional Judaism and secular philosophy shaped two generations of rabbinic students at Yeshiva University, and charted a new course for American Orthodox Jews. In On Repentance, noted scholar Pinchas Peli has gathered the major points of Rabbi Soloveitchik's teachings on teshuvah (repentance), based on the annual series of lectures on the theme of teshuvah, presented on the anniversary of his father's death. For many Jews, these lectures were the major academic and intellectual event of the year. Outside of his followers however, few were able to experience the genius of Rabbi Soloveitchik. He gave his lectures in Yiddish, and generally refused to publish. Now readers can experience the brilliant thinking of this great teacher and sage.

Selected Poems of Shmuel Hanagid


Shmuel HaNagid - 1996
    Peter Cole's groundbreaking versions of HaNagid's poems capture the poet's combination of secular and religious passion, as well as his inspired linking of Hebrew and Arabic poetic practice. This annotated Selected Poems is the most comprehensive collection of HaNagid's work published to date in English.The Multiple Troubles of ManThe multiple troubles of man, my brother, like slander and pain, amaze you? Consider the heart which holds them allin strangeness, and doesn't break.I'd Suck Bitter Poison from the Viper's MouthI'd suck bitter poison from the viper's mouth and live by the basilisk's hole forever, rather than suffer through evenings with boors, fighting for crumbs from their table.

Ministry and Spirituality: Creative Ministry, the Wounded Healer, Reaching out


Henri J.M. Nouwen - 1996
    Three classic works by Henri Nouwen brought together in a beautiful, gift edition.

The Selected Poetry


Dan Pagis - 1996
    He became one of the most vibrant voices in modern Israeli poetry and is considered a major world poet of his generation. A master scholar of Hebrew literature, Pagis drew fully on classical texts and infused his poetry with a centuries-old mysticism. Yet he also brought an immediacy and colloquialism to Hebrew poetry. In these superbly translated poems, Dan Pagis's voice can be heard celebrating the human spirit.

The Jew In The Text: Modernity And The Construction Of Identity


Linda Nochlin - 1996
    What does the Jew stand for in modern culture? The conscious or unconscious, often hysterical repetition of myths and exaggerations, and the repertory of cliches, fantasies and phobias surrounding the stereotypes of the Jew and the Jewess, have meant that they are figures frequently represented both in the world of literature and art and in the industries of popular culture.

Unfinished People: Eastern European Jews Encounter America


Ruth Gay - 1996
    They were mostly young, single and uneducated, but filled with hope of a new life in a new land. The newcomers maintained a sense of community longer than most immigrant groups, although culturally they were uncertain, clinging to fading memories of home, and not yet able to enter American life.

A Day in the Life of India


Michael Tobias - 1996
    Under the editorial guidance of internationally acclaimed writer, ecologist, and film maker Michael Tobias and renowned Indian photographer Raghu Rai, photographic teams visited nearly every state and union territory to discover the elusive passions of a country that defies easy definition. The result: more than 30,000 images and 200 hours of film footage that together form a sumptuous portrait of a nation.

The Hidden Face of God


Richard Elliott Friedman - 1996
    Bible Review hailed this book as "brilliant, an elegant and learned reflection on one of the central mysteries or the Bible and of modern life."

Book of Tahkemoni: Jewish Tales from Medieval Spain


Judah Alharizi - 1996
    Whether preaching, spinning history or fantasy, or working a crowd, Hever the Kenite is ever the consummate storyteller and wordsmith enlightening or astounding his listeners. The author displays great scope, moving from prayers to tales of battlefield carnage, from philosophic reflection to droll satire targeting the pompous, the ignorant and the mean. David Simha Segal's translation captures the richness and wit of Judah Alharizi, an important Spanish medieval poet, and Segal's explications and analyses identify numerous allusions and illuminate the text's subtleties.

A Treasury of Jewish Bedtime Stories


Shmuel Blitz - 1996
    The heroes range from kings and sages to wise travelers and fantasizing laborers. This is one of those rare books that youngsters will curl up with again and again. Illustrated by Liat Benyamini Ariel.

Jewish Women in Greco-Roman Palestine


Tal Ilan - 1996
    This investigation concludes that extreme religious groups in Judaism of the period influenced other groups, classes, and factions to tighten their control of women. They also encouraged an understanding of ideal relationships between men and women, represented in the literature and the legal codes of the time, that required increasing chastity. Despite this, the lives of real women and their relationships to men continued to be varied and nuanced.This book integrates both Jewish and Early Christian sources together with a feminist critique. It is the most comprehensive work of this sort published thus far and offers a vast repository of relevant material, as well as a fresh interpretation.

The Old Testament: The Authorized or King James Version


Various - 1996
    This beautifully designed edition is for the general reader, uncluttered by footnotes and set in full pages rather than the usual narrow columns. George Steiner's introduction illuminates the Bible's profound effect on the history of English literature and includes a moving personal reading of the greatest of texts. It also places the Bible within the history and development of Judaeo-Christian thought.

Hasidism Reappraised


Ada Rapoport-Albert - 1996
    Indeed, almost every ideological trend that has made itself felt among Jews since that time - from Zionism and Orthodoxy to contemporary Jewish feminism and movements within the yeshiva world - has claimed to have derived some inspiration from this vibrant movement. While this is sure testimony to its vitality and originality, it has also given rise to many misconceptions as to what hasidism is about. The monumental volume that Ada Rapoport-Albert has produced is a critical history of this intriguing movement in English. It offers a comprehensive treatment of the subject in all its aspects by what is effectively the entire present generation of scholars working in the field. With contributions ranging from the history of theology and of ideas through social and economic history to sociology, Hasidism Reappraised encompasses a complete field of contemporary scholarship in a discipline that is central to our understanding of modern Jewish history and the contemporary Jewish world.This text shows an intellectual world at an important juncture in its development. The study of hasidism was long dominated by scholars trained by Gershom Scholem, the great master of academic Jewish mysticism, but their achievements are now being questioned in a process of post-Scholem revisionism. This book captures this mood and points forward to the direction in which hasidic scholarship is likely to develop in the years to come. But the extent to which the figure of Scholem still dominates the field is clear from the introductory section of this volume: the personal correspondence of the late Joseph Weiss, one of the leading historians of hasidism, with Sara Ora Heller-Wilensky, a fellow student of Scholem's and later professor of Jewish philosophy and kabbalah. These letters, written over a period of many years, offer an insight into the complex intellectual and emotional relationships that Scholem inspired. The 28 authors who have contributed to the main body of the book are almost without exception established scholars with international reputations; those who are not are well-known in Israel for their scholarship but have previously published little in English.Their contributions are arranged thematically under seven headings: the social history of hasidism; the social functions of mystical ideals in the hasidic movement; distinctive outlooks and schools of thought within hasidism; the hasidic tale; the history of hasidic historiography; contemporary hasidism; and the present state of research on hasidism. The book also incorporates an extensive introduction that places the various articles in their intellectual context, as well as a bibliography of hasidic sources and contemporary scholarly literature.