The culmination of this work, Alter's masterly new translation and probing commentary combine to give contemporary readers the definitive edition of The Five Books. Alter's majestic translation recovers the mesmerizing effect of these ancient stories—the profound and haunting enigmas, the ambiguities of motive and image, and the distinctive cadences and lovely precision of the Hebrew text. Other modern translations either recast these features for contemporary clarity, thereby losing the character of the original, or fail to give readers a suitably fluid English as a point of contact. Alter's translation conveys the music and the meaning of the Hebrew text in a lyrical, lucid English. His accompanying commentary illuminates the text with learned insight and reflection on its literary and historical dimensions.

    . . Inspiring . . . Important.” —Library Journal, starred review “A marvelous yarn, loaded with near-calamitous adventures and characters as memorable as Singer creations.” —The New York Post      “What began as a quixotic journey was also a picaresque romp, a detective story, a profound history lesson, and a poignant evocation of a bygone world.” —The Boston Globe “Every now and again a book with near-universal appeal comes along: Outwitting History is just such a book.” —The Sunday Oregonian As a twenty-three-year-old graduate student, Aaron Lansky set out to save the world’s abandoned Yiddish books before it was too late. Today, more than a million books later, he has accomplished what has been called “the greatest cultural rescue effort in Jewish history.” In Outwitting History, Lansky shares his adventures as well as the poignant and often laugh-out-loud stories he heard as he traveled the country collecting books. Introducing us to a dazzling array of writers, he shows us how an almost-lost culture is the bridge between the old world and the future—and how the written word can unite everyone who believes in the power of great literature.A Library Journal Best Book A Massachusetts Book Award Winner in Nonfiction An ALA Notable Book

    Ever since it was first published in 1740 in Amsterdam, it has enjoyed great renown and was eventually adopted as a basic text for ethical study. Throughout the long history of its publication, Mesillat Yesharim fell prey to many printers' errors. A breakthrough in its restoration occurred with the remarkable discovery by Ofeq Institute of a manuscript of an earlier version in the form of a dialogue, in the author's own hand. With this discovery and the aid of the first edition, Mesillat Yesharim was restored to its original state. Over the last decade, Ofeq Institute has published both versions of Mesillat Yesharim, the Dialogue and the Thematic, in Hebrew, twin editions. For although the two versions share the same content, they each supplement elements missing in the other. Of pivotal importance are the added chapters at the beginning of the Dialogue Version. These shed light on the profound nature of the work as a whole. It has now become common practice to study the two versions together, for the Dialogue Version reveals the brilliance of Mesillat Yesharim for all who seek to deepen their understanding of it. Ofeq has now published a new Hebrew-English edition of both versions in one volume utilizing an innovative facing-column format. With its completely new translation, invaluable commentary, Introduction and Epilogue (Bein Hamesilot), and extensive cross-referencing, this new edition allows the brilliance of the original to shine through. Available in two bindings: Hebrew-bound, i.e. right-to-left as with a standard Hebrew book, and English-bound, i.e. left-to-right as with a standard English book.

    . . you shall eat and be satisfied."?—Deut. 8:8-10A Celebration of Classic Jewish Vegetarian Cooking from Around the WorldTraditions of Jewish vegetarian cooking span three millennia and the extraordinary geographical breadth of the Jewish diaspora—from Persia to Ethiopia, Romania to France. Acclaimed Judaic cooking expert, chef, and rabbi Gil Marks uncovers this vibrant culinary heritage for home cooks. Olive Trees and Honey is a magnificent treasury shedding light on the truly international palette of Jewish vegetarian cooking, with 300 recipes for soups, salads, grains, pastas, legumes, vegetable stews, egg dishes, savory pastries, and more. From Sephardic Bean Stew (Hamin) to Ashkenazic Mushroom Knishes, Italian Fried Artichokes to Hungarian Asparagus Soup, these dishes are suitable for any occasion on the Jewish calendar—festival and everyday meal alike. Marks's insights into the origins and evolution of the recipes, suggestions for holiday menus from Yom Kippur to Passover, and culture-rich discussion of key ingredients enhance this enchanting portrait of the Jewish diaspora's global legacy of vegetarian cooking.

    Employing traditional rabbinic resources, Greenberg presents readers with surprising biblical interpretations of the creation story, the love of David and Jonathan, the destruction of Sodom, and the condemning verses of Leviticus. But Greenberg goes beyond the question of whether homosexuality is biblically acceptable to ask how such relationships can be sacred. In so doing, he draws on a wide array of nonscriptural texts to introduce readers to occasions of same-sex love in Talmudic narratives, medieval Jewish poetry and prose, and traditional Jewish case law literature. Ultimately, Greenberg argues that Orthodox communities must open up debate, dialogue, and discussion-precisely the foundation upon which Jewish law rests-to truly deal with the issue of homosexual love. This book will appeal to all people of faith struggling to merge their belief in the scriptures with a desire to make their communities more open and accepting to gay and lesbian members.

    Drawing from the Bible, the Pseudepigrapha, the Talmud and Midrash, the kabbalistic literature, medieval folklore, Hasidic texts, and oral lore collected in the modern era, Schwartz has gathered together nearly 700 of the key Jewish myths. The myths themselves are marvelous. We read of Adams diamond and the Land of Eretz (where it is always dark), the fall of Lucifer and the quarrel of the sun and the moon, the Treasury of Souls and the Divine Chariot. We discover new tales about the great figures of the Hebrew Bible, from Adam to Moses; stories about God's Bride, the Shekhinah, and the evil temptress, Lilith; plus many tales about angels and demons, spirits and vampires, giant beasts and the Golem. Equally important, Schwartz provides a wealth of additional information. For each myth, he includes extensive commentary, revealing the source of the myth and explaining how it relates to other Jewish myths as well as to world literature (for instance, comparing Eves release of evil into the world with Pandoras). For ease of use, Schwartz divides the volume into ten books, Myths of God, Myths of Creation, Myths of Heaven, Myths of Hell, Myths of the Holy Word, Myths of the Holy Time, Myths of the Holy People, Myths of the Holy Land, Myths of Exile, and Myths of the Messiah.

    Tracing American Judaism from its origins in the colonial era through the present day, Jonathan Sarna explores the ways in which Judaism adapted in this new context. How did American culture—predominantly Protestant and overwhelmingly capitalist—affect Jewish religion and culture? And how did American Jews shape their own communities and faith in the new world? Jonathan Sarna, a preeminent scholar of American Judaism, tells the story of individuals struggling to remain Jewish while also becoming American. He offers a dynamic and timely history of assimilation and revitalization, of faith lost and faith regained.The first comprehensive history of American Judaism in over fifty years, this book is both a celebration of 350 years of Jewish life in America and essential reading for anyone interested in American religion and life.

    Yet his most ambitious scholarly achievement, his three-volume study of Rabbinic Judaism, is only now appearing in English. Heschel's great insight is that the world of rabbinic thought can be divided into two types or schools, those of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael, and that the historic disputes between the two are based on fundamental differences over the nature of revelation and religion. Furthermore, this disagreement constitutes a basic and necessary ongoing polarity within Judaism between immanence and transcendence, mysticism and rationalism, neo-Platonism and Aristotelianism. Heschel then goes on to show how these two fundamental theologies of revelation may be used to interpret a great number of topics central to Judaism.

    Radical Then, Radical Now is a popwerful testimony to the amazing resilience of the Jeqwish people who have, through their endurance of four thousand years of persecution and exile, earned a unique place in history. Without land or power, they created an identity for themaselves throguh their shared dreams of freedom, justice, dignity and human rights.Yet far more than Jewish history is contained withoin the pages of this book. Jonathan Sacks reminds us all of the l;egacy of those dreams and of our responsibility to our fellow man. he challenegs us to build a better woprld.'Of all the questions of life, the two most penetrating are ' Who Am ? Who Are We? Rabbi Sacks answers beautifully. On matters of faith he is one of my favourite writers' --Michael Novak, Scholar at The American Enterprise Institute

    With teachings and stories from many traditions, as well as numerous practical suggestions, Jewish with Feeling is Reb Zalman's uniquely warm and welcoming approach to awakening the soul.

    God, Man and History examines the underpinnings of Judaism as a whole, from theology to law to the meaning of Jewish nationhood.

    For hundreds of years it was accepted by the early church fathers, but it was rejected by the council of Laodicea in A.D. 364. Today, it remains a written remnant of the Apocalypse — an ardent testament to hope and the triumph of good over evil in the dawning of a world to come. Rife with concepts of original sin, fallen angels, demonology, resurrection, and the last judgment, it is a vital document to the origins of Christianity.The Book of Enoch is comprised of various monumental works: The Book of Enoch, The Parables, The Book of the Courses of the Heavenly Luminaries, The Dream Visions, The Concluding Section, and The Noah Fragments. Created in conjunction with an exhaustive critical commentary, this is an English translation of '1 Enoch' taking into consideration all of the textual data now available the Ethiopic version, the Greek texts and the Dead Sea Aramaic fragments.

    This book, a publication of the Conservative movement, was produced through a joint venture of the Rabbinical Assembly, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and The Jewish Publication Society. hardcover edition and is ideal for personal study and travel. It contains all the material in the original, excerpt for the essays. The Bible text, translations, and commentaries as well as the blessings, artwork, maps, glossary and other reference tools for the worshiper and student of Torah reader are included. use.

    Consider the following:Although Judaism is defined by its worship of one God, it was not always a pure monotheism. In I Kings 8, King Solomon addresses the Lord by saying, "There is no God like You," suggesting that the Israelites recognized the existence of other gods.The practice of Judaism was focused on animal sacrifice until the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in the 1st century, which forced a radically new approach to worship.The political emancipation of the Jews in 18th-century Europe transformed a 1,000-year-old style of Jewish life. "You can’t find an expression of Judaism today that is just like [the way] Jews lived 300 years ago," says Professor Shai Cherry.Yet for all it has changed, Judaism has maintained unbroken ties to a foundation text, an ethnicity, a set of rituals and holidays, and a land.A Journey of Religious DiscoveryIn these 24 lectures, Professor Cherry explores the rich religious heritage of Judaism from biblical times to today.He introduces you to the written Torah, and you learn about the oral Torah, called the Mishnah (which was also later written down), and its commentary, the Gemara. And you discover how the Mishnah and Gemara comprise the Talmud, and how they differ from another form of commentary called Midrash.He teaches you about the three pillars of the world defined more than 2,000 years ago by Shimon the Righteous: Torah, worship, and deeds of loving kindness.He takes you through the calendar of Jewish holidays, from the most important, the Sabbath, to the key holidays of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, and Pentecost (Shavuot); and to historically minor celebrations such as Channukah, which is now a more visible holiday.You also learn about the origins and attributes of the different Jewish movements that formed in the wake of Emancipation in the late 1700s and the resulting full emergence of Judaism into Western society. These include the Reform, Conservative, Modern Orthodox, and Reconstructionist movements."Although Jewish history is not one long tale of travails," says Professor Cherry, "there have been several catastrophes that powerfully shaped the Jewish consciousness." He includes discussions of the impact on Jewish thought of the Babylonian exile and the destruction of the Second Temple in antiquity, and the Holocaust in the 20th century."We will see that for every topic that we cover we have a multiplicity of responses and a multiplicity of answers," says Professor Cherry, noting that this course could just as easily be called "An Introduction to Judaisms."What’s in a Name?Judaism’s sacred text is the Bible, also called the TaNaKH, the Torah, the Hebrew Bible, and, by Christians, the Old Testament. As Professor Cherry points out, these terms have different implications:TaNaKH: This is the Hebrew acronym for the three sections of the Bible—the Torah (the first five books, known as the Pentateuch), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings).Torah: The word torah means "a teaching," and it can refer to the Pentateuch, the entire TaNaKH, or even the whole corpus of Jewish thought.Hebrew Bible: This is a religiously neutral term used by scholars for the TaNaKH. Professor Cherry notes that his expertise is in the TaNaKH, not the Hebrew Bible, since he approaches the text from the Jewish interpretive tradition.Old Testament: Christians refer to the TaNaKH as the Old Testament, since in their eyes it has been superseded by the New Testament. For Catholics, the Old Testament has a number of books that are not included in the TaNaKH.Interpreting the ScripturesJews and Christians not only have different names for the Bible, they understand it very differently. For example, Christianity takes an episode that is relatively minor in Jewish tradition—the temptation of Adam and Eve—and extracts from it the doctrine of original sin.Similarly, early rabbis took the repeated phrase, "And there was evening and there was morning," in the enumeration of the six days of creation and concluded that the day begins in the evening, which is why Jews start the celebration of their holidays at sundown.As a case study in interpretation, Professor Cherry delves deeply into the prohibition against seething (boiling) a kid in its mother’s milk, mentioned in Exodus and Deuteronomy, which led to the kosher practice of strict separation of meat and milk products. Recently, a scholar pointed out that the original Hebrew could be interpreted to mean fat instead of milk.A prohibition against seething a kid in its mother’s fat makes more sense, because it is another way of saying that the mother and offspring should not be slaughtered on the same day, in accord with the biblical injunction against killing two generations of the same species on the same day.But the rabbis had very good reasons to read the passage as they did, says Professor Cherry, who shows the theological logic that has resulted in the dietary separation of meat and milk, a practice observed by traditional Jews today.Unlocking Mysteries of Jewish Thought and Ritual"Let’s unpack this," Professor Cherry says often during these lectures, as he takes a concept, a biblical passage, or an episode from history and explores its meaning in Jewish thought and ritual.In doing so, he is following the footsteps of the acknowledged master of this form of analysis, the medieval Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides, who figures prominently throughout the course and is treated in depth in Lecture 14.There, Professor Cherry focuses on Maimonides’s Guide of the Perplexed and its discussion of creation, prayer, and the reasons for the commandments. Maimonides is filled with insights into how Judaism evolved as it did, noting, for example, that the practice of ritual animal sacrifice in early Judaism was God’s way of taking a pagan rite that the Israelites had learned from the Egyptians and redirecting it.In a subsequent lecture, Professor Cherry shows how Maimonides’s success at putting Judaism on a logical footing set the stage for a reaction that produced the Jewish mystical system called the Kabbalah.Professor Cherry unlocks other mysteries, such as why the first day of the seventh month (Tishrei) is the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah). It seems likely, he says, that "this was the time of the Babylonian New Year. So when the Jews were exiled to Babylonia, they saw that the Babylonians celebrated their New Year on that day, and said, ‘We’ve got some sacred occasion where we blow the trumpets, so let’s make that our New Year, too.’"He also explores different concepts of the Messiah, profiling two controversial candidates. The first is Shabbatai Tzvi, who was proclaimed Messiah by followers in 1665, and whose travels across Eastern Europe eventually landed him in Turkey, where he converted to Islam to avoid execution by the authorities.The other candidate is Rebbe Menachem Mendel Scheersohn, a charismatic leader of the Lubavitch Chassidim in Brooklyn, who died in 1994. Rebbe Scheersohn’s widely touted messianic credentials created intense debate and division in the Ultra-Orthodox community.From the Decalogue to Fiddler on the RoofFrom the first lecture on the Torah to the last on the Jews as the Chosen People, this course is packed with fascinating information, including:Jews use the term Decalogue, instead of Ten Commandments because there are actually more than 10 commandments in the Decalogue. For instance, "On six days you shall work and the seventh day shall be a Sabbath to you." Usually that counts as one: that you should have a Sabbath on the seventh day. But there is also, "On six days you shall work."The prophets in the biblical period served the same function as today’s free press. They tell the king what he doesn’t want to hear.When people die in the TaNaKH, everyone goes to the same place, Sheol—a shadowy underworld that is neither heaven nor hell.After crushing the Bar Kochvah revolt of the Jews in the 2nd century, the Romans changed the name of the land of Israel and Judaea to echo the Israelites’ ancient enemies, the Philistines. This is how the region came to be called Palestine.Today, the designation "Temple" on a Jewish house of worship is usually a sign that it is a Reform congregation because Reform Jews no longer look toward the dream of rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple.Orthodox Judaism is just as much a product of modernity as is Reform because several varieties of Orthodoxy emerged in the 19th century as a response to Emancipation, the Enlightenment, and the founding of the Reform movement.In addition, Professor Cherry devotes several lectures to complex issues such as the problem of evil and suffering, the Zionist movement, the place of women in the Jewish world, and how Judaism understands Christianity.Throughout, Professor Cherry is articulate, engaging, and passionate, with a gift for making a point by means of a memorable cultural reference. He calls attention to an echo of Jewish mystic Rav Kook in a Joni Mitchell song; to the Kabbalistic nature of "the force" and "the dark side" in George Lucas’s Star Wars; and to the Sabbath lesson given by Gene Wilder as an Old West rabbi in The Frisco Kid, when he dutifully dismounts his horse at sundown, risking capture by bandits.Professor Cherry notes that when he teaches introductory Judaism at Vanderbilt University, he asks his students to see two films: Fiddler on the Roof, for its picture of the breakdown of tradition as Jews confront modernity; and Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors, for its treatment of secular Jews grappling with contemporary issues of faith and ethics. Both films repay viewing in light of the lessons you’ll learn in this course.In his final lecture, Professor Cherry sums up: "The Judaisms we’ve examined in this course reflect the ongoing struggles of the Jewish people from their ancient life as a sovereign nation, to the travails of exile, to the opportunities of acculturation in modernity, and finally to the re-establishment of the state of Israel. Hearing God’s words anew—receiving Torah every day—has meant reinterpreting the tradition, creatively rereading the words of the past, whether they relate to core ideas like the notion of evil and the notion of the Chosen People, or mitzvot such as the prohibition of idolatry, or the laws of marriage and divorce. Even the basis for reinterpreting the tradition, the claim that God’s words do not cease, is itself a rereading of Torah."

    For others, God is an imaginary Friend who is there to fix problems after we create them. Rabbi David Aaron, an inspiring and gentle guide, can help you discover a mature new understanding of God and lead you to discover the wellspring of Divinity within you. By drawing on teachings of Kabbalah that were secret for millennia, he helps you to reclaim the power you've given away to negative images of God or passive images of yourself. These mystical secrets of Judaism can offer reassuring guidance, meaning, and purpose to the lives of people of all faiths. In the journey to discovering God's secret life you will:    •  Awaken to your life's deepest purpose    •  Know that you matter and that everything you feel and do is important to God    •  Delight in a deeper connection to your true inner self, God, and others    •  Learn to experience God's infinite love for you    •  Rise to new heights, cope with challenges, and make courageous choices    •  Achieve true peace of mind and freedom from anxiety Rabbi Aaron shares these profound ancient teachings in simple, everyday language with a touch of wit and humor. Rich in personal stories and anecdotes, his examples from daily life help us tap the transformational power hidden within and illuminate the surprising paradoxes of spiritual growth. Awakened to finally experience a personal connection to God, we are at last able to receive God's love unconditionally and discover our ultimate identity, divine purpose, and true happiness.

    Full color; designed to work both for beginners and for already-knwledgeable Jews who want to deepen their understanding of Shabbat practices.

    In an engaging and accessible style, Frankel brings together tales and teachings from the Bible, the Talmud, Kabbalah, and the Hasidic traditions as well as evocative case studies and stories from her own life to create an original, inspirational guide to emotional healing and spiritual growth.

    Y. Abramovitsh open this collection of the best short works by three influential nineteenth-century Jewish authors. Abra- movitsh's alter ego--Mendele the Book Peddler--introduces himself and narrates both The Little Man and Fishke the Lame. His cast of characters includes Isaac Abraham as tailor's apprentice, choirboy, and corrupt businessman; Mendele's friend Wine 'n' Candles Alter; and Fishke, who travels through the Ukraine with a caravan of beggars.Sholem Aleichem's lively stories reintroduce us to Tevye, the gregarious dairyman, as he describes the pleasures of raising his independent-minded daughters. These are followed by short monologues in which Aleichem gives voice to unforgettable characters from Eastern Europe to the Lower East Side. Finally, I. L. Peretz's neo-hasidic tales draw on hasidic traditions in the service of modern literature.These stories provide an unsentimental look back at Jewish life in Eastern Europe. Although nostalgia occasionally colors their prose, the writers were social critics who understood the shortcomings of shtetl life. For the general reader, these translations breathe new life into the extraordinary worlds of Yiddish literature. The introduction, glossary, and biographical essays contemporaneous to each author put those worlds into context, making the book indispensable to students and scholars of Yiddish culture.

    Chava Rosenfarb, herself a survivor of the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen, draws on her own history to create realistic characters who struggle daily to retain a sense of humanity and dignity despite the physical and psychological effects of ghetto life. Although the novel depicts horrendous experiences, the light of faith in the human spirit shines through this novel’s every page.Winner of the 1972 J. J. Segal Prize and the 1979 Manger Prize for Yiddish Literature

    This amazing book is the only one of its kind in the world. Filled with the secrets and mystical insights of Kabbalah, this is one book you will want to take with you everywhere.

    In Perek Shirah, all components of Creation - natural phenomena, animals, birds, fish - sing their own praises of their Maker. In this beautiful full-color book, each page features a magnificent photo, accompanied by the text and a lyrical translation of that creation's song, and an incisive, stimulating comment that lets us "hear" and absorb the inner meaning of Perek Shirah.Hebrew text with English translation and commentary.

    They appeared in Warsaw in 1933 when Heschel was 26 years old and still a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Berlin. Written between 1927 and 1933 - and never published in English before - this is the intimate spiritual diary of a devout European Jew, loyal to the revelation at Sinai and afflicted with reverence for all human beings.

    Following this model, there would have been one religion known as Judaism before the birth of Christ, which then took on a hybrid identity. Even before its subsequent division, certain beliefs and practices of this composite would have been identifiable as Christian or Jewish.In Border Lines, however, Daniel Boyarin makes a striking case for a very different way of thinking about the historical development that is the partition of Judaeo-Christianity.There were no characteristics or features that could be described as uniquely Jewish or Christian in late antiquity, Boyarin argues. Rather, Jesus-following Jews and Jews who did not follow Jesus lived on a cultural map in which beliefs, such as that in a second divine being, and practices, such as keeping kosher or maintaining the Sabbath, were widely and variably distributed. The ultimate distinctions between Judaism and Christianity were imposed from above by border-makers, heresiologists anxious to construct a discrete identity for Christianity. By defining some beliefs and practices as Christian and others as Jewish or heretical, they moved ideas, behaviors, and people to one side or another of an artificial border--and, Boyarin significantly contends, invented the very notion of religion.

    Including several pieces never published before, this reader aptly captures the broad scope of Wyschogrod's work on Judaism and the Jewish-Christian encounter, collecting seminal essays, articles, and reviews that address such topics as the God of Abraham and the God of philosophy, sin and atonement, Judaism and the land, the Six Day War, Paul on Jews and Gentiles, and the theology of Karl Barth. An introductory essay by editor R. Kendall Soulen sets Wyschogrod's career and writings in context.

    Since only the first of two Hermeneia commentary volumes is now available, this book provides an indispensable translation of the whole work.

    Stretching back to “The Jew from Babylon,” a story first published in Yiddish in 1932, and gathering tales such as “Brother Beetle” and “There Are No Coincidences” from the 1960s, the works in Collected Stories: One Night in Brazil to The Death of Methuselah serve as a retrospective view of Singer’s achievement as a storyteller.Collected Stories: One Night in Brazil to The Death of Methuselah also contains ten stories published in English translation for the first time, selected from the extensive collection of Singer’s papers at the University of Texas. Ranging from “Between Shadows,” an evocative, naturalistic sketch set in Warsaw, to the bittersweet melodrama “Morris and Timna,” to the beguiling fable “Hershele and Hanele, or The Power of a Dream,” these stories enrich our understanding of Singer as a writer. The volume also includes “The Bird,” “My Adventures as an Idealist,” and “Exes,” stories published in magazines that were not included in any of Singer’s collections. Complementing the 78 stories gathered here is the introduction to Gifts (1985), a version of a lecture Singer had delivered since the early 1960s sometimes called “Why I Write as I Do,” which illuminates his biography, philosophical outlook, and literary aims.

    In Lubavitcher Rabbi's Memoirs, Rabbi Yosef Y. Schneersohn, sixth leader of Chabad-Lubavitch, takes us back three centuries, to a time of extreme physical and spiritual hardship for the Jews of Eastern Europe. Here, we meet the heroes, the brilliant scholars and simple cobblers, the princes and dreamers, the giants of spirit that spawned this revolutionary movement. These captivating tales will warm the heart, stir the spirit, and inspire the soul.

    But it underscores Yuri Slezkine's provocative thesis. Not only have Jews adapted better than many other groups to living in the modern world, they have become the premiere symbol and standard of modern life everywhere.Slezkine argues that the Jews were, in effect, among the world's first free agents. They traditionally belonged to a social and anthropological category known as service nomads, an outsider group specializing in the delivery of goods and services. Their role, Slezkine argues, was part of a broader division of human labor between what he calls Mercurians-entrepreneurial minorities--and Apollonians--food-producing majorities.Since the dawning of the Modern Age, Mercurians have taken center stage. In fact, Slezkine argues, modernity is all about Apollonians becoming Mercurians--urban, mobile, literate, articulate, intellectually intricate, physically fastidious, and occupationally flexible. Since no group has been more adept at Mercurianism than the Jews, he contends, these exemplary ancients are now model moderns.The book concentrates on the drama of the Russian Jews, including �migr�s and their offspring in America, Palestine, and the Soviet Union. But Slezkine has as much to say about the many faces of modernity--nationalism, socialism, capitalism, and liberalism--as he does about Jewry. Marxism and Freudianism, for example, sprang largely from the Jewish predicament, Slezkine notes, and both Soviet Bolshevism and American liberalism were affected in fundamental ways by the Jewish exodus from the Pale of Settlement.Rich in its insight, sweeping in its chronology, and fearless in its analysis, this sure-to-be-controversial work is an important contribution not only to Jewish and Russian history but to the history of Europe and America as well.

    Their insistence on following rabbinic form and their statements that Jewish believers need to be in Messianic synagogues in order to maintain their identities are unbiblical. Telchin discusses the growth of this movement, its unscriptural doctrines, and its ineffectiveness in Jewish evangelism. Those who have been swept up by the nostalgia and beauty of "Jewishness" or who have been hurt by division in the Body or who love Israel will find their hearts and minds freed by this firm but loving message.

    Abraham J. Twerski's powerful insights and skilled practicality once again come to the fore as he speaks to couples embarking on their first year of marriage. How strange it is, he remarks in his introduction, that countless hours are spent making arrangement for the wedding and so little time is spent preparing for the marriage itself! Most young couples, the author boldly asserts, will not believe they need a book like this as they contemplate their upcoming perfect marriage. Rabbi Twerski explains at the outset that every couple needs to understand the mechanisms of adjustment and change; that they must be aware of the differences in their upbringings and expectations. These life experiences are neither "right" nor "wrong," but require honest discussion as the marriage takes root and differences surface. Rabbi Twerski's stunning portrayals of everyday situations will make you say, "That's us! How did he know?" He knows because he has counseled thousands of people and he knows the value of advance awareness and solid advice. This is a book that should be read -- and absorbed! -- by engaged couples, newly married couples, and their parents. Taking it to heart will prevent needless aggravation and pave the way to the loving, nurturing, and fulfilling marriage every couple deserves. Rabbi Twerski is the perfect guide through the first crucial stages of marriage to a lifetime of happiness!

    This book presents a challenge to all believers to rediscover the true faith and come out of the confusion left us by our ancestors.

    In addition to the Talmud, one of the classical sources of Jewish mysticism, the Hebrew Bible and the Zohar or Book of Splendor are discussed in an all-embracing synthesis of our earthly individuality to our essential identity with the Absolute.

    This oversized hardcover book makes a beautiful, unique gift, or an informative and valuable addition to any library. The book consists of three parts. First, the timechart,  an accordian-fold diagram, which may be viewed as double-page spreads, as in a conventional book, or unfolded to display as one eleven-foot-long strip. This diagram shows the principal landmarks of Jewish history from the very beginning to the present day. Secondly, on the reverse side of the diagram, readers will find articles on special aspects of Judaism, its history, background, and customs. Thirdly, at the back of the book is an illustrated series of chapters enlarging upon specific stages and certain aspects of Jewish history.

    Rabbi Rapoport combines an unswerving commitment to Jewish Law, teachings and values with a balanced, understanding perspective that has, arguably, been lacking among many in the Orthodox Jewish establishment. This work represents a milestone in understanding an issue at the heart of a great deal of debate, not to mention prejudice and discrimination. It will undoubtedly be a vehicle for future discussion and will serve as a brick in the wall of an increasingly harmonious World Jewish Community. The book combines clearly written prose for instant and easy access with exhaustive endnotes for all those who wish to explore the issue further. Judaism and Homosexuality is the first word on Orthodox attitudes to homosexuality, and will be a 'must have' on the desk of all professionals who find themselves in positions of guidance with the Jewish community.

    The First and Final Commandment begins by defining the internal conflicts that fracture the metaphysical worlds of Judaism and Christianity from within, and indeed, which demand reappraisal of the Judeo-Christian scriptures themselves. Incorporating detailed analysis, this work continues on to document the scriptural evidences that suggest continuity in revelation from Judaism to Christianity and, in the end, to orthodox (Sunni) Islam. Provocative and thought-provoking, intelligent and inspiring, this book enters the melee of two thousand years of religious debate with clarity of vision, accuracy of detail, and common sense conclusions which boldly confront conventional Judeo-Christian conclusions.

    Surprisingly, very little work has been done in this area, beyond exploring the leeway for ad hoc solutions to practical problems as they arise on the halakhic plane. Most Jewish feminist critiques addressing broader theological concerns are conducted by non-Orthodox, Anglo-educated women. Their works attempt to locate in Judaism the root causes for what is allegedly wrong with the past and current state of women and offer suggestions for more fundamental reform. In relying on an avowedly selective range of sources and ignoring the full stock of Judaism's rich interpretive tradition, such studies bypass internal tools and concepts of the existing halakhic establishment and fail to engage the unique religious assumptions of the living community most totally committed to its tenets. Ross believes that this approach--in many ways extrinsic to the reality it purports to affect--has little chance of gaining the type of halakhic or theological credibility crucial for wholehearted acceptance by the Orthodox mainstream. Writing as an insider (herself an Orthodox Jew), Ross confronts the radical feminist critique of Judaism as a religion deeply entrenched in patriarchy. In exposing the largely androcentric thrust of the rabbinic tradition and its biblical grounding, she sees this critique as posing a potential threat to the theological heart of traditional Judaism--the belief in divine revelation. Ross seeks to develop a theological response that fully acknowledges the male bias of Judaism's sanctified texts, yet nevertheless provides a rationale for transforming the relative import and significance of that bias in today's world without undermining their authority. Uncovering aspects of Jewish tradition that support this response, Ross proposes an approach to divine revelation which she calls "cumulativism." Building upon some interesting points of contact between postmodernist thinking and traditional Jewish ideas with regard to the meaning and function of religious language and the significance of context, this approach is based on a conflating of strict boundaries between text and its interpretation, or divine intent and the evolution of human understanding. Ross believes that the greater fluidity afforded by cumulativism in understanding the mechanics of revelation and halakhic deliberation is necessary for legitimizing the insights of feminism and fully absorbing women's changed status within the religious rubric of Jewish tradition. Emphasizing that continuity with tradition can be maintained only when the halakhic system is understood as a living and dynamic organism that grows via affirmation of its historical legacy and respect for its constraints, her book shows that the feminist revolution in Orthodox Judaism reaches beyond its practical effect upon individual lives to teach us something more profound about the nature of religious practice in general.

    Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D. has dedicated his professional life to helping people improve their personal outlook. Through his years of research, writing and lecturing, he has earned recognition as a world-renowned authority on the positive effects of developing self-esteem - and how to do it. In this volume, Dr. Twerski offers a simple, concrete, ten-step program that will give you insight into your own personality and teach you how to improve your mindset for the better. There are no complicated formulas, no sermons - just ten easy steps that will sharpen your focus and help you become the very best person you can be. Joy is an integral part of living a Jewish life, and joy comes from knowing that you have G-d-given abilities. Through Dr. Twerski's practical instructions and uplifting stories, you will feel that a new door has opened. No matter what is happening around you, no matter how perplexing life may be - you will develop the confidence to deal with it. The ten steps are all in this handbook and it's waiting for you to put your best foot forward.

    In The Kabbalah Method, renowned Kabbalist Rav Berg looks to the original spiritual wisdom for answers. This illuminating book, based on decades of study, takes readers on a journey that begins before the universe came into existence, in the infinite, endless realm of total fulfillment and perfection. By understanding the microcosm that is within everyone, says Berg, it is possible to connect with the macrocosm that is the infinite power of the universe, thereby taking that power into oneself and using it to find new meaning in being alive. The Kabbalah Method is addressed to seekers on all levels who want to begin or continue the journey toward deeper understanding. Using the Kabbalistic principles explained here, readers acquire a new sense of self that can transform their inner and outer lives.

    Janet Zandy begins by examining the literal loss of lives to unsafe jobs and occupational hazards. She asks critical and timely questions about worker representation--who speaks for employees when the mills, mines, factories, and even white-collar cubicles shut down? She presents the voices of working-class writers and artists, and discusses their contribution to knowledge and culture.This innovative study reveals the flesh and bone beneath the abstractions of labor, class, and culture. It is an essential contribution to the emerging field of working-class studies, offering a hybrid model for bridging communities and non-academic workers to scholars and institutions of knowledge.

    Not only a study of texts, Language, Eros, Being is perhaps the fullest confrontation of the body in Jewish studies, if not in religious studies as a whole.Elliot R. Wolfson explores the complex gender symbolism that permeates Kabbalistic literature. Focusing on the nexus of asceticism and eroticism, he seeks to define the role of symbolic and poetically charged language in the erotically configured visionary imagination of the medieval Kabbalists. He demonstrates that the traditional Kabbalistic view of gender was a monolithic and androcentric one, in which the feminine was conceived as being derived from the masculine. He does not shrink from the negative implications of this doctrine, but seeks to make an honest acknowledgment of it as the first step toward the redemption of an ancient wisdom.Comparisons with other mystical traditions-including those in Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam-are a remarkable feature throughout the book. They will make it important well beyond Jewish studies, indeed, a must for historians of comparative religion, in particular of comparative mysticism.Praise for Elliot R. Wolfson: Through a Speculum That Shines is an important and provocative contribution to the study of Jewish mysticism by one of the major scholars now working in this field.-Speculum

    Buy Rabbi Berel Wein's "Crash Course in Jewish History" and become knowledgeable in this great story of civilization. The Jewish story is almost 4000 years old. It extends from Abraham leaving Mesopotamia until the return of the Jewish people in our time to the Land of Israel. Rabbi Berel Wein's series of five tapes gives a sense of history to the Jewish story and to the events of all human civilization. The story of biblical Israel, the Babylonian Exile, The Second Temple, the long exile of the Jewish people, the Crusades, the Spanish expulsion, the Renaissance and Reformation, the Enlightenment and Modernism, Zionism, the emigration to North America and the Land of Israel, the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel - all are covered in this informative and educational five-hour tape series. History is our rear view mirror of life. Know the story of your people!

    Drawing on almost thirty years of scholarship, prominent Yiddish scholar Dovid Katz traces the origins of Yiddish back to the Europe of a thousand years ago, and shows how those origins are themselves an uninterrupted continuation of the previous three millennia of Jewish history and culture in the Near East. Words on Fire narrates the history of the language from medieval times onward, through its development as written literature, particularly for and by Jewish women. In the wake of secularizing and modernizing movements of the nineteenth century, Yiddish rose spectacularly in a few short years from a mass folk idiom to the language of sophisticated modern literature, theater, and journalism. Although a secular Yiddish culture no longer exists, Katz argues that its resurgence among religious Jewish communities ensures that Yiddish will still be a thriving language in the twenty-first century. For anyone interested in Jewish history and tradition, Words on Fire will be a definitive account of this remarkable language and the culture that created and sustained it.

    Sammy watches as Josh and his parents build and decorate the little hut. Then as a special treat, Sammy even gets to sleep there under the stars!

    For centuries, the teachings (Torah means "teaching") contained in this sacred 3,500-year-old document have been read aloud in the synagogue and studied privately by those seeking to extract from it meaningful life lessons. Maintaining the sanctity of the Torah scroll is of high priority in Jewish tradition, and to achieve that end many laws have been introduced and customs established. In addition, numerous requirements relating to the writing of the Torah scroll and the reading of the scroll in the synagogue have evolved over time. Following the "why" format he introduced in The Jewish Book of Why, in this volume Rabbi Alfred J. Kolatch addresses hundreds of questions about the Torah rites and rituals that are followed today. He also traces the origins of the Torah and explains the different methods of interpretation and analysis that are used in its study. From why Mount Sinai was chosen as the site of the Revelation, to why a Torah scroll must be written on parchment with a quill, to why non-Jews are permitted to handle a Torah scroll, Rabbi Kolatch explores a wide range of fascinating issues simply, concisely, and straightforwardly. As in his other best-selling books, he makes the information both crystal clear for the layman and reflective of the attitudes and practices of Jews of all denominations. This title was previously issued as This Is the Torah.

    And - it really happened!Let My Nation Serve Me recounts the steps towards Sinai and the drama and exhilaration of Matan Torah, making us feel as if we can visualize Moshe, Aharon, Miriam, and other Biblical figures as though they stand before us. Basing his narrative on the Talmud, Midrashim and commentaries, the author weaves a vivd and gripping tapestry that portrays the Jews' desert life and the singular event of Revelation as never before. We view the Sea of Reeds in its eerie calm, the day after the drowning of the Egyptian army; experience the bloodthirsty attack of Amalek; see the Heavenly tumult and hear the Ten Commandments; despair as the Golden Calf rises to ensnare the Jewish people in sin; and finally, relive unbounded joy and thankfulness when Divine forgiveness gives us back the Tablets of the Law, our lives and our future as His people.This is more than a story. Let My Nation Serve Me is a trip back in time, to when the Jewish nation was forged in the desert - and we are there!

    and moves to the present. This reader provides original texts as examples of the major developments and principal approaches to interpreting the Bible. It also introduces these methods and the authors who exemplify them. Bibliographic references direct students to further resources.

    John Rose shows how this powerful political force is based in mythology; ancient, medieval and modern. Many of these stories, as with other mythologies, have no basis in fact. However, because Zionism is a living political force, these myths have been used to justify very real and political ends -- namely, the expulsion and continuing persecution of the Palestinians.Rose scrutinises the roots of the myths of Zionism. Mobilising recent scholarship, he separates fact from fiction presenting a detailed analysis of their origins and development. This includes a challenge to Zionism's biblical claims using very recent and very startling Israeli archaeological conclusions.This book shows clearly how Zionism makes many false claims on Jewish religion and history.

    Ordinary Germans in Extraordinary Times is a carefully drawn account of how townspeople went about their lives and reacted to events during the Nazi era. Andrew Stuart Bergerson argues that ordinary Germans did in fact make Germany and Europe more fascist, more racist, and more modern during the 1930s, but they disguised their involvement behind a pre-existing veil of normalcy.Bergerson details a way of being, believing, and behaving by which "ordinary Germans" imagined their powerlessness and absence of responsibility even as they collaborated in the Nazi revolution. He builds his story on research that includes anecdotes of everyday life collected systematically from newspapers, literature, photography, personal documents, public records, and especially extensive interviews with a representative sample of residents born between 1900 and 1930.The book considers the actual customs and experiences of friendship and neighborliness in a German town before, during, and after the Third Reich. By analyzing the customs of conviviality in interwar Hildesheim, and the culture of normalcy these customs invoked, Bergerson aims to help us better understand how ordinary Germans transformed "neighbors" into "Jews" or "Aryans."

    

    Himself or herself the quintessential Other in a world in which she or he has existed dispersed, in exile, as a minority, the Jew has consistently envisioned the self in relation to surrounding societies. Esther Benbassa and Jean-Christophe Attias show that alterity is a useful and morally compelling notion with which to structure Judaism's historically specific and politically charged encounters with deity, femininity, the Christian West, and the Muslim East.In Benbassa and Attias's view, the Other may be rejected, but it is also a mirror, both reminding the Jew of ethical duties and constituting a source of temptation and danger. Sometimes, the authors find, the Other is the enemy. They note that it is with the enemy that peace is made, peace with the Other and peace with the self. The Jew and the Other, which is an extended commentary on a dozen Biblical verses and which follows the five books of the Pentateuch, offers the history of that encounter as an inextricable part of the Jewish condition and is itself a meditation on this encounter.

    While most such memoirs have dealt with experiences in concentration camps, those in this collection are by survivors--children who overcame the Nazi persecution while they were very young. The stories, collected in this book, bubbled up spontaneously, without an interviewer's guidance; hence they represent the most permanent memories of their authors' childhood experiences. The survivors wrote their own stories; hence this book provides a rare vantage point for the reader to look into the diverse lives of children during the Holocaust. Both professionals and adult survivors have often said, "The children were too young to remember." They could not have been more wrong about that. "...the reader will find evidence that children were spared nothing in the Holocaust. The stories will describe children separated from parents to be sent to safe, though not nurturing, countries; of children who survived concentration camps; children who were hidden; children who survived starvation, ghettoes, bullets, bombs, murder, separation, everything the shoah threw at adults... "I was struck by the fact that the stories were not bitter, they did not seek revenge. I found the underlying thread in the purpose of the stories to be gifts to the world, given in the hope that the stories and the anthology would contribute to other children not having to suffer such events in the future" --Paul Valent, M.D., Melbourne, Australia Dr. Valent is a psychiatrist and author of Child Survivors of the Holocaust (1994, 2002)"These testimonies disclose in poignant detail the devastating agony Jewish children throughout Europe experienced during the Holocaust: separation from families, frequent abandonment, starvation and illness, psychological isolation, and the loss of innocence. Each survivor's story offers not only powerful evidence of Nazi brutality but also conveys the lasting trauma

    In a series of lyrical essays organized aound the Jewish calendar, the author engages with morla and theological questions, such as the relationship between God and the Holocaust, humanity's responsiblity for its actions, and the transcience of life.

    The manner in which this split has been imagined and represented in Western civilization has been the subject of intense cross-disciplinary scrutiny, much of it under the rubric of “orientalism.” This debate, sparked by the 1978 publication of Edward Said’s Orientalism identifies the “Orient” as the Islamic world and to a lesser extent Hindu India. “Orientalism” signifies the way the West imagined this terrain. Going beyond Said’s framework, in their introduction to the volume, Kalmar and Penslar argue that orientalism is based on the Christian West’s attempts to understand and manage its relations with both of its monotheistic Others—Muslims and Jews. According to the editors, Jews have almost always been present whenever occidentals talked about or imagined the East; and the Western image of the Muslim Orient has been formed and continues to be formed in inextricable conjunction with Western perceptions of the Jewish people. Bringing together essays by an array of international scholars in a wide range of disciplines, Orientalism and the Jews demonstrates that, since the Middle Ages, Jews have been seen in the Western world as both occidental and oriental. Jews formed the model for medieval depictions of Muslim warriors. Representations of biblical Jews in early modern Europe provided essential sustenance for Western fictions about the Muslim world. And many of the Western protagonists of imperialism “discovered” real or imaginary Jews wherever their expeditions took them. Today orientalist attitudes by Israelis target not only Arabs but also the mizrahi (“oriental”) Israelis with roots in the Arab world as Others.

    The experience of eighteenth-century Jews in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth did not fit the pattern of integration and universalization—in short, of westernization—that historians tend to place at the origins of Jewish modernity. Hundert puts this experience, that of the majority of the Jewish people, at the center of his history. He focuses on the relations of Jews with the state and their role in the economy, and on more "internal" developments such as the popularization of the Kabbalah and the rise of Hasidism. Thus he describes the elements of Jewish experience that became the basis for a "core Jewish identity"—an identity that accompanied the majority of Jews into modernity.

    Biographer Elisa Klapheck shows how Jonas overcame formidable resistance and obstacles from conventional orthodox Jewish institutions to become the first female rabbi. The book includes the text of Jonas's definitive treatise on why women can indeed become rabbis, which is based on sound scripture from the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, and other precedents in Jewish halachic law, rabbinic commentary, and Jewish practice. After her ordination in 1935, Jonas spent the remaining years of her life ministering to the abused and terrified German Jewish community as the Nazis rapidly restricted and robbed it of property, identity, and social privilege, forcing the Jews into hard labor, poverty, and ultimately death camps. This moving portrayal of her life reveals Regina Jonas as a humorous and passionate woman who was deeply beloved by all she served during the terminal crisis of their lives.

    Avraham Grossman covers multiple aspects of women’s lives in medieval Jewish society, including the image of woman, the structure of the family unit, age at marriage, position in family and society, her place in economic and religious life, her education, her role in family ceremonies, violence against women, and the position of the divorcée and the widow in society. Grossman shows that the High Middle Ages saw a distinct improvement in the status of Jewish women in Europe relative to their status during the Talmudic period and in Muslim countries. If, during the twelfth century, rabbis applauded women as "pious and pure" because of their major role in the martyrdom of the Crusades of 1096, then by the end of the thirteenth century, rabbis complained that women were becoming bold and rebellious. Two main factors fostered this change: first, the transformation of Jewish society from agrarian to "bourgeois," with women performing an increasingly important function in the family economy; and second, the openness toward women in Christian Europe, where women were not subjected to strict limitations based upon conceptions of modesty, as was the case in Muslim countries. The heart of Grossman’s book concerns the improvement of Jewish women’s lot, and the efforts of secular and religious authorities to impede their new-found status. Bringing together a variety of sources including halakhic literature, biblical and talmudic exegesis, ethical literature and philosophy, love songs, folklore and popular literature, gravestones, and drawings, Grossman’s book reconstructs the hitherto unrecorded lives of Jewish women during the Middle Ages.

    How to chant the Torah? Check. Choose a synagogue? Check. Visit the sick? Check. Interpret dreams? Check. The two rabbis lay out instructions in steps and include "instant information" sections that provide data that can be hard to track down, such as prohibited and permitted foods, the Hebrew calendar, and the Seven Laws of Noah. Illustrated in b&w. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

    Elie Wiesel says, Poetry and mysticism are magnificently reconciled in Allen Afterman s book on Kabbalah s secret imagery and silent invocations. Here also is Afterman s poetry, described by Yehuda Amichai as an almost private religious poetry for our post-religious age. The book includes an important interview with the author."

    She provides an example of a Christian thinker deeply engaged in the debates of her own day, and her work offers models and insights for addressing the questions of the twenty-first century.Sarah Borden presents an overview of St Edith Stein's life and thought, beginning with her biography. She then covers her early work in phenomenology, her political writings, her studies on women and women's education, as well her later turn to medieval metaphysics, and spiritual and religious texts. The final chapter covers the controversies surrounding Stein's beatification and canonization.Arranged by topic and proceeding largely in chronological order, the book is accessible and aimed at a general audience, although the material is presented in such a way as to be useful to specialists.

    As these discoveries are published and old material is reevaluated, we get clearer glimpses into real life as it was at the time that the New Testament was written. "The New Testament in Its First Century Setting" brings together an international group of scholars responsible for much of this cutting-edge research. In opening a window on the world of the New Testament, the authors draw on a wide range of disciplines: ancient history, archaeology, sociology, papyrology, and linguistics alongside copious treatment of ancient literature and rigorous theological reflection. These twenty-one studies cover every major part of the New Testament corpus — the Gospels, Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation — and deal with subjects ranging from the linguistic background to Jesus' dereliction cry on the cross to the relationship between Rome and the seven churches of Revelation 2-3. In addition, each essay uses material from outside of the New Testament to make an original contribution to our knowledge of the biblical texts themselves. Presenting the state of the art in New Testament studies, "The New Testament in Its First Century Setting" is a fitting tribute to Bruce W. Winter, warden of Tyndale House in Cambridge, England. The volume includes a foreword by John B. Taylor, chairman of the Tyndale House Council, and a list of Bruce Winter's publications. Contributors: Paul Barnett, D. A. Carson, Andrew D. Clarke, Conrad Gempf, David W. J. Gill, Peter M. Head, David Instone-Brewer, E. A. Judge, Andreas J. Köstenberger, Irina Levinskaya, Bruce W. Longenecker, I. Howard Marshall, Alan Millard, Alanna Nobbs, Peter T. O'Brien, David Peterson, Brian S. Rosner, Peter Walker, Steve Walton, Rikki Watts, P. J. Williams.