With liberal democracy embattled, public discourse grown toxic, family life breaking down, and drug abuse and depression on the rise, many fear what the future holds. In Morality, respected faith leader and public intellectual Jonathan Sacks traces today's crisis to our loss of a strong, shared moral code and our elevation of self-interest over the common good. We have outsourced morality to the market and the state, but neither is capable of showing us how to live. Sacks leads readers from ancient Greece to the Enlightenment to the present day to show that there is no liberty without morality and no freedom without responsibility, arguing that we all must play our part in rebuilding a common moral foundation. A major work of moral philosophy, Morality is an inspiring vision of a world in which we can all find our place and face the future without fear.

    The contemporary renewal of Jewish anarchism draws on a history of antisemitism, enslavement, displacement, white supremacy, and genocide as well as ancestral resistance, strength, imagination, and humor--all qualities, and wisdom, sorely needed today. These essays, many written from feministic and queer perspectives, journey into ancestral and contemporary trauma in ways that are humanizing and healing. They build bridges from bittersweet grief to rebellion and joy. Through concrete illustrations of how Jewish anarchists imaginatively create their own ritual, cultural, and political practices, they clearly illuminate the path toward mending ourselves and the world.

    He helps the reader really listen to the Torah carefully, lovingly, and attentively. The reader's reward is the chance to perceive the richness in the Torah many of us had never imagined was there, and to be touched deeply by a close encounter with the words of our Maker.

    

    It is a way of thinking about life, a constellation of ideas. One might think that the ideas Judaism introduced into the world have become part of the common intellectual heritage of humankind, at least of the West. Yet this is not the case. Some of them have been lost over time; others the West never fully understood. Yet these ideas remain as important as ever before, and perhaps even more so. In this inspiring work, Rabbi Sacks introduces his readers to one Life-Changing Idea from each of the weekly parashot.

    A collection of first-person poetry and prose designed to break the observant Jewish community's taboo against open discussion of female sexuality

    . . . A cogent consideration of the place of religion in the modern world."— Kirkus Reviews Zionism began as a movement full of contradictions, between a pull to the past and a desire to forge a new future. Israel has become a place of fragmentation, between those who sanctify religious tradition and those who wish to escape its grasp. Now a new middle ground is emerging between religious and secular Jews who want to engage with their heritage—without being restricted by it or losing it completely.   In this incisive book, acclaimed author Micah Goodman explores Israeli Judaism and the conflict between religion and secularism, one of the major causes of political polarization throughout the world. Revisiting traditional religious sources and seminal works of secularism, he reveals that each contains an openness to learn from the other’s messages. Goodman challenges both orthodoxies, proposing a new approach to bridge the divide between religion and secularism and pave a path toward healing a society torn asunder by extremism.

    Among the passages analyzed are the creation story, the role of Adam and Eve, the suffering servant passages in Isaiah, the sign of "Jonah" Jesus refers to, and the words Jesus quotes from Psalm 22 as he is dying on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Comparing Jewish, Christian, and academic interpretations of each ancient narrative, Levine and Brettler offer a deeper understanding of these contrasting faiths, and illuminate the  historical and literary significance of the Bible and its place in our culture. Revealing not only what Jews and Christians can learn from each other, The Bible With or Without Jesus also shows how to appreciate the distinctive perspectives of each. By understanding the depth and variety of reading these passages, we not only enhance our knowledge of each other, but also see more clearly the beauty and power of Scripture itself.

    

    From the vast emigration of Jews out of Eastern Europe to the Holocaust to the creation of Israel, the twentieth century transformed Jewish life. The same was true of Jewish writing: the novels, plays, poems, and memoirs of Jewish writers provided intimate access to new worlds of experience.Kirsch surveys four themes that shaped the twentieth century in Jewish literature and culture: Europe, America, Israel, and the endeavor to reimagine Judaism as a modern faith. With discussions of major books by over thirty writers—ranging from Franz Kafka to Philip Roth, Elie Wiesel to Tony Kushner, Hannah Arendt to Judith Plaskow—he argues that literature offers a new way to think about what it means to be Jewish in the modern world. With a wide scope and diverse, original observations, Kirsch draws fascinating parallels between familiar writers and their less familiar counterparts. While everyone knows the diary of Anne Frank, for example, few outside of Israel have read the diary of Hannah Senesh. Kirsch sheds new light on the literature of the Holocaust through the work of Primo Levi, explores the emergence of America as a Jewish home through the stories of Bernard Malamud, and shows how Yehuda Amichai captured the paradoxes of Israeli identity.An insightful and engaging work from "one of America’s finest literary critics" (Wall Street Journal), The Blessing and the Curse brings the Jewish experience vividly to life.

    Giving voice to the private and public sectors of queer Jewish experience, Mishkan Ga'avah is also a commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of both the Stonewall Riots and the first pride march, reflecting the longtime advocacy of the Reform Movement for full LGBTQ inclusion.

    There we were - a hit. Our youngest member has written this altogether delightful recounting of the experience. Samantha Hahn is not only a gifted performer but a delightful documentarian; she takes you through our auditions, rehearsals, backstage life, mishaps, and relationships, and shares stories and intimate thoughts from the entire team. Come, sit in on a rehearsal or two..." Joel Grey

    These objects offer intimate and tangible views into the lives of Jewish American women from a range of statuses, beliefs, and lifestyles—both rich and poor, Sephardi and Ashkenazi, slaves and slaveowners. Each chapter creates a biography of a single woman through an object, offering a new methodology that looks past texts alone to material culture in order to further understand early Jewish American women’s lives and restore their agency as creators of Jewish identity. While much of the available history was written by men, the objects that Leibman studies were made for and by Jewish women. Speaking to American Jewish life, women’s studies, and American history, The Art of the Jewish Family sheds new light on the lives and values of these women, while also revealing the social and religious structures that led to Jewish women being erased from historical archives.

    Nineteenth-century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard viewed the story as teaching suspension of ethics for the sake of faith, and subsequent Jewish thinkers developed this idea as a cornerstone of their religious worldview. Aaron Koller examines and critiques Kierkegaard’s perspective—and later incarnations of it—on textual, religious, and ethical grounds. He also explores the current of criticism of Abraham in Jewish thought, from ancient poems and midrashim to contemporary Israel narratives, as well as Jewish responses to the Akedah over the generations. Finally, bringing together these multiple strands of thought—along with modern knowledge of human sacrifice in the Phoenician world—Koller offers an original reading of the Akedah. The biblical God would like to want child sacrifice—because it is in fact a remarkable display of devotion—but more than that, he does not want child sacrifice because it would violate the child’s autonomy. Thus, the high point in the drama is not the binding of Isaac but the moment when Abraham is told to release him. The Torah does not allow child sacrifice, though by contrast, some of Israel’s neighbors viewed it as a religiously inspiring act. The binding of Isaac teaches us that an authentically religious act cannot be done through the harm of another human being.

    He killed eleven people and injured six more in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history. The story made national headlines for weeks following the shooting, but Pittsburgh and the local Jewish community could not simply move on when the news cycle did. The essays in this anthology, written by local journalists, academics, rabbis, and other community members, reveal a city’s attempts to cope, make sense of, and come to terms with an unfathomable horror. Here, members from the three impacted congregations are able to reflect on their experiences in a raw, profound way. Local reporters who wrote about the event professionally contribute stories that they were unable to articulate until now. Activists consider their work at a calm distance from the chaotic intensity of their daily efforts. Academics mesh their professional expertise with their personal experiences of this shattering event in their hometown. Rabbis share their process of crafting comforting messages for their constituents when they themselves felt hopeless. By bringing local voices together into a chorus, they are raised over the din of national and international chroniclers who offer important contributions but do not and cannot feel the intensity of this tragedy in the same way as locals. The essays in this anthology tell a collective story of city shaken to its very core, but determined that love will ultimately win. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will go to Jewish Family and Community Service of Pittsburgh, which serves individuals and families of all faiths throughout the Greater Pittsburgh community.

    While they no longer believe that God gave the Torah to Jews at Mount Sinai, these hidden heretics continue to live in their families and religious communities, even as they surreptitiously break Jewish commandments and explore forbidden secular worlds in person and online. Drawing on five years of fieldwork with those living double lives and the rabbis, life coaches, and religious therapists who minister to, advise, and sometimes excommunicate them, Ayala Fader investigates religious doubt and social change in the digital age.The internet, which some ultra-Orthodox rabbis call more threatening than the Holocaust, offers new possibilities for the age-old problem of religious uncertainty. Fader shows how digital media has become a lightning rod for contemporary struggles over authority and truth. She reveals the stresses and strains that hidden heretics experience, including the difficulties their choices pose for their wives, husbands, children, and, sometimes, lovers. In following those living double lives, who range from the religiously observant but open-minded on one end to atheists on the other, Fader delves into universal quandaries of faith and skepticism, the ways digital media can change us, and family frictions that arise when a person radically transforms who they are and what they believe.In stories of conflicts between faith and self-fulfillment, Hidden Heretics explores the moral compromises and divided loyalties of individuals facing life-altering crossroads.

    

    

    In this masterful book, winner of the 2020 National Jewish Book Award in the Con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish Life and Practice category, Arthur Green calls out to seekers of all sorts, offering a universal response to the eternal human questions of who we are, why we exist, where we are going, and how to live.   Drawing on over half a century as a Jewish seeker and teacher, he shows us a Judaism that cultivates the life of the spirit, that inspires an inward journey leading precisely toward self-transcendence, to an awareness of the universal Self in whose presence we exist. As a neo-hasidic seeker, he is both devotional and boldly questioning in his understanding of God and tradition. Engaging with the mystical sources, he translates the insights of the Hasidic masters into a new religious language accessible to all those eager to build an inner life and a human society that treasures the divine spark in each person and throughout Creation.

    A Jewish golem woman created in 1920 spends 100 years on a journey to reveal her soul through her relationships with other women and theatre.

    A wise and trusted Jewish courtier expands his platform of influence, and a vulnerable minority facing death becomes a powerful people in a land not their own. Dr. Erica Brown offers us a close textual and thematic reading of this beloved story of courage and heroism against a background of hate and political ineptitude. This ancient story sheds its light on today's most pressing problems: contemporary antisemitism, sexual tyranny and the absence of leadership.

    Still, small yet resilient Jewish communities continue to endure and thrive around the world—sometimes in the most unlikely places, and often in the face of extreme persecution. Journalist Annika Hernroth-Rothstein has spent two years of her life uncovering the hidden beauty of these largely forgotten Jewish enclaves. Drawing from her personal experience of growing up as a Jew in a tiny village in Sweden, Annika brings brilliant life to the history, culture, and most importantly, the fascinating people she’s met on her journey. Part sociology, part history lesson, and always a love letter to the Jewish people, Exile is an indispensable guide to rediscovering forgotten pieces of a rich Jewish history. Some of the countries explored include Sweden, Finland, Cuba, Turkey, Colombia, Iran, Tunisia, Morocco, Russia (Siberia), and Uzbekistan.

    For over four decades, Richard Schwartz has engaged with two ethically rich ways of living that, as he charts in this book, he came to appreciate in middle age: Judaism and veganism. Having been born into a secular Jewish family, it was his marriage and an increasing commitment to social justice that propelled him to study and rediscover the essence of his Jewish faith. That sense of social justice further raised his awareness of the environmental movement, and, ultimately, to animal rights and veganism. In Vegan Revolution: Saving Our World, Revitalizing Judaism, Schwartz shows how, now perhaps more than ever, veganism offers a pathway for all of us of whatever faith (or no faith) to reduce hunger, conserve the environment, save water, reinstitute justice, and care for animals and the Earth. It is no coincidence, as Schwartz demonstrates, that many of these ideas are mandates in Jewish scripture, and that reincorporating a care for the world (tikkun olam) can itself reinvigorate the spirit of a faith and galvanize its practitioners to act. “This pioneering book by Richard Schwartz, the world’s greatest living authority on the teachings of Judaism on protecting animals and nature, provides nothing short of the revolution in our way of thinking and acting that is now required in efforts to avert a climate catastrophe and other environmental disasters. This compelling, magisterial book is a must read. Its message must be heeded. Our future depends on it.”—Lewis Regenstein, author Replenish the Earth

    

    During World War II, Nazi leadership recognized the power of music and chose to harness it with malevolence, using its power to push their own agenda and systematically stripping it away from the Jewish people and other populations they sought to disempower. But music also emerged as a counterpoint to this hate, withstanding Nazi attempts to exploit or silence it. Artistic expression triumphed under oppressive regimes elsewhere as well, including the horrific siege of Leningrad and in Japanese internment camps in the Pacific. The oppressed stubbornly clung to music, wherever and however they could, to preserve their culture, to uplift the human spirit and to triumph over oppression, even amid incredible tragedy and suffering. This volume draws together the musical connections and individual stories from this tragic time through scholarly literature, diaries, letters, memoirs, compositions, and art pieces. Collectively, they bear witness to the power of music and offer a reminder to humanity of the imperative each faces to not only remember, but to prevent another such cataclysm.

    Boccaccini’s work in reestablishing Paul as a messenger of God’s mercy to sinners is an important contribution to the ongoing conversation about Paul’s place in the contemporary pluralistic world.

    It’s a time not only to remember the past but also to make the Seder experience relevant, relatable, and personal, incorporating new and up-to-date interpretations and interests. It doesn’t matter if you’ve read the entire Talmud ten times in Aramaic or if your religious education consists of a few episodes of Seinfeld—The Unorthodox Haggadah is for everyone. It’s about making the Seder experience one’s own. Ask the Four Questions in Hebrew or English. Learn about the Ten Plagues and “The Modern Ten Plagues” as told by Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan. Other contributions include “My Big Gay Seder Wedding” by Wayne Hoffman, Tablet’s executive editor, and “The Blessings of an Interfaith Passover” by Molly Yeh, award-winning food blogger. Sing “Dayenu” together and take turns answering the question “What do you have in your life that, if you had nothing else, would be enough?” Encouraging messages can be found throughout the book, including a very important one that follows the second cup of wine, which is “Take a big, happy sip. Food is nearly at hand.” Original illustrations round out this beautiful package. From start to finish, the Seder is a joyful gathering that will only be enhanced by this special keepsake.

    

    As she searched through photos from local shelters, one gaunt feline caught her eye. Despite being caged, he retained the spiritual beauty of face and dignity of bearing that mark a great soul. As he settled into his new homeƒ‚‚"ƒ‚‚€ƒ‚‚"purring at the Hebrew volumes in Adler's rabbinic library, nodding attentively to the mezzuzot on the doorposts, and engaging in soulful meditation three times each dayƒ‚‚"ƒ‚‚€ƒ‚‚"it became clear that he was no ordinary kitty. Over the years, these eccentric practices revealed him to be a Hasidic master reincarnated to a higher level in the form of a gray tabby. This whimsical and engaging book began as several years of Adler's Facebook posts describing the idiosyncrasies of her peculiar cat, whom she called the Holy Mysticat. He became a holy teacher of sorts, leading her and her online friends on a journey through thousands of years of Jewish spiritual texts and p

    Not knowing what lies ahead Beatrice heads out for some tween entertainment. Instead, she may have met someone new, Ralph. Ralph was also talked into chaperoning the event. He was losing all hope of having fun until he met Beatrice. Can one night start a new relationship and keep the dreidel spinning?***This was originally apart of a holiday anthology from Dec 2019***

    In the centuries after the conquests of Alexander the Great, however, we find an explosion of explicit and systematic interest in, and detailed discussions of, demons and angels. In this book, Annette Yoshiko Reed considers the third century BCE as a critical moment for the beginnings of Jewish angelology and demonology. Drawing on early 'pseudepigrapha' and Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls, she reconstructs the scribal settings in which transmundane powers became a topic of concerted Jewish interest. Reed also situates this development in relation to shifting ideas about scribes and writing across the Hellenistic Near East. Her book opens a window onto a forgotten era of Jewish literary creativity that nevertheless deeply shaped the discussion of angels and demons in Judaism and Christianity.

    But some of those who had survived the Nazi genocide returned to their hometowns and tried to start their lives anew. Lukasz Krzyzanowski recounts the story of this largely forgotten group of Holocaust survivors. Focusing on Radom, an industrial city about sixty miles south of Warsaw, he tells the story of what happened throughout provincial Poland as returnees faced new struggles along with massive political, social, and legal change.Non-Jewish locals mostly viewed the survivors with contempt and hostility. Many Jews left immediately, escaping anti-Semitic violence inflicted by new communist authorities and ordinary Poles. Those who stayed created a small, isolated community. Amid the devastation of Poland, recurring violence, and bureaucratic hurdles, they tried to start over. They attempted to rebuild local Jewish life, recover their homes and workplaces, and reclaim property appropriated by non-Jewish Poles or the state. At times they turned on their own. Krzyzanowski recounts stories of Jewish gangs bent on depriving returnees of their prewar possessions and of survivors shunned for their wartime conduct.The experiences of returning Jews provide important insights into the dynamics of post-genocide recovery. Drawing on a rare collection of documents--including the postwar Radom Jewish Committee records, which were discovered by the secret police in 1974--Ghost Citizens is the moving story of Holocaust survivors and their struggle to restore their lives in a place that was no longer home.

    As she traveled across the country to homes, craft conventions, synagogue knitting circles, and craftivist actions, she joined in the making, asked questions, and contemplated her own family stories. Jewish Americans, many of them women, are creating ritual challah covers and prayer shawls, ink, clay, or wood pieces, and other articles for family, friends, or Jewish charities. But they are doing much more: armed with perhaps only a needle and thread, they are reckoning with Jewish identity in a fragile and dangerous world.The work of these crafters embodies a vital Judaism that may lie outside traditional notions of Jewishness, but, Eichler-Levine argues, these crafters are as much engaged as any Jews in honoring and nurturing the fortitude, memory, and community of the Jewish people. Craftmaking is nothing less than an act of generative resilience that fosters survival. Whether taking place in such groups as the Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework or the Jewish Hearts for Pittsburgh, or in a home studio, these everyday acts of creativity--yielding a needlepoint rabbi, say, or a handkerchief embroidered with the Hebrew words tikkun olam--are a crucial part what makes a religious life.

    His insights into Hebrew scriptures and the Jewish heritage of the Christian faith will be a blessing to all who want to learn." --Steve Gillen, Pastor, Willow Creek Community ChurchWhen Christians learn about Jewish tradition and history, they see the Bible and the life of Jesus with a new and enriched perspective. Knowing more about Judaism brings them closer to Jesus because Jesus lived and died as a Jew and consistently quoted the Jewish scripture and stories.In this book Evan Moffic, popular rabbi, author, and guide to Jewish wisdom for people of all faiths, continues the What Every Christian Needs to Know About series with an exploration of the wisdom and traditions of Judaism. Rabbi Moffic provides answers to hundreds of questions he receives about Judaism to provide a deeper understanding of the roots shared by Christians and Jews.Through this book's explorations, readers will learn insights of the great Jewish sages to live a richer and more meaningful life, soak up the wisdom and traditions of Judaism, and a develop closer relationship with God."My hope is that these teachings can serve as a way of fostering bonds focused not on the past and the troubled history between Jews and Christians, but rather one looking forward to a future in which we share wisdom with one another."- Rabbi Evan MofficProduct Features:A popular rabbi explores Jewish wisdom and traditions for Christian readers. Topics explored include: Jewish texts, spiritual life, holidays and events, and others. Highlights intersections of the Jewish and Christian faith that give deeper meaning to reading the Bible.

    . . . A discerning portrait of the writer and his times."— Kirkus Reviews "Prochnik provides a jaunty narrative of Heine’s schooldays in Bonn and Göttingen, journalistic career in Berlin, and twenty-five-year exile in Paris, detailing his literary feuds, scraps with censors, and unwavering belief in political liberty."— New Yorker Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) was a virtuoso German poet, satirist, and visionary humanist whose dynamic life story and strikingly original writing are ripe for rediscovery.   In this vividly imagined exploration of Heine’s life and work, George Prochnik contextualizes Heine’s biography within the different revolutionary political, literary, and philosophical movements of his age. He also explores the insights Heine offers contemporary readers into issues of social justice, exile, and the role of art in nurturing a more equitable society.   Heine wrote that in his youth he resembled “a large newspaper of which the upper half contained the present, each day with its news and debates, while in the lower half, in a succession of dreams, the poetic past was recorded fantastically like a series of feuilletons.”   This book explores the many dualities of Heine’s nature, bringing to life a fully dimensional character while also casting into sharp relief the reasons his writing and personal story matter urgently today.

    So argues Mark Sameth in The Name.Needless to say, this is no small claim. Half the people on the planet are followers of one of the three Abrahamic religions--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--each of which has roots in the ancient cult that worshiped this deity. The author's evidence, however, is compelling and his case meticulously constructed.The Hebrew name of God--YHWH--has not been uttered in public for over two thousand years. Some thought the lost pronunciation was "Jehovah" or "Yahweh." But Sameth traces the name to the late Bronze Age and argues that it was expressed Hu-Hi--Hebrew for "He-She." Among Jewish mystics, we learn, this has long been an open secret.What are the implications for us today if "he" was not God?

    

    

    All quotations are from The Hebrew Bible: A Translation and Commentary by Robert Alter.Themes essential emotional, mental, physical, social themes that define the heroine's narrative or role.Midrash a modern commentary, uplifting the voice of the biblical heroine without attempting to neutralise their imperfections, flaws or struggles.Prompts meaningful questions arising from her story, to inspire further reflection for women today.Food Offerings two plant-based recipes developed to honour the biblical heroines.This is a community cookbook by Kenden Alfond and is the co-creation of 40 Jewish women. The twenty biblical narratives are contributed by Rabbis, Rabbinical students, Jewish teachers and emerging thought leaders. The forty-one plant-based recipes were developed by professional chefs, homecooks who are elementary school students, and great-grandmothers.

    So how do we create faithful, Christian interpretations of Isaiah for today while respecting the interpretations of our Jewish neighbors? Integrating biblical scholarship with pastoral concern, Tyler Mayfield invites readers to view Isaiah through two lenses. He demonstrates using near vision to see how the Christian liturgical season of Advent shapes readings of Isaiah and using far vision to clarify our relationship to Jews and Judaism—showing along the way how near vision and far vision are both required to read Isaiah clearly and responsibly.

    In Degrees of Separation, Schneur Zalman Newfield, who went through this process himself, interviews seventy-four Lubavitch and Satmar ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jews who left their communities.He presents their motivations for leaving as well as how they make sense of their experiences and their processes of exiting, detailing their attitudes and opinions regarding their religious upbringing. Newfield also examines how these exiters forge new ways of being that their upbringing had not prepared them for, while also considering what these particular individuals lose and retain in the exit process.Degrees of Separation presents a comprehensive portrait of the prolonged state of being “in-between” that characterizes transition out of a totalizing worldview. What Newfield discovers is that exiters experience both a sense of independence and a persistent connection; they are not completely dislocated from their roots once they “arrive” at their new destination. Moreover, Degrees of Separation shows that this process of transitioning identity has implications beyond religion.

    

    Tuling elucidates many compelling—and contrasting—ways of thinking about God in Jewish tradition.Thinking about God addresses the genuinely intertextual nature of evolving Jewish God concepts. Just as in Jewish thought the Bible and other historical texts are living documents, still present and relevant to the conversation unfolding now, and just as a Jewish theologian examining a core concept responds to the full tapestry of Jewish thought on the subject all at once, this book is organized topically, covers Jewish sources (including liturgy) from the biblical to the postmodern era, and highlights the interplay between texts over time, up through our own era. A highly accessible resource for introductory students, Thinking about God also makes important yet challenging theological texts understandable. By breaking down each selected text into its core components, Tuling helps the reader absorb it both on its own terms and in the context of essential theological questions of the ages. Readers of all backgrounds will discover new ways to contemplate God. Access a study guide.

    

    New Testament studies, which developed contemporaneously with Europe’s colonial expansion and racial ideologies, is, David Horrell argues, therefore an important site at which to probe critically these ideological constructions and their contemporary implications. In Ethnicity and Inclusion, Horrell explores the ways in which “ethnic” (and “religious”) characteristics feature in key Jewish and early Christian texts, challenging the widely accepted dichotomy between a Judaism that is ethnically defined and a Christianity that is open and inclusive. Then, through an engagement with whiteness studies, he offers a critique of the implicit whiteness and Christianness that continue to dominate New Testament studies today, arguing that a diversity of embodied perspectives is epistemologically necessary.