Book picks similar to
Shaarei Halachah by Zev Greenwald


judaism
jewish
learning-list
religion-and-philosophy

How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now


James L. Kugel - 2007
    Now in its tenth year of publication, the book remains the clearest, most inviting and readable guide to the Hebrew Bible around—and a profound meditation on the effect that modern biblical scholarship has had on traditional belief.Moving chapter by chapter, Harvard professor James Kugel covers the Bible’s most significant stories—the Creation of the world, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and his wives, Moses and the exodus, David’s mighty kingdom, plus the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the other prophets, and on to the Babylonian conquest and the eventual return to Zion.Throughout, Kugel contrasts the way modern scholars understand these events with the way Christians and Jews have traditionally understood them. The latter is not, Kugel shows, a naïve reading; rather, it is the product of a school of sophisticated interpreters who flourished toward the end of the biblical period. These highly ideological readers sought to put their own spin on texts that had been around for centuries, utterly transforming them in the process. Their interpretations became what the Bible meant for centuries and centuries—until modern scholarship came along. The question that this book ultimately asks is: What now? As one reviewer wrote, Kugel’s answer provides “a contemporary model of how to read Sacred Scripture amidst the oppositional pulls of modern scholarship and tradition.”

The Book of J


Harold Bloom - 1988
    In The Book of J, Bloom & Rosenberg draw the J text out of the surrounding material & present it as the seminal classic it is. In addition to Rosenberg's original translations, Bloom argues in several essays that "J" was not a religious writer but a fierce ironist & a woman living in the court of King Solomon. He also argues that J is a writer on par with Homer, Shakespeare & Tolstoy. Bloom also offers historical context, a discussion of the theory of how the different texts came together to create the Bible & translation notes. Rosenberg's translations from the Hebrew bring J's stories to life & reveal her towering originality & grasp of humanity.

Miles Away... Worlds Apart


Alan Sakowitz - 2010
    The saga of Rothstein's rise and fall which included a Warren Yacht, two Bugattis, Governor Crist, the former Versace mansion, The Eagles, and even the murder of a law partner, is the stuff that Hollywood movies are made from.

Celebrating Jesus in the Biblical Feasts: Discovering Their Significance to You as a Christian


Richard Booker - 2008
    RECLAIM YOUR SPIRITUAL HERITAGEThrough God?s carefully ordered system of ceremonialworship,He revealed Himself most clearly to thenation of Israel.This is especially evident in the seven?Feasts of the LORD? as detailed in Leviticus 23:Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Pentecost,Trumpets,Atonement, and Tabernacles.These feasts arepictures of a person, the Messiah, and represent sevenphases of spiritual growth in the life of the believer.JESUS REVEALED IN THE FEASTSGod gave these festivals as foreshadowings of Jesus andHis various works of grace in the lives of all believers.The author clearly depicts the unity found in God?sunfolding purposes for His people, be they Jew orGentile, from the new birth found in Passover and theCrucifixion, all the way to entering God?s rest found in

Letters to Talia


Dov Indig - 2012
    Dov Indig was killed on October 7, 1973, in a holding action on the Golan Heights in Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Letters to Talia, published in his memory by family and friends, contains excerpts from an extensive correspondence Dov maintained with Talia, a girl from an irreligious kibbutz in northern Israel, in 1972 and 73, the last two years of his life. At the time, Talia was a highschool student, and Dov was a student in the Hesder yeshiva Kerem B Yavneh, which combines Torah study with military service. It was Talia s father who suggested that Talia correspond with Dov, and an intense dialogue developed between them on questions of Judaism and Zionism, values and education. Their correspondence continued right up to Dov s death in the Yom Kippur War."

Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds


Joel Kraemer - 2008
    A biography on a grand scale, it brilliantly explicates one man’s life against the background of the social, religious, and political issues of his time.Maimonides was born in Córdoba, in Muslim-ruled Spain, in 1138 and died in Cairo in 1204. He lived in an Arab-Islamic environment from his early years in Spain and North Africa to his later years in Egypt, where he was immersed in its culture and society. His life, career, and writings are the highest expression of the intertwined worlds of Judaism and Islam. Maimonides lived in tumultuous times, at the peak of the Reconquista in Spain and the Crusades in Palestine. His monumental compendium of Jewish law, the Mishneh Torah, became a basis of all subsequent Jewish legal codes and brought him recognition as one of the foremost lawgivers of humankind. In Egypt, his training as a physician earned him a place in the entourage of the great Sultan Saladin, and he wrote medical works in Arabic that were translated into Hebrew and Latin and studied for centuries in Europe. As a philosopher and scientist, he contributed to mathematics and astronomy, logic and ethics, politics and theology. His Guide of the Perplexed, a masterful interweaving of religious tradition and scientific and philosophic thought, influenced generations of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish thinkers.Now, in a dazzling work of scholarship, Joel Kraemer tells the complete story of Maimonides’ rich life. MAIMONIDES is at once a portrait of a great historical figure and an excursion into the Mediterranean world of the twelfth century. Joel Kraemer draws on a wealth of original sources to re-create a remarkable period in history when Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions clashed and mingled in a setting alive with intense intellectual exchange and religious conflict.

Judaism for Dummies


Ted Falcon - 2001
    There are about 13 or 14 million Jews spread around the world, including about 6 million in the United States and about 5 million in Israel - so Judaism clearly isn't "a nation." So what does it mean to be Jewish? Here are the basics:Being Jewish (being "a Jew") means you're a Member of the Tribe (an M-O-T). The tribe started with a couple named Abraham and Sarah about 4,000 years ago, it grew over time, and it's still here today. You can become part of the Jewish tribe in two ways: By being born to a Jewish mother or joining through a series of rituals (called converting).Judaism is a set of beliefs, practices, and ethics based on the Torah. You can practice Judaism and not be Jewish, and you can be a Jew and not practice Judaism. Whether you're interested in the religion or the spirituality, the culture or the ethnic traditions, Judaism For Dummies explores the full spectrum of Judaism, dipping into the mystical, meditative, and spiritual depth of the faith and the practice. In this warm and welcoming book, you'll find coverage ofOrthodox Jews and breakaway denominations Judaism as a daily practice The food and fabric of Judaism Jewish wedding ceremonies Celebrations and holy days 4,000 years of pain, sadness, triumph, and joy Great Jewish thinkers and historical celebrities Jews have long spread out to the corners of the world, so there are significant Jewish communities on many continents. Judaism For Dummies offers a glimpse into the rituals, ideas, and terms that are woven into the history and everyday lives of Jewish people as near as our own neighborhoods and as far-reaching as across the world.

The Holocaust in American Life


Peter Novick - 1999
    He explores in absorbing detail the decisions that later moved the Holocaust to the center of American life: Jewish leaders invoking its memory to muster support for Israel and to come out on top in a sordid competition over what group had suffered most; politicians using it to score points with Jewish voters. With insight and sensitivity, Novick raises searching questions about these developments. Have American Jews, by making the Holocaust the emblematic Jewish experience, given Hitler a posthumous victory, tacitly endorsing his definition of Jews as despised pariahs? Does the Holocaust really teach useful lessons and sensitize us to atrocities, or, by making the Holocaust the measure, does it make lesser crimes seem "not so bad"? What are we to make of the fact that while Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars for museums recording a European crime, there is no museum of American slavery?

The Destruction of the European Jews


Raul Hilberg - 1961
    This revised and expanded edition of Hilberg's classic work extends the scope of his study and includes 80,000 words of new material, particularly from recently opened archives in eastern Europe, added over a lifetime of research.

The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture: An Introduction


Yoram Hazony - 2012
    

The Bowflex Body Plan: The Power is Yours - Build More Muscle, Lose More Fat


Ellington Darden - 2003
    Well, you don't have to resemble a model to achieve a Bowflex body. Now, you can apply the complete science behind what it takes to get that lean, muscular look. The course of action you're holding in your hands contains the best-possible routines and practices that, combined, cause greater and faster results.The Bowflex exercise system is based on the simple bow-and-arrow principle. Its patented Power Rod technology flexes and extends to provide force or resistance, part of your week-by-week workouts, which focus on all major muscle groups. Merge the recommended Bowflex routines with Dr. Ellington Darden's guidelines on eating, hydrating, and resting, and you'll be well on your way to getting the results you've always wanted.In addition to four fat-loss meal plans, you'll find complete programs for out-of-shape athletes, women who want to reduce their hips and thighs, and individuals who wish to focus on their abdominals. Choose the one that's right for you, depending on your age, experience, body type, and personal goals. Throughout these pages you'll be inspired by reports and photographs of real results from real people using a real Bowflex machine.With a little discipline and patience, you'll see your extra fat begin to vanish, revealing your muscles' lean lines. In only six weeks, a man could drop 35 pounds of fat and 5 inches from his waist. A woman could lose 19 pounds of fat and 4 inches from her thighs. And both can build 3 pounds of muscle. Best of all, you will experience strength, firmness, and muscular refinement as never before.Elegant, instructive photographs of Dr. Darden's top 23 Bowflex exercises make this the ideal fitness manual for both men and women-- those who already use the Bowflex system as well as the many new users of this fast-growing home-exercise system. The only authorized book on the subject, The Bowflex Body Plan will help you lose fat, build muscle, and reshape your body-- fast.Soon you will have the results you've always wanted. Soon you will have a Bowflex body.

Immodest


L.S. Einat - 2021
    But she knows that once she makes a drastic decision, there will be no way back into the arms of the Jewish community.Immodest tells the story of a courageous young woman who chooses to obey the commandments of her heart and not give up, despite the huge price she is forced to pay.

The Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy : A New Translation with Introductions, Commentary: 1


Everett Fox - 2000
    Offers a translation of and commentary on the first five books of the Hebrew Bible...Title: .The Five Books of Moses..Author: .Fox, Everett (EDT)/ Schwebel (ILT)/ Fox, Everett..Publisher: .Random House Inc..Publication Date: .2000/02/01..Number of Pages: .1024..Binding Type: .PAPERBACK..Library of Congress: .BL 00007461

The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus


Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg - 2001
    in English literature from Cambridge University. The Particulars of Rapture, the sequel to her award-winning study of the Book of Genesis, takes its title from a line by the American poet Wallace Stevens about the interdependence of opposite things, such as male and female, and conscious and unconscious. To her reading of the familiar story of the Israelites and their flight from slavery in Egypt, Avivah Zornberg has brought a vast range of classical Jewish interpretations and Midrashic sources, literary allusions, and ideas from philosophy and psychology. Her quest in this book, as she writes in the introduction, is "to find those who will hear with me a particular idiom of redemption," who will hear "within the particulars of rapture . . . what cannot be expressed."Zornberg's previous book, The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis, won the National Jewish Book Award for nonfiction in 1995 and has become a classic among readers of all religions. The Particulars of Rapture will enhance Zornberg's reputation as one of today's most original and compelling interpreters of the biblical and rabbinic traditions.From the Hardcover edition.

Why the Jews Rejected Jesus: The Turning Point in Western History


David Klinghoffer - 2005
    The controversy was never merely academic. The legal status and security of Jews—often their very lives—depended on the answer. In WHY THE JEWS REJECTED JESUS, David Klinghoffer reveals that the Jews since ancient times accepted not only the historical existence of Jesus but the role of certain Jews in bringing about his crucifixion and death. But he also argues that they had every reason to be skeptical of claims for his divinity. For one thing, Palestine under Roman occupation had numerous charismatic would-be messiahs, so Jesus would not have been unique, nor was his following the largest of its kind. For another, the biblical prophecies about the coming of the Messiah were never fulfilled by Jesus, including an ingathering of exiles, the rise of a Davidic king who would defeat Israel’s enemies, the building of a new Temple, and recognition of God by the gentiles. Above all, the Jews understood their biblically commanded way of life, from which Jesus’s followers sought to “free” them, as precious, immutable, and eternal.Jews have long been blamed for Jesus’s death and stigmatized for rejecting him. But Jesus lived and died a relatively obscure figure at the margins of Jewish society. Indeed, it is difficult to argue that “the Jews” of his day rejected Jesus at all, since most Jews had never heard of him. The figure they really rejected, often violently, was Paul, who convinced the Jerusalem church led by Jesus’s brother to jettison the observance of Jewish law. Paul thus founded a new religion. If not for him, Christianity would likely have remained a Jewish movement, and the course of history itself would have been changed. Had the Jews accepted Jesus, Klinghoffer speculates, Christianity would not have conquered Europe, and there would be no Western civilization as we know it. WHY THE JEWS REJECTED JESUS tells the story of this long, acrimonious, and occasionally deadly debate between Christians and Jews. It is thoroughly engaging, lucidly written, and in many ways highly original. Though written from a Jewish point of view, it is also profoundly respectful of Christian sensibilities. Coming at a time when Christians and Jews are in some ways moving closer than ever before, this thoughtful and provocative book represents a genuine effort to heal the ancient rift between these two great faith traditions.