Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Judaism - Rituals & Practice

Extraordinary wisdom to help you understand yourself, lead your life and deal with other people.

"As human beings, we have instincts for both good and evil, conscious and unconscious. To rectify ourselves--to live spiritually and properly--involves getting a handle on these impulses."
--from the Introduction

In this special book of practical wisdom, Dr. Abraham J. Twerski draws from his extensive professional experience as a psychiatrist and spiritual counselor, a life-long student of Jewish wisdom texts, and his personal experience as a son of a wise...

Postmodernity marks a time of creative conflict when the voices of the other, previously rendered silent by the majority, are prominently heard. What effect has postmodernism had on Judaism?

The neat narratives and metanarratives of the Jewish past are being questioned and deconstructed, allowing for different versions of Jewish history to emerge. For example, a postmodern exploration of the place of women in Talmudic culture can upset portraits of women as powerless and rabbis as closed off to female experience thereby helping to secure a place for women today. Similarly, an analysis...

During the past few decades a great amount of scholarly work has been done on the various prayer cultures of antiquity, both Graeco-Roman and Jewish and Christian. In Jewish studies this burgeoning research on ancient prayer has been stimulated particularly by the many new prayer texts found at Qumran, which have shed new light on several long-standing problems. The present volume intends to make a new contribution to the ongoing scholarly debate on ancient Jewish prayer texts by focusing on a limited set of prayer texts, scil., a small number of those that have been preserved...

How have American Zionists maintained the delicate balance between their Americanism and their Zionism? How did they, as Americans, support the principle of democracy and at the same time, as Jews, support the creation of a Jewish homeland despite the pre-1948 Arab majority in Palestine? Looking at America-Holy Land relations during the years prior to the establishment of the state of Israel, Medoff explores this crucial question of American Jewish identity. Using original, previously unpublished archival material, this study presents an engaging account of a dilemma that is still very...

The distinction between clean and unclean animals, probably originating in tensions between shepherds and farmers, is in the biblical laws of Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 transformed into an important theological principle. In this wide-ranging and elegantly written study, Houston argues that the avoidance of 'unclean' foods is a mark of the exclusive devotion of Israel to one god. In a concluding chapter, it is suggested that the abolition of the distinction in early Christianity corresponds to the universal horizon of the new faith.

Shi'ism in America provides the first general overview of the Shi'i community in America, tracing its history, its current composition, and how Shi'a have negotiated their identity in the American context.

There are over two million Shi'is, who differ from Sunni Muslims in their understandings of the early line of succession after Muhammad, in the United States. With community roots going back sometimes close to one hundred years, Shi'is can be found in major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, and Dearborn, Michigan. Early in the century, Shi'is and Sunnis...

Break the Surface of Spiritual Boredom to Find the Reservoir of Meaning Within

We need to be bored. When we get bored and take responsibility for our boredom, we arrive at a new level of interest, introspection, or action that has been stirred by the very creativity used to keep boredom away. The relationship between boredom and creativity is far from accidental. Creative minds are often stimulated by boredom, regarding it as a brain rest until the next great idea looms on the horizon of the otherwise unoccupied mind.
from Chapter 10

Boredom is a crisis of our...

The inside story and practical lessons from one of the most exciting developments in contemporary Judaism.

"Part description and part prescription, Empowered Judaism is a manifesto for transforming the way Jews pray and--more broadly--for building vibrant Jewish communities.... It] represents the latest chapter in an] uplifting history of religious creativity. This is a book that every Jewish leader will want to read and every serious Jew will want to contemplate."
--from the Foreword by Prof. Jonathan D. Sarna

Why have thousands of young Jews, otherwise...

Powerful, soul-strengthening musings from the leading theologian of liberal Judaism.

Too often, books on religion are written either primarily for the head or for the heart as if thinking people don t also feel intuitively, and spiritual types never think much at all. Bosh Here is our special mix for you . It is our hope that these pieces will serve as unique windows into Judaism in bite-size, sacred touches .
from the Introduction

For the first time, Dr. Eugene Borowitz, the dean of liberal Jewish theologians, opens his heart as well as his mind as he...