Judaism - Ebooks
 Torah in Motion
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by JoAnne Tucker, Susan Freeman
Explore new ways of prayer and storytelling through Torah in Motion. JoAnne
Tucker and Susan Freeman, both experienced in dance and Judaic studies, tell the famous
stories of the Torah through modern dance. In this book they explain how they use dance to
interpret Torah, and creative ideas to consider when doing so. Dance Midrash offers a new
and contemporary form of prayer and expression, uniting both young and old in dance and
story. Buy this ebook |
The Blessing of a
Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children
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by Wendy MogelIn the
trenches of a typical day, every parent encounters a child afflicted with ingratitude and
entitlement. In a world where material abundance abounds, parents want so badly to raise
self-disciplined, appreciative, and resourceful children who are not spoiled by the
plentitude around them. But how to accomplish this feat? The answer has eluded the
best-intentioned mothers and fathers who overprotect, overindulge, and overschedule their
children's lives. Dr. Mogel helps parents learn how to turn their children's worst traits
into their greatest attributes. Starting with stories of everyday parenting problems and
examining them through the lens of the Torah, the Talmud, and important Jewish teachings,
The Blessing of a Skinned Knee shows parents how to teach children to honor their parents
and to respect others, escape the danger of overvaluing children's need for
self-expression so that their kids don't become "little attorneys," accept that
their children are both ordinary and unique, and treasure the power and holiness of the
present moment. It is Mogel's singular achievement that she makes these teachings relevant
for any era and any household of any faith. A unique parenting book, designed for use both
in the home and in parenting classes, with an on-line teaching guide to help facilitate
its use, The Blessing of a Skinned Knee is both inspiring and effective in the day-to-day
challenge of raising self-reliant children.
Buy this ebook |
 The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for
the Temple Mount [DOWNLOAD: ADOBE READER]
by Gershom Gorenberg
For the average American watching CNN, the conflict in the Middle East is a
complicated affair, mired in an ancient past and an uncertain future. It also seems like a
distant story, one that only remotely touches upon the temples and churches beyond the
Middle East. Not so, explains Gershom Gorenberg, a senior editor at the Jerusalem
Report. In fact, the threat of apocalyptic religious violence is happening now, and
it's happening everywhere. It is fueled in part, he says, by Christian leaders in
America's fundamentalist churches. To help readers make sense of it all,
Gorenberg centers his fascinating discussion around the Temple Mount, the world's most
desired piece of religious real estate. It is where King David erected an altar, where
Solomon and Herod built their temples, and where the Dome of Rock now stands. (Cain even
murdered Abel, according to ancient legend, over who would own this place.) The Christian
far right now stakes a future claim to the Temple Mount, where they predict (or at least
hope) the "Third Temple" will be built shortly. Gorenberg offers the impressive
research of a seasoned investigative journalist, yet he possesses the narrative skills of
a novelist. The result is an enthralling and informative read. --Gail Hudson --This
text refers to the Hardcover
edition.
Buy this ebook |
 A Letter in the Scroll: Understanding Our Jewish
Identity and Exploring the Legacy of the World's Oldest Religion
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by Jonathan Sacks
A Letter in the Scroll, by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of
Britain, was inspired by a project he assigned to several university students. He
suggested that they write to some of the most accomplished Jewish men and women in the
world and ask what being Jewish meant to them. They sent out 200 letters and received six,
mostly tepid, responses. Sacks considered these responses to be evidence of
"confusion and demoralization at the heart of contemporary Jewish identity." He
then decided to address the question himself, and A Letter in the Scroll is his
answer. The book is a personal theology of Judaism, and it is a challenge to new
generations of Jews to define the nature of their place in the story of Israel. Sacks's
central theme is that "Judaism is not a theory, a system, a set of speculative
propositions, an 'ism.' It is a call, and it bears our name." Sacks makes this
argument in many ways, with reference to theology, philosophy, ancient history, and his
personal experience. Most impressive, however, is his concise, direct, and wise use of
Scripture: "The most eloquent words God spoke to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the
prophets was to call their name," he writes. "Their reply was simply Hineni,
'Here I am.' That is the call Jewish history makes to us: to continue the story and to
write our letter in the scroll." --Michael Joseph Gross --This text refers
to the Hardcover
edition. Buy this ebook |
 THE MODERN JEWISH CANON: A JOURNEY THROUGH LANGUAGE
AND CULTURE
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by RUTH WISSE
The Modern Jewish Canon is Ruth R. Wisse's attempt to establish a set
of criteria for a canon of Jewish literature (mainly prose fiction written by Ashkenazi
Jews and their descendants in the 20th century). This is a fascinating, odd, and ambitious
book, whose big ideas are ultimately less interesting than its small observations. Wisse,
who is a firm believer in the moral power of fiction ("Even considering the dangers
to the text that may accompany a moral education, I would argue that the importance it
ascribes to words more than compensates for the occasional violence it does to
them"), designates "Jewish literature" as work that "tells the stories
of the Jewish people in the twentieth century ... best." The Modern Jewish Canon
never provides a convincing, specific explanation of what exactly that means. As a result,
some passages of the book (such as Wisse's ejection of Marcel Proust from her canon) seem
irrationally parochial. Wisse's strongest readings concern "how the language in which
Jewishness is conceived affects the nature of the literary work." She is highly
sensitive to the different ways that Hebrew, Yiddish, English, Russian, and German
languages give rise to distinct kinds of political, moral, religious, and literary
sensibilities. --Michael Joseph Gross --Buy this ebook |
 (God) After Auschwitz: Tradition and Change in
Post-Holocaust Jewish Thought
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by Zachary Braiterman
The impact of technology-enhanced mass death in the twentieth century,
argues Zachary Braiterman, has profoundly affected the future shape of religious thought.
In his provocative book, the author shows how key Jewish theologians faced the memory of
Auschwitz by rejecting traditional theodicy, abandoning any attempt to justify and
vindicate the relationship between God and catastrophic suffering. The author terms this
rejection "Antitheodicy," the refusal to accept that relationship. It finds
voice in the writings of three particular theologians: Richard Rubenstein, Eliezer
Berkovits, and Emil Fackenheim. This book is the first to bring
postmodern philosophical and literary approaches into conversation with post-Holocaust
Jewish thought. Drawing on the work of Mieke Bal, Harold Bloom, Jacques Derrida, Umberto
Eco, Michel Foucault, and others, Braiterman assesses how Jewish intellectuals reinterpret
Bible and Midrash to re-create religious thought for the age after Auschwitz.
In this process, he provides a model for reconstructing Jewish life and
philosophy in the wake of the Holocaust. His work contributes to the postmodern turn in
contemporary Jewish studies and today's creative theology.
Buy this ebook |
 Being Jewish: The Spiritual and Cultural Practice of
Judaism Today
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by Ari L. Goldman
Being Jewish: The Spiritual and Cultural Practice of Judaism Today
begins with a legend. "In the months before a Jewish child is born, it is visited in
the womb by the Angel Gabriel. There, in the warmth and silence of the mother's body, the
angel teaches the baby all of Jewish learning--the Torah, the rituals, the holidays, the
deepest truths of Jewish wisdom. The baby absorbs it all, just as it takes nourishment
from its mother. But suddenly, as the baby is about to be thrust into the world to eat and
breathe on its own, the angel presents it with a similar intellectual challenge. Right
before birth, Gabriel strikes the child on the upper lip, and all the teachings are
instantly forgotten." Being Jewish, by the former New York Times
religion reporter Ari L. Goldman, takes up where the legend of "Gabriel and the
Infants" leaves off. The book presumes, as the legend suggests, that "Jewish
knowledge is not external, removed from life, but something inside: the very stuff of life
that must be reckoned and recovered." Incorporating elements of memoir, history,
theology, and cultural criticism, Goldman's book is a guide for the rediscovery of
Judaism's essential traditions, organized in three sections that correspond to cycles of
Jewish life ("The Jewish Life," "The Jewish Year," and "The
Jewish Day"). This is a beautifully written distillation of the learning and wisdom
of one of the best religion journalists of our time. --Michael Joseph Gross
--Buy this ebook |
 The Vanishing American Jew: In Search of Jewish
Identity for the Next Century
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by Alan M. Dershowitz
In "Is There A Future For Us?", Alan M. Dershowitz interprets what it means to
be an American Jew in the next century--and the possibility that there may not
"be" a future for American Jews--the loss of identity is that severe. Buy this ebook |
 Covenantal Rights: A Study in Jewish Political
Theory
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by David Novak
Alan Mittleman, Muhlenberg College
"This will be a reference point for all those seeking a profound Jewish
consideration of issues in political theory for years to come. It will be read with profit
not only by those interested in the Jewish political tradition, but also by moral
philosophers, students of Jewish theology, and anyone concerned with the contemporary
debate on religion and public affairs." Buy this ebook |
 The Talmud and the Internet: A Journey Between
Worlds
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by Jonathan Rosen
The Talmud and the Internet by Jonathan Rosen is a small, wise,
ingenious meditation on faith, technology, literature, and love. In the book's opening
pages, Rosen (formerly the culture editor of Forward) seeks solace after his
grandmother's death in the poetry of John Donne. Nagged by a half-remembered phrase from
one poem, Rosen tracked down the text online, and "For one moment, there in
dimensionless, chilly cyberspace, I felt close to my grandmother, close to John Donne, and
close to some stranger who, as it happens, designs software for a living." In the
Internet's "world of unbounded curiosity, of argument and information, where anyone
with a modem can wander out of the wilderness for a while, ask a question and receive an
answer," Rosen finds a real parallel to the Talmud, "a place where everything
exists, if only one knows how and where to look." The literary resemblance has a
cultural resonance, too. Rosen observes that "the Talmud offered a virtual home for
an uprooted culture, and grew out of the Jewish need to pack civilization into words and
wander out into the world." And the Internet suggests to Rosen "a similar sense
of Diaspora, a feeling of being everywhere and nowhere. Where else but in the middle of
Diaspora do you need a homepage?" In Rosen's analysis, the Internet and the
Talmud signal and salve social and spiritual isolation. His book does this same thing,
too. --Michael Joseph Gross --Buy this ebook |
 The Legends of The Jews
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"A truly monumental work of scholarship...Read for pleasure by millions of
Jews and Christians, consulted by students, scholars, and ordinary folk, The Legends of
the Jews has itself become legendary, the magnum opus of one of the twentieth century's
greatest and most original Jewish scholars"--James R. Kugel, author of The Bible as
It Was Buy this ebook |
 The Artless Jew: Medieval and Modern Affirmations
and Denials of the Visual
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by Kalman P. Bland
Menachem Kellner, University of Haifa
"Kalman Bland has isolated an interesting and valuable topic and
has applied great learning and graceful writing to its elucidation." Buy this ebook |
 The Jewish Travel Guide
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by Betsy Sheldon
Fifteen major North American cities are the focus of this useful travel
guide, with mention of the most notable Jewish sites in the hinterland. Includes
sightseeing, synagogues, kosher dining, events, heritage tours, museums, lodging, and
more. For every key attraction, Sheldon provides a long and detailed paragraph filled with
enticing tidbits. Highlighted sidebars scattered throughout draw attention to fascinating
trivia. A useful resource... sure to fill a gap. (Library Journal) Buy this ebook |
 DATING SECRETS OF THE TEN COMM
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by Shmuley Boteach, Shmuel Boteach
The Rules meets the Torah in Dating Secrets of the Ten Commandments, a
fresh, sane look at the dating game by the author of the bestselling Kosher Sex. In this
ultimate plan for fulfillment and contentment, Boteach helps readers discover the joyful
rewards of making someone else happy. Buy this ebook |
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