Bar/Bat Mitzvah Memory Book 2/e


Book Description

A spiritual keepsake that will become a family heirloom.The companion book to the author's Putting God on the Guest List: How to Reclaim the Spiritual Meaning of Your Child's Bar or Bat Mitzvah 100,000 copies in print The perfect gift to help a bar or bat mitzvah preserve the spiritual memories of this sacred event. This hands-on album updated and expanded for this second edition is designed to help everyone involved better participate in creating the spiritual meaning of this joyful rite of passage. Created by Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin, author of the award-winning classic Putting God on the Guest List: How to Reclaim the Spiritual Meaning of Your Child s Bar or Bat Mitzvah, and his wife, author Nina Salkin, this guided album is a wonderfully interactive way to remember important moments and details. Included are special sections to record your family s history; the hopes, wishes, and memories of influential people in the bar/bat mitzvah s life; mitzvot performed; contributions to tzedakot and more. With ample space for writing, reflecting and pasting mementos, this spiritual keepsake gives young people a place to treasure their special experiences and encourages them to prepare for spiritual life as Jewish adults."




Bar/Bat Mitzvah Basics 2/E


Book Description

How to manage the process with grace, joy and good sense. A practical guide that gives parents and teens the "how-to" information they need to navigate the bar/bat mitzvah process and grow as a family through this experience. For the first time in one book, everyone directly involved offers practical insights into how the process can be made easier and more enjoyable for all. Rabbis, cantors and Jewish educators from the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements, parents, and even teens speak from their own experience. • What's it all about? • Preparation for Parent and Child • Tutoring, stress, expectations, enjoyment, planning for children with special needs • Negotiating the ceremony and celebration • Designing a creative service, heightening the spiritual exercise, special issues related to divorced and interfaith families, planning a party that neither breaks the bank nor detracts from the inherent spirituality of the event.




Jewish Pastoral Care 2/E


Book Description

The first comprehensive resource for pastoral care in the Jewish tradition—and a vital resource for counselors and caregivers of other faith traditions. The essential reference for rabbis, cantors, and laypeople who are called to spiritually accompany those encountering joy, sorrow, and change—now in paperback. This groundbreaking volume draws upon both Jewish tradition and the classical foundations of pastoral care to provide invaluable guidance. Offering insight on pastoral care technique, theory, and theological implications, the contributors to Jewish Pastoral Care are innovators in their fields, and represent all four contemporary Jewish movements. This comprehensive resource provides you with the latest theological perspectives and tools, along with basic theory and skills for assisting the ill and those who care for them, the aging and dying, those with dementia and other mental disorders, engaged couples, and others, and for responding to issues such as domestic violence, substance abuse, and disasters.




The Year Mom Got Religion


Book Description

An inspiring, frank, and engaging"spiritual autobiography" that will touch anyone seeking deeper meaning in their religious life. As we come to recognize the need to nurture our spiritual lives as adults, The Year Mom Got Religion offers sensitive and intelligent wisdom from a woman who learned how awakening to religion can transform--and disrupt--a life. Lee Meyerhoff Hendler relates her awakening to Judaism. She also shares the hard lessons and realizations she confronted during the process. Her journey of the spirit is a powerful reminder that anyone, at any moment, can fully embrace faith--and meet every one of the challenges that occur along the way. A poignant personal testimony of the discoveries, achievements, and disappointments of a woman's renewed commitment to her faith--and how her personal transformation deeply affected her lifestyle and relationships. Born into a wealthy and prestigious family, Lee Meyerhoff Hendler was surrounded by privilege and was a rising leader in the Jewish community. Despite her prominence, she realized that something was lacking--and that Judaism needed to be more about spiritual fulfillment and relating to God than about simply writing checks to important causes or sitting on the boards of distinguished organizations. Hendler discovered a void in her life that only Judaism could fill. She embarked upon a journey that took her through intensive study, regular synagogue attendance, renewed dedication to Jewish communal service, squabbles with her children about attending religious school, and quarrels with her husband about religion's sudden role in their daily lives. If you are seeking deeper spiritual meaning in your life, or are close to someone who has embarked upon a similar journey, The Year Mom Got Religion offers candid and intelligent words of encouragement for the soul.




The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices


Book Description

Discover how to make virtually any moment in your day a significant part of a meaningful Jewish life. As we have discovered, and as our sages have long known, there is no experience in the life of a Jew that cannot be marked in Jewish ways.... The book you hold in your hands is the result of the kinds of rituals we have sculpted together over the years. It is not a prayer book or even a compendium of obligatory Jewish rituals. Rather, it is a source for all to use creatively. —from the Introduction Decades of experience by CLAL—The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in connecting spirituality with daily life come together in this one comprehensive handbook. In these pages, you have access to teachings that can help to sanctify almost any moment in your day. Offering a meditation, a blessing, a profound Jewish teaching, and a ritual for more than one hundred diverse everyday events and holidays, this guide includes sacred practices for: Lighting Shabbat candles Blessing your parents Running a marathon Visiting the sick Building a sukkah Seeing natural wonders Moving into a new home Saying goodbye to a beloved pet Making a shiva call Traveling ... and much more Drawing from both traditional and contemporary sources, The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices will show you how to make more holy any moment in your daily life.




Spiritual Activism


Book Description

"Avi doesn't only talk the talk, or even walk the walk. He writes the instruction manual. This book shows a way, perhaps not the only way but one indispensable way, of being an activist on behalf of the Jewish people. Read it and learn." --from the Foreword by Alan M. Dershowitz I n this age of perpetual strife and conflict, we need now more than ever to find out how to be proactive in repairing our broken world. Rabbi Avraham Weiss's provocative and challenging guidebook will show you just that--and so much more. With easy-to-follow steps, accessible explanations of the principles of spiritual activism and an exploration into the foundations of spiritual activism as rooted in the Torah, Weiss offers more than simply a user manual--he provides an in-depth approach to changing your role in the world. Topics include: - Why, How and When Do We Engage in Spiritual Activism? - Choosing the Cause - Making Partners - Designing the Strategy - Leading Other People - Seeing the Big Picture - And more ...




Jewish Holidays


Book Description

A window into Judaism’s sacred days—throughout history and today. Written especially for Christians. Holy days and holidays provide the peak experiences of Jewish life. These moments speak deeply to the Jewish soul and animate Judaism’s culture. They encourage Jews to participate in their shared historical experience, which reflects their covenantal relationship with God, and articulate Jewish values that have allowed for the survival of the Jewish people. But what can they mean to Christians seeking to understand their own faith? In this special book, Rabbis Olitzky and Judson guide you through the major Jewish holidays and what they mean for the Jewish people. Each chapter explores a different holiday and explains the origin, historical background, customs and rituals that are part of observance and the holiday’s Christian parallels. Examining observance in both home and synagogue—and in all Jewish denominations—this easy-to-use guide to the Jewish holidays will be a valuable resource for your own understanding of Jewish sacred time throughout the year. And by linking the Jewish holidays to familiar Christian holidays and practices, you will be better able to appreciate the roots of Christianity and how the fundamentals of Judaism relate to and reflect your own spiritual foundation. Rosh Hashanah–New Year Yom Kippur–Day of Atonement Sukkot–Feast of Booths (Fall Harvest Festival) Simchat Torah–Rejoicing in the Torah Hanukkah–Rededication Purim–(Festival of Survival) Pesach–Passover Shavuot–(Receiving the Torah) Tisha B’Av (Mourning and Commemoration) and Other Special Days Shabbat (Day of Rest)




Jewish Theology in Our Time


Book Description

A powerful and challenging examination of what Jews believe today--by a new generation's dynamic and innovative thinkers. At every critical juncture in Jewish history, Jews have understood a dynamic theology to be essential for a vital Jewish community. This important collection sets the next stage of Jewish theological thought, bringing together a cross section of interesting new voices from all movements in Judaism to inspire and stimulate discussion now and in the years to come. Provocative and wide-ranging, these invigorating and creative insights from a new generation's thought leaders provide a coherent and inspiring picture of Jewish belief in our time. Contributors: Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, DHL * Rabbi Rachel Sabath * Beit-Halachmi, PhD * Rabbi Daniel M. Bronstein, PhD * Simon Cooper, PhD * Rabbi Elliot J. Cosgrove, PhD * Rabbi Jonathan Crane, PhD * Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum * Eitan Fishbane, PhD * Rabbi Jeremy Gordon * Rabbi Shai Held * Rabbi James Jacobson-Maisels * Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky * Rabbi Naamah Kelman * Rabbi Asher Lopatin * Rabbi Michael Marmur, PhD * Rabbi Evan Moffic * Rabbi Leon A. Morris * Rabbi Daniel Nevins * Rabbi William Plevan * Rabbi Or N. Rose * Benjamin Sax, PhD * Marc B. Shapiro, PhD * Benjamin D. Sommer, PhD * Rabbi Eliyahu Stern




The Chutzpah Imperative


Book Description

Reconnect with Judaism’s most important contribution to humanity—and redeem our world. “The gift of Judaism is an understanding of what it means to be a human being—what we can do, what we can hope for, how we can live with purpose, what is expected of us. It is a celebration of human freedom, human possibility and human responsibility. Judaism is a way to live a heroic life, to construct a life devoted to values that are eternal, values of ultimate significance. The reward of a Jewish life is walking the world with a profound faith that you matter, your life matters, your dreams matter. I call this chutzpah.” —from the Introduction In this clarion call for a new way to “do Judaism,” award-winning spiritual leader Rabbi Edward Feinstein urges us to recover this message of Jewish self-empowerment—or chutzpah—to reshape our world. He walks us through the history of chutzpah—from the early chapters of Genesis, Jewish biblical law and the Rabbis of the Talmud to the mystics of medieval Spain and the European Hasidic tradition, Zionism and post-Holocaust thought. By showing us the ever-presence of chutzpah in Judaism he reveals the inner story of the Jewish People’s soul as well as the meaning that Judaism’s deepest purpose and most precious treasure has for us today.




All These Vows


Book Description

The most memorable prayer of the Jewish New Year--what it means, why we sing it and the secret of its magical appeal. Lively commentaries explore why Kol Nidre remains a liturgical highlight, regularly attended even by those who disbelieve the content.