Author : Yitzhak Buxbaum
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 291 pages
File Size : 27,89 MB
Release : 2002-11-08
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0787966967
Jewish Tales of Mystic Joy reveals the happiness that awaits us if we strive for real spirituality. The stories are about pious rabbis and humble tailors, about dancing, singing, laughing, and crying, but their common denominator is always joyous ecstasy. Drawing us into a world of devotion, the tales allow us to taste the bliss that comes from a life lived from the very center of one's self. Each story comes alive in joy and produces a "holy shiver" that speaks to the soul.
Author : Yitzhak Buxbaum
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 331 pages
File Size : 26,44 MB
Release : 2002-11-08
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0787966959
What is a "holy woman," or a holy man for that matter? According to the Jewish mystics, a holy person is someone who has not lost the holiness that every baby is born with. A holy person is someone who fulfills it. Stories about Jewish holy women have rarely been collected in such an engaging and entertaining form. The tales display a specifically female Jewish spirituality, giving us a peek into a world of devotional beauty that focuses on kindness. These stories of laughter and tears, humility and bravery, striving and trance, have an appeal spanning the denominational spectrum: they are spiritual nourishment for the soul. The rabbis say there are both male and female angels and angels are on earth as well as in heaven. These tales enhance our appreciation of the female angels on earth.
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 540 pages
File Size : 15,56 MB
Release : 2010-09-23
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 0199754381
In Leaves from the Garden of Eden, Howard Schwartz, a three-time winner of the National Jewish Book Award, has gathered together one hundred of the most astonishing and luminous stories from Jewish folk tradition. Just as Schwartz's award-winning book Tree of Souls collected the essential myths of Jewish tradition, Leaves from the Garden of Eden collects one hundred essential Jewish tales. As imaginative as the Arabian Nights, these stories invoke enchanted worlds, demonic realms, and mystical experiences. The four most popular types of Jewish tales are gathered here--fairy tales, folktales, supernatural tales, and mystical tales--taking readers on heavenly journeys, lifelong quests, and descents to the underworld. There is a dybbuk lurking in a well, a book that comes to life, and a world where Lilith, the Queen of Demons, seduces the unsuspecting. Here too are Jewish versions of many of the best-known tales, including "Cinderella," "Snow White," and "Rapunzel." Schwartz's retelling of one of these stories, "The Finger," inspired Tim Burton's film Corpse Bride.
Author : William M. Kondrath
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 27,6 MB
Release : 2013-08-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1566995205
Facing Feelings in Faith Communities is based on a simple premise: We have emotions because we need them. God created us as affectively competent beings, William Kondrath argues, to help us understand our world and to give appropriate signals to people around us about what we are experiencing. When we express our feelings clearly, other people can more easily respond in ways that are helpful to us, thus enhancing our relationships and the work we might do together. Kondrath also recognizes that unfortunately, for many of us, our emotional software was infected early on with viruses (early familial and social conditioning) that distorted the way we responded to natural stimuli. Because we are underusing or misusing our emotional capacities, we are missing out on the opportunity to express our full humanity. Fortunately, we can re-program our emotional software. Facing Feelings in Faith Communities help us restore our emotional systems to their original state, or at least invites us to imagine how we would live differently if our emotional expressions were more nearly congruent with the situations and events we encounter. Kondrath invites us to explore six feelings--fear, anger, sadness, peace, power, and joy--through poetry, meditation on an evocative drawing, as well as through his own analysis of each feeling. Congregational Resources for Facing Feelings is a companion collection to this book. For more information, click here.
Author : Yitzhak Buxbaum
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 450 pages
File Size : 26,60 MB
Release : 2006-09-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780826418883
This is a life, in stories, of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (1700-1760), the founder of Hasidism. The Baal Shem Tov, or the Besht, as he is commonly called, led a revival in Judaism that put love and joy at the center of religious life and championed the piety of the common folk against the rabbinic establishment. He has been recognized as one of the greatest teachers in Jewish history, and much of what is alive and vibrant in Judaism today, in all denominations, derives from his inspiration. Abraham Joshua Heschel, who was descended from several illustrious Hasidic dynasties, wrote: "The Baal Shem Tov brought heaven to earth. He and his disciples, the Hasidim, banished melancholy from the soul and uncovered the ineffable delight of being a Jew.">
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Publisher : SkyLight Paths Publishing
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 22,18 MB
Release : 2004
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1893361861
The Tales of the Hasidic Masters Can Become a Companion for Your Own Spiritual Journey. "The wisdom of the Hasidim is earthy, realistic, rooted in the simplicity of the heart. It is alive with the awareness of the holiness of Creation and the boundlessness of God's mercy, and is utterly honest about the necessity of living such awareness in loving service to all beings. It is a wisdom that fuses the highest mystical initiations with the most down-home celebration of life and a rugged commitment to social and political justice in all its forms. In other words, it is a wisdom that is never, as my old prep school headmaster would put it, "too divine to be of any earthly use." --from the Foreword by Andrew Harvey Martin Buber, author of Tales of Hasidim, was the first to bring the Hasidic tales to life for modern readers in the middle of the twentieth century. His groundbreaking work was the first time that most readers had ever encountered the lives and teachings of these profound and enigmatic spiritual masters from Eastern Europe. In Hasidic Tales: Annotated & Explained, Rabbi Rami Shapiro breathes new life into these classic stories of people who so marvelously combined the mystical and the ordinary. Each demonstrates the spiritual power of unabashed joy, offers lessons for leading a holy life, and reminds you that the Divine can be found in the everyday. Without an expert guide, the allegorical quality of Hasidic tales can be perplexing. But Shapiro presents them as stories rather than parables, making them accessible and meaningful. Now you can experience the wisdom of Hasidism firsthand even if you have no previous knowledge of Jewish spirituality. This SkyLight Illuminations edition offers insightful yet unobtrusive commentary that explains theological concepts, introduces major characters, offers clarifying references unfamiliar to most readers and reveals how you can use the Hasidic tales to further your own spiritual awakening.
Author : Rabbi Paul Kipnes
Publisher : Jewish Lights Publishing
Page : 218 pages
File Size : 28,55 MB
Release : 2015-07-20
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1580238211
Spiritually nourishing approaches to help you become more insightful, inspired parents and raise soulfully engaged children. Kipnes and November share their hard-won parenting techniques and spirit-filled activities, rituals and prayers to help you cultivate strong Jewish values and cherished spiritual memories in your own family.
Author : Rachel Adler
Publisher : Banot Press
Page : 168 pages
File Size : 47,17 MB
Release : 2020-09-29
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780976305019
In early 2007, Professor Rachel Adler, a Jewish feminist theologian, decided her new apartment needed a cat. 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
Author : Robert M. Schwartz Ph.D.
Publisher : iUniverse
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 20,27 MB
Release : 2012-01-31
Category : Self-Help
ISBN : 1462063454
?Imagine achieving your ideal weight and not regaining! ?Imagine growing spiritually while transforming your body! ?Imagine connecting with God each time you eat! ?Imagine Holy Eating making this process joyful! ????????????? Imagine achieving your optimal weight and not regaining. Imagine growing spiritually while transforming your body. Imagine connecting with God each time you eat. In Holy Eating: The Spiritual Secret to Eternal Weight Loss, author Dr. Robert M. Schwartz offers a powerful guide for transforming both your physical and spiritual selves. He presents practical strategies, applying wisdom from the Bible and spiritual practices from the Kabbalah to the universal struggle for weight loss. Holy Eating captures a simple, but unique message: God cares about how you eat and wants you to be holy, healthy, and trim. This guide will help you understand and internalize the concept of holy eating so it comes alive with spiritual force. Schwartz leads you through practical steps toward experiencing the ultimate pleasures of holy eating with its benefits of reduced shame and improved fitness, beauty, and health. Holy Eating is a God-help book because it relies less on self-focused motivation than on drawing strength and guidance from God. In the battle against obesity, personal power alone is not strong enough for most people to achieve lasting victory, but spiritual inspiration and practices can yield lifelong weight transformation. Praise for Healthy Eating Holy Eating is a unique approach that involves an overall shift towards a more spiritual life. Taken seriously, this method can yield not only sustained weight control, but also a happier and more purposeful life.Rabbi Abraham Twerski, MD, Author of more than sixty books on spirituality and self-improvement
Author : Rabbi Burt Jacobson
Publisher : Monkfish Book Publishing
Page : 715 pages
File Size : 38,81 MB
Release : 2024-11-19
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1958972649
A rabbi’s lifelong journey to discover the source and inspiration of Hasidism. As a student of Abraham Joshua Heschel’s at Jewish Theological Seminary sixty years ago, Burt Jacobson was moved to devote his life to the study of Israel Baal Shem Tov—the founder of Hasidism. Heschel considered the Baal Shem the greatest Jewish teacher and communal leader of the last 1,000 years. Living in the Presence: A Personal Quest for the Baal Shem Tov is a wide-ranging portrait, revealing numerous facets of the Baal Shem Tov’s biography and revolutionary thought previously unknown. Through his knowledge of the world’s wisdom traditions, and personal journey, Rabbi Jacobson is able to place the Baal Shem in the company of the great world spiritual teachers. He reveals the Baal Shem’s vision as an ecstatic mystical encounter that opened to the transcendent unity of existence. It was this that inspired his love and compassion for all creation, especially for the people he met. His disciples testified that their experience of these truths transformed how they understood their own identities as manifestations of the Divine, altered how they lived as spiritual leaders of their communities, and laid the foundations for Hasidism as a movement. Throughout his book Jacobson presents and evaluates insights of historians and scholars, but it is also filled with personal stories about Jacobson’s own struggle with his Jewish identity and his encounter with the Baal Shem as his spiritual teacher. Both a tour de force and a labor of love, this book will quickly become the most essential work on the subject ever published in English.
