Showing titles in Judaism

Taking his lead from his subject, Gershom Scholem - the 20th-century thinker who cracked open Jewish theology and history with a radical reading of Kabbalah - Prochnik combines biography and memoir to counter our contemporary political crisis with an original and urgent reimagining of the future of Israel.

In this book, Tirzah Firestone brings to life the profound impact of protracted historical trauma through the compelling narratives of Israeli terror victims, Holocaust survivors, and those whose lives were marred by racial persecution and displacement. The tragic story of Firestone's own family lays the groundwork for these revealing testimonies of recovery, forgiveness, and moral leadership.

Drawing insights from the hard-won wisdom of disabled folks who've forged difference into fierce and luminous cultural dissent, Belser offers fresh and unexpected interpretations of familiar biblical stories, showing how disability wisdom can guide us all toward a powerful reckoning with the complexities of the flesh. She talks back to biblical commentators who traffic in disability stigma and shame, challenging interpretations that demean disabled people and diminish the vitality of disabled lives. 

Proverbs: Audio Lectures features scholar and professor Ryan P. O'Dowd teaching through the book of Proverbs in 37 engaging and challenging lessons. Based on his Proverbs commentary in The Story of God Bible Commentary series, these video lessons explain and illuminate each passage of the book...

This incisive history upends the complacency that confines anti-Judaism to the ideological extremes in the Western tradition. With deep learning and elegance, David Nirenberg shows how foundational anti-Judaism is to the history of the West. Questions of how we are Jewish and, more critically, how and why we are not have been churning within the Western imagination throughout its history. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans; Christians and Muslims of every period; even the secularists of modernity have used Judaism in constructing their visions of the world.

The wave of Eastern European Jewish immigrants who swept into New York in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by way of Ellis Island were not welcomed by the Jews who had arrived decades before. These refugees from czarist Russia and the Polish shtetls who came to America to escape pogroms and persecution were considered barbaric, uneducated, and too steeped in the traditions of the "old country" to be accepted by the more refined and already well-established German-Jewish community. But the new arrivals were tough, passionate, and determined.

For thousands of years, the Torah has been the cornerstone of Jewish faith, identity, and daily life. But understanding its depths requires more than just reading/listening to the words - it demands insight, context, and a guide to bridge the gap between ancient teachings and modern living.

The national bestseller From one of our country’s most prominent rabbis, an inspiring book about the power of community based on one of her most impactful sermons. In a time of loneliness and isolation, social rupture and alienation, what will it take to mend our broken hearts and rebuild our...

From the depths of the desert sands of Mesopotamia have emerged many mysteries. Mysteries that until this day feed the ever-burning fires of conspiracy and wonder. From the mad Arab and the Necronomicon, to the conspiracy of human-enslaving Annunaki. In ancient times, Mesopotamian rulers ravaged the Holy Land and exiled the people. Their religion slow seeping into the souls of its captives. Their astrological knowledge beguiled all of the Middle East and even informs most astrologers around the world to this day. The cultures that emerged have had influence that cannot be denied.

Since they were first discovered in the caves at Qumran, in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have aroused more fascination - and more controversy - than perhaps any other archaeological find. They appear to have been hidden in the Judean desert by the Essenes, a Jewish sect that existed around the time of Jesus, and they continue to inspire veneration and conspiracy theories to this day. John Collins tells the story of the bitter conflicts that have swirled around the scrolls since their startling discovery, and sheds light on their true significance for Jewish and Christian history.

God's identity is beyond what we could ever fully express in human words. But Scripture uses one particular word to describe the distinctiveness of God's character: the Hebrew word hesed. Hesed is a concept so rich in meaning that it doesn't translate well into any single English word or phrase. Michael Card unpacks the many dimensions of hesed, often expressed as lovingkindness, covenant faithfulness, or steadfast love. He explores how hesed is used in the Old Testament to reveal God's character and how he relates to his people. 

In medieval Europe, Jews were not passive victims of the Christian community, as is often assumed, but rather were startlingly assertive, forming a Jewish civilization within Latin Christian society. Both Jews and Christians considered themselves to be God's chosen people. These dueling claims fueled the rise of both cultures as they became rivals for supremacy. In How the West Became Antisemitic, Ivan Marcus shows how Christian and Jewish competition in medieval Europe laid the foundation for modern antisemitism.

Doris Lessing reads from her introduction to Ecclesiastes or, the preacher. Ancient tradition suggests that this world-weary lament is the work of Solomon in old age. Casting its eye over the transient nature of life, the book questions the story for wisdom and the truth, choosing instead to espouse the value of living for the moment. The introduction is preceded by a reading from the book by Richard Holloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh.

Three young Jewish sisters from Leipzig, Germany huddle together in the cold darkness of night waiting for their smugglers to rescue them and bring them to freedom in Belgium. Their mother, in a state of shock following Kristallnacht, is left behind, sedated in a psychiatric hospital. November 1938 begins the four year ordeal of the seven member Kroch family who endure unfathomable conditions in their fight for survival: imprisonment in French internment camps, hiding in a tiny tool shed, and adapting to the deplorable conditions of a Nazi prison.

“Enthralling, searching, profound, an extraordinarily powerful work on Jewish identity in the twenty-first century.”—Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks A bold proposal for discovering relevance in Judaism and ensuring its survival, from a pioneering social activist, business leader, and fighter...

Introduction to the Zohar is the second in a series written by Kabbalist and scientist Rav Michael Laitman, which will prepare listeners to understand the hidden message of The Zohar. Among the many helpful topics dealt with in this companion text to The Science of Kabbalah, listeners are introduced to the "language of root and branch", without which the stories in the Zohar are mere fable and legend.

Every one of us sooner or later walks through hell. The hell of being hurt, the hell of hurting another. The hell of cancer, the hell of a reluctant, thunking shovel full of earth upon the casket of someone we deeply loved, the hell of betrayal, the hell of betraying, the hell of divorce, the hell of a kid in trouble...the hell of knowing that this year, like any year, may be our last. We all walk through hell. The point is not to come out empty-handed.... There is real and profound power in the suffering we endure if we transform that suffering into a more authentic, meaningful life.

The following is a translation of the fourth gate of one of the earliest of the classic mussar works, Chovos Halevavos by Rabeinu Bachya. The book has inspired many great men to walk in its ways and review it throughout their lives. The fourth gate deals with what Rabeinu Bachya regards as "the most necessary of all things for the service of God." Namely, trust in God. This English translation is used with permission of Rabbi Yosef Sebag, the copyright holder.

Three of the most popular and sought after apocryphal books are now presented in a single volume. The Book of Enoch is quoted by Jude, cited by Peter, and read by the apostles, Enoch (1 Enoch) informs our ideas of angels and demons. The book describes the fall of a group of angels called the Watchers, who took the daughters of men as wives and fathered the Nephilim (Genesis 6: 1-2). Enoch goes on to record amazing visions of heaven and the workings thereof. Enoch is an ancient Jewish religious work, traditionally ascribed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah.

As a psychiatrist, Dr. Rubin learned that Anti-Semitism and other deep-seated prejudices are non-organic diseases of the mind: malignant emotional illnesses that can be treated by only first understanding the unique psychodynamics involved. Little has been written about this aspect of bigotry. Anti-Semitism is a bold endeavor to shed light on one of humankind's most destructive and contagious illnesses, and offers hope and healing for the future.