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 candlesBlessing your parentsRunning a marathonVisiting the sickBuilding a sukkahSeeing natural wondersMoving into a new homeSaying goodbye to a beloved petMaking a shiva callTraveling ... 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."

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."

Spiritual and ethical lessons for the workaday world: how to do well and do good.

How can I find greater satisfaction in my work?

How can I lead my employees through difficult times?

If you get up each morning to go to work, this guide contains the reminder you need to succeed: you can do well and, at the very same time, you can do good.

Rabbi Wayne Dosick gives us tools to solve both the major moral dilemmas and the day-to-day questions of life at work. He offers ten new commandments that can transform our work and work environment into places for accomplishment and satisfaction, honesty and integrity, decency and dignity and success.

Through stories, real-life business situations, and artfully chosen spiritual texts, "The Business Bible" reminds us that principles don t have to be sacrificed for profits, that value means more than net worth, and that spiritual ethics can lead to business excellence.

Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia This vast area has experienced significant changes following political and socio-cultural upheavals: the Chinese occupation of Tibet since the 1950s; the opening of Nepal to the world in 1951 and the influx of large numbers of Tibetan refugees into its territory; the end of the communist era and the transition to a market economy in Mongolia, and more generally the confrontation with modernity and globalisation. "Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan World" examines the changes rituals have undergone and offers the reader the result of recent research based on both fieldwork and textual studies by researchers who have worked in these countries. Contributors include Hildegard Diemberger, Fabienne Jagou, Thierry Dodin, Fernanda Pirie, Nicola Schneider, Mireille Helffer, Alexander von Rospatt, Marie-Dominique Even, Robert Barnett, Katia Buffetrille

Sacrifice is a well known form of ritual in many world religions. Although the actual practice of animal sacrifice was largely abolished in the later history of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it is still recalled through biblical stories, the ritual calendar and community events. The essays in this volume discuss the various positions regarding the value of sacrifice in a wide variety of disciplines such as history, archaeology, literature, philosophy, art and gender and post-colonial studies. In this context they examine a wide array of questions pertaining to the 'actuality of sacrifice' in various social, historical and intellectual contexts ranging from the pre-historical to the post-Holocaust, and present new understandings of some of the most sensitive topics of our time.

Sayyid Amjad Hussain Shah Naqavi's introduction and annotated scholarly translation of Ayatollah Khomeini's The Mystery of Prayer brings to light a rarely studied dimension of an author better known for his revolutionary politics. Writing forty years before the Islamic revolution, Khomeini shows a formidable level of insight into the spiritual aspects of Islamic prayer. Through discussions on topics such as spiritual purity, the presence of the heart before God, and the stations of the spiritual wayfarer, Khomeini elucidates upon the nature of reality as the countenance of the divine. Drawing upon scriptural sources and the Shi'ah intellectual and mystical tradition, the subtlety of the work has led to it being appreciated as one of Khomeini's most original works in the field of gnosis.

Horse of Karbala is a study of Muharram rituals and interfaith relations in three locations in India: Ladakh, Darjeeling, and Hyderabad. These rituals commemorate an event of vital importance to Shia Muslims: the seventh-century death of the Imam Husain, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the battlefield of Karbala in Iraq. Pinault examines three different forms of ritual commemoration of Husain’s death--poetry-recital and self-flagellation in Hyderabad; stick-fighting in Darjeeling; and the “Horse of Karbala” procession, in which a stallion representing the mount ridden in battle by Husain is made the center of a public parade in Ladakh and other Indian localities. The book looks at how publicly staged rituals serve to mediate communal relations: in Hyderabad and Darjeeling, between Muslim and Hindu populations; in Ladakh, between Muslims and Buddhists. Attention is also given to controversies within Muslim communities over issues related to Muharram such as the belief in intercession by the Karbala Martyrs on behalf of individual believers.

This volume addresses the means and ends of sacrificial speculation by inviting a selected group of specialists in the fields of philosophy, history of religions, and indology to examine philosophical modes of sacrificial speculation - especially in Ancient India and Greece - and consider the commonalities of their historical raison d'etre. Scholars have long observed, yet without presenting any transcultural grand theory on the matter, that sacrifice seems to end with (or even continue as) philosophy in both Ancient India and Greece. How are we to understand this important transformation that so profoundly changed the way we think of religion (and philosophy as opposed to religion) today? Some of the complex topics inviting closer examination in this regard are the interiorisation of ritual, ascetism and self-sacrifice, sacrifice and cosmogony, the figure of the philosopher-sage, transformations and technologies of the self, analogical reasoning, the philosophy of ritual, vegetarianism, and metempsychosis.

The study of Jewish converts to Christianity in the modern era has long been marginalized in Jewish historiography. Labeled disparagingly in the Jewish tradition as meshumadim (apostates), many earlier Jewish scholars treated these individuals in a negative light or generally ignored them as not properly belonging any longer to the community and its historical legacy. This situation has radically changed in recent years with an outpouring of new studies on converts in variegated times and places, culminating perhaps in the most recent synthesis of modern Jewish converts by Todd Endelman in 2015. While Endelman argues that most modern converts left the Jewish fold for economic, social, or political reasons, he does acknowledge the presence of those who chose to convert for ideological and spiritual motives. The purpose of this volume is to consider more fully the latter group, perhaps the most interesting from the perspective of Jewish intellectual history: those who moved from Judaism to Christianity out of a conviction that they were choosing a superior religion, and out of doubt or lack of confidence in the religious principles and practices of their former one. Their spiritual journeys often led them to suspect their newly adopted beliefs as well, and some even returned to Judaism or adopted a hybrid faith consisting of elements of both religions. Their intellectual itineraries between Judaism and Christianity offer a unique perspective on the formation of modern Jewish identities, Jewish-Christian relations, and the history of Jewish skeptical postures. The approach of the authors of this book is to avoid broad generalizations about the modern convert in favor of detailed case studies of specific converts in four distinct localities: Germany, Russia, Poland, and England, all living in the nineteenth- century. In so doing, it underscores the individuality of each convert's life experience and self-reflection and the need to examine more intensely this relatively neglected dimension of Jewish and Christian cultural and intellectual history.

Women, Rites, and Ritual Objects in Premodern Japan, edited by Karen M. Gerhart, is a multidisciplinary examination of rituals featuring women, in which significant attention is paid to objects produced for and utilized in these rites as a lens through which larger cultural concerns, such as gender politics, the female body, and the materiality of the ritual objects, are explored. The ten chapters encounter women, rites, and ritual objects in many new and interactive ways and constitute a pioneering attempt to combine ritual and gendered analysis with the study of objects. Contributors include: Anna Andreeva, Monica Bethe, Patricia Fister, Sherry Fowler, Karen M. Gerhart, Hank Glassman, Naoko Gunji, Elizabeth Morrissey, Chari Pradel, Barbara Ruch, Elizabeth Self.

Sortilege-the making of decisions by casting lots-was widely practiced in the Mediterranean world during the period known as late antiquity, between the third and eighth centuries CE. In My Lots are in Thy Hands: Sortilege and its Practitioners in Late Antiquity, AnneMarie Luijendijk and William Klingshirn have collected fourteen essays that examine late antique lot divination, especially but not exclusively through texts preserved in Greek, Latin, Coptic, and Syriac. Employing the overlapping perspectives of religious studies, classics, anthropology, economics, and history, contributors study a variety of topics, including the hermeneutics and operations of divinatory texts, the importance of diviners and their instruments, and the place of faith and doubt in the search for hidden order in a seemingly random world.

First published in 1952. The Real Tripitaka gives an account of the seventh century pilgrim's adventures, spiritual and material, both in India and after his return to China. In addition the book contains an account of a Japanese pilgrim's visit to China in the ninth century, which describes the Wu-t'ai Shan, China's great place of Pilgrimage, and an eye-witness's account of the great persecution of Buddhism in 842-845 A.D.

Alfred Edersheim's well-researched account of everyday Jewish life at the time the New Testament Gospels took place remains one of the best texts on the subject ever authored. This edition includes the author's appendixes. The reader is taken back to Israel and the surrounding areas more than 2,000 years ago. How the society would appear to the casual traveler, what customs the people practiced, how everyday life proceeded in the Jewish homestead and towns, and how women were treated are topics which Edersheim examines. The author goes into much detail, presenting an evocative picture of a sophisticated ancient society. We also hear of the political landscape of the era, particularly concerning the Pharisees - the leading social and political movement of the time - and its interactions with rival movements such as the Sadducees and Essenes. Religious rites, the layout and ceremonies of ancient Jewish synagogues and temples, and the creation of the ancient religious Talmudic literature, are related.

The book sheds light on various chapters in the long history of Protestant-Jewish relations, from the Reformation to the present. Going beyond questions of antisemitism and religious animosity, it aims to disentangle some of the intricate perceptions, interpretations, and emotions that have characterized contacts between Protestantism and Judaism, and between Jews and Protestants. While some papers in the book address Luther's antisemitism and the NS-Zeit, most papers broaden the scope of the investigation: Protestant-Jewish theological encounters shaped not only antisemitism but also the Jewish Reform movement and Protestant philosemitic post-Holocaust theology; interactions between Jews and Protestants took place not only in the German lands but also in the wider Protestant universe; theology was crucial for the articulation of attitudes toward Jews, but music and philosophy were additional spheres of creativity that enabled the process of thinking through the relations between Judaism and Protestantism. By bringing together various contributions on these and other aspects, the book opens up directions for future research on this intricate topic, which bears both historical significance and evident relevance to our own time.

Celebrating on the Journey - A Guide to a Catholic-Jewish Seder for 100 is a one of a kind guide that provides the reader with the essentials of a hands-on guide which will enable a spiritual encounter and "Faithing"- "Befriending" transformation. The guide is introduced with a no-nonsense set of questions and answers which will aid you in the "Plan" and "Organizational" phases of your Seder meal. These Q/A's address the critical Who, What, Why, Where, When and How issues which have to be taken into consideration in the beginning phases of your planning. If this is your communities first Seder approval steps should begin the month after Easter this year for next year. It takes 4 - 6 weeks to unfold the process before the date and time of your Seder. In the initial phase of discussion ---a short 'theological reflection' introduces a theological understanding of the Passover in reference to the Last Supper. The Seder celebration itself is symbolic of many different foods, prayers, songs and gestures. These are covered so that a complete catechesis may be done. Your guide has 14 individual appendices to which (each issue) of the process is covered. People's time is important. A core team must be developed. To achieve this end, appendices 1, 2, 3,4 and 5 are worksheets in which you can develop the core team and team members. Protocol should be followed. This must be a team effort not just several select souls. Appendix 8 contains recipies which each of the attendees of the Seder are to bring. Each family is requested to bring enough for themselves plus four extra attendees. There will be a 'sign-up' weekend at which recipes can be chosen. Concluding, the last two appendices contain: #13 Tips for a successful Seder; and, #14 Bibliography and Resources.

Britain’s Pilgrim Places captures the spirit of 2,000 years of history, heritage and wonder. It is the complete guide to every spiritual treasure, including 500 enchanting holy places throughout England, Wales and Scotland and covers all major pilgrimage routes. Produced in collaboration with The British Pilgrimage Trust, this book encapsulates the timeless quest of the human spirit to find meaning, connection and peace. Each listing is illustrated in full colour and written and presented in a way that appeals to everyone. From wild hermit islands to city-centre cathedrals alike, there is something to surprise and enlighten anyone with a sense of the sacred. 2020 is the Year of the Pilgrimage and the Year of Cathedrals, and events are being held throughout the year to mark a revival in pilgrim places, cathedrals and free-form spiritual expression. The British Pilgrimage Trust’s mission is to harness the quiet but powerful resurgence of interest in ancient ways of finding meaning and peace in the landscape. Britain’s Pilgrim Places follows on from best-selling Britain’s Holiest Places which became a 6-part BBC television series.