Kosher USA follows the fascinating journey of kosher food through the modern industrial food system. It recounts how iconic products such as Coca-Cola and Jell-O tried to become kosher; the contentious debates among rabbis over the incorporation of modern science into Jewish law; how Manischewitz wine became the first kosher product to win over non-Jewish consumers (principally African Americans); the techniques used by Orthodox rabbinical organizations to embed kosher requirements into food manufacturing; and the difficulties encountered by kosher meat and other kosher foods that fell outside the American culinary consensus. Kosher USA is filled with big personalities, rare archival finds, and surprising influences: the Atlanta rabbi Tobias Geffen, who made Coke kosher; the lay chemist and kosher-certification pioneer Abraham Goldstein; the kosher-meat magnate Harry Kassel; and the animal-rights advocate Temple Grandin, a strong supporter of shechita, or Jewish slaughtering practice. By exploring the complex encounter between ancient religious principles and modern industrial methods, Kosher USA adds a significant chapter to the story of Judaism's interaction with non-Jewish cultures and the history of modern Jewish American life as well as American foodways.

It is the story of an ancient people--a story of oppression and darkness, of judgment and wrath... and ultimately, a story of freedom. The account of Israel's redemptive rebirth not only reminds us of how the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob delivered His chosen nation, but how He has made a Way of Salvation for all peoples... "Behold The Lamb of God who is taking away the sin of the world " Behold the Lamb is an untraditional, modern, Messianic Passover Haggadah that tells the Passover story like no other: with Scripture. Approximately ninety percent of the Behold the Lamb 'avodah (Hebrew: "service" or "ceremony") is nothing more than a compilation of relevant passages from the Word, resulting in a unique and dramatic alternative to the customary Passover seder. Can there be a meaningful remembrance of the Passover without seder plates and afikomen? Is the Word of God sufficient to bring the Passover to life in the hearts and minds of our children? Find out in this Scriptural journey memorializing the Feast of freedom and faithfulness--a celebration of the Lamb, by whose sacrifice we are redeemed. Behold The Messiah Yeshua... our Pesach (Revised edition includes supplementary teaching material, matzah recipes and more.)

Yom Kippur... the holiest day on Israel's calendar. In Scripture, it is a day of sacrifice; in Judaism, renunciation. But the Day of Atonement is meant to be far more profound--far more excruciating--than any mere traditional observance or ceremony. Rather, it is a day of humility, affliction and death--a day of disowning, separation and abandonment... of ourselves. In an impassioned, piercing exhortation, Messianic Jewish author and teacher Kevin Geoffrey presents the Scriptural mandate for both the holiest day of the year and the daily life for Messiah's disciples: deny yourself. Taken to heart, this message will not only change the way you view Yom Kippur, but will radically alter the course of your life. Read this challenging word at the risk of completely losing yourself--and then gaining your life anew in Yeshua!

"The Essentials of Buddhist Meditation" is a classic Buddhist meditation instruction manual deeply rooted in the Indian Buddhist "calming-and-insight" meditation tradition. Within its tradition, it is the universally-acknowledged standard beginning-to-intermediate meditation manual, one which offers perhaps the most reliable, comprehensive, and practically-useful Buddhist meditation instruction currently available in English. The author of "The Essentials" is the sixth-century monk and meditation master, Shramana Zhiyi (Chih-i), one of the most illustrious figures in the history of Chinese Buddhism. Master Zhiyi is famous for his role in the founding of the Tiantai teachings lineage and for his authorship of a quartet of meditation manuals of which this is one. The translator of this volume is the American monk, Bhikshu Dharmamitra, a translator of numerous classic works from the Indian and Chinese Buddhist traditions.

A collection of prayers to propitiate the lord Buddha. The various prayers have been presented in English, Chinese and Hindi to make these prayers available to the vast majority of humankind.

Good News of Great Joy by John Piper invites Christians to make Jesus the center of the Advent season through 25 devotional readings.

The discipline of religious studies has, historically, tended to focus on discrete ritual mistakes that occur in the context of individual performances outlined in ethnographic or sociological studies, and scholars have largely dismissed the fact that there are extensive discussions of ritual mistakes in many indigenous traditions' religious literature. And yet ritual mistakes (ranging from the simple to the complex) happen all the time, and they continue to carry ritual "weight," even when no one seriously doubts their impact on the efficacy of a ritual. In Ritual Gone Wrong, Kathryn McClymond approaches ritual mistakes as an integral part of ritual life and argues that religious traditions can accommodate mistakes and are often prepared for them. McClymond shows that many traditions even incorporate the regular occurrence of errors into their ritual systems, developing a substantial literature on how rituals can be disrupted, how these disruptions can be addressed, and when disruptions have gone too far. Using a series of case studies ranging from ancient India to modern day Iraq, and from medieval allegations of child sacrifice to contemporary Olympic ceremonies, McClymond explores the numerous ways in which ritual can go wrong, and demonstrates that the ritual is by nature fluid, supple, and dynamic-simultaneously adapting to socio-cultural conditions and, in some cases, shaping them.

The practice of making votive offerings into fire dates from the earliest periods of human history, and is found in many different religious cultures. Throughout the tantric world, this kind of ritual offering practice is known as the homa. With roots in Vedic and Zoroastrian rituals, the tantric homa developed in early medieval India. Since that time it has been transmitted to Central and East Asia by tantric Buddhist practitioners. Today, Hindu forms are also being practiced outside of India as well. Despite this historical and cultural range, the homa retains an identifiable unity of symbolism and ritual form. The essays collected in Homa Variations provide detailed studies of a variety of homa forms, providing an understanding of the history of the homa from its inception up to its use in the present. At the same time, the authors cover a wide range of religious cultures, from India and Nepal to Tibet, China, and Japan. The theoretical focus of the collection is the study of ritual change over long periods of time, and across the boundaries of religious cultures. The identifiable unity of the homa allows for an almost unique opportunity to examine ritual change from such a broad perspective.

This 2-color, 36-page book guides you through the traditional Passover seder dinner, step-by-step. Not only does this observance remind us of our rescue from Egyptian bondage, but, we remember Messiah's last supper, a Passover seder. The theme of redemption is seen throughout the evening. What's so unique about our Haggadah is the focus on Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah and his teaching, especially on his last night in the upper room. Now, we've included words and sheet music of the songs mentioned in the book and sung on Passover. Singing them will enrich your experience. Also, we've used the popular Complete Jewish Bible for translations where Scripture is quoted.

Martin Diederich develops a professional concept for the artistic design of free weddings and free funeral services. For the first time, psychological, sociological, art and communication theoretical technical fundamentals for the profession of 'free speaker' are comprehensibly described and linked to practical work. For all who are interested in deepening and expanding their professionalism as wedding and funeral orators, the book provides an overview of the technical dimensions of the profession and its practice.

Mock Ritual in the Modern Era explores the complex interrelations between ritual and mockery, the latter of which is not infrequently the unofficial face of claims to rationality. McGinnis and Smyth consider how the mocking and parodying of ritual often associated with modern rationalism may itself become ritualized, and other ways in which supposedly sham ritual may survive its "outing." This volume traces the evolution of "mock ritual" in various forms throughout the modern era, as found in literary, historical, and anthropological texts as well as encyclopedias, newspapers, and films. Mock Ritual in the Modern Era places famous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors in dialogue with contemporary popular culture, from Diderot, Sterne, and Flaubert to the TV shows Survivor and Judge Judy, and from Voltaire to the Charlie Hebdo tragedy of 2015. Ritualistic and mock ritualistic aspects of comedy and ridicule are considered along with those, notably, of sexuality, medicine, art, education, and justice.

When Leon Wieseltier's father died in 1996, he began to observe the rituals of the traditional year of mourning, going daily to the synagogue to recite the Kaddish. This is the story of Wieseltier's search for an understanding of the Kaddish.

Beginning in the fifth century A.D., various Indian mystics began to innovate a body of techniques with which to render themselves immortal. These people called themselves Siddhas, a term formerly reserved for a class of demigods, revered by Hindus and Buddhists alike, who were known to inhabit mountaintops or the atmospheric regions. Over the following five to eight hundred years, three types of Hindu Siddha orders emerged, each with its own specialized body of practice. These were the Siddha Kaula, whose adherents sought bodily immortality through erotico-mystical practices; the Rasa Siddhas, medieval India's alchemists, who sought to transmute their flesh-and-blood bodies into immortal bodies through the ingestion of the mineral equivalents of the sexual fluids of the god Siva and his consort, the Goddess; and the Nath Siddhas, whose practice of hatha yoga projected the sexual and laboratory practices of the Siddha Kaula and Rasa Siddhas upon the internal grid of the subtle body. For India's medieval Siddhas, these three conjoined types of practice led directly to bodily immortality, supernatural powers, and self-divinization; in a word, to the exalted status of the semidivine Siddhas of the older popular cults. In The Alchemical Body, David Gordon White excavates and centers within its broader Indian context this lost tradition of the medieval Siddhas. Working from a body of previously unexplored alchemical sources, he demonstrates for the first time that the medieval disciplines of Hindu alchemy and hatha yoga were practiced by one and the same people, and that they can only be understood when viewed together. Human sexual fluids and the structures of the subtle body aremicrocosmic equivalents of the substances and apparatus manipulated by the alchemist in his laboratory. With these insights, White opens the way to a new and more comprehensive understanding of the entire sweep of medieval Indian mysticism, within the broader context of south Asian Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Islam. This book is an essential reference for anyone interested in Indian yoga, alchemy, and the medieval beginnings of science.

Ritual has emerged as a major focus of academic interest. As a concept, the idea of ritual integrates the study of behavior both within and beyond the domain of religion. Ritual can be both secular and religious in character. There is renewed interest in questions such as: Why do rituals exist at all? What has been, and continues to be, their place in society? How do they change over time? Such questions exist against a backdrop of assumptions about development, modernization, and disenchantment of the world.Written with the specific needs of students of religious studies in mind, "Ritual: Key Concepts in Religion" surveys the field of ritual studies, looking at it both historically within anthropology and in terms of its contemporary relevance to world events.

In this short and inspiring text, Rabbi David J. Wolpe addresses all who seek to enlarge the spiritual side of their lives and to know more about an ancient and enduring religion. For those considering a return to the faith of their forebears, for those intent on a clear and persuasive explanation of their heritage, for those drawn to conversion, Why Be Jewish? is a learned, graceful, and welcoming introduction to a timeless tradition. Each of its three chapters offers a different but complementary answer to the book's central question, and these three answers - to grow in soul, to join a people, to seek God - together form the core of Jewish belief. Intended as a first step on the path to spirituality, Why Be Jewish? is an invitation beckoning the reader into the heart of this venerable faith.

In his probing study of the role of death rites in the making of Islamic society, Leor Halevi imaginatively plays prescriptive texts against material culture and advances new ways of interpreting highly contested sources. His original research reveals that religious scholars of the early Islamic period produced codes of funerary law not only to define the handling of a Muslim corpse but also to transform everyday urban practices. Relying on oral traditions, these scholars established new social patterns in the cities of Arabia, Mesopotamia, and the eastern Mediterranean. They distinguished Islamic rites from Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian rites and changed the way men and women interacted publicly and privately.

In each chapter Halevi explores a different layer of human interaction, following the movement of the corpse from the deathbed to the grave. In the process he analyzes the real and imaginary relationships between husbands and wives, prayer leaders and mourners, and even dreamers and the dead. He describes how Muslims wailed for the deceased, prepared corpses for burial, marched in funerary processions, and prayed for the dead, highlighting the specific economic and political factors involved in these rituals as well as key religious and sexual divisions.

Offering a unique perspective on the making of Islamic social and religious ideals during this early period, Halevi forges a fascinating link between the development of funerary rites and the efforts of an emerging religion to carve out its own, distinct identity. "Muhammad's Grave" is a groundbreaking history of the rise of Islam and the roots of contemporary Muslim attitudes toward the body and society.

With changed in language regarding gender issues, this alternative version of ates of Prayer for the House of Mourning includes services for the funeral home and house of the bereaved, afternoon and evening services, special At a House of Mourning service, additional readings, meditations and Kaddish.