The quest for spirituality is universal, but with so many paths of spiritual nourishment to explore, how do we begin to find the one that is right for us?

Our tradition provides us with appropriate vehicles to express our spirituality within the framework of Judaism. Jewish sages, taking into account the need and makeup of the individual Jew, have been very generous in outlining for us various alternatives . As you become aware of your emotional and intellectual needs, and search for an appropriate path to meet them with integrity, you will soon realize that you have a preference for certain paths among the many. from Chapter 9

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino a self-proclaimed rationalist offers a candid, comprehensive discussion of the major paths to spirituality within the framework of Judaism, and the differing way each path can help us on our quest to nourish the soul and enlighten the mind.

Acts of transcendence, prayer, meditation, study, ritual, relationship and good deeds which is the best path for you? How can you follow it?

A handbook of Jewish ethical values and literature. Life as an art form an invitation to Jewish ethical living.

It is the human task to complete God s unfinished artistic masterpiece the human person. from the Introduction

The classic texts of Jewish ethical literature works little-known to most of us are now readily available for personal study. This one-of-a-kind book brings the genre of Jewish ethical literature from its origins in the ancient and medieval worlds, straight into our 21st-century lives.

An invitation into a history rich with wisdom and guidance, "Creating an Ethical Jewish Life" offers traditional texts, clear explanations, and ways for us to use them in our lives. Rabbis Sherwin and Cohen highlight a wide variety of classic texts, including the "Zohar, The Holy Letter, The Path of the Upright" by Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto, "Duties of the Heart" by Bahya ibn Pakudah, and Nachmanides "Commentary on the Torah. "These timeless texts are combined with the authors insightful commentary to address the ultimate human moral issue, the most intimate personal question: How can I best live the life God has entrusted into my care?

With expertise and passion, Sherwin and Cohen show us how these unusual texts not only inform but can transform our lives.

Explores how to:

Deal with ego Be wise Be healthy Employ wealth Die Behave sexually Believe in God Thank God Love God Study the Torah Repent Treat one s parents Parent Speak about another Be Philanthropic

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."

What would happen if a Hasidic rabbi from Eastern Europe suddenly found himself in the 'Old West' of the American 1850s? This is the question Bahir Davis answers in the delightful and often profound stories of The Light Giver, in which Reb Ya'ir, a Hasidic Jew from the Polish town of P'shyskha embarks on an adventure through the 'New World, ' trying to reach San Francisco, where he has been offered a position as rabbi. Along the way, he finds that the true purpose of his coming to America has little to do with his destination. Rather, it lies in the journey of discovery, in the meeting of different cultures, in the wisdom he gains from fugitive slaves, Native American medicine men, and settlers on the frontier. And we, the readers, benefit from the light that he shares from his own spiritual tradition. In each story, a different Jewish holiday is experienced and explored in a unique and inviting manner. An accomplished storyteller, Bahir Davis, a circuit-riding rabbi and founder of Rocky Mountain Hai in Lafayette, Colorado, skillfully combines his love of 'Old West' lore with his true vocation as a spiritual teacher in this wonderful book of Jewish wisdom for the American frontier. Praise for The Light Giver: "What fun it is to follow Reb Bahir's rabbi-hero on his journey through the Wild West and the Jewish calendar. A wonderful read, it sneaks in solid teaching wrapped in a rollicking tale." - Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal Movement "Jewish mystical stories were born at the strange, hazy crossroads between uncommon wisdom and common sense. The Light Giver hearkens back to the time when rabbis didn't lecture from podiums and write blog posts from iPads, but went on adventures into the wild, befriending runaway slaves and dodging Injun arrows, throwing themselves into the wide world because G-d created it all. Written in the fine tradition of Reb Shmuel Munkes and The Frisco Kid, the stories in this book are funny, sad, innocent and world-weary, and truly, truly wise." --- Matthue Roth, author of Yom Kippur A Go-Go: A Memoir "At once funny, touching, and profound, The Light Giver takes us on a journey through the Jewish calendar, the Jewish spirit and into the Jewish soul. Rabbi Davis is by no means conventional, and this book is unlike any other. Within it there are sparks of Divinity waiting for us to unearth. This book is a delight to read and learn from." --- Mayim Bialik, actress and author of Beyond the Sling

Third Edition God, the Universe, and Man-their essential unity and fundamental attributes as seen through the eyes of Jewish esoteric tradition-is the subject of Leo Schaya's masterly study of the Kabbalah. Unlike most works on the subject, which focus on the history of the Kabbalah or the Kabbalah as literature (not to mention countless 'new age' rants), this penetrating text expounds the universal teachings of the Kabbalah on the relationships of all things to their supreme archetypes, the ten Sephiroth, or principial aspects of God. In addition to the Old Testament and the Talmud, Schaya draws on one of the classical sources of Jewish mysticism-the Zohar, or Book of Splendor-fromwhich he extracts an all-embracing synthesis of the numberless degrees of All-Reality, to which correspond the multiple states of human being, from earthly individuality to essential identity with the Absolute. This work, acclaimed by reviewers and scholars alike, fittingly concludes with an illuminating chapter on the Name of God, which saves 'all those who invoke him in truth.' Students of comparative religion will find an abundance of information here, for striking parallels both with the Hindu cosmological doctrines and the metaphysical insights of the Vedantic sages are among the surprises interlaced in this account of Judaic esoteric wisdom. In this, Schaya carries on the extraordinary work of three great 20th-century metaphysicians of the philosophia perennis: Ren Gunon, Frithjof Schuon, and Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. This book will be extremely useful to anyone who is, in the words of Maimonides, 'perplexed' by the Bible in the sense of having exercised his best thinking about it and who now stands 'broken' before its apparent contradictions and its overwhelming emotional authority. The Kabbalah, or esotericism, is the communication to man of what Schaya calls principial ideas, ideas that are to thought and actions what the sun is to its rays. Standing between metaphysical ideas and the symbolic language of the Zohar and the Old Testament, he allows each side to penetrate the other. -Jacob Needleman, author of Lost Christianity, A Sense of the Cosmos, etc. This book fills an urgent need. To rediscover the deepest meaning of the Old Testament is something that could haved a most tonic and enlightening effect on the whole of Christian thought today; no clearer interpreters are to be found than the masters of the Kabbalah. -Marco Pallis, author of The Way and the Mountain, A Buddhist Spectrum, etc. Leo Schaya was born in Switzerland in 1916. He received a traditional Jewish upbringing, but from an early age devoted himself to the study of the great metaphysical doctrines of East and West, particularly those of Neoplatonism, Sufism, and theAdvaita Vedanta. His works include, in addition to The Universal Meaning of the Kabbalah (first published in French in 1958 as L'Homme et l'Absolu selon la Kabbale), La Doctrine Soufique de l'Unit, La cration en Dieu: la lumire du judasme, du christianisme et l'islam, and Naissance l'esprit, as well as numerous articles.

'If the Jews wish to become a nation of Jewish Culture,' Eliezer Ben-Yehuda wrote in 1904, 'they must first become truly a nation.' Throughout the subsequent decade, he and other Zionist activists in Palestine-with the help of others elsewhere-attempted to transform what they perceived to be a dispersed and divided mass into the seeds of a modern nation. In this book, Arieh Bruce Saposnik tells the story of how they did it. While there has been a great deal of study of Zionist ideas of this period, Saposnik turns his focus elsewhere, showing how thee ideas were put into practice by Zionist activists in Palestine. The period from 1903-1914, he argues, was critical to the building of the infrastructure of national culture. Moreover, he shows, these activists did not attempt to build a traditional Jewish culture in a new place, but sought to effect a dramatic revolution in all aspects of Jewish life-a revolution with a complex relationship to traditional Jewish discourses, practices, and liturgy. Their view of 'culture' was expansive, involving all aspects of life, and both high culture and popular culture. Their revolution changed everything from the way they dressed to the art they created, from the holidays they celebrated to the language they spoke and the accent with which they spoke it. It also included politics, economics, medicine, and much more. Saposnik attempts to recapture this comprehensive view of culture and to show how images and ideas were translated into concrete cultural institutions, new art, rituals, language, and more.

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."

"Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture" aims to fill a gap that has become more and more conspicuous among the wealth of scholarly periodicals in the field of Jewish Studies. Whereas existing journals provide space to medium - and large sized articles, they neglect the small but poignant contributions, which may be as important as the extended, detailed study. The yearbook "Zutot" serves as a platform for small but incisive contributions, and provides them with a distinct context. The substance of these contributions is derived from larger perspectives and, though not always presented in an exhaustive way, will have an impact on contemporary discussions. "Zutot" covers Jewish Culture in its broadest sense, i.e. encompassing various academic disciplines - literature, languages and linguistics, philosophy, art, sociology, politics and history - and reflects binary oppositions such as religious and secular, high and low, written and oral, male and female culture.

At day's end, quiet your mind and unburden your heart. These peaceful reflections offer wisdom to "sleep on." For each night of the year, an inspiring quote from a Jewish source and a personal reflection on it from an insightful spiritual leader help you to focus on your spiritual life and the lessons your day has offered.

A window into the Jewish soul written especially for Christians.

I invite you to explore with me some of the rich and varied expressions of the Jewish spiritual imagination. It is a tradition that may at times, for Christians, feel strangely familiar and will, for Christians and Jews, always challenge you to see yourself and your world through a new lens. from the Introduction

Jewish spirituality is an approach to life that encourages us to become aware of God s presence and purpose, even in unlikely places. This world and everything in it is a manifestation of God s presence, says Rabbi Lawrence Kushner. Our challenge and goal is to find it and then act in such a way as to help others find it too.

In this special book, Kushner guides Christians through the rich wisdom of Jewish spirituality. He tailors his unique style to address Christians questions, and, in doing so, opens new windows on their own faith.

"Jewish Spirituality "is a window into the Jewish soul that people of all faiths can understand and enjoy. From the Talmud and Torah, to repentence ("teshuva") and repairing the world ("tikkun olam"), Kushner shows all of us how we can use the fundamentals of Jewish spirituality to enrich our own lives.

Radical changes in understandings of gender over the last two centuries are at the heart of some of the most controversial issues within Jewish life and law. They have influenced the basic concepts of Judaism, of family structure, of liturgy, of thoughts about leadership and of Halakhah. This volume discusses some of these changes and new definitions and how they continue to be reflected in the developing reform Halakhah.

Binding Fragments of Tractate Temurah and the Problem of Lishana 'Aharina offers a critical edition of an important Talmud manuscript of tractate Temurah discovered in the library of New York University. Addressing the unique Lishana 'Aharina ("alternative version") phenomenon present in this tractate, the present volume suggests a new approach for understanding the editing and transmission of tractate Temurah. This volume also includes a thorough discussion of the conservation and treatment of the manuscript fragments, a codicological and paleographical analysis of the fragments, and a synopsis of the entire first chapter of this tractate. The present work is relevant for study of the redaction and transmission of tractate Temurah and the Babylonian Talmud, as well as for the study of Hebrew binding fragments.

Though "biblical theology" has long been considered a strictly Christian enterprise, Marvin A. Sweeney here proposes a Jewish theology of the Hebrew Bible, based on the importance of Tanak as the foundation of Judaism and organized around the major components: Torah, Nevi'im (Prophets), and Kethuvim (Writings). Sweeney finds the structuring themes of Jewish life: the constitution of the nation Israel in relation to God; the disruption of that ideal, documented by the Prophets; and the reconstitution of the nation around the Second Temple in the Writings. Throughout he is attentive to tensions within and among the texts and the dialogical character of Israel's sacred heritage.

How can my congregation transform itself? How can we re-dedicate ourselves to learning?

Improving spiritual connection in our communities takes work Combining expert advice and experience garnered from congregations throughout North America, Becoming a Congregation of Learners shows us how transformative change is possible. A complete resource full of ideas, information and support, this is a guide for those of us involved in, or interested in, energizing our spiritual communities.

Isa Aron, director of Hebrew Union College's Experiment in Congregational Education (ECE), offers concrete, practical information on how to bring about change and revitalization, and helps us make learning a vibrant, integral part of congregational life.

Despite the obvious contradictions, complexity, and apparent randomness that assault any human being day after day, everything is somehow nevertheless connected, orchestrated. The universe is filled with meaning .

In Jewish mysticism, the river is a metaphor for the Holy Oneness that unifies all creation. Just imagine it: a sacred stream, luminous and ubiquitous, a river of light. from the Preface to the Anniversary Edition

This is an invitation to wade into a deeper spiritual consciousness. Taking us step-by-step, Kushner helps us to allow the river of light the deepest currents of consciousness to rise to the surface and animate our lives.

This is accessible and reliable survey of Kabbalah's key elements, uniquely exploring the contemporary phenomena of its popularity and the notoreity of some its modern purveyors. "Kabbalah: A Guide for the Perplexed" is a concise and accessible introduction to the major elements of the prevalent metaphysical system of Judaism, Kabbalah. The book covers the historical and theoretical essence of Kabbalah, offering a clear definition of the term and the limitations of what Kabbalah is and is not. Pinchas Giller provides an overview of the history of the movement, reflecting the sweep of Jewish history as a whole, and examines its metaphysical system, the advanced mythos of early and later Luria, doctrines of the soul, and the mysteries of Jewish religious practice and law. The book concludes with a summary of the contemporary kabbalistic phenomena, particularly in light of the notoriety of some modern purveyors of Kabbalah. As cogent and objective as possible, this is the ideal companion for those wishing to gain a sound understanding of this often perplexing mystical aspect of Judaism. "Continuum's Guides for the Perplexed" are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging - or indeed downright bewildering. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to grasp, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material.

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.

This is a concise study guide for the fledgling student of Judaism, covering critical issues and methodology. This volume in the "Studying World Religions" series is an essential guide to the study of Jewish faith. Clearly structured to cover all the major areas of study, including historical foundations, scripture, worship, society, thought and ethics, this is the ideal study aid for those approaching Judaism for the first time. "Studying Judaism" offers readers the chance to engage with a religious tradition as a diverse, living phenomenon. Its approach is 'critical' in two major respects: its use of the dimensional approach to the study of religions as an interpretive framework, and its focus on matters perceived as problematic by insider and/or outsider commentators, such as gender, demography, geo-politics, the 'museumisation' of Jewish cultures and its impact on religion and identity. A series of introductory guides, books in the "Studying World Religions" series are designed as study aids for those approaching the world's religions for the first time. Rather than attempting to cover all the material, the critical and methodological issues that students need to grasp in the study of each religious tradition - and religion in general - are drawn out, and the major contemporary debates explored. Readers are offered the chance to engage with religious traditions as diverse, living phenomena. With helpful suggestions for further study, pointing students towards material such as primary sources (scriptures), films and novels, and including ideas for teaching, discussion topics and exercises, these guides are the perfect companions for the fledgling student of religion.

Against a vivid background of Jewish and Islamic history, Bernard Lewis portrays the Judaeo-Islamic tradition - a cultural relationship parallel to the Judaeo-Christian heritage. He traces its origins in the early Middle Ages, its flowering, and its ending, followed by the incorporation of most of the Jews of Islamic countries into the state of Israel. The book examines the relations of Islam and other religions; the formative and classical periods of the Judaeo-Islamic tradition in medieval Islam; the development of the Ottoman Empire; and its eventual demise in the twentieth century. This book was originally published in 1984.