The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world.

The first in the Magerman Educational Siddur Series, The Koren Children's Siddur created for the early elementary grades, combines stimulating and beautiful illustrations with thought-provoking educational components on each page to provide teachers and parents with an educational resource as much as a conventional siddur. The siddur, for kindergarten, first and second grades, is also accompanied by a comprehensive Teacher and Parents Guide to maximize the educational potential of this beginner's siddur.

This book contains a compelling discussion of transformations within British Jewry in recent times. The first study of contemporary British Jewry since the 1970s, "Turbulent Times: The British Jewish Community Today" examines the changing nature of the British Jewish community and its leadership since 1990. Keith Kahn-Harris and Ben Gidley contend that there has been a shift within Jewish communal discourse from a strategy of security, which emphasized Anglo-Jewry's secure British belonging and citizenship, to a strategy of insecurity, which emphasizes the dangers and threats Jews face individually and communally.

Jews and Judaism played a significant role in the history of the expansion of Europe to the west as well as in the history of the economic, social, and religious development of the New World. They played an important role in the discovery, colonization, and eventually exploitation of the resources of the New World. Alone among the European peoples who came to the Americas in the colonial period, Jews were dispersed throughout the hemisphere; indeed, they were the only cohesive European ethnic or religious group that lived under both Catholic and Protestant regimes, which makes their study particularly fruitful from a comparative perspective. As distinguished from other religious or ethnic minorities, the Jewish struggle was not only against an overpowering and fierce nature but also against the political regimes that ruled over the various colonies of the Americas and often looked unfavorably upon the establishment and tleration of Jewish communities in their own territory. Jews managed to survive and occasionally to flourish against all odds, and their history in the Americas is one of the more fascinating chapters in the early modern history of European expansion.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth in the United Kingdom offers a refreshing and insightful commentary to the Koren Haggada, together with illuminating essays on the themes and motifs of the Festival of Freedom. Sensitively translated, the traditional texts are carefully balanced alongside the Chief Rabbi's contemporary ideas, in a modern and user-friendly design. With new interpretations and in-depth analyses of the Passover liturgy and ritual, Rabbi Sacks' style is engaging, intelligent at times daring in its innovation and always inspiring. With essay titles as diverse as Pesah, Freud and Jewish Identity and Pesah and the Rebirth of Israel, as well as explorations of the role of women in the exodus, and the philosophy of leadership and nation-building, the Chief Rabbi's Haggada is a thought-provoking and essential companion at the Seder table.

This volume of essays constitutes a critical evaluation of Martin Buber's concept of dialogue as a trans-disciplinary hermeneutic method. So conceived, dialogue has two distinct but ultimately convergent vectors. The first is directed to the subject of one's investigation: one is to listen to the voice of the Other and to suspend all predetermined categories and notions that one may have of the Other; dialogue is, first and foremost, the art of unmediated listening. One must allow the voice of the Other to question one's pre-established positions fortified by professional, emotional, intellectual and ideological commitments. Dialogue is also to be conducted between various disciplinary perspectives despite the regnant tendency to academic specialization. In recent decades' an increasing number of scholars have come to share Buber's position to foster cross-disciplinary conversation, if but to garner, as Max Weber aruged, "useful questions upon which he would not so easily hit upon from his own specialized point of view." Accordingly, the objective of this volume is to explore the reception of Buber's philosophy of dialogue in some of the disciplines that fell within the purview of his own writings: Anthropology, Hasidism, Religious Studies, Psychology and Psychiatry.

Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer represents a late development in "midrash", or classical rabbinic interpretation, that has enlightened, intrigued and frustrated scholars of Jewish culture for the past two centuries. Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer's challenge to scholarship includes such issues as the work's authorship and authenticity, an asymmetrical literary structure as well as its ambiguous relationship with a variety of rabbinic, Islamic and Hellenistic works of interpretation. This cluster of issues has contributed to the confusion about the work's structure, origins and identity. Midrash and Multiplicity addresses the problems raised by this equivocal work, and uses Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer in order to assess the nature of "midrash", and the renewal of Jewish interpretive culture, during its transition to the medieval era of the early "Geonim".

This pioneering study is the first full-length exploration of the relationship between Judaism and the world's religions. After tracing the history of Jewish views of other religious traditions, the author formulates a new Jewish theology of religious pluralism. This is a vital source for all those who seek to understand Judaism among the universe of faiths.

An essential volume of 12th to 17th century papers on the Jewish mysticism of Kabbalah As recently as 1915, when the legendary scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem sought to find someone-anyone-to teach him Kabbalah, the study of Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah was largely neglected and treated with disdain. Today, this field has ripened to the point that it occupies a central place in the agenda of contemporary Judaic studies. While there are many definitions of Kabbalah, this volume focuses on the discrete body of literature which developed between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. The basis for most of this kabbalistic literature is the concept of the ten sefirot, the complex schema depicting the divine persona, and speculation about the inner life of God. It maintains the conviction that all human action reverberates in the world of the sefirot, and thus influences the life of divinity. Proper action helps to restore harmony and unity to the world of God, while improper action reinforces the breach within God brought about originally through human transgression. Collected here in one volume are some of the most central essays published on the subject. The selections provide the reader with a sense of the historical range of Kabbalah, as well as examples of various kinds of approaches, including those of intellectual and social history, history and phenomenology of religions, motif studies, ritual studies, and women's studies. Sections discuss mystical motifs and theological ideas, mystical leadership and personalities, and devotional practices and mystical experiences.

The solution to the growing problem of stress and burnout in rabbis Written by a practicing clinical psychologist who spent 10 years as a congregational rabbi, The Rabbi As Symbolic Exemplar: By the Power Vested in Me presents positive solutions to the inevitable negative effects of symbolic exemplarhood, coaching rabbis through dilemmas of the "inner soul." Being a rabbi means serving as a Symbolic Exemplar of the best that is in humankind, being experienced and treated and expected to act as a stand-in for God, and a walking, talking symbol of all that Jewish tradition represents. The burden of being a symbolic exemplar of God is extraordinary, and the struggle to live up to its "requirements" can be one of loneliness, frustration, and despair, alienating rabbis who tire of living in a glass house.The Rabbi As Symbolic Exemplar examines how the symbolic role that serves as the source of the rabbi's authority and power can lead to disillusionment and disenchantment. Author Jack H Bloom draws on his own experience as a rabbi who watched the successful career he enjoyed turn into one he desperately wanted to forsake and how he was inspired to become an "athletic coach" for rabbis. This unique book details how symbolic exemplarhood is created, what its downside is, what power it offers, how it can be used effectively, how rabbis can deal with their inner lives, and what can be done to help rabbis stay "human" while maintaining their leadership.The Rabbi As Symbolic Exemplar is equally effective as a complete text or as a source of stand-alone chapters on specific topics, including: special tensions of being a rabbi effects of symbolic exemplarhood on the rabbi's family educating rabbis on their power training suggestions curing and healing and The Ten Commandments for rabbisThe Rabbi As Symbolic Exemplar is essential reading for rabbis, rabbinical students, congregants, Christian clergy, seminarians and anyone interested in what it is to be a clergy person and how they can support the work clergy do. The book educates both clergy and laity on the humanity of clergy.Visit the author's website at http: //jackhbloom.com

This book provides an organizational perspective on the local congregations of Christianity and Judaism Churches and Synagogues. It will meet the need of those who work in congregations, clergy and lay people alike for an accessible, non-judgmental analysis of the day-to-day work challenges they face. It will also fill a gap in the literature of four academic fields: Social policy and administration; non-profit and voluntary-sector management; the sociology of religion; and organizational behaviour.

Forgiveness is not an emotion or a destination but the restoration of what you have lost. It's a spiritual path that you embark on with intention and vision, purposefully seeking to bridge the gap between your hurt and suffering and your sense of wholeness and resilient inner light?the light of God. In this inspiring guide for healing and wholeness, Karyn Kedar supplies you with a map to help you along your forgiveness journey. Through heartfelt stories and comforting prayers, she gentle guides you through the loss, anger, acceptance, learning, forgiveness, and restoration that is the evolution of forgiving. She tells eloquent, personal stories from the lives of ordinary people who, like all of us, wrestle with the darkness and hurt that forgiveness so often involves, and taps both ancient and contemporary sources for the strength we need to nourish our souls as we seek to rekindle inner peace. More than a self-help guide, this deeply moving book is a spiritual companion that you w

Vibrant full-color photos show students lighting the menorah, playing dreidel, and telling the story of Judah Maccabee when they invite their grandparents to a Hanukkah party. Kids will love seeing children their own age in the pictures.

The number and magnitude of the ethics failures reported on a nearly daily basis in newspapers and on blogs are seemingly unprecedented. The "castle is on fire," to borrow a rabbinic metaphor, and each one of us is faced with the question: Is there anything we can do about it? In this book, Moses Pava explores new and alternative ways of relating to Jewish texts and concepts. In doing so, he invents a nuanced, flexible, and sufficiently sensitive vocabulary to conduct productive ethical dialogues, both within and between communities.

These 20 stories about the founder of the Hasidic faith, Israel ben Eliezer, called the Baal-Shem or Master of God's Name, provide an account of the genesis of Hasidism, still Judaism's most important religious movement. Prefaced by an explanation of the life and principles of the Hasidim, tales such as "The Werewolf", and "The Heavenly Journey" tell of the Baal-Shem's life in early 18th-century Podolia and Wolhynia, and of the birth of his revelatory faith, founded on active love, joy and private longing for God. Initially scorned by the Rabbinical establishment, the Baal-Shem's intense piety and fierce spiritual honesty ultimately made him a figure of devotion amongst commoners, peasants and visionaries. As a delicate and moving portrayal not only of the power of the Baal-Shem's mystical faith, but also of Eastern European Jewish daily life, "The Legend of the Baal-Shem" is a useful introduction to Hasidic religious thought, and to Martin Buber's own influential philosophy of love and mutual human understanding.

This detailed examination of the "Torah" (the first five books of the Bible) lays particular emphasis on the role and character of the Torah's transcendent God, as its central protagonist. Viewing both the 'Torah' and its God as purely human creations, humanist Jordan Jay Hillman seeks in no way to devalue this hugely influential book. His aim instead is to reinterpret it as a still vital text that used theistic means appropriate to its time to inspire people toward their worthiest human purposes. It is thus for its 'timeless themes' rather than its 'dated particularities' (including its model of a transcendent God) that we should honour the 'Torah' in our time as both the wellspring of Judaic culture and a major influence on Christian and Islamic ethics and morals. From his humanist perspective and his background as a lawyer and professor of law at North-western University (now emeritus), Hillman offers many insights into the narrative and wide-ranging legal code of "Genesis", "Exodus", "Leviticus", "Numbers", and "Deuteronomy"- including their many contradictions and anomalies. His analysis draws on a broad scholarly consensus regarding the 'Documentary Theory', as it bears on the identities and periods of the Torah's human sources. This thorough explication of an often misunderstood ancient text will help humanists, and many theists alike, to appreciate the rich moral, ethical, and cultural heritage of the 'Torah' and its enduring relevance to our time.

The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world.

Two hundred years since Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav's demise, his philosophical writings and literary creation remain lively and provocative materials in both Jewish culture and the New-Age movement. Key elements of Rabbi Nachman's magic and magnetic force are illuminated in this research, which presents Bratslavian mysticism as a unique link in the history of Jewish mysticism. The mystical worldview is the axis of this book, but its branches stretch out to key issues in the Bratslavian world such as belief and imagination, dreams and the land of Israel, melodies and song.

Contemporary Judaism is transforming, especially in America, from a community experience to more of a do-it-yourself religion focused on the individual self. In this book Christopher L. Schilling offers a critique of this transformation. Schilling discusses problematic aspects of Jewish mindfulness meditation, and the relationship between Judaism and psychedelics, proceeding to explore the science behind these developments and the implications they have for Judaism.