Download or read book Eyes Remade for Wonder written by Lawrence Kushner and published by Jewish Lights Pub. This book was released on 1998 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With incomparable ability to blend scholarship, imagination, psychology, mysticism, history and great writing, Rabbi Kushner offers something unique to both the spiritual seeker and the committed person of faith. With samplings from each of his books and a generous amount of previously unpublished material, "The Lawrence Kushner Reader" explores personal meaning in the sacred that animates each of our lives.
Download or read book Moses and the Journey to Leadership written by Dr. Norman J. Cohen and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2011-12-06 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Share in the wisdom of the model of leadership—tap into your own potential for greatness Leaders are not simply born; they are molded through life's victories and failures, triumphs and defeats. No one exemplifies this process better than Moses, the most important and celebrated character in the Hebrew Bible. Faced with great internal and external challenges, he was sculpted into a great leader not only by circumstance, but also by his own determination and devotion to his people. In this powerful and probing examination of the enduring texts in the biblical tradition, scholar and popular teacher Dr. Norman Cohen examines Moses’s journey to leadership and what he can teach you about the vision, action and skills you need to be a successful leader. Cohen relives Moses’s development from lonely shepherd to founder of a nation, emphasizing the salient points you can use to enrich the different leadership roles you are called on to play in your daily life, whether it be in business, religion, politics, education or other arenas. Drawing from Moses’s life, you will learn to: Articulate your expectations of others, as a group and as individuals Empower those around you to lead more responsible, ethical lives Support your co-workers and family even when they fail Challenge others to reach their highest potential
Download or read book Empowered Judaism written by Rabbi Elie Kaunfer and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2012-12-16 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inside story and practical lessons from one of the most exciting developments in contemporary Judaism. Part description and part prescription, Empowered Judaism is a manifesto for transforming the way Jews pray andmore broadlyfor building vibrant Jewish communities. [It] represents the latest chapter in [an] uplifting history of religious creativity. This is a book that every Jewish leader will want to read and every serious Jew will want to contemplate. from the Foreword by Prof. Jonathan D. Sarna Why have thousands of young Jews, otherwise unengaged with formal Jewish life, started more than sixty innovative prayer communities across the United States? What crucial insights can these grassroots communities provide for all of us? Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, one of the leaders of this revolutionary phenomenon, offers refreshingly new analyses of the age-old question of how to build strong Jewish community. He explores the independent minyan movement and the lessons it has to teach about prayer, community organizing and volunteer leadership, and its implications for contemporary struggles in American Judaism. Along with describing the growth of independent minyanim across the country, he examines: The roles of liturgy, space, music and youth in this new approach to prayer Lessons to be learned from the concept of immersive, intensive Jewish learning in an egalitarian context Jewish values in which we must invest to achieve a vibrant, robust American Jewish landscape for the twenty-first century
Download or read book Filling Words with Light written by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2011-03-02 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Breathe New Life into Your Prayer with the Wisdom of Kabbalah and the Hasidic Masters Jewish mystics teach that every word a person utters in prayer should radiate light. Even the letters of the words of prayer carry sparks of the Divine that yearn to join together in holiness. In this inspiring spiritual companion, Reform rabbi Lawrence Kushner and Orthodox rabbi Nehemia Polen join together to provide a window into the liturgy for people of all backgrounds by offering fresh insights and meditations that bring the traditional prayerbook to life. Drawing from the Torah, Zohar, and ancient and contemporary Hasidic masters, Kushner and Polen reflect on the joy, gratitude, compassion, mystery, and awe embedded in traditional prayers and blessings, and show how you can imbue these familiar sacred words with your own sense of holiness. Insightful, fresh, and wise, Filling Words with Light will enrich your understanding of the prayer book and guide you on how to put more of yourself into the holy words of the Jewish tradition.
Download or read book Honest to God Prayer written by Kent Ira Groff and published by SkyLight Paths Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maybe you're praying and you don't even know it. In this unique and encouraging guide to prayer, Kent Ira Groff, a longtime retreat leader and inspiring writer-poet, explores how to engage in spirituality that blesses your soul--and the world. Whether you're advanced or just starting on your spiritual path, this practical prayer path breaker will lure you in with its novel combination of touching, real-life stories, pithy thoughts and inspiring prayer practices. For those turned off by shopworn religious language, it offers innovative ways to pray in four metaphorical movements that parallel both Native American traditions and Ignatian spirituality: East--Morning / Prayer as Awareness Waking up to reality--opening South--Noon / Prayer as Empowerment Embracing your dreams and possibilities--expanding West--Afternoon / Prayer as Relinquishment Letting go of attachments--emptying North--Night / Prayer as Paradox Uniting the opposites of life--integrating Prayer practices for each of the four "movements" provide for personal and group enrichment at home and work, in formal programs and informal friendships. They interweave the author's own experience to say: "This is honest to God spirituality and I'm seeing myself."
Download or read book Honey from the Rock written by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2011-06-28 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Quite simply, the easiest introduction to Jewish mysticism you can read. An insightful and absorbing introduction to the ten gates of Jewish mysticism and how they apply to daily life. "There is a place that is as far from here as breathing out is from breathing in. For the word is very near to you. Where life forever holds gentle sway over death, where people are human with the same grace that a willow is a willow, where the struggle and the yearning between male and female is at last resolved.... It is to begin with, all inside us." —from the Introduction "In the past decade I’ve read Honey from the Rock at least half a dozen times. Every time I read it I wonder if I have ever read it before. Either it keeps changing, or I do. Maybe it’s both.... As someone told me: 'Lawrence Kushner is a mystic. He gives you flashes of insight.'” —from the Publisher’s Preface to the Anniversary Edition
Download or read book It s Not You It s Everything written by Eric Minton and published by Broadleaf Books . This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If we can agree on anything, it's that we are not okay. Our culture is reeling from the ravages of a global pandemic, a precipitous rise in depression and anxiety, suffocating debt, white supremacy, hypercapitalism, and a virulent political animus--to name a few. But what if it's not us? What if it's . . . well, everything? What if trying to conform to a sick culture is actually making us sick? It's Not You, It's Everything is a timely and incisive inquiry into the anxious pursuit of happiness at all costs. Psychotherapist and former pastor Eric Minton claims that the pernicious melding of capitalism and Christianity means a world of competition, perfection, and scarcity disguised as self-help and self-care. Rather than shaming, silencing, or medicating away our disappointment at not having obtained the happiness we were promised, however, Minton posits a radical alternative. In an impertinent, droll, yet pastoral voice, Minton suggests that our "not-okayness" will require rethinking everything we thought we knew about God, depression, the economy, culture, education, technology, and happiness. Our angst--and that of our children and teenagers--is telling us the truth about the kind of world we've created. By naming all the ways we're not okay, we move away from fear and shame and toward love, and trust, and trustworthiness. We'll need nothing less than hip-hop, Mr. Rogers, liberation theology, and Jesus to get us there. But on the other side of our pain is a radical "okayness" that might just set us free.
Download or read book Who by Fire who by Water Un taneh Tokef written by Lawrence A. Hoffman and published by Jewish Lights Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most controversial prayer of the Jewish New Year what it means, who wrote it, why we say it. Explore the profound, perplexing and persuasive power of Un'taneh Tokef, one of the most beloved, prominent and controversial pieces in the Ashkenazi High Holy Day liturgy. Interact with thought-provoking and inspiring discussions on all aspects of this prayer that defies easy understanding its moral challenge, fatalistic theology, proclamation of God's holiness, call to human responsibility and prescription for redemption. Commentaries from over forty men and women, scholars and rabbis, artists and poets from all major Jewish denominations examine Un taneh Tokef from the viewpoints of the ancient Rabbis and modern theologians, as well as halakhic, Talmudic, linguistic, biblical, mystical, feminist, community and personal perspectives."
Download or read book The Jewish Approach to Repairing the World tikkun Olam written by Elliot N. Dorff and published by Jewish Lights Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The concept of repairing the world (tikkun olam) is an integral part of Jewish life. It helps shape Jewish social and family relationships, and even mandates how Jews should speak to others." "Author Rabbi Elliot Dorff provides an accessible, honest and thorough exploration of this important Jewish concept. With easy-to-understand explanations of Jewish terms, practices and history, each chapter explores a different facet touched by the tradition of tikkun olam. Rabbi Dorff also addresses parallel themes and practices in the Christian tradition, helping you better understand the roots of Christianity and how the fundamentals of Judaism relate and reflect your own aspirations to repair the world."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book A God We Can Believe In written by Richard Agler and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2022-04-22 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you believe in God? So many people answer this question in the negative because the God they have been taught to believe in is simply not all that believable. In the twenty-first century, a Deity who intervenes in history, supernaturally responds to prayers, favors and protects his faithful and chosen, and executes righteous judgment engenders doubt and disbelief in thinking people of all faiths, as well as those of no practicing faith. A God We Can Believe In is a response to this moment. Herein you will find contributions from leading rabbis and scholars that articulate paths to heart, mind, and soul with God-teachings that are spiritually compelling and intellectually sound. Our authors present God in ways that are consistent with the facts that higher learning has established, the principles of reason, and our shared life experiences. In these pages you will find a God that cannot be brushed aside by educated moderns; a God that does not violate the realities of logic or natural law; a God presented in accessible language; a God that can be lived with and lived for. It is a book for thoughtful individuals everywhere.
Download or read book The Seven Beggars written by and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2011-07-07 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rejoice in the stories of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov—for their insight into the human condition and the realm of the mysterious. When Rabbi Nachman first started telling his stories, he declared: "Now I am going to tell you stories." The reason he did so was because in generations so far from God the only remedy was to present the secrets of the Torah—including even the greatest of them—in the form of stories. —from the Preface For centuries, spiritual teachers have told stories to convey lessons about God and perceptions of the world around us. Hasidic master Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810) perfected this teaching method through his engrossing and entertaining stories that are fast-moving, brilliantly structured, and filled with penetrating insights. This collection presents the wisdom of Rebbe Nachman, translated by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan and accompanied by illuminating commentary drawn from the works of Rebbe Nachman's pupils. This important work brings you authentic interpretations of Rebbe Nachman’s stories, allowing you to experience the rich heritage of Torah and Kabbalah that underlies each word of his inspirational teachings.
Download or read book Embrace Yes written by Martin Lowenthal and published by Red Wheel. This book was released on 2003-04-01 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this powerful book Martin Lowenthal leads a journey to the very heart of spirituality, a journey of acceptance and aliveness through affirmation. By affirming what is in our hearts, writes Lowenthal, we embrace our aliveness and the reality of life in the moment. And only through acceptance, openness, and affirmation can we ever really be present and complete. Embrace Yes is divided into five parts, each presenting affirmations responding to a different aspect of spirituality, which Lowenthal calls the "Five Faces of God": Yes as Presence: God as Reality Yes as Openness and Wonder: God as Essence Yes as Celebration and Service: God as Creation Yes as Love: God as Beloved Yes as Learning and Dedication: God as Wisdom Poetry, fables, and religious teachings drawn from many different traditions are presented in short sections designed to give readers the opportunity to meditate and reflect on the wonderful aliveness of affirming reality as it is now, and living with an attitude of Yes.
Download or read book Sacred Treasure The Cairo Genizah written by Rabbi Mark S. Glickman and published by Jewish Lights Publishing. This book was released on 2012-03 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Indiana Jones meets The Da Vinci Code in an old Egyptian synagogue--the amazing story of one of the most important discoveries in modern religious scholarship. In 1896, Rabbi Solomon Schechter of Cambridge University stepped into the attic of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt, and there found the largest treasure trove of medieval and early manuscripts ever discovered. He had entered the synagogue's genizah--its repository for damaged and destroyed Jewish texts--which held nearly 300,000 individual documents, many of which were over 1,000 years old. Considered among the most important discoveries in modern religious history, its contents contained early copies of some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, early manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, and other sacred literature. The importance of the genizah's contents rivals that of the Rosetta Stone, and by virtue of its sheer mass alone, it will continue to command our attention indefinitely. This is the first accessible, comprehensive account of this astounding discovery. It will delight you with its fascinating adventure story--why this enormous collection was amassed, how it was discovered and the many lessons to be found in its contents. And it will show you how Schechter's find, though still being "unpacked" today, forever transformed our knowledge of the Jewish past, Muslim history and much more.
Download or read book I m God You re Not written by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2010-09-15 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flashes of insight—surprising, entertaining, inspiring—from one of the most creative spiritual thinkers in America. "The goal of all spiritual life is to get your ego out of the way—outwit the sucker; dissolve it; shoot it; kill it. Silence the incessant planning, organizing, running, manipulating, possessing, and processing that are the ineluctable redoubts of the ego. Not because these activities are bad or wrong or even narcissistic ... but because they preclude awareness of the Divine. To paraphrase the Talmud, God says, 'There ain't room enough in this here world for your ego and Me. You pick.’" —from the Introduction Tapping the experiences and wisdom of his career as a spiritual leader, Lawrence Kushner delights, surprises, challenges and inspires us. With his signature candor, wit and compassion, he helps us reconnect with the why and how of our spiritual lives. He encourages us to find new perspectives on the “life-stuff” that shapes them, and gently reminds us of the Source of it All. These inspiring—often startling—insights will warm you during the dark times of your own doubts even as they brighten your quest for meaning, faith, identity, community—and holiness.
Download or read book The Modern Men s Torah Commentary written by Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2011-08-02 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reconnect with the power and promise of engagement with Torah—from a modern men's perspective. This major contribution to modern biblical commentary addresses the most important concerns of modern men—issues like relationships, sexuality, ambition, work and career, body image, aging, and life passages—by opening them up to the messages of the Torah. It includes commentaries by some of the most creative and influential rabbis, cantors, journalists, media figures, educators, professors, authors, communal leaders, and musicians in contemporary Jewish life, and represents all denominations in Judaism. Featuring poignant and probing reflections on the weekly Torah portions, this collection shows men how the messages of the Torah intersect with their own lives by focusing on modern men’s issues. Ideal for anyone wanting a new, exciting view of Torah, this rich resource offers perspectives to inspire all of us to gain deeper meaning from the Torah as well as a heightened appreciation of Judaism and its relevance to our lives. Contributors: Rabbi Howard A. Addison • Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson • Doug Barden • Rabbi Tony Bayfield, DD • Ariel Beery • Rabbi Joseph Black • Rabbi Mitchell Chefitz • Dr. Norman J. Cohen • Rabbi Mike Comins • Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff, PhD • Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz • Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins • Rabbi Edward Feinstein • Rabbi Mordecai Finley, PhD • Wayne L. Firestone • Rabbi David J. Gelfand • Dr. Sander L. Gilman • Ari L. Goldman • Rabbi Daniel Gordis, PhD • Rabbi Arthur Green • Rabbi Steven Greenberg • Joel Lurie Grishaver • Rabbi Donniel Hartman, PhD • Rabbi Hayim Herring, PhD • Peter Himmelman • Rabbi Walter Homolka, PhD • Rabbi Reuven Kimelman • Rabbi Elliott Kleinman • Cantor Jeff Klepper • Rabbi Peter S. Knobel • Rabbi Harold S. Kushner • Rabbi Daniel Landes • Rabbi Steven Z. Leder • Prof. Julius Lester • Rabbi Robert N. Levine, DD • Rabbi Joseph B. Meszler • Rabbi John Moscowitz • Rabbi Perry Netter • Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky • Rabbi Stephen S. Pearce, PhD • Rabbi Daniel F. Polish • Dennis Prager • Rabbi Jack Riemer • Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts • Rabbi David B. Rosen • Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin • Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, PhD • Rabbi Rami Shapiro • Rabbi Charles Simon • Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz • Craig Taubman • Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman • Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub • Rabbi Avraham (Avi) Weiss • Dr. Ron Wolfson • Rabbi David J. Wolpe • Rabbi David Woznica • Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman • Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel
Download or read book Introducing My Faith and My Community written by Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2011-04-23 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You can understand your Jewish friends and loved ones more fully. A hands-on guide to the most important questions. Introducing My Faith and My Communityprovides an introduction to both the basics and complexities of Judaism and Jewish life through the lens of an interfaith relationship. Rather than providing stock answers to questions about Jewish rituals or values, or giving a broad overview of Jewish history and theology, Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky addresses topics that will encourage understanding and stimulate discussion between you and your Jewish partner, relative, or friend. Topics include: Beliefs, Religion, and the Place of God in the Jewish Faith Study, Learning, and Charity as Core Values in Jewish Life Food, Holidays, Humor, and Ethnicity as Part of Jewish Culture The Importance of Synagogue, Israel, and Community to American Jews
Download or read book God in Our Relationships written by Dennis Sidney Ross and published by Jewish Lights Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An inspirational introduction to Buber's I and Thou, showing the dynamic possibilities of spirituality between us. Examples from Ross's own life-as a hospital chaplain, social worker, congregational rabbi, father, and husband-illustrate Buber's notoriously difficult-to-understand ideas about how we encounter God and each other.
