Download or read book The House of Secrets written by Varda Polak-Sahm and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first inside look at the experiences of women who visit traditional mikvehs-ritual baths used to achieve purityFor Orthodox Jews, immersion in the mikveh-a ritual cleansing bath for women based on purity laws-is the cornerstone of family life. All Orthodox women must immerse in the mikveh before marriage, and Ashkenazi women must immerse every month after their menstrual cycle before sexual relations with their husbands may resume. But while the mikveh has been a tool for the exclusion of women, it has also, surprisingly, become an instrument of women's power-a place men cannot enter and thus cannot control.Roused by her own experiences of immersion, for eleven years Varda Polak-Sahm patiently observed and interviewed Jewish women using the mikveh, gaining unprecedented access to the entirely hidden feminine culture and sensual atmosphere within traditional mikvehs. The result is a richly nuanced, uncensored look at an experience that is for some holy and for others coercive. The House of Secretsgives voice to women from all branches of Judaism as they open up about what the mikveh means to them; how it fits in with their attitudes toward religion; its effect on their marriages and families as well as on their sexual, physical, and spiritual self-perception and on their relationship with God.Already widely praised in Israel, this English translation provides a firsthand account of the power of ritual immersion for the growing number of American Jews interested in reclaiming this practice.

Download or read book On Women and Judaism written by Blu Greenberg and published by Jewish Publication Society of America. This book was released on 2013-12-01 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic for more than 20 years, this thought-provoking volume explores the role of Jewish women in the synagogue, in the family, and in the secular world. Greenberg offers ways to change present Jewish practices so that they more readily reflect feminine equality.

Download or read book Louis I Kahn s Jewish Architecture written by Susan G. Solomon and published by Brandeis University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-01 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1961, famed architect Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974) received a commission to design a new synagogue. His client was one of the oldest Sephardic Orthodox congregations in the United States: Philadelphia's Mikveh Israel. Due to the loss of financial backing, Kahn's plans were never realized. Nevertheless, the haunting and imaginative schemes for Mikveh Israel remain among Kahn's most revered designs. Susan G. Solomon uses Kahn's designs for Mikveh Israel as a lens through which to examine the transformation of the American synagogue from 1955 to 1970. She shows how Kahn wrestled with issues that challenged postwar Jewish institutions and evaluates his creative attempts to bridge modernism and Judaism. She argues that Kahn provided a fresh paradigm for synagogues, one that offered innovations in planning, decoration, and the incorporation of light and nature into building design.

Download or read book Letters to Josep written by Levy Daniella and published by . This book was released on 2016-03-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a collection of letters from a religious Jew in Israel to a Christian friend in Barcelona on life as an Orthodox Jew. Equal parts lighthearted and insightful, it's a thorough and entertaining introduction to the basic concepts of Judaism.

Download or read book Jesus His Story in Stone written by Mike Mason and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2017-09-25 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jesus: His Story in Stone is a reflection on still-existing stone objects that Jesus would have known, seen, or even touched. Each of the seventy short chapters is accompanied by a photograph taken on location in Israel. Arranged chronologically, the one-page meditations compose a portrait of Christ as seen through the significant stones in His life, from the cave where He was born to the rock of Calvary. While packed with historical and archaeological detail, the book’s main thrust is devotional, leading the reader both spiritually and physically closer to Jesus.

Download or read book The Passionate Torah written by Danya Ruttenberg and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2009-06-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this unique collection of essays, some of today’s smartest Jewish thinkers explore a broad range of fundamental questions in an effort to balance ancient tradition and modern sexuality In the last few decades a number of factors—post-modernism, feminism, queer liberation, and more—have brought discussion of sexuality to the fore, and with it a whole new set of questions that challenge time-honored traditions and ways of thinking. For Jews of all backgrounds, this has often led to an unhappy standoff between tradition and sexual empowerment. Yet as The Passionate Torah illustrates, it is of critical importance to see beyond this apparent conflict if Jews are to embrace both their religious beliefs and their sexuality. With incisive essays from contemporary rabbis, scholars, thinkers, and writers, this collection not only surveys the challenges that sexuality poses to Jewish belief, but also offers fresh new perspectives and insights on the changing place of sexuality within Jewish theology—and Jewish lives. Covering topics such as monogamy, inter-faith relationships, reproductive technology, homosexuality, and a host of other hot-button issues, these writings consider how contemporary Jews can engage themselves, their loved ones, and their tradition in a way that’s both sexy and sanctified. Seeking to deepen the Jewish conversation about sexuality, The Passionate Torah brings together brilliant thinkers in an attempt to bridge the gap between the sacred and the sexual. Contributors: Rebecca Alpert, Wendy Love Anderson, Judith R. Baskin, Aryeh Cohen, Elliot Dorff, Esther Fuchs, Bonna Haberman, Elliot Kukla, Gail Labovitz, Malka Landau, Sarra Lev, Laura Levitt, Sara Meirowitz, Jay Michaelson, Haviva Ner-David, Danya Ruttenberg, Naomi Seidman, and Arthur Waskow.

Download or read book Understanding Mikvah written by Schneur Zalman Lesches and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Waters of Eden written by Aryeh Kaplan and published by Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America/National Conference of Synagogue Youth. This book was released on 1982 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It has been called the secret of Jewish survival - a mystical connection to the Garden of Eden. What is the Mikvah's fundamental connection to birth, marriage conversaion and death? How does a Mikvah purify? How can a proper understanding of Mikvah bring happiness, freshness and fulfillment to your life? Waters of Eden is a revealing book that explores old myths and prejudices and offers insights never before available to the English reading public. The author Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, gathers concepts from the Bible, Talmud, Midrash, Kabbalah, Zohar, Rashi, Rambam, Ba'al Hatanya, Hirsch and many others.. Waters of Eden is the first attempt to explore the ancient Jewish practice of spiritual purification and immersion, lucidly and attractively in contemporary English." -- Back cover

Download or read book Mikveh written by Barry Fike and published by Trilogy Christian Publishing. This book was released on 2023-08-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jewish ritual immersion and Christian baptism have deep roots. Most Christians understand baptism to be an undeniable doctrine of early believers. Most don't grasp that this practice goes far beyond Jesus and John the Baptist to some of the earliest recorded stages of God's people in the Hebrew scriptures. This means that this practice has always been a part of God's plan of redemption. This book goes through the background of the Christian practices of baptism into the Jewish understanding of the ritual practice that included the Mikveh.

Download or read book The Secret of Jewish Femininity written by Tehilla Abramov and published by Taschen. This book was released on 2005 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Dedication of the New Synagogue of the Congregation Mikveh Israel at Broad and York Streets on September 14 1909 written by Congregation Mikveh Israel (Philadelphia, Pa.) and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Total Immersion written by Rivkah Slonim and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Total Immersion will at once educate those who are unfamiliar with the Mikvah ritual, inspire those who have, thus far, been hesitant to make this rite their own, and will reveal the blessing it bestows upon those who immerse themselves in its waters.

Download or read book The Diary of Asser Levy written by Daniela Weil and published by Pelican Publishing Company. This book was released on 2020 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduces Asser Levy, a member of the first group of refugee Jews who, fleeing persecution, arrived in America from Brazil in 1654 and began a legal fight for religious and civil rights. Includes historical notes, timeline, and glossary.

Download or read book My Promised Land written by Ari Shavit and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-11-19 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR “A deeply reported, deeply personal history of Zionism and Israel that does something few books even attempt: It balances the strength and weakness, the idealism and the brutality, the hope and the horror, that has always been at Zionism’s heart.”—Ezra Klein, The New York Times Winner of the Natan Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Ari Shavit’s riveting work, now updated with new material, draws on historical documents, interviews, and private diaries and letters, as well as his own family’s story, to create a narrative larger than the sum of its parts: both personal and of profound historical dimension. As he examines the complexities and contradictions of the Israeli condition, Shavit asks difficult but important questions: Why did Israel come to be? How did it come to be? Can it survive? Culminating with an analysis of the issues and threats that Israel is facing, My Promised Land uses the defining events of the past to shed new light on the present. Shavit’s analysis of Israeli history provides a landmark portrait of a small, vibrant country living on the edge, whose identity and presence play a crucial role in today’s global political landscape.

Download or read book The Mikvah Project written by Janice Rubin and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Mikvah Queen written by Jennifer Fink and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the anti-everything hippie culture of early '80s Ithaca, New York, what rituals can a girl borrow, steal, or invent to make sense of puberty? Jane Schwartz, a lonely, Talmud-quoting, disco-worshipping eleven-year-old girl, builds a mikvah (Jewish ritual bath) in the porta-sauna of her middle-aged neighbor, Charlene Walkeson, in hopes of saving Charlene from the ravages of cancer. Will Jane also save her fierce, fragile self? Out of fragments of disco, feminism, cooking shows, Christian salvation narratives and Jewish law, Jane forges her own theology. Winner of the Dana Award for the Novel, The Mikvah Queen is a remarkable exploration of postmodern Jewish identity, cancer, the confusion and promise of alternative culture, and the power of ritual.

Download or read book Life on the Fringes written by Haviva Ner-David and published by . This book was released on 2014-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part memoir, part commentary, Life on the Fringes charts a startling Jewish feminist journey both solitary and engaging. Haviva Ner-David draws us into the many facets of her life's story: a complex modern Orthodox childhood (including a battle with anorexia); adherence to a unique combination of Jewish observances; the emergence of her feminist commitments and support of gays and lesbians in Jewish life; a serious engagement with Jewish texts -- and now, studying for rabbinic ordination with an Orthodox rabbi in Israel, where Ner-David and her family have made their home. Over time, we see Ner-David take on both traditionally male practices -- donning a tallit and tefillin every day, wearing tzitzit at all times -- as well as those of traditional Jewish women -- covering her head, and observing in great detail the laws of niddah which govern a woman's separation from her husband in the days surrounding her menstrual period. Her personal wrestling and her halakhic analysis help us see Jewish tradition in new, more textured ways -- and lets us see new possibilities for our own lives. Writing with warmth, vision, and passion, Ner-David unwraps her often startling package of Jewish choices, inviting readers into her many worlds, even as she challenges us to examine and deepen our own allegiances and Jewish feminist journeys. No one who takes seriously the intersection of feminism and traditional Judaism will be able to ignore this book.