Mystery Midrash

Mystery Midrash
Author: Lawrence W. Raphael
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
Total Pages: 305
Release: 1999
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1580230555

Confront murder, mayhem--and your own mysteries of being. From a corporate giant's kidnapping of a rabbi, to the disappearance of the clarinetist in a klezmer band, to four rabbis' use of their text interpretation skills to help a detective solve a murder that one of them has committed, this unique collection of mysteries will enlighten you at the same time it intrigues and entertains. While featuring enough death and deception to keep the detective protagonists on their toes, each story presents the uncertainties that are a part of contemporary Jewish identity--inviting us all to confront our own mysteries of being. Throughout the stories' tangled puzzles and suspenseful adventures, the characters solve not only the "whodunit"-type mysteries, but also struggle to solve the mystery of their spiritual lives. Mystery Midrash will be a lasting delight for mystery buffs of all faith traditions. Contributors include: Joel Siegel * Lawrence W. Raphael * Toni Brill * Howard Engel * Richard Fliegel * Michael A. Kahn * Stuart M. Kaminsky * Faye Kellerman * Ronald Levitsky * Ellen Rawlings * Rabbi Bob Sloan * Janice Steinberg * James Yaffe * Batya Swift Yasgur

Mystery Midrash

Mystery Midrash
Author: Lawrence W. Raphael
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2012-03-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 158023609X

Confront murder, mayhem—and your own mysteries of being. From a corporate giant's kidnapping of a rabbi, to the disappearance of the clarinetist in a klezmer band, to four rabbis' use of their text interpretation skills to help a detective solve a murder that one of them has committed, this unique collection of mysteries will enlighten you at the same time it intrigues and entertains. While featuring enough death and deception to keep the detective protagonists on their toes, each story presents the uncertainties that are a part of contemporary Jewish identity—inviting us all to confront our own mysteries of being. Throughout the stories' tangled puzzles and suspenseful adventures, the characters solve not only the "whodunit"-type mysteries, but also struggle to solve the mystery of their spiritual lives. Mystery Midrash will be a lasting delight for mystery buffs of all faith traditions.

The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories: 1

The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories: 1
Author: Ed Gorman
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 648
Release: 2000-09-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780312874797

Contains thirty-eight notable mystery and crime stories from around the world, featuring works by a variety of authors including Ed McBain, Anne Perry, Lawrence Block, and others.

Criminal Kabbalah

Criminal Kabbalah
Author: Lawrence W. Raphael
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2012-07-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1580236537

An intriguing Anthology of Jewish Mystery & Detective Fiction Terence Ball, The Banality of Evil Sandra Levy Ceren, Silver Is Better Than Gold Martin S. Cohen, Death Has Beckoned Richard Fliegel, The Golem of Bronx Park East Michael A. Kahn, Truth in a Plain Brown Wrapper Stuart M. Kaminsky, The Tenth Man Rochelle Krich,Bitter Waters Ronald Levitsky,Thy Brother’s Bloods Lev Raphael, Your Papers, Please Shelley Singer, Reconciling Howard Janice Steinberg, Hospitality in a Dry Country Batya Swift Yasgur, Without a Trace All-new stories from twelve of today’s masters of mystery and detective fiction—sure to delight mystery buffs of all faith traditions, and fans of the award-winning Mystery Midrash: An Anthology of Jewish Mystery & Detective Fiction.

The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices

The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices
Author: CLAL—The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2012-02-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1580235611

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 candles Blessing your parents Running a marathon Visiting the sick Building a sukkah Seeing natural wonders Moving into a new home Saying goodbye to a beloved pet Making a shiva call Traveling ... 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.

Believing and Its Tensions

Believing and Its Tensions
Author: Neil Gillman
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2013
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1580236693

An intimate and candid examination of the changing nature of belief and where it can lead us--from the life experience of one of Judaism's leading thinkers. For over five decades, Rabbi Neil Gillman has helped people think through the most challenging questions at the heart of being a believing religious person. In this intimate rethinking of his own theological journey he explores the changing nature of belief and the complexities of reconciling the intellectual, emotional and moral questions of his own searching mind and soul. If what we have in recognizing, speaking of and experiencing God is a wide-ranging treasury of humanly crafted metaphors, what, then, is the ultimate reality, the ultimate nature of God? What lies beyond the metaphors? If humanity was an active partner in revelation--if the human community participated in what was revealed and gave it meaning--what then should be the authority of Jewish law? How do we cope--intellectually, emotionally and morally--with suffering, the greatest challenge to our faith commitment, relationship with God and sense of a fundamentally ordered world? Death is inevitable but why is it built in as part of the total life experience?

Meaning & Mitzvah

Meaning & Mitzvah
Author: Rabbi Goldie Milgram, DMin
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2011-06-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1580234755

Delve deeper into spiritual practice to find the power and meaning waiting there for you. “Spiritual practice reveals that the Garden of Eden is right where you are standing and helps you to be here, now. Therefore, Jewish spiritual practices cultivate joy, hope, resilience and understanding so that you can undertake your soul’s work in this lifetime with vision, passion and integrity.” from the Introduction This innovative guidebook makes accessible Judaism’s spiritual pathways, principles and applications, and empowers you to test their value within your own life. Each chapter provides step-by-step, recipe-like guides to a particular Jewish practice or group of practices, gives examples of how they might unfold inside your life, and shows how each can help refuel your spirit throughout the day. You’ll discover: Prayer practices for embracing the body and creation with awe, limbering up your mind, and preparing for compassionate action How to draw sustenance from the Great Mystery, the inexplicable and unknowable Source of Life How to mine the Torah’s stories, commentaries, symbols and metaphors for meaning Ways to develop your Hebrew vocabulary so you can formulate your own interpretations of sacred text How to explore and practice mitzvot as meaningful, compelling parts of your spiritual life How to view the Jewish people as a precious human resource and as a model for resilience ... and much, much more.

The Seven Beggars

The Seven Beggars
Author:
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2011-07-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1580234828

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.

Unfinalized Moments

Unfinalized Moments
Author: Derek Parker Royal
Publisher: Purdue University Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2011
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1557535841

Focusing on a diversely rich selection of writers, the pieces featured in Unfinalized Moments: Essays in the Development of Contemporary Jewish American Narrative explore the community of Jewish American writers who published their first book after the mid-1980s. It is the first book-length collection of essays on this subject matter with contributions from the leading scholars in the field. The manuscript does not attempt to foreground any one critical agenda, such as Holocaust writing, engagements with Zionism, feminist studies, postmodern influences, or multiculturalism. Instead, it celebrates the presence of a newly robust, diverse, and ever-evolving body of Jewish American fiction. This literature has taken a variety of forms with its negotiations of orthodoxy, its representations of a post-Holocaust world, its reassertion of folkloric tradition, its engagements with postmodernity, its reevaluations of Jewishness, and its alternative delineations of ethnic identity. Discussing the work of authors such as Allegra Goodman, Michael Chabon, Tova Mirvis, Rebecca Goldstein, Pearl Abraham, Jonathan Rosen, Nathan Englander, Melvin Jules Bukiet, Tova Reich, Sarah Schulman, Ruth Knafo Setton, Ben Katchor, and Jonathan Safran Foer, the fifteen contributors in this collection assert the ongoing vitality and ever-growing relevancy of Jewish American fiction.

God in Our Relationships

God in Our Relationships
Author: Dennis Sidney Ross
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2003
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1580231470

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.