Confronting Scandal

Confronting Scandal
Author: Dr. Erica Brown
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2011-03-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1580235867

"We can battle insensitivity, immorality, and dishonesty in our lives individually and collectively as a people. We have a wonderful road map in the Torah and its traditions. It is time to think seriously about our reputation in the world and what we can do to enhance it, not because we want to look good but because we want to be good." —from Chapter 6. What should we do when we see other Jews behaving badly? Most Jews are good, upstanding people who live by a strong moral code and follow Isaiah's words to be a light to others. But when Jews in the public sphere make headlines for being caught in scandals, their actions can provoke anger, shame and a sense of betrayal in the larger Jewish community. In this insightful and timely book, Jewish scholar Dr. Erica Brown presents an intentional, disciplined framework to explore the emotions provoked in the Jewish community by reports of Jews committing crime. She proposes that we transform our sense of shame into actions that inspire and sustain a moral culture. Drawing from the Hebrew Bible, Talmud and our centuries-long Jewish commitment to ethics, she outlines ways you can activate and operate your personal moral compass, and shows how you can empower yourself with sacred obligation, responsibility, kindness and knowledge to increase Jewish pride.

A Million Little Pieces

A Million Little Pieces
Author: James Frey
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 596
Release: 2004-05-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1400079012

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A gripping memoir about the nature of addiction and the meaning of recovery from a bold and talented literary voice. “Anyone who has ever felt broken and wished for a better life will find inspiration in Frey’s story.” —People “A great story.... You can't help but cheer his victory.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review By the time he entered a drug and alcohol treatment facility, James Frey had taken his addictions to near-deadly extremes. He had so thoroughly ravaged his body that the facility’s doctors were shocked he was still alive. The ensuing torments of detoxification and withdrawal, and the never-ending urge to use chemicals, are captured with a vitality and directness that recalls the seminal eye-opening power of William Burroughs’s Junky. But A Million Little Pieces refuses to fit any mold of drug literature. Inside the clinic, James is surrounded by patients as troubled as he is—including a judge, a mobster, a one-time world-champion boxer, and a fragile former prostitute to whom he is not allowed to speak—but their friendship and advice strikes James as stronger and truer than the clinic’s droning dogma of How to Recover. James refuses to consider himself a victim of anything but his own bad decisions, and insists on accepting sole accountability for the person he has been and the person he may become—which runs directly counter to his counselors' recipes for recovery. James has to fight to find his own way to confront the consequences of the life he has lived so far, and to determine what future, if any, he holds. It is this fight, told with the charismatic energy and power of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, that is at the heart of A Million Little Pieces: the fight between one young man’s will and the ever-tempting chemical trip to oblivion, the fight to survive on his own terms, for reasons close to his own heart. "

Jewish Threads

Jewish Threads
Author: Diana Drew
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2012-08-16
Genre: Crafts & Hobbies
ISBN: 1580235263

Learn how to make your own Jewish fabric crafts with spiritual intention—venture into a world of creativity, imagination & inspiration. Journey along with talented Jewish fabric craft artists from throughout the United States and Israel as they retrace their steps in the creative process used to make thirty evocative projects. Then tap into your inner creativity by following step-by-step instructions to fashion family heirlooms with your own personal flair. Inspirational and motivational, these projects and stories will resonate with your artistic soul and awaken a desire to hand-craft Jewish fabric keepsakes to pass down from generation to generation. Projects and techniques include: Quilting • Appliqué • Embroidery • Needlepoint • Cross-stitch • Knitting • Crochet • Felting • Needle felting • Tallitot • Tallit bags • Torah mantles • Challah covers • Seder plate • Afikomen envelopes • Torah table (shulchan) covers • Tree of Life & shalom wall hangings • Purim puppets • And more!

Discovering Jewish Meditation (2nd Edition)

Discovering Jewish Meditation (2nd Edition)
Author: Nan Fink Gefen
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2011-09-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1580235034

A breakthrough "how to meditate" guide! “Jewish meditation is a practice that can sustain you and deepen your connection to the Divine over the course of your lifetime. Seekers throughout history have practiced it and reaped its rewards, and today many people are making it a significant part of their everyday spiritual practice.” —from the Introduction A supportive and wise guide that is an absolute must for anyone who wants to learn Jewish meditation or improve their practice—now updated and expanded. Nan Fink Gefen teaches you how to meditate on your own, and starts you on the path to a deeper connection with the Divine and to greater insight about your own life. Whatever your level of understanding, she gives you the tools and support you need to discover the transformative power of meditation. This most comprehensive introduction to a time-honored spiritual practice: Answers commonly asked questions about the nature and history of Jewish meditation, and examines how it differs from other meditative practices Shows beginners how to start their practice, including where and how to do it Gives step-by-step instructions for meditations that are at the core of Jewish meditative practice Explains the challenges and rewards of a Jewish meditative practice

Freedom Journeys

Freedom Journeys
Author: Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2011-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1580235808

How does the story of the Exodus echo in our own generation and in our own lives? "For us to hear the Oneness of God, we must grow into a place where the cosmic and the political are deeply the same truth." —from Part V The story Jews retell on Passover is about rising up against tyranny, about the triumph of the God who sides with the despised against a resplendent emperor. Exploring how this tale applies to our own time enriches the ancient account—and it expands and transforms the community for which Exodus is a collective family story. Exodus is not only the saga of the escape from slavery, but also a story of courage, celebration, rebirth and community from which people of all faith traditions have learned and can continue to learn. Calling us to relearn and rethink the Passover story, Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow and Rabbi Phyllis O. Berman share: The enduring spiritual resonance of the Hebrews' journey for our own time Social justice, ecological and feminist perspectives on the Exodus How the Passover story has been adapted and used by African American as well as Christian and Muslim communities to provide insight and inspiration. With contributions by Dr. Vincent Harding: “Exodus in African America: A Great Camp Meeting” Dr. S. Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana: “Exodus in the Qur’an: Mercy, Compassion, and Forgiveness” Ched Myers and Russell Powell: “Exodus in the Life and Death of Jesus”

Sage Tales

Sage Tales
Author: Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2014-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1580237916

A prophet and a pretty woman, a rainmaker and a renegade—from them we learn about ourselves. Ancient stories that whisper truth to your soul—new in paperback! Great stories have the power to draw the heart. But certain stories have the power to draw the heart to God and awaken the better angels of our nature. Such are the tales of the rabbis of the Talmud, colorful, quirky yarns that tug at our heartstrings and test our values, ethics, morality—and our imaginations. In this collection for people of all faiths and backgrounds, Rabbi Burton Visotzky draws on four decades of telling and teaching these legends in order to unlock their wisdom for the contemporary heart. He introduces you to the cast of characters, explains their motivations, and provides the historical background needed to penetrate the wise lessons often hidden within these unusual narratives. In learning how and why these oft-told tales were spun, you discover how they continue to hold value for our lives.

The Death of Death

The Death of Death
Author: Rabbi Neil Gillman, PhD
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2011-11-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1580235425

Does death end life, or is it the passage from one stage of life to another? In The Death of Death, noted theologian Neil Gillman offers readers an original and compelling argument that Judaism, a religion often thought to pay little attention to the afterlife, not only presents us with rich ideas on this subject—but delivers a deathblow to death itself. Combining astute scholarship with keen historical, theological and liturgical insights, Gillman outlines the evolution of Jewish thought about bodily resurrection and spiritual immortality. Beginning with the near-silence of the Bible on the afterlife, he traces the development of these two doctrines through Jewish history. He also describes why today, somewhat surprisingly, more contemporary Jewish scholars—including Gillman—have unabashedly reaffirmed the notion of bodily resurrection. In this innovative and personal synthesis, Gillman creates a strikingly modern statement on resurrection and immortality. The Death of Death gives new and fascinating life to an ancient debate. This new work is an intellectual and spiritual milestone for all of us interested in the meaning of life, as well as the meaning of death.

The God Upgrade

The God Upgrade
Author: Jamie S. Korngold
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2011
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1580234437

In this provocative look at the many faces of God, Jamie Korngold examines how our concept of God has changed over the centuries, and how these changes have shaped every aspect of Judaism.

Seek My Face

Seek My Face
Author: Dr. Arthur Green
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2011-06-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1580234763

The new Jewish spirituality lies somewhere between God's elusive presence in our world and our search for authentic language to describe it. Personal journeys seldom have a clear beginning, and they rarely have a definite end. If there is an end to our journey, surely it is one that leads to some measure of wisdom, and thence back to its own beginning. But somewhere along the way, we come to realize that we must know where we have been going, why we have been going. Most of all, we come to understand as best we can the One who sends us on our way. —from the Introduction Rabbi Arthur Green leads us on a journey of discovery to seek God, the world, and ourselves. One of the most influential Jewish thinkers of our time, Green has created a roadmap of meaning for our lives in the light of Jewish mysticism, using the Hebrew letters that make up the divine name: Yod— Reality at the beginning. God as the oneness of being at the outset, before it unfolds into our universe. Heh— Creation and God’s presence in the world. A renewed faith in God as Creator has powerful implications for us today. Vav— Revelation, the central faith claim of Judaism and the claim it makes on our lives. Heh— Redemption and our return to God through the life of Torah and by participating in the ongoing repair of the world. A personal and honest framework of understanding for the seeker, this revised and updated edition of a classic sheds new light on our search for the divine presence in our everyday lives.

Jesus in Latin America

Jesus in Latin America
Author: Jon Sobrino
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2004-10-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1592449794

Jon Sobrino's qualifications as a theologian and the importance of his theological work are universally acknowledged, but the orthodoxy of his work and the orthopraxis of the activity it sets in motion are controversial. Sobrino responds to critics in this collection of articles on the theme of Jesus of Nazareth and his relevance to Christian life and faith in Latin America. The christology Sobrino argues for affirms belief in the divinity of Jesus and the centrality of Jesus' relationship with the poor and oppressed. It is, as Juan Alfaro says in the Foreword, a christology springing from Christian faith as lived in the historical situation of the Latin American people.