Sven Hedin inherited the steel sinews of his Norse ancestors. During his many years of exploration he frequently put his physical capacities to extreme tests. He trained his constitution to stand an elevation of 19,000 feet above sea level and a temperature of 37 degrees below zero only to find himself a few months later staggering under a blistering sun in the dry river bed of a blazing desert with the thermometer at 113. He once started out with a caravan consisting of 130 beasts of burden, only to struggle weeks later to the gates of Lhasa with but eight horses and one mule. He survived ten days without food and half of that time without water, where natives succumbed to the rigors of the desert. He seemed to know every form of physical privation and touched the limits of human endurance. When a boy he was ambitious to be the first to reach "that point where only South winds blow." He found his destiny to lie in other lands, but the distinction he achieved was no less unique. With his many volumes of accounts of exploration and discoveries to draw from, Hedin in this great autobiography has compressed between two covers the most thrilling experiences of a lifetime of adventure.

In this anthology by and about Jewish women, fifteen British rabbis discuss the changing role of Jewish clergywomen in the six decades since the private ordination of Regina Jonas, the first woman rabbi. Through personal testimony and scholarly inquiry, they take note of the legacy of their foremothers and grapple with what it means to be a Jewish woman on the eve of the twenty-first century.Delving into the interpretive process from which women have traditionally been excluded, the rabbis examine female role models found in the Hebrew Bible, biblical prophecy and the feminist vision, the authorship of the Song of Songs, and the matter of canonicity from a feminist perspective. They consider such questions as why Judaism has no "sayings of the mothers" and assess contemporary gender issues including Jewish feminist theology, inclusive language, segregated seating in synagogue, and the whole issue of the feminine in Judaism.

Before returning to the Old World after World War II, Sybille Bedford resolved to see something more of the New. "I had a great longing to move," she said, "to hear another language, eat new food, to be in a country with a long nasty history in the past and as little present history as possible." And so she set out for Mexico - and, incidentally, to write what Bruce Chatwin called the best travel book of the twentieth century, "a book of marvels, to be read again and again and again."

Explores the relationship between Jewish and Buddhist traditions and discusses the reasons why some Jews are drawn to Buddhism and become practicing Buddhists.

The New York Times– bestselling author and psychic Sylvia Browne encourages readers to call upon the power of their own personal energy and spiritual candlelight to help make their dreams realities. Through a series of spiritual exercises—with themes ranging from energy, health, and physical and emotional healing to protection, wealth, and wisdom—she outlines how to jump-start a personal–spiritual routine to increase spiritual energy, personal awareness, and a connection to God. This highly visual guide also explores the symbolic meaning of color and scent combinations, groupings, and inviting the spirits of loved ones, angels, and spirit guides through the use of candle and prayer.

Sylvia Browne, in her own indomitable style, again defies convention in this uniquely informative compilation of diligently researched facts and personal accounts about the premise of a female divinity—namely, the Mother God (also known as the feminine principle). Spanning time from the earliest beginnings of humankind, when the time of the “Goddess” was at its peak, to the current era, with its myriad beliefs and religions, Sylvia takes us on a journey of discovery, where she discusses the suppression of the “Mother Goddess” by the male-dominated politics of modern-day religious dogma. Using a combination of historical data and poignant and heartwarming stories revealing the power and miracles attributed to the Mother God, Sylvia leads us from the question of “Does She exist” to the logical, fact-based conclusion that She does . . . and then shows us how to call upon Her to help us in our everyday lives.

Taken from Browne's sermons delivered at her church, Society of Novus Spiritus, the prayers in this book were infused into her by her spirit guide, Francine, and by God.

Presents a philosophical framework to understand the nature of good and evil, identifies the origin of evil, explains why it thrives in the world, and tells how to face and overcome it.

"In this "For & Against" book, Jeremy Waldron and Tamar Meisels defend competing positions on the legitimacy of targeted killing. The volume begins with a joint introduction, briefly setting out the terms of discussion, and presenting a short historical overview of the practice --i.e., what is targeted killing, and how has it been used in which conflicts and by whom. The debate opens with Meisels' defense of targeted killing as a legitimate and desirable defensive anti-terrorism strategy, in keeping with both just war theory and international law. Meisels unreservedly defends the named killing of irregular combatants, most notably terrorists, during armed conflict. Additionally, she offers a possible moral justification for rare instances of assassination outside that framework, specifically with reference to recent cases of nuclear scientists developing weapons of mass destruction for the Iranian and Syrian governments The debate continues with Waldron's arguments focusing on the dangers and the inherent wrongness of governments' having the right to maintain death lists-lists of named individuals who are to be hunted down and killed. Waldron notes the many differences between individualized targeting and ordinary combat and he resists the attempt to assimilate targeted killing to killings in combat. Waldron also cautions us to consider carefully what a world of targeted killings will be like, the many abuses it is liable to, and why we should be very cautious, morally and strategically, in our thinking about it"--

Expanding the Palace of Torah offers a broad philosophical overview of the challenges the women's revolution poses to Orthodox Judaism, and Orthodox Judaism's response to those challenges. Surprisingly, very little work has been done in this area, beyond exploring the leeway for ad hoc solutions to practical problems as they arise on the halakhic plane. Most Jewish feminist critiques addressing broader theological concerns are conducted by non-Orthodox, Anglo-educated women. Their works attempt to locate in Judaism the root causes for what is allegedly wrong with the past and current state of women and offer suggestions for more fundamental reform. In relying on an avowedly selective range of sources and ignoring the full stock of Judaism's rich interpretive tradition, such studies bypass internal tools and concepts of the existing halakhic establishment and fail to engage the unique religious assumptions of the living community most totally committed to its tenets. Ross believes that this approach—in many ways extrinsic to the reality it purports to affect—has little chance of gaining the type of halakhic or theological credibility crucial for wholehearted acceptance by the Orthodox mainstream.

Deeply melancholy with a streak of dark humor, award-winning author Tamar Yellin presents this haunting collection of linked stories that examine the heart of human longing and ask the question: Where do we belong? Taking its imagery from the legend of the exiled ten tribes of Israel, Tales of the Ten Lost Tribes follows the life-journey of an enigmatic narrator who encounters a series of displaced persons, bringing to light the narrator's own remarkable wanderlust. With each encounter the narrator inevitably moves on, dreaming of home, unable to resist the lure of the world's labyrinth...

This pioneering study of the interaction of family life and the factory system of industrial production focuses on the largest textile concern in the world at the turn of the twentieth century, the Amoskeag Corporation in Manchester, New Hampshire.

An extraordinary collection of letters and interviews showing the real lives of those whose lived through the Second World War

Tamasin and her companion Rob set out with no real plan for the forthcoming year other than that each trip offers the possibility of perfection and discovery of something new. Whether investigating the food scene in San Francisco, sipping a cocktail in Venice, or walking down Sullivan St in New York to dine on fried chicken at the Blue Ribbon, they always set out in hope of the perfect dinner. They may find it at a small café in the hills of Santo Stefano Belbo in Piemonte, or snacking on falafel in a warm wad of pitta bread at Mamoun's, a hole in the wall in Greenwich Village. Sometimes they try too hard and don't find it at all, but even the disappointment is food for thought...and there is always tomorrow.

Colonel David "Mickey" Marcus--after serving his country with distinction in World War II--responded to the appeal of a beleaguered country in the Middle East and became one of the truly great heroes of modern Israel, the only soldier interred at West Point who was killed while fighting under a foreign flag.

This extraordinary collection is the first to present the unprecedented range of American Jewish fiction today, from the acclaimed immigrant and post-immigrant masters such as Singer, Bellow, Roth, Ozick, Malamud, and Paley to the new voices of post-acculturation like those of Mark Helprin, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Daphne Merkin, Allegra Goodman, and Adam Schwartz. Writing Our Way Home limns the dramatic transformation of Jewish life in the past three decades. Its stories arise from such developments as the emergence of feminism, the impact of Israel, the broken silence about the Holocaust, the return to - as well as flight from - tradition, and the birth of an egalitarian religious creativity alongside the further advance of assimilation. It also exhibits the writers' growing knowledge of modern and biblical Hebrew, the wellspring of a new Jewish literature. In bringing our consciousness of American Jewish fiction up to date, the editors emphasize the "open literary community" that has come into being. As Ted Solotaroff characterizes it, "the religious and the secular, the experimental and the traditional, the realistic and the surreal cohabit, and even sometimes nuzzle, more or less peaceably." At the same time, the editors find some developments particularly promising, such as the rekindled literary strategies of Judaism employed by writers "culturally confident" enough, as Nessa Rapoport points out, to turn nostalgic stereotypes into archetypes. Rich and provocative in themselves, these twenty-four stories announce that the Jewish imagination in late-twentieth-century America is flourishing in unforeseen and dazzling ways as its authors continue to extend a remarkably adaptive literary tradition across an array of contemporary contexts.

Examines five main aspects of peasant life: social structure;local and global economy;class and political action;culture;policies towards peasants. The study of peasant societies is a developing area of enquiry, reflected in this new edition of a work first published in 1971.