When, if ever, should lying be permitted? If you've damaged a person's reputation unfairly, can the damage be undone? Is a person who sells weapons responsible for how those weapons are used? if the fetus is not a life, what is it? How, as an adult, can one carry out the command to honor one's parents when they make unreasonable demands? What are the nine biblical challenges a good person must meet? What do the great Jewish writings of the last 3,500 years tell us about these and all other vital questions about our lives? Rabbi Joseph Telushkin has devoted his life to the search for answers within the teachings of Judaism. In Jewish Wisdom, Rabbi Telushkin, the author of the highly acclaimed Jewish Literacy, weaves together a tapestry of stories from the Bible and Talmud, and the insights of Jewish commentators and writers from Maimonides, Rashi, and Hillel to Einstein, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Elie Wiesel. A richer source of crucial life lessons would be hard to imagine. Accompanying this extraordinary compilation is Teluslikins compelling commentary, which reveals how these texts continue to instruct and challenge Jewsand all people concerned with leading ethical livestoday As he discusses these texts, Rabbi Telushkin addresses issues of fundamental interest to modern readers: how to live with honesty and integrity in an often dishonest world; how to care for the sick and dying; how to teach children to respect both themselves and others, how to understand and confront such great tragedies as antisemitism. and the Holocaust; what God wants from humankind. Within Jewish Wisdom's ninety chapters the reader will find extended sections illuminating Jewish perspectives on sex, romance, and marriage, what kind of belief in God a Jew can have after the Holocaust, how to use language ethically, the conflicting views of the Bible and Talmud on the death penalty, and much, much more. Jewish Wisdom adds a new dimension to the many widely read contemporary books that retell the stones and reveal the essence of classic religious and secular literature. Possibly the most far-ranging volume of stories and quotations from Jewish texts, Jewish Wisdom will itself become a classic, a book that not only has the capacity to transform how you view the world, but one that well might change how you choose to live your life.

Recounts the mitzvahs, or good deeds, of a dozen men and women and suggests ways young people can help others.

Judaism has always taught that sons and daughters must honor their parents. First encountered in the Ten Commandments, this teaching has remained characteristic of the Jewish ethos through out the ages. Indeed, if the mores of the Jewish family merit special discussion, the responsibility of children toward parents must be isolated as a sensitive central value. This book describes and analyzes the teaching of filial responsibility and respect in Judaism. Inasmuch as the Jewish thrust has been to concretize and specify, to detail and debate, the honoring of parents was translated into the pattern and process of family life. How does one honor parents? What is expected of a son and a daughter? When is parental authority legitimate, and when is it not? What do halakhists and moralists say on the issue? And since we are dealing with a paradigm of Jewish thought and action, we must also confront the tensions between feeling and doing, loving and obeying, honoring and serving. Finally, what is the significance of this ethic? With full awareness of the historical setting and milieu, this book treats the dynamic of an idea that exists as a social reality. Honor Thy Father and Mother will be valuable for sociologists and historians, for students of ethics and law. Moreover, since the commandment to honor parents is part of Christian Scripture as well as Jewish, the significance of this book goes far beyond the Jewish community, and it should be of interest to readers of all faiths. Ultimately, in fact, the book should appeal to all men and women, for all of us are sons and daughters, and many of us are, or will be parents.

With the Gaavatanic sunk at the bottom of the sea, the shipwrecked passengers must learn to work together to survive on a desert island. Under Rebbe Lev Tov's wise guidance, the lessons of good interpersonal relationships are taught and the 'incredible voyage' continues with this exciting sequel. For children and adults alike, this book will open the reader's eyes to the beauty of good middos, and provides the key to acquiring them. 62 full-color, beautifully illustrated pages. Large format.

What religious values and ultimate vision would you wish to pass along to your children? How does one sort through what is authentic and inauthentic in a religious tradition today and forge its future? These are the questions Marc Ellis attempts to answer in this personal yet programmatic work. Ellis reflects on the encounters that have been decisive in his own religious realms: the personal and the political. His work is a meditation on what can be learned and retained from his encounters with the Catholic Worker movement, post-Holocaust theology, Latin America Liberation Theology, engagement with the Palestinian cause, and acknowledgment of Israeli violence.