An evolutionary psychologist examines humans' belief in God and argues that it evolved in the species as an "adaptive illusion" that originally had an evolutionary purpose, now outdated, that ensured the survival of the human race.

Here is an accessible and inspiring introduction to the Jewish spiritual tradition known as Mussar. Well known in the Orthodox Jewish world, Mussar is an illuminating, approachable, and highly practical set of teachings for cultivating personal growth and spiritual realization in the midst of day-to-day life. The ultimate goal of Mussar is to become a more whole and holy person. The path is simple: learn to be a mensch, a deeply good and decent human being, or what has been called an "extraordinary ordinary person." The core teaching of Mussar is that our deepest essence is inherently pure and holy, but this inner radiance is obscured by extremes of emotion, desire, and bad habits. Our work in life is to uncover the brilliant light of the soul. The Mussar masters developed transformative teachings and practices—some of which are contemplative, some of which focus on how we relate to others in daily life—to help us to heal and refine ourselves. Alan Morinis, founder of the Mussar Institute, presents these teachings in terms that anyone can understand and put to use. Everyday Holiness features short chapters on eighteen key character traits that the Mussar masters emphasize, including humility, generosity, gratitude, trust, patience, and enthusiasm. Morinis also explains how to make Mussar practice part of our daily lives. Here is a welcome resource for all those who are interested in reinvigorating their religious lives, exploring contemplative spirituality, and making spirituality part of everyday life. For more information on Mussar and the author, Alan Morinis, visit www.mussarinstitute.org.

What do Joyce Brothers and Sigmund Freud, Rabbi Harold Kushner and philosopher Martin Buber have in common? They belong to a group of pivotal and highly influential Jewish thinkers who altered the face of modern America in ways few people recognize. So argues Andrew Heinze, who reveals in rich and unprecedented detail the extent to which Jewish values, often in tense interaction with an established Christian consensus, shaped the country's psychological and spiritual vocabulary. Jews and the American Soul is the first book to recognize the central role Jews and Jewish values have played in shaping American ideas of the inner life. It overturns the widely shared assumption that modern ideas of human nature derived simply from the nation's Protestant heritage. Heinze marshals a rich array of evidence to show how individuals ranging from Erich Fromm to Ann Landers changed the way Americans think about mind and soul. The book shows us the many ways that Jewish thinkers influenced everything from the human potential movement and pop psychology to secular spirituality. It also provides fascinating new interpretations of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, and Western views of the psyche; the clash among Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish moral sensibilities in America; the origins and evolution of America's psychological and therapeutic culture; the role of Jewish women as American public moralists, and more. A must-read for anyone interested in the contribution of Jews and Jewish culture to modern America.

What do Joyce Brothers and Sigmund Freud, Rabbi Harold Kushner and philosopher Martin Buber have in common? They belong to a group of pivotal and highly influential Jewish thinkers who altered the face of modern America in ways few people recognize. So argues Andrew Heinze, who reveals in rich and unprecedented detail the extent to which Jewish values, often in tense interaction with an established Christian consensus, shaped the country's psychological and spiritual vocabulary. Jews and the American Soul is the first book to recognize the central role Jews and Jewish values have played in shaping American ideas of the inner life. It overturns the widely shared assumption that modern ideas of human nature derived simply from the nation's Protestant heritage. Heinze marshals a rich array of evidence to show how individuals ranging from Erich Fromm to Ann Landers changed the way Americans think about mind and soul. The book shows us the many ways that Jewish thinkers influenced everything from the human potential movement and pop psychology to secular spirituality. It also provides fascinating new interpretations of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, and Western views of the psyche; the clash among Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish moral sensibilities in America; the origins and evolution of America's psychological and therapeutic culture; the role of Jewish women as American public moralists, and more. A must-read for anyone interested in the contribution of Jews and Jewish culture to modern America.

From activist, spiritual leader, New York Times-bestselling author, and 2020 presidential candidate Marianne Williamson comes a book about everyday peace, everyday hope, and everyday grace In these pages, author Marianne Williamson acts as a guide back to the spiritual source, exploring the ways to nurture a thriving soul in a harsh world. The large and small difficulties of our days challenge u[Bokinfo]

In You Never Call, You Never Write, Joyce Antler provides an illuminating and often amusing history of one of the best-known figures in popular culture--the Jewish Mother. Whether drawn as self-sacrificing or manipulative, in countless films, novels, radio and television programs, stand-up comedy, and psychological and historical studies, she appears as a colossal figure, intensely involved in the lives of her children. Antler traces the odyssey of this compelling personality through decades of American culture. She reminds us of a time when Jewish mothers were admired for their tenacity and nurturance, as in the early twentieth-century image of the "Yiddishe Mama," a sentimental figure popularized by entertainers such as George Jessel, Al Jolson, and Sophie Tucker, and especially by Gertrude Berg, whose amazingly successful "Molly Goldberg" ruled American radio and television for over 25 years. Antler explains the transformation of this Jewish Mother into a "brassy-voiced, smothering, and shrewish" scourge (in Irving Howe's words), detailing many variations on this negative theme, from Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint and Woody Allen's Oedipus Wrecks to television shows such as "The Nanny," "Seinfeld," and "Will and Grace." But she also uncovers a new counter-narrative, leading feminist scholars and stand-up comediennes to see the Jewish Mother in positive terms. Continually revised and reinvented, the Jewish Mother becomes in Antler's expert hands a unique lens with which to examine vital concerns of American Jews and the culture at large. A joy to read, You Never Call, You Never Write will delight anyone who has ever known or been nurtured by a "Jewish Mother," and it will be a special source of insight for modern parents. As Antler suggests, in many ways "we are all Jewish Mothers" today.

Told for the first time in their own words, What Are Blind Men Dreaming? is the account of three generations of women--mother, daughter, granddaughter--and the history that shaped them. This collective, yet singular story of survival spans genre, geography, and time to reflect on the legacy of the Holocaust on modern Jewish identity.

Attali offers a historical analysis of how we elected, over the centuries, to rid ourselves of the indirect path for the supposed superiority of the straight line. We moved from the meandering to the linear, from the complex to the singular, from the curved and sensual to the straight and narrow. Consequently our thinking became shallow and unable to grasp the depth of meaning the labyrinthine symbolic world held for us. Now, as we enter the twenty-first century, the daedal depth of wisdom is recapturing our imaginations. The complex patterns enfolded with these ancient designs are calling us to reclaim the lost and forgotten parts of ourselves.

"You shall be holy," teaches the Bible. The masters of the Jewish Mussar tradition have crafted a roadmap to help people approach that lofty goal. Mussar is a system of introspective practices that can help you identify and break through the obstacles to your inherent holiness, using methods that are easy to integrate into daily life. Every Day, Holy Day is an essential companion for anyone who wants to experience the life-changing gifts of Mussar. The program laid out in this book focuses on 26 traits ( middot )—such as loving-kindness, strength, generosity, compassion, honor, and equanimity—each of which takes center stage for a week of contemplation and exercises, in order to develop and refine that quality in yourself. Alan Morinis invites you to follow the Mussar path with him for a year. It is remarkably simple, and also remarkably effective in helping you overcome negative tendencies and strengthen positive ones—and to reveal your innate holiness in the process.

"Providing a religious lens on the topic, this book directly addresses the problem of spousal abuse in the Jewish community. Rabbi Twerski's book was one of the first titles to break open the issue, and this new edition relates the recognition of abuse, the warning signs, and how to respond. With new preface"--

The first in-depth psychoanalytic study of the Old and New Testaments, Beyond Yahweh and Jesus centers on God's role in enabling humans to cope with death and the anxieties it evokes. Yahweh is seen as tending to increase rather than diminish these death anxieties, while Christ offers near-perfect solutions to each type. Why, then, asks Dr. Langs, has Christ failed to bring peace to the world? Langs' answer is focused on what is, he argues, Western religion's lack of a deep understanding of human psychology-i.e., an absence of the psychological wisdom needed to supplement the spiritual wisdom of religion. This is a void bemoaned as early as the mid-1800s by the Archbishop Temple and by Carl Jung in the early 20th century. The journey on which Langs' study embarks leads through an examination of the related topics of knowledge acquisition and divine wisdom; the failure of psychoanalysis to provide religion with the psychology it needs to fulfill its mission; and a set of propositions that are intended to bring psychological wisdom to religion and thereby to initiate the third chapter in the history of God, in which a refashioned morality and fresh divine wisdom play notable roles. Simultaneously, the book offers a foundation for secular forms of spirituality and morality, as well as for human efforts to cope with death and its incumbent anxieties. The mission of this book is a lofty but necessary one: to reinvigorate religion with new dimensions and insights so as to empower it, at long last, to help bring peace to the world, both individually and collectively.

Being happy depends on becoming a complete person-- spirituality is the path that leads you to wholeness. "To become complete human beings, to find happiness, we need to develop our human spirits to the fullest. This is what it means to be spiritual: to be the best we can be; to exercise all the qualities and traits that are unique to humankind and that give us the identity as human beings. This spirituality is an integral component of being human, and we cannot have true and enduring happiness without it." For many of us, the journey toward personal and spiritual fulfillment is fraught with unexplained feelings of emptiness in the struggle to reach what seems an elusive and murky goal. It doesn't have to be this way. Using simple, accessible language and clear examples, this wellspring of wisdom shows you that true happiness is attainable once you stop looking outside yourself for the source and realize that it can be found within you. You will identify the unique abilities that comprise your human spirit--such as gratitude, humility, compassion, and generosity--and explore how to use them in ways that will not only remove your feelings of incompleteness, but also allow you to experience happiness in an invigorating and spiritually refreshing way. Based on ancient wisdom and modern psychology, the thoughtful, heartfelt anecdotes and inspiring, easy-to-follow exercises will carry you beyond your present state of discontent and open for you an entirely new path toward becoming the best you you can possibly be.

"Some losses are so subtle they go unnoticed, some so overwhelming and cruel they seem unbearable. Coping with grief and experiencing loss overwhelms us in ways that seem both hopeless and endless. In painful moments like these, we must make a choice: Will we allow the difficulties we face to become forces of destruction in our lives, or will we find a way to begin learning from loss, transforming our suffering into a source of strength? A theologian with the heart of a poet, Rabbi David Wolpe explores the meaning of loss, and the way we can use its inevitable appearance in our lives as a source of strength rather than a source of despair. In this national bestseller, Wolpe creates a remarkably fluid account of how we might find a way out of overwhelming feelings of helplessness and instead begin understanding grief in all its forms and learn to create meaning in difficult times"--

Valuable insights into marriage and married life. This book presents, in brief form, the psychology and philosophy of the laws of Jewish family purity. A revised and expanded edition.

"Focusing on a deep metaphysical interpretation of the Torah, Torah as a Guide to Enlightenment presents, for the first time, the original intention of the Jewish tradition: an explicit guide to liberation from the mystical Jewish enlightenment point of view"--Provided by publisher.

"Why is low self-esteem such a pervasive issue in our generation? What is the Torah approach to balancing humility with embracing one's talents and strengths? Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, zt"l, renowned for his Torah wisdom, was a master in the complex dynamics of human psychology. His classic work Let us make man offers insights into the root causes of low self-esteem, expertly blending Torah concepts with psychological understanding. In its pages, readers will find practical guidance for overcoming the challenges of self-defeatism and unlocking their true potential."--Page [4] of cover.

It’s sad, isn’t it, that so many people deny the obvious in so many spheres of life. Just as the beginning of knowledge is the acknowledgment that there is much to learn, so the beginning of personal fulfillment is the knowledge that one must improve, can improve, and that there are ways to do what only seems to be impossible, but isn’t. Even sadder is that many people assume that self-mastery and character development are natural by-products of scholarship and observance, that self-improvement will emerge without effort. The Sages of the Talmud knew better. They said, “Who is strong? He who subdues his personal inclination,” for to master one’s passion is better than to conquer a city. And it is harder, as well. They recognized and preached that one must never rest, lest he lose the battle, just as the conqueror of a city must remain ever vigilant. The battle to elevate and ennoble oneself must be ongoing. And the Sages also taught how to win the victory. How? For that one must understand the mystery of the soul, plumb the teachings of the Sages, and heed the counsel of the masters of Chassidus and Mussar, the great artists of personal refinement. A person who incorporates all that plus a thorough knowledge of modern psychiatry and psychology is a rare and priceless human treasure. Such a person is Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D., Torah scholar, psychiatrist and ranking expert in the treatment of substance abuse. In this wise and valuable book, he demolishes the fears and shibboleths that bar the way to mental health for countless good and sincere people. He shows that the principles for today’s most successful techniques for self-improvement are found in the Torah, as expounded by its greatest teachers. Warmly, compassionately, engagingly, he draws us into his world of health, happiness and fulfillment. This is a book for everyone. It is enriching and uplifting. Most of all, it will put its readers on the road to personal success.