Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was his college professor Morrie Schwartz. Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldn’t you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger? Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man’s life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class": lessons in how to live. "The truth is, Mitch," he said, "once you learn how to die, you learn how to live." Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie’s lasting gift with the world.

For over forty years, Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis has been a globetrotting spokeswoman for Judaism. Whether counseling a searching soul or addressing a packed house in Madison Square Garden, her message is elegantly universal, while simultaneously addressing the specific needs of contemporary Jews. In Life Is A Test, the Rebbetzin's uncompromising convictions, her insights on faith, her soul-stirring wisdom, and her palpable love of all people saturate every page. Life Is A Test is really three books in one, each bearing a particular focus to help readers look for the message embedded in any difficulty. The book begins with tests of self-discovery and then examines the challenging realm of interpersonal relationships, concluding with a section on perceiving the Divine Design in the big picture of global events, as well as in one's own world. Regardless of age or experience, people of all persuasions - or none at all - will find meaningful substance in Life Is A Test. Rebbetzin Jungreis has captured so many of our deep-seated questions. And in this refreshingly personal book, she has graciously provided us with a decipherable answer key.

“It gives me a secret pleasure to observe the fair character our family has in the place by Jews & Christians,“Abigail Levy Franks wrote to her son from New York City in 1733. Abigail was part of a tiny community of Jews living in the new world. In the centuries that followed, as that community swelled to several millions, women came to occupy diverse and changing roles. American Jewish Women’s History , an anthology covering colonial times to the present, illuminates that historical diversity. It shows women shaping Judaism and their American Jewish communities as they engaged in volunteer activities and political crusades, battled stereotypes, and constructed relationships with their Christian neighbors. It ranges from Rebecca Gratz’s development of the Jewish Sunday School in Philadelphia in 1838 to protest the rising prices of kosher meat at the turn of the century, to the shaping of southern Jewish women's cultural identity through food. There is currently no other reader conveying the breadth of the historical experiences of American Jewish women available. The reader is divided into four sections complete with detailed introductions. The contributors include: Joyce Antler, Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Alice Kessler-Harris, Paula E. Hyman, Riv-Ellen Prell, and Jonathan D. Sarna.

Yehuda Ashlag’s Introduction to the Zohar, is a 20th-century work that serves as an introduction to his commentary on the Zohar It is designed to prepare readers for the complex and esoteric teachings of the Zohar, which is the foundational work of Kabbalah. In his introduction, Ashlag explains the fundamental concepts of Kabbalah necessary to understand his commentary. He focuses on the sefirot, which are the ten attributes through which the Infinite reveals Himself and continuously creates both the physical realm and the chain of higher metaphysical realms. The introduction also discusses the relationships between the sefirot, which are essential to understanding the dynamics of the spiritual worlds. Ashlag’s work is significant because it opens up the teachings of Kabbalah to a broader audience. His explanations aim to clarify the ‘language of root and branch’, which is a key to deciphering the allegorical and mystical language of the Zohar. Without this understanding, the stories in the Zohar might be mistaken for mere fable and legend. The Introduction to the Zohar by Yehuda Ashlag is considered a vital text for those who wish to delve into the study of Kabbalah and the Zohar, providing clear insights into the mysteries of man and the universe.

"A witty and wide-ranging exploration of a book that has perplexed and delighted people for centuries: the Talmud"--

Jeffrey L. Rubenstein continues his grand exploration of the ancient rabbinic tradition of the Talmudic sages, offering deep and complex analysis of eight stories from the Babylonian Talmud to reconstruct the cultural and religious world of the Babylonian rabbinic academy. Rubenstein combines a close textual and literary examination of each story with a careful comparison to earlier versions from other rabbinic compilations. This unique approach provides insight not only into the meaning and content of the current forms of the stories but also into how redactors reworked those earlier versions to address contemporary moral and religious issues. Rubenstein's analysis uncovers the literary methods used to compose the Talmud and sheds light on the cultural and theological perspectives of the Stammaim — the anonymous editor-redactors of the Babylonian Talmud. Rubenstein also uses these stories as a window into understanding more broadly the culture of the late Babylonian rabbinic academy, a hierarchically organized and competitive institution where sages studied the Torah. Several of the stories Rubenstein studies here describe the dynamics of life in the academy: master-disciple relationships, collegiality and rivalry, and the struggle for leadership positions. Others elucidate the worldview of the Stammaim, including their perspectives on astrology, theodicy, and revelation.

The New Thought Movement was an enormously popular late nineteenth-century spiritual movement led largely by and for women. Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science is but one example of the fascinating range of these groups, which advocated a belief in mind over matter and espoused women's spiritual ability to purify the world. This work is the first to uncover the cultural implications of New Thought, embedding it in the intellectual traditions of nineteenth-century America, and illuminating its connections with the self-help and New Age enthusiasms of our own fin-de-siècle. Beryl Satter examines New Thought in all its complexity, presenting along the way a captivating cast of characters. In lively and accessible prose, she introduces the people, the institutions, the texts, and the ideas that comprised the New Thought movement. This fascinating social and intellectual history explores the complex relationships among social reform, alternative religion, medicine, and psychology which persist to this day.

“ Who can deny that our world is starved for a new understanding of love, of what it means to live together and work at love and not give up?” What is the antidote to romantic love that all too often exhausts itself over night? Might it be to join with a partner in a spiritual search? “Love to . . . awaken us: Body and Soul to a greater unknown.” Further, what is the work which will sustain a love over a lifetime? By searching for the sacred with our lover we might well find the divine within them. Philosopher and teacher Jacob Needleman suggests love can be a reflection of our spiritual being. He asserts that by the time “we are living together something beyond passion is required;” something intentional and conscious is needed. In The Wisdom of Love, philosopher Jacob Needleman draws wisdom from myth, religion, philosophy and sacred poetry in an exploration of that which brings two people together in love — of what love is, why we need to give it and receive it, and how it can be sustained beyond the passion and mystery that first draws us together.

With Rabbi Twerski as our guide, we can use the lessons of the weekly Torah reading in our daily lives in our relationships with our families, with our colleagues and friends, and, most of all, with our Creator. Yet Twerski on Chumash neither preaches nor

Elana Sztokman arrived in Israel in 1993 as a young religious mother wearing a long skirt and a hat covering her hair. Today, nearly 30 years later, after spending years fighting for women's rights in Orthodoxy, writing books about gender in religion, and eventually leaving that world behind, she confronts the personal struggles behind the public persona, revealing the traumas from her past that affected her entire relationship with her body. From two-time winner of the National Jewish Book Council Award comes a refreshing and very personal exploration of cultures of the female body in Jewish life. This collection of essays - marking the 25-year anniversary of her feminist awakening and spanning a diverse career of research, writing, and advocacy around Jewish women's experiences - offers political and personal insights and retrospectives on some of the most burning issues today. Topics include: sexuality, relationships, body-image, body-cover, ritual immersion, fat-shaming, slut-shaming, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. Elana brings her characteristic honesty, courage, wit, and profound insight into her writing, and shares some of her own traumas that set her on a sometimes tortuous life path.

Covenantal Rights is a groundbreaking work of political theory: a comprehensive, philosophically sophisticated attempt to bring insights from the Jewish political tradition into current political and legal debates about rights and to bring rights discourse more fully into Jewish thought. David Novak pursues these aims by presenting a theory of rights founded on the covenant between God and the Jewish people as that covenant is constituted by Scripture and the rabbinic tradition. In doing so, he presents a powerful challenge to prevailing liberal and conservative positions on rights and duties and opens a new chapter in contemporary Jewish political thinking. For Novak, "covenantal rights" are rooted in God's primary rights as creator of the universe and as the elector of a particular community whose members relate to this God as their sovereign. The subsequent rights of individuals and communities flow from God's covenantal promises, which function as irrevocable entitlements. This presents a sharp contrast to the liberal tradition, in which rights flow above all from individuals. It also challenges the conservative idea that duties can take precedence over rights, since Novak argues that there are no covenantal duties that are not backed by correlative rights. Novak explains carefully and clearly how this theory of covenantal rights fits into Jewish tradition and applies to the relationships among God, the covenanted community, and individuals. This work is a profound and provocative contribution to contemporary religious and political theory.

Even before its original publication in 1860, the Mei HaShiloach was attacked by Hasidic groups in Poland; attempts were even made to sabotage the press on which it was being printed. Izbicy is sometimes referred to as 'New Age Hasidism', a tribute to its radical modernity. Rabbi Mordechai Yosef stressed personal responsibility in attaining true spiritual growth and self-knowledge. Throughout the Mei HaShiloach one finds strong currents compelling us to focus on our selfhood, individuation, truth, identity, and transcendence, and inviting us to re-examine our sin, failure, and despair in the light of his unique and radical philosophy. In his reading of the personalities in the Biblical narratives, the Izbicy explores their choices, doubts, and compulsions in a way that seems startling modern, and was extraordinary for its time - and even for ours. He devoted uncommon attention to emotions, human relationships, and intimacy.Rabbi Worch’s meticulously annotated translation opens up all the nuances of Rabbi Mordechai Yosef’s elusive world, providing full access to his weltanschauung. This translation empowers the reader to enter the Mei HaShiloach on its many different levels - intellectual, emotional, and psychological.

This is a new release of the original 1940 edition.