Showing results by publisher "----RM Alexander" in Judaism

Bob Dylan arrived in New York one winter morning in 1961. His music and spirit would go on to capture the hearts and minds of a generation, but what no one knew then was that, like so many before him, Dylan was concealing his Jewish origins. For Harry Freedman, Dylan’s roots are the key to grasping how this complete unknown burst onto the scene and reinvented not only himself, but popular music. The instinct for escape and reinvention has defined Dylan’s long career.

In 1943, as the Nazi power swept across central Europe, Rosa, her husband Emanuel and their daughter, Judy, were forced into hiding. But after a year and a half of living a terrifying, day-by-day existence, they were betrayed. As they arrived in Auschwitz, Rosa was torn from her husband and her only daughter. Could she dare to hope she would see either of them again?

Polish Catholics believed she was one of them. A devoted Nazi family took her in as if she was their own daughter. She fell in love with a German engineer who built aeroplanes for the Luftwaffe. What none of these people knew was that Mala Rivka Kizel had been born into a large Orthodox Jewish family in Warsaw, Poland, in 1926. By using her charm, intelligence, blonde hair, and blue eyes to assume different identities, she was the only member of her family to survive World War II.

Drawing insights from the hard-won wisdom of disabled folks who've forged difference into fierce and luminous cultural dissent, Belser offers fresh and unexpected interpretations of familiar biblical stories, showing how disability wisdom can guide us all toward a powerful reckoning with the complexities of the flesh. She talks back to biblical commentators who traffic in disability stigma and shame, challenging interpretations that demean disabled people and diminish the vitality of disabled lives.

Sacks argues that faiths must remain open to criticism, keep alive their separate communities and still contribute far more to national debates on moral issues. They must also learn to get along better. His thesis is that we still live under a Biblical canopy and that a cohesive morality needs the uniting bonds of faith. The subject of this book—religions and ethics—is good ground for him to build on: The Jewish contribution to ethics is distinctly rational and has a long and illustrious tradition. Moral philosophy is after all a Jewish preoccupation.

Based, in part, on Rabbi Sacks’s collection of columns in the UK's Times newspaper, Celebrating Life is a series of reflections on subjects such as morality, friendship, listening to others and giving thanks. It also talks about topics such as being a parent, finding and losing one’s faith and most of all, finding happiness. In Celebrating Life, Rabbi Sacks discovers where happiness lives, often in unexpected places, through family, community, friendship and responsibilities. He also finds it through a renewed relationship with God who spoke to his deepest needs.

Engaging Conversations on Bible and Theology

Rabbi Daniel Lapin reveals how the world REALLY works and reminds us that the more things change, the more we need to depend upon those things that never change.

When little Hannelore Zack left Cologne, Germany, on a train bound for London as a seven-year-old mädchen (young girl), she had no way of knowing that she was part of the Kindertransport, an epic rescue effort that would save 10,000 Jewish children from Hitler's Nazi regime. Written over a four-year period, A Garland for Ashes is both a gripping detective story recounting the heartbreaking process of discovering her family's fate and a poignant account of her journey from vengeful hatred to forgiveness and release from bitterness.

Doris Lessing reads from her introduction to Ecclesiastes or, the preacher. Ancient tradition suggests that this world-weary lament is the work of Solomon in old age. Casting its eye over the transient nature of life, the book questions the story for wisdom and the truth, choosing instead to espouse the value of living for the moment. The introduction is preceded by a reading from the book by Richard Holloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh.

Winner of the John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Human Sciences, Jaroslav Pelikan is Professor Emeritus of history at Yale University and past president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This examination of the history of the Bible reflects half a century of study and research by the author. In Whose Bible Is It?, Pelikan traces the transformation of the Bible from its earliest oral traditions to its modern forms.

While the Jewish mainstream still argues about homosexuality, transgender and gender-variant people have emerged as a distinct Jewish population and as a new chorus of voices. Inspired and nurtured by the successes of the feminist and LGBT movements in the Jewish world, Jews who identify with the “T” now sit in the congregation, marry under the chuppah, and create Jewish families. Balancing on the Mechitza offers a multifaceted portrait of this increasingly visible community.

In The History of Israel: Myths, Facts, and the Jewish Story Revealed, discover a thoughtful and unbiased account of Israel’s history. This book provides a deep dive into the events, cultures, and narratives that have shaped Israel, offering clarity on a topic often surrounded by controversy and debate. From ancient civilizations to modern-day politics, Israel’s history is a tapestry woven with triumphs, tragedies, and enduring cultural significance.

The books of Joshua, Judges and Ruth are part of the Old Testament of the Bible. They are considered historical books and tell stories of events occurring in historical time and place. Joshua is the sixth book of the Bible and tells the story of Israel’s conquest of Canaan. Judges is the seventh book of the Bible and tells the story of Israel’s history from the death of Joshua to the rise of the monarchy. Ruth is the eighth book of the Bible and tells the story of a Moabite woman who married an Israelite and became an ancestor of King David.

Imagine having the entire Jewish people over for dinner—and hosting a raucous, creative, riveting debate about their collective future. Jewish Priorities offers, for the first time, a wide-ranging, ambitious, and genuinely "pan-Jewish" conversation. Encompassing more than sixty top authors from around the Jewish world—Israelis and Diaspora writers; younger influencers and veteran opinion leaders; rabbinic and communal leaders, journalists and scholars, and literary and cultural figures, ranging from secular to ultra-Orthodox—each contributor offers a different priority for the Jewish people.

This book is packed with Jewish one-liners, jokes and funny stories featuring all the usual characters: hen-pecked husbands, overbearing mothers, struggling businessmen, Volvo drivers, self-righteous rabbis and of course, the hapless goyim who have to cope with them. The book will make a great gift and will provide inspiration for anyone making a speech at a wedding, barmitzvah, etc.

This book has become a standard text in seminary and university classrooms. The purpose of this second edition is to help listeners come to a critically informed understanding of the Old Testament as the church's scripture. This book introduces the Old Testament both as a witness of ancient Israel and as a witness to the church and synagogue through the generations of those who have passed these texts on as scripture.

We Jews wrongly believe we're immune to alcoholism and addiction—instead, individuals, families, and communities are suffering because of the stigmas surrounding addiction and recovery in the Jewish world.

The Jewish sect which ascribed Jesus the title of Messiah was eventually transformed into a non-Jewish movement wholly separated from its Jewish context. The transformation was not instantaneous, and there were deviating or at the least parallel streams of Jesus supporters early on. A critical mistake which has been made, in my opinion, is the assumption that the Jesus movement was uniform even among its early Jewish followers. Analyzing the original movement(s) in the first centuries of the Common Era can reveal how the schism between Judaism and Christianity evolved.

Introduction to the Zohar is the second in a series written by Kabbalist and scientist Rav Michael Laitman, which will prepare listeners to understand the hidden message of The Zohar. Among the many helpful topics dealt with in this companion text to The Science of Kabbalah, listeners are introduced to the "language of root and branch", without which the stories in the Zohar are mere fable and legend.