Judaism

New York City, July 13, 1999
Journey from the Land of No : A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran
by Roya Hakakian
In Journey from the Land of No Roya Hakakian recalls her childhood and adolescence in prerevolutionary Iran with candor and verve. The result is a beautifully written coming-of-age story about one deeply intelligent and perceptive girl's attempt to find

What Is Matrix Healing?
Matrix Healing: Discover Your Greatest Health Potential Through the Power of Kabbalah
by Raphael Kellman, M.D.
Traditional Jewish Riddle, Cited In Nathan Ausubel, A Treasury of Jewish Folklore. RIDDLE: A man dreamt that he was on a ship at sea with his father and mother, when the ship began to sink. It was possible to save only himself and one other person

Why Do the Righteous Suffer?
When Bad Things Happen to Good People
by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner
There is only one question which really matters: why do bad things happen to good people? All other theological conversation is intellectually diverting; somewhat like doing the crossword puzzle in the Sunday paper and feeling very satisfied when you have

Day 1, Day 3
The Book of Jewish Values: A Day-by-Day Guide to Ethical Living
by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
Sunday. On Hearing a Siren. What is your reaction when you are talking with a friend and your conversation is suddenly interrupted by the piercing wail of an ambulance siren? Is it pure sympathy for the person inside - or about to be picked up by

Family
The Ten Commandments of Character: Essential Advice for Living an Honorable, Ethical, Honest Life
by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
Dear Joseph, My boyfriend is a Catholic, and I am a Buddhist. To me, this is absolutely no problem. Recently, however, he told me that we cannot get married unless I get baptized. I am more than willing to do so, but isn't that hypocritical?

What Kaddish Means
Saying Kaddish: How to Comfort the Dying, Bury the Dead, and Mourn as a Jew
by Anita Diamant
Beyond language, Kaddish is more than the sum of its words. First and foremost, it is an experience of the senses. Like music, there is no understanding Kaddish without hearing and feeling it and letting go of the words.

Values and Goals
How to Be a Jewish Parent: A Practical Handbook for Family Life
by Anita Diamant, Karen Kushner
Jewish parents celebrate the birth of children with delight, with food, and with an ancient promise called brit - covenant. Brit is the way Jews conceive of their relationship with God: it is a contract renewed in every generation when parents gather

Your Spouse: A Friend or a Lover?
Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy
by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
One of the rules of dating is that when a man tires of the woman he is seeing (or in many cases when a woman tires of a man), he cannot simply call her up and end it. No, that would be too heartless and cruel. Rather, dumping her comes in the form of the

Primacy: Make Your Date Know That He or She Comes First
Dating Secrets of the Ten Commandments
by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
I was fifteen years old when I decided that God was cool and that I was going to be a Rabbi, and so I went to a seminary in California. Almost the only issue that united my divorced parents was mutual hostility to the path I had chosen in life.

Another Woman
The Get: A Spiritual Memoir of Divorce
by Elise Edelson Katch
To end her 30-year marriage, Elise Eldelson Katch is preassured to participate in an ancient Orthodox ritual that requires her to stand alone before a panel of emotionally distant Orthodox rabbis.

Who, What And Where Is God?
New Age Judaism: Ancient Wisdom for the Modern World
by Melinda Ribne
Many people will be surprised to find that Judaism is fundamentally aligned with what we think of as the New Age. Many of the things we associated with the New Age are not new but are part of Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition.

Mady D. The Spirit of Goodness
Love Carried Me Home: Women Surviving Auschwitz
by Joy Erlichman Miller, Ph.D
Madeline (Mady) D. was born on April 29, 1930, in Berehovo, Czechoslovakia. Within this small city, she and her older brother were raised in a tight-knit, middle-income family. Mady's father was a businessman who worked out of his home.

The Voices of Women
Love Carried Me Home: Women Surviving Auschwitz
by Joy Erlichman Miller, Ph.D
A powerful, poignant examination of sixteen women's triumphant struggles to survive the Auschwitz Concentration Camp during the Holocaust. Bearing witness to atrocities of genocide during the darkest moment in history, female survivors teach us

The Delimma of Job
If God Is Good, Why Is The World So Bad?
by Benjamin Blech
In These Troubled Times, People Are Asking Very Difficult Questions About God and Their Faith . . . Why does God allow sickness, torture and evil to exist? If I suffer, does that mean I deserve it? Why do innocent people, especially children, die

Test Your Gossip Quotient
Gossip: Ten Pathways to Eliminate It from Your Life and Transform Your Soul
by Lori Palatnik
Take this simple 5 question quiz to find out your GQ. You can select more than one choice for each answer (be honest now): 1. As you hear some juicy gossip, are you: a) Already planning in your head who you are going to share it with?

Body and Soul
Gossip: Ten Pathways to Eliminate It from Your Life and Transform Your Soul
by Lori Palatnik
Mastering the gift of speech serves no purpose unless you realize that you are not just a body, but also a soul. If you believe you are simply a body, put down this book and do whatever you want, as long as you don't get caught.

When You Try to Please the One You Love
Converting to Judaism: Choosing to Be Chosen : Personal Stories
by Rabbi Bernice Weiss
A striking couple entered my office, referred to me by the rabbi of a major synagogue. Sharon and Seth both had tremendous charisma, sophistication and class. Both were remarkably bright and articulate.

The Implications of Free Will
Finding God in the Garden: Backyard Reflections on Life, Love, and Compost
by Rabbi Balfour Brickner
The notion that God cannot command our moral choices is reflected through a well-known line found in the Talmud, Judaism's definitive postbiblical authority. There, in tractate Berakot 33b, we read that everything is in the hands of God except the fear

Cain and Abel: The Choices They Did Not Make
Finding God in the Garden: Backyard Reflections on Life, Love, and Compost
by Rabbi Balfour Brickner
The Bible's early emphasis on humanity's free will appears again in the fratricidal tragedy found in chapter 4 of Genesis: the Cain and Abel story. No sooner were Adam and Eve out of the garden than Eve became pregnant

Free Will: The Price of Being Human
Finding God in the Garden: Backyard Reflections on Life, Love, and Compost
by Rabbi Balfour Brickner
Rational faith rests on the pillar of free will. Unless we are free to make choices in our lives, we are only puppets operating at the will of some other force, and we are not responsible for our behavior.