Movements Books - Page 4

The Rabbi of 84th Street: The Extraordinary Life of Haskel Besser

Warren Kozak

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Inspiring Story 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This book provides a bit of insight into the story of Rabbi Besser. The author is successful in writing a biography of a great man without fanfare or noise. The story of Rabbi Besser's life is an inspiration to all of us. It demonstrates the power of faith, prayer and a life spent doing good deeds -- without the need for continuous recognition. Rabbi Besser sets an example just by being himself. Perhaps best summed up as doing the right thing. An excellent read.

Editorial Review:

Always wearing an easy smile, Hasidic rabbi Haskel Besser spreads joy wherever he goes, enriching the lives of his many friends and congregants with his profound understanding of both Orthodox Judaism and human nature.

With warmth and admiration, journalist Warren Kozak writes about the rabbi's extraordinary life—from his family's escape to Palestine in the late 1930s to his witnessing of Israel's rebirth in 1948, to his move to New York City, where he lives today.

A rare window into the normally closed world of Hasidic Jews, The Rabbi of 84th Street is also the story of Judaism in the twentieth century; of the importance of centuries-old traditions; and of the triumph of faith, kindness, and spirit.

A Vision of Holiness: The Future of Reform Judaism

Richard N. Levy

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Editorial Review:

Where is Reform Judaism heading in the twenty-first century? This was the question before the Central Conference of American Rabbis as it undertook to write a Statement of Principles, the fourth in a series of comprehensive statements that the Reform rabbinate has adopted throughout its history to help inspire the thought and practice of Reform Judaism. A Vision of Holiness is an explication of the Pittsburgh Principles’ vision, as seen through the lens of the rabbi who guided the process and shaped the document. It is a personal reflection of a communal vision, an attempt to explore the implications of the 1999 document. A Vision of Holiness will change all of its readers, Reform or not, to reflect on the nature of their religious lives and deepen their relationships with God, their absorption in Torah, and their critical commitment to the destiny of the Jewish people and the Jewish state. A Vision of Holiness illumines the manner in which this vibrant group of Jews envisions its purpose in the world and sets forth challenges for Reform Judaism’s ongoing engagement with mitzvot.

Tradition in a Rootless World: Women Turn to Orthodox Judaism

Lynn Davidman

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The past two decades in the United States have seen an immense liberalization and expansion of women's roles in society. Recently, however, some women have turned away from the myriad, complex choices presented by modern life and chosen instead a Jewish orthodox tradition that sets strict and rigid guidelines for women to follow.
Lynn Davidman followed the conversion to Orthodoxy of a group of young, secular Jewish women to gain insight into their motives. Living first with a Hasidic community in St. Paul, Minnesota, and then joining an Orthodox synagogue on the upper west side of Manhattan, Davidman pieced together a picture of disparate lives and personal dilemmas. As a participant observer in their religious resocialization and in interviews and conversations with over one hundred women, Davidman also sought a new perspective on the religious institutions that reach out to these women and usher them into the community of Orthodox Judaism.
Through vivid and detailed personal portraits, Tradition in a Rootless World explores women's place not only in religious institutions but in contemporary society as a whole. It is a perceptive contribution that unites the study of religion, sociology, and women's studies.

Holy Brother: Inspiring Stories and Enchanted Tales about Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach

Yitta Halberstam Mandelbaum

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

I was a traveling companion of Rabbi Carlebach 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach

After much thought, I've decided to completely revamp the review I wrote of this book. I decided to do this to bring a more balanced approach to his memory both positive and negative.
Rabbi Carlebach was a living legend. He had the type of influence and charisma during his life, especially in the
State of Israel, that very few individuals manage to achieve. One day, when I was part of his entourage and we were in Haifa, a non-religious Jew who was driving a car on the Sabbath, stopped his car to run out and to hug and kiss Shlomo. He was beloved by many people as one of the few rabbis with clout who backed the State of Israel. And he helped and expressed love to people desipite any differences of belief.
Shlomo definitely was most impressed with the 1960's and the hippy movement. After that time period he still gave concerts but he became somewhat of an anachronism. The world became a more difficult place to live in and Shlomo had to readjust to it.
Shlomo made his living by touring the globe giving concerts from America to India. Everywhere there were Jews or people willing to hear him, he traveled. He was on what you'd call the "spiritual circuit" consisting of religious leaders of all persuasions who wanted to do interfaith sharing of ideas. He was considered a voice of tolerance from within the orthodox community.
Shlomo loved the State of Israel, where he was a household name, perhaps as well-known as "Coca Cola".
He gave concerts there on a frequent basis and his followers have a settlement near Lod (Lyddia) airport called Moshav Me'or Modi'in. The settlement is where the Maccabees used to live during the Jewish revolt against the Greeks. I've lived on that Moshav for about 8 months and still have friends there among Shlomo's "hippylach"
But he was a very controversial figure because he hugged and kissed women despite orthodox Judaism's ban on people of the opposite sex touching each other. I went to a Haredi yeshiva,D'var Yerushalayim, in '78 which made it difficult on me because I followed Shlomo even though I was not one of his mainstream Chasidim. Someone actually insisted the Rabbi Carlebach wrote one of his songs, "L-rd, Get Me High", while on LSD no less. I never saw Shlomo take drugs nor did I ever smell even marijuana on his person.
I met Shlomo in '74, when I was 15 years old. And his melodies touched me in a way that no other style of music by any other composer touched me. I met him in the Bellmore, LI, NY Jewish Center and sat at his feet during the intermission.
I was a member of the Ben Yishai cult back then and the leader, Pastor Jack Hickman, encourage us to seek out orthodox Jewish leaders who'd teach us about orthodox Judaism. Shlomo made himself accessible to me and he opened himself up to all of us in the cult as a resource. He wasn't intimidated by us at all as he was firmly rooted in his own beliefs.
I became a frequent attendant at his concerts and events and started collecting his recordings which at one point numbered over 50 of his recordings. Just like there were Jesus freaks, there were Shlomo freaks and I definitely flipped out over this rabbi's whole thing.
When the Arabs attacked Israel, Shlomo would fly to Israel to sing to the troops to encourage the Israelis to fight back. He firmly believed Israel was Jewish property and he was staunch friends with Ariel Sharon.
I remember Shlomo talking about how he was somewhere during the liberation of the Western Wall and he was near some orthodox Jews who were talking about what happened. They dedided to say some "Tehilim", Psalms, anyway. Shlomo said that they were just "too into their darkness", but in retrospect it seems that Shlomo was too optimsitic about what the future held for the Jews as a people. He said about a month before he passed on that it was "heartbreaking but the nations of the world are trying to make us homeless again."
There was an article that came out in "Lilith" magazine which was an expose of his supposedly molesting women including young girls. I saw Shlomo hug and kiss women and I saw him have sexual contact with a woman twice but I never saw him do anything besides that. But so many women complained that something must have happened. I'm hoping that these women seek counseling to help them cope as survivors of abuse.
I was attacked by anti-Semites as a child and I developed mental problems as a result. I never went to counseling over it until years later. The only thing that seemed to make me feel better was listining to Shlomo's music and visiting him. My late dogs, Duchess and Zeus, also used to play with me and make me feel better but Shlomo saw how miserable I was one time and told me as he wrapped his capo around the neck of his guitar, "Don't worry, brother, the Mashiach is coming to redeem you." And for me, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach was definitely somewhat of a messiah for me.
Shlomo made some connections for me that I still have. He introduced me to a rabbi, who later moved to LI, after I came back from Israel in '79, I attended his shul.
Shlomo was a pillar of spirituality. He supported many people financially as well as spiritually and mentally. But the question remains, "How will history judge this man in light of everything positive and negative".
I lost my last computer programming contract a month after Shlomo's petirah (passing) and I went to Israel in order to get a new start. I went to a headhunting firm who knew the couple I was staying with and when the headhunter found out who I was living with I had a snowball's chance in hell of getting a job from them.
I was inspired by Shlomo to become involved with orthodox Judaism but I couldn't keep up with it. My father complained that I'd get into his music heavily, then I'd go to him and his people and bomb out and then I'd go to Chabad Lubavitch where I'd get my head blown off.
This happened a few times, not just once.
Today, Carlebach minyanim are popping up all over the place as his influence is expanding in Jewish circles around the globe. Even people who barely knew him if at all are being impacted by him. According to Chasidut, when a tzaddik passes away, his soul expands throughout the world. Supposedly descended from King David himself, the saying "David Melech Yisrael, Chai V'kayam", "David, King of Israel lives and endures", can be spoken of the late sweet singer of Israel as well about his ancient forebear.

Editorial Review:

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach was one of the most original and inspired Jewish personalities of the twentieth century. In this incredible volume, Yitta Halberstam Mandelbaum, a devoted student of Reb Shlomo, gathers dozens of stories about this charismatic, loving Jewish leader. The episodes retold here by Reb Shlomo's followers and admirers underscore his unfailing generosity, his capacity to love unconditionally, and his desire to reconnect every Jew with his or her heritage. As a whole, the collection reveals how many individuals were touched by Reb Shlomo, and serves as a moving tribute to the man many consider a tzaddik (righteous one).

Whose Torah?: A Concise Guide to Progressive Judaism (Whose Religion? Series)

Rebecca Alpert

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Noted scholar and groundbreaking rabbi Rebecca Alpert discusses what the Torah actually says about sex, war, poverty, the environment, and other major contemporary issues.

"Jews believe in a God whose main interest was to take a bunch of rebellious slaves and set them free from oppression—who could top that?"—from Whose Torah?

Rabbi Rebecca Alpert is a leading voice in progressive Judaism. A crusader for reform within the Jewish community, she was one of the first women in Jewish history to be ordained a rabbi. Alpert is a celebrated teacher, an expert on Jewish American religious history, and a key public advocate for progressive social issues in contemporary Jewish life.

In Whose Torah?, Alpert sketches a compelling portrait of the progressive values that belong to the core of Judaism today. Reaching deeply into the sources of Jewish tradition, she highlights with unflinching moral clarity the textual basis for a truly just vision of life for all who care about sexual, economic, and racial justice and for those who would oppose all forms of discrimination, unjust war, and the destruction of the environment. Alpert also carefully considers what it means to be Jewish in contemporary America—offering both a passionate and deeply learned defense of progressive Jewish identity.

Whose Torah? will be an essential intellectual resource for progressive Jews and for anyone searching for the religious underpinnings of contemporary progressive politics.

About the series: Titles in the Whose Religion? series will spark a spirited and substantive public debate over Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, and Islam and where each stands on today's most pressing issues: poverty, the environment, war, sex, race, and women's equality. In these books, noted progressive religious leaders present persuasive and profound examinations of religious belief, justice, and public policy in America.

Debunking widely held assumptions about these religions as inherently conservative on current issues, the books in Whose Religion? will offer powerful intellectual and inspirational tools for anyone grappling with a religious framework, whether to chart their own personal spiritual and moral course or to challenge the religious right and its co-option of religion for political gain.

Sliding to the Right: The Contest for the Future of American Jewish Orthodoxy (S. Mark Taper Foundation Book in Jewish Studies)

Samuel C. Heilman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Disappointing 1 out of 5 stars.
14 of 21 people found this review helpful.

Overall, I found this book disappointing. In its defense, its basic thesis of the movement of Jewish American Orthodoxy towards the `right' (more closed and intensely religious) is interesting, and I am sure accurate, and Heilman's analysis of its evolution is insightful and well-researched. However, I was extremely bothered by the lack of any attempt to portray Hareidi society through the prism of its own value system, or in fact any attempt to understand their values at all. Heilman accepts his own world view as absolute and obvious to the reader, and in this context denigrates a society with an entirely different set of goals and aspirations. Examples of this include his assumption of the primacy of feminism and the worth of secular culture. Hareidi society has its own worldview which, although too complex to elaborate on here, has valid and very real reasons for its hierarchy of values, reasons which Heilman completely disparages or ignores. (For an example of a book that is not written by a religious author, yet is able to appreciate Hareidim from their own perspective try "Real Jews" by Noah Efron). In general, I found his view of religion as a mere sociological construct (i.e. a defensive reaction to the Holocaust) to be grossly insensitive to the Hareidi intense religious belief founded on thousands of years of tradition.
The latter half of the book I found a pathetic attempt to draw conclusions from insignificant pieces of information. For example the juxtaposition of poster A condemning something to a poster advertising B implies that poster A is condemning B as well. Or two posters (put out by the same company) advertising two different types of music indicates that the community is embattled over the appropriateness of one type of music.
In conclusion, although I eagerly awaited this book and found a fraction of it interesting and intelligent, my overall impression is negative due to the authors biased approach and manipulative use of insignificant information.

Editorial Review:

Written by one of this country's leading experts on American Judaism, this book offers a snapshot of Orthodoxy Jewry in the United States, asking how the community has evolved in the years since World War II and where it is headed in the future. Incorporating rich details of everyday life, fine-grained observations of cultural practices, descriptions of educational institutions, and more, Samuel Heilman delineates the varieties of Jewish Orthodox groups, focusing in particular on the contest between the proudly parochial, contra-acculturative haredi Orthodoxy and the accomodationist modern Orthodoxy over the future of this religious community. What emerges overall is a picture of an Orthodox Jewry that has gained both in numbers and intensity and that has moved farther to the religious right as it struggles to define itself and to maintain age-old traditions in the midst of modernity, secularization, technological advances, and the pervasiveness of contemporary American culture.

Liberal Judaism

Eugene B Borowitz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The best book about Reform Judaism around! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is a must for anyone interested in learning about Reform Judaism. The author gives several different viewpoints on subjects ranging from Zionism, Creation, Life Cycle Events, Israel, etc., leaving the reader free to form his/her own opinions as well as understand others' viewpoints on a wide range of topics relevent to all Jews and those who are interested in Judaism. A definite 5* book!

Editorial Review:

This book probes the varieties of Jewish thought and ritual practice from the perspective of liberal Judaism.

El libro de Enoc

Anonimo

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Editorial Review:

El libro de Enoc es un texto apocrifo que forma parte del canon de la Iglesia ortodoxa etiope pero no es aceptado como canonico por las demas iglesias cristianas.

Covenental Imperatives: Essays by Walter S. Wurzburger on Jewish Law, Thought and Community

Shalom Carmy, Eliezer L. Jacobs

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Editorial Review:

Covenantal Imperatives, a collection of essays selected from the nearly six decades of Rabbi Walter Wurzburger's illustrious career, combines the author's mastery of Halakhah with a deep understanding of Jewish philosophy. By adopting religious cohesion as the cornerstone of his ideas, Rabbi Wurzburger builds a case for the meeting point of ethics and traditional Judaism, delving deeply into the thoughts of some of the greatest Jewish thinkers, especially those of his teacher, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Covering topics ranging from cooperation with non-Orthodox branches of Judaism, the Sabbath, and his concept of modern Orthodoxy, Rabbi Wurzburger's essays are a true representation of the work of an original thinker and leader in the American Jewish community.

Unlocking the Torah Text

Shmuel Goldin

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Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Reference -> Commentaries -> Old Testament

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Unlocking the Torah Text provides an in-depth journey into the Torah portion through a series of studies on each parsha. Each study opens with a brief summary of the narrative and then presents probing questions designed to strike to the core of the text. These questions are addressed through a review of traditional commentaries spanning the ages, combined with original approaches. Deep philosophical issues and perplexing textual questions are carefully examined and discussed in clear and incisive fashion. The actions and motivations of the patriarchs, matriarchs and other biblical figures are probed with an eye towards determining the lessons to be learned from the lives of these great personalities. Clear distinction is made between pshat (straightforward literal meaning) and Midrash (rabbinical exegesis) as both of these approaches to biblical text are carefully defined and applied. Finally, thought-provoking connections are raised between the eternal Torah narrative and critical issues of our time. Each study is thus constructed to encourage continued discussion and study of the Torah narrative.