Filling Words with Light: Hasidic and Mystical Reflections on Jewish Prayer - Hardcover

Kushner, Rabbi Lawrence; Polen, Rabbi Nehemia

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9781580232166: Filling Words with Light: Hasidic and Mystical Reflections on Jewish Prayer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1580232167 ISBN 13: 9781580232166

Publisher: Jewish Lights, 2004

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Breathe New Life into Your Prayer with the Wisdom of Kabbalah and the Hasidic Masters

Jewish mystics teach that every word a person utters in prayer should radiate light. Even the letters of the words of prayer carry sparks of the Divine that yearn to join together in holiness.

In this inspiring spiritual companion, Reform rabbi Lawrence Kushner and Orthodox rabbi Nehemia Polen join together to provide a window into the liturgy for people of all backgrounds by offering fresh insights and meditations that bring the traditional prayerbook to life. Drawing from the Torah, Zohar and ancient and contemporary Hasidic masters, Kushner and Polen reflect on the joy, gratitude, compassion, mystery and awe embedded in traditional prayers and blessings, and show how you can imbue these familiar sacred words with your own sense of holiness.

Insightful, fresh and wise, Filling Words with Light will enrich your understanding of the prayer book and guide you on how to put more of yourself into the holy words of the Jewish tradition.

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From the Inside Flap:

Engage Body and Soul with the Holy Words of Jewish Prayer

From personal gratitude as we greet the day, to affirming in community Judaism’s steadfast devotion to God, prayer encompasses the expanse of our daily lives. In Filling Words with Light, Lawrence Kushner and Nehemia Polen offer new interpretations, flashes of insight, stories, and reflections on the words that compose the Jewish liturgy and enrich our understanding of how and why we pray. Following the order of the traditional prayer book, Kushner and Polen examine the concepts, phrases, and words of prayer, including:

* Acts of love * Serving in joy * Blessing * Commandments * Repentance * Healing * Torah study * Reverence * Sabbath lights * Yearning ...and much more

About the Author:

Lawrence Kushner, author, lecturer and spiritual leader, is regarded as one of the most creative religious thinkers and writers in America. A commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, he has focused us on spiritual renewal with wisdom and humor. Through his books and lectures, people of every faith and background have found inspiration and new strength for spiritual search and growth. It has been said that some spiritual leaders blend religion and psychology to help us walk better on the ground, but Lawrence Kushner draws on the wisdom of the mystics to help us dance better on the ceiling.

Kushner's acclaimed books include I’m God; You’re Not: Observations on Organized Religion & Other Disguises of the Ego; Honey from the Rock: An Easy Introduction to Jewish Mysticism; Invisible Lines of Connection: Sacred Stories of the Ordinary; The Book of Letters: A Mystical Hebrew Alphabet; Jewish Spirituality: A Brief Introduction for Christians; and In God’s Hands, an inspiring fable for children, with Gary Schmidt (all Jewish Lights).

Kushner served as rabbi at Congregation Beth El in Sudbury, Massachusetts, for almost thirty years; he is currently the Emanu-El scholar at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, and an adjunct faculty member at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion. He is fascinated by graphic design and computers (designing most of his Jewish Lights books). He enjoys Mozart, hanging around sailboats, and making his granddaughters giggle.

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