A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven: The Jewish Life-Spiral As a Spiritual Path - Softcover

Waskow, Arthur Ocean; Berman, Phyllis Ocean

3.4

10 ratings by Goodreads

9780374528973: A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven: The Jewish Life-Spiral As a Spiritual Path

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0374528977 ISBN 13: 9780374528973

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003

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A new book that celebrates the Jewish life-spiral, fusing ancient teachings of the Bible and rabbis with new rituals for the twenty-first century

More than twenty years ago, Arthur Ocean Waskow published a book, Seasons of Our Joy, that followed the flow of Jewish festivals through the year. It became a classic. Now, in A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven, Rabbi Waskow and his wife, Phyllis Ocean Berman, have brought us a book for the other great cycle of Jewish life--from birth to death. They have woven handbook and history, spiritual guide and their own personal experience, ancient ceremonies and those brought forward by Jewish women today, into the single pattern of a well-lived life--a unity.

The book moves from a new "covenant of washing"--the ritual act of parents washing a newborn daughter's feet to celebrate her arrival--to an examination of how k'tubot, or marriage contracts, could be revised to affirm the commitments partners today need to make with each other, to ceremonies that celebrate the transformations of midlife, to enriching the rituals of grief in order to walk mourners through their own next spiral in the path of their lives.

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About the Author:

Philadelphians Arthur O. Waskow and Phyllis O. Berman are leaders of the Jewish renewal movement. Waskow directs the Shalom Center and wrote Godwrestling. Berman directs Elat Chayyim's Summer Program and is co-author of Tales of Tikkun.

Review:

"Both a spiritual handbook and a spiritual history . . . This book will guide and enlighten Jews seeking to better understand their faith and to make it an indispensable part of their lives."
--George Cohen, Booklist

"Able to make the old new, Arthur Waskow and Phyllis Berman have worked their magic again, this time with the life cycle. Spiritual, courageous, and a joy--this is a book to bring wholeness and insight, as we all spiral along life's bounteous path." --Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, Dean and Vice President, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, University of Jadaism

"A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven presents the spiritual resources Judaism possesses as individuals and families move through the cycle of life. The Jewish community can be grateful for this book as it contributes to the renewal and enrichment of Jewish life in our time." --Rabbi David Ellenson, President, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

"Arthur Ocean Waskow and Phyllis Ocean Berman have written for everyone longing for a Judaism of the soul, body, and intellect. All those who wish to sanctify their lives in the joyousness of Jewish spiritual life will find gentle and inspiring guidance in this book."
--Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College, editor of On Being a Jewish Feminist and Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity

"A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven teaches the Jewish wisdom of time, including the wisdom to understand how we are in a new time, and what that means for our ancient traditions. Arthur Waskow and Phyllis Berman are treasures of the Jewish community, and they have shown in their lives, as they show in this book, how we can learn for the great old ways, and how we can dance in the new." --Rodger Kamenetz, author of Stalking Elijah and The Jew in the Lotus

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