The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices: CLAL's Guide to Everyday & Holiday Rituals & Blessings - Softcover

Kula, Irwin; Ochs, Vanessa L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1580231527 ISBN 13: 9781580231527

Publisher: Jewish Lights, 2001

Synopsis

Discover how to make virtually any moment in your day a significant part of a meaningful Jewish life.

As we have discovered, and as our sages have long known, there is no experience in the life of a Jew that cannot be marked in Jewish ways.... The book you hold in your hands is the result of the kinds of rituals we have sculpted together over the years. It is not a prayer book or even a compendium of obligatory Jewish rituals. Rather, it is a source for all to use creatively.
―from the Introduction

Decades of experience by CLAL―The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in connecting spirituality with daily life come together in this one comprehensive handbook. In these pages, you have access to teachings that can help to sanctify almost any moment in your day.

Offering a meditation, a blessing, a profound Jewish teaching, and a ritual for more than one hundred diverse everyday events and holidays, this guide includes sacred practices for:

• Lighting Shabbat candles
• Blessing your parents
• Running a marathon
• Visiting the sick
• Building a sukkah
• Seeing natural wonders
• Moving into a new home
• Saying goodbye to a beloved pet
• Making a shiva call
• Traveling ... and much more

Drawing from both traditional and contemporary sources, The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices will show you how to make more holy any moment in your daily life.

Contributors:

Rabbi Judith Z. Abrams, PhD · Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard, PhD · Rabbi Daniel Silberman Brenner · Shari Cohen, PhD · David M. Elcott, PhD · Rabbi Niles E. Goldstein · Michael Gottsegen, PhD · Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg, PhD · Rabbi Steven Greenberg · Rabbi Brad Hirschfield · Janet R. Kirchheimer · David Kraemer, PhD · Rabbi Jennifer E. Krause · Rabbi Irwin Kula · Rabbi Benay Lappe · Rabbi Natan Margalit · Rabbi David Nelson, PhD · Vanessa L. Ochs, PhD · Rabbi Rachel T. Sabath · Robert Rabinowitz, PhD · Andrew Silow-Carroll · Rabbi Lawrence Troster

About this title

About the Author

Vanessa L. Ochs is the Ida and Nathan Kolodiz Director of Jewish Studies and associate professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia. A recipient of a fellowship in creative writing from the National Endowment of the Arts, she is author of several books, coauthor of The Jewish Dream Book: The Key to Opening the Inner Meaning of Your Dreams, and coeditor, with Rabbi Irwin Kula, of The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices: CLAL's Guide to Everyday & Holiday Rituals & Blessings (both Jewish Lights).

Vanessa L. Ochs is available to speak on the following topics:

• Jewish Ritual Innovation
• Haggadah
• Jewish Feminism
• What Makes a Jewish Home Jewish
• Raising Kids with Jewish Values

Rabbi Irwin Kula is president of CLAL―The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a leading voice for religious pluralism in the Jewish community. A sought-after speaker, he was named by the PBS program Religion & Ethics Newsweekly as one of the "10 People to Watch" helping to shape the American spiritual landscape. Fast Company magazine listed him as one of the seventeen new economy leaders, and Forward newspaper named him one of the top fifty Jewish leaders in America. He received his rabbinic ordination from The Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

CLAL―The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership was founded in
1974. A think tank, leadership training institute and resource center, CLAL convenes
interdisciplinary conversations that explore the Jewish and American futures, and
enhances Jewish participation in civic and spiritual life in North America. Its faculty
includes rabbis from every denomination and scholars from a broad array of disciplines,
including anthropology, political science and philosophy. CLAL combines
Jewish texts and intellectual traditions with cutting-edge contemporary scholarship in
its work to transform Jewish communities around the country.

Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard, PhD, is Director of Organizational Development
at CLAL. He was ordained at the St. Louis Rabbinical College and received his
Ph.D. in Psychology from St. Louis University and his Ph.D. in Philosophy
from Washington University.

Rabbi Daniel Silberman Brenner is a Senior Teaching Fellow at CLAL. He received his M.A. in Hebrew Letters and his ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

From Publishers Weekly

Readers who want to create significance out of ordinary as well as remarkable moments will find an invaluable resource in this guidebook from CLAL the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. There's a ritual to mark almost every possible occasion, from the mundane (making a list of things to do) to the sublime (falling in love). Organizing a room becomes a symbolic act of repair, of bringing order to a chaotic world. Quitting smoking, running a marathon, honoring a teacher, sending a child to college, mourning a pet these experiences that until now have not been addressed by Jewish tradition receive a new sanctity as they serve as potential "tools for awakening and self-transformation." The contributing rabbis and scholars from every denomination of Judaism also try to renew rituals that may have become routine, like lighting Sabbath candles or cleaning the house for Passover. "What we get from each moment ultimately depends on the attention (kavanah) we give to those moments," writes rabbi and editor Kula, CLAL's president. More than 100 occasions are classified into 11 sections: everyday life; parents and children; relationships; special moments; healing; life and death; learning; leadership and communal life; Israel; tzedakah; and holy days. Each event includes a meditation, a ritual, blessings and teachings drawn from biblical or rabbinic texts. This traditional Jewish framework should appeal to Jewish readers; non-Jewish readers may also enjoy the inclusive and thought-provoking approach, which does not require giving up or adopting new religious beliefs.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Jewish Lights
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1580231527
• ISBN 13: 9781580231527
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 354