Book of Jewish Sacred Practices

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

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.