The Tapestry of Jewish Time: A Spiritual Guide to Holidays and Life-Cycle Events - Hardcover

Cardin, Nina Beth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0874416450 ISBN 13: 9780874416459

Publisher: Behrman House, 2000

Synopsis

In The Tapestry of Jewish Time: A Spiritual Guide to Holidays and Life-Cycle Events (Behrman House, 2000), Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin presents Judaism as a cloth textured with layers of old and new meanings. With descriptions of both traditional and contemporary practice, The Tapestry of Jewish Time hands us our tradition as an heirloom and shows us how to remake that tradition. In Part One, Jewish Holidays, Rabbi Cardin tells the story of the Jewish week, month, and year, showing us the struggles and celebrations we share with our ancestors, and how we have transformed those struggles and celebrations. Rabbi Cardin teaches that Jews once celebrated Passover by sacrificing a lamb, but Jews now celebrate Passover by foregoing chametz, leavening. Jews have always left a cup of wine for Elijah; today some leave a cup of water for Miriam as well. But we all celebrate Passover with a family meal and the telling of the freedom story.
In Part Two, Jewish Life-Cycle Events, Rabbi Cardin reveals the eternal cycle of Jewish life through contemporary and ancient stories. She writes about marriage in the down-to-earth language of Genesis, the poetic language of the Song of Songs, and the devout language of the Talmud. But Rabbi Cardin also describes the variety of wedding ceremonies Jews choose from today, shows us how Judaism releases men and women from unhappy unions, and remembers the widow and the widower.

Perhaps most strikingly, The Tapestry of Jewish Time teaches all of us to knit our personal stories together with those of our ancestors. The chapter Prayers and Rituals for the Home shares blessings in Hebrew, English, and transliteration, empowering us to transform our everyday life by speaking those ancient words. The beautifully decorated Personal Weavings write-in chapter invites us to weave memories and experiences from our own lives into Tapestry itself.

About the Author: Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin is the Director of Jewish Life at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore, and the Chair of the Editorial Committee of Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility. She was the editor of Sh'ma from 1993 to 1998, and Director of the National Jewish Healing Center in New York City from 1995 to 1997. She lives in Baltimore with her husband, Rabbi Avram Reisner, and their children.

About this title

About the Author

Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin is the Director of Jewish Life at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore, and the Chair of the Editorial Committee of Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility. She was the editor of Sh'ma from 1993 to 1998, and Director of the National Jewish Healing Center in New York City from 1995 to 1997. She lives in Baltimore with her husband, Rabbi Avram Reisner, and their children.

Reviews

This intelligently crafted guide to Jewish living likens the fabric of Judaism to a tapestry woven of communal celebration and personal spirit. Cardin, a Conservative rabbi in Baltimore, explores the structure of Jewish time and its ability to lead us to the sacred, by weaving together history, Jewish law, legend, practice, ritual both ancient and contemporary and suggestions for celebration. What distinguishes this comprehensive handbook is Cardin's imaginative, poetic language and her inspiring willingness to share intimate experiences in her own life, from her husband's illness to her young son's declaration that he wanted to be a Christian. Cardin compares the onslaught of the daily world to being in a bakery too long ("the smell is still there, but we no longer notice") and suggests that Jewish patterns of prayer, blessings and sacred deeds "help us remain conscious of the artistry of everyday living." Part I features 14 Jewish holidays, including Shabbat and Rosh Hodesh (the New Month), while Part II elaborates on life-cycle observances, from birth and bar mitzvah to marriage and death. Cardin explains concepts and offers instructions clearly but not simplistically, enriching the text with snippets of ethical wills, memories, women's prayers, blessings and "personal weavings" (blank pages to be detailed with the reader's own observances). Meticulously researched and filled with tidbits of practical information, the book reads like a conversation with an intuitive friend. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

We Jews are a union of weavers. Interlacing our traditions and languages, our rituals and laws, with fibers gathered from the cultures around us, we each weave a personal shawl of Judaism. Some shawls are open and loose, allowing the currents of other cultures to flow in and out easily. Others are fine and tight, holding much of Jewish culture in and foreign cultures out.

The world of Judaism is filled with shawls of different weaves, from loose to fine, filtering the larger world in or out to a greater or lesser degree. Each adds its flair, its strength, and its warmth to the sacred garment of the Jewish people. Our choice of weave determines where we worship, what we eat, where we live, how we pray, whom we marry, what we do in our spare time, and how we educate our children. And every now and then we add a thread or two of a new hue and a new texture that serves to enrich and extend our wardrobe.

Sadly, sometimes we derogate one another's craftsmanship. It is true that with too loose a weave the cloth loses its integrity and ceases to be. And it is also true that with too tight a weave the body underneath smothers and dies. But most of our shawls fall somewhere in between. They complement one another, reflect in their similarity of form one another's authenticity, preserve the secrets of the different weaves for one another and for future generations, which is very good, for no one shawl can suit every Jew. And yet while we weavers differ, we should acknowledge that we all work on the same loom, with the same warp holding tight our differing patterns of weft. And that, if nothing else, should unite us.

Edition details

• Publisher: Behrman House
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0874416450
• ISBN 13: 9780874416459
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Winn-Lederer Ilene
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 307