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Title: The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices: Clal's Guide to Everyday & Holiday Rituals & Blessings by Irwin Kula, Vanessa L., Phd Ochs ISBN: 1-58023-152-7 Publisher: Jewish Lights Pub Pub. Date: October, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Anything and Everything Can Be Ritualized and Blessed!
Comment: Have you ever wondered what your birthday would be like without a cake, candles, gifts, or a birthday song? These are examples of rituals that we associate with the anniversary of our birth. Think about how many events in our lives we have ritualized. Thanks to Hallmark, most of these events include a greeting card.
In Judaism, we mark life's milestones with ritual. We bring babies into the fold with a naming ceremony. We are called up to the Torah for an aliyah on our wedding anniversary. We visit the graves of our loved ones before holidays. We crave ritual, and we seek new and different ritual acts for different occasions - imagine if we only recited the shehechiyanu for every milestone in our lives, how would we make
that event stand apart?
CLAL - the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (full disclosure: I served an internship at CLAL in 2001) has been adding occasions to the list of ritualized events for several years, and now these sacred practices have been compiled into book form. While the book contains many of the acts that are already in the Jewish canon of ritual (e.g. fasting on Yom Kippur, Counting the Omer, and Studying Torah on Shavuot), the contributors, who are all CLAL faculty, put a new spin on these events. So, while we might have found putting up a sukkah to be a very ritualized act, chock-full of religious symbolism, this book offers a way to bring out the significance of taking our sukkah down at the end of the holiday.
Indeed, many of you have sent your children off to college or on a summer trip to Israel, and perhaps you would have liked to mark the occasion with a blessing or meditation. This book transforms these actions into sacred acts. Upon successfully quitting smoking, CLAL recommends reciting the blessing, "Blessed is the One who frees those who are held captive."
A meditation for starting to workout begins "each extra step on the treadmill or the Stairmaster, each lap in the pool or around the track, each turn of the pedal, each lift of the weights, each stretch of muscles long out of use... in each bead of sweat and panting breath I praise You-with all my bones. For each event included in the book, the sacred practice of a meditation, blessing, ritual, and teaching is included. The chapters are usefully divided by category (parents and children, relationships, special moments, healing, learning, etc.).
Many will undoubtedly find new rituals for which they have been wanting, such as saying good-bye to a beloved pet or honoring a teacher at the end of the year. However, it might never have occurred to anyone to recite a blessing or learn a piece of rabbinic text before preparing a family recipe or taking on a volunteer role in the community, but each of these new rituals helps us bring a bit more holiness into the seemingly mundane actions of our daily lives.
If each of us can find one new aspect of our lives to sanctify and make more meaningful through the aid of this book, then it is a most worthy and enriching addition to our bookshelves.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Must For the Bookshelf of Every Spiritual Jew
Comment: This book is really great for anyone interested in discovering new ways to celebrate not only the regular holidays, but also the sacred that can be found in everyday life. The way it is organized, readers can use the blessings just as written, or with the helpful background information, readers can create their own religious practices. A definite must for anyone interested in connecting to their Jewish inherited tradition both intellectualy and spiritually.
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Title: The Bedside Torah : Wisdom, Visions, and Dreams by Bradley Shavit Artson, Miriyam Glazer ISBN: 0737305878 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books Pub. Date: 31 July, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: A Book of Life : Embracing Judaism as a Spiritual Practice by Michael Strassfeld, Sharon Strassfeld ISBN: 0805241248 Publisher: Schocken Books Pub. Date: 13 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: Talking to God : Personal Prayers for Times of Joy, Sadness, Struggle, and Celebration by Naomi Levy ISBN: 0375409823 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 27 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Book of Blessings by Marcia Falk ISBN: 0807010170 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Rituals & Practices of a Jewish Life: A Handbook for Personal Spiritual Renewal by Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky, Rabbi Daniel Judson, Vanessa L. Ochs ISBN: 1580231691 Publisher: Jewish Lights Pub Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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