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

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The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices: Clal's Guide to Everyday & Holiday Rituals & Blessings PDF

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.

Product Description

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.

About the Author

-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. Vanessa L. Ochs, Ph.D., is a senior associate at CLAL, and is the Ida and Nathan Kolodiz Director of Jewish Studies at the University of Virginia, and associate professor of religious studies. A recipient of a fellowship in creative writing from the National Endowment of the Arts, she is the author of Words on Fire: One Woman's Journey into the Sacred and Safe and Sound: Protecting Your Child in an Unpredictable World.