The Way Into Encountering God In Judaism

The Way Into Encountering God In Judaism PDF Author: Rabbi Neil Gillman, PhD
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1580236960
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
An accessible introduction to the Jewish understanding of God throughout history―and today. The Way Into Encountering God in Judaism is an accessible introduction to the Jewish understanding of God throughout history―and today.

The Way Into Encountering God In Judaism

The Way Into Encountering God In Judaism PDF Author: Rabbi Neil Gillman, PhD
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1580236960
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 237

Get Book Here

Book Description
An accessible introduction to the Jewish understanding of God throughout history―and today. The Way Into Encountering God in Judaism is an accessible introduction to the Jewish understanding of God throughout history―and today.

The Way Into Encountering God in Judaism

The Way Into Encountering God in Judaism PDF Author: Neil Gillman
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
The author of "The Death of Death", a "Publishers Weekly" "Best Book of the Year", explains how Jews have encountered God throughout Jewish history--and today--by exploring the many metaphors for God in the Jewish tradition, how they originated, and what they mean.

The Way Into Jewish Prayer

The Way Into Jewish Prayer PDF Author: Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1580235549
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
An accessible introduction to the reasons for and the ways of Jewish prayer. The Way Into Jewish Prayer helps us to explore the reasons for and the ways of Jewish prayer. It opens the door to 3,000 years of Jewish prayer, making available all you need to feel at home in the Jewish way of communicating with God.

The Way Into Torah

The Way Into Torah PDF Author: Dr. Norman J. Cohen
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1580236022
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
An accessible introduction to how to read, study, and understand Torah—the Bible and related sacred texts that have grown up around it. For everyone who wants to understand Torah, this book shows the way into an essential aspect of Judaism, and allows you to interact directly with the sacred texts of the Jewish tradition. Guided by Dr. Norman J. Cohen, rabbi and professor of midrash at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, The Way Into Torah helps us explore the origins and development of Torah, why it should be studied, and how to do it. What Torah is. The texts, and beyond: Not simply the Five Books of Moses, Torah refers to much more than written words. The different approaches to studying Torah. The many ways Jews have interacted with Torah through the ages and how, by learning to read Torah ourselves,we can connect it to our lives today. The levels of understanding Torah. How Torah can come alive in different ways, at different times; and how new meanings of Torah are discovered by its readers. Why Torah study is a part of the Jewish experience. How it allows us to experience God’s presence—and why the Rabbis called Torah study more important even than belief in God. This guide offers an entrance into the world of Torah, and to its meaning for our lives. The Way Into Torah shows us why reading Torah is not the same as reading anything else—and enables us to become a part of a chain of Jewish tradition that began millennia ago, and remains unbroken today.

Doing Jewish Theology

Doing Jewish Theology PDF Author: Rabbi Neil Gillman, PhD
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 158023576X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
An Intellectually Rich and Challenging Exploration of Modern Jewish Theology "How we deal with revelation determines how we handle the issue of authority in belief and practice. How we understand authority determines how we deal with the claims of the tradition on us; how we deal with those claims determines how we shape our own Judaism. That conclusion opens the gate to a reconsideration of all of Judaism's theology, in particular how we understand God, for God is at the heart of Torah." —from the Introduction With clarity and passion, award-winning teacher, author and theologian Neil Gillman captures the power of Jewish theological claims and reveals extraordinary insights into Jewish identity, the purpose of religion, and our relationship with God. Drawing from Judaism’s sacred texts as well as great thinkers such as Mordecai Kaplan, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Paul Tillich, Gillman traces his theological journey over four decades of study, beginning with his own understanding of revelation. He explores the role of symbol and myth in our understanding of the nature of God and covenant. He examines the importance of community in both determining authority and sanctifying sacred space. By charting the development of his own personal theology, Gillman explores the evolution of Jewish thought and its implications for modern Jewish religious identity today and in the future.

The Way Into Judaism and the Environment

The Way Into Judaism and the Environment PDF Author: Jeremy Benstein
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
ISBN: 158023268X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
An accessible introduction to the Jewish understanding of the natural world and the key concepts central to Jewish environmentalism. At a time of growing concern about environmental issues, this book explores the relationship Jews have with the natural world and the ways in which Judaism contributes to contemporary social/environmental issues. It also shows readers the extent to which Judaism is part of the problem and how it can be part of the solution. Offering both an environmental interpretation of Judaism and a Jewish approach to environmentalism, this book examines: What environmentalism is. What the creation stories can teach us about who we are and what nature is. The relevance of Torah and traditional sources.

Believing and Its Tensions

Believing and Its Tensions PDF Author: Neil Gillman
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
ISBN: 1580236693
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 146

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Book Description
An intimate and candid examination of the changing nature of belief and where it can lead us--from the life experience of one of Judaism's leading thinkers. For over five decades, Rabbi Neil Gillman has helped people think through the most challenging questions at the heart of being a believing religious person. In this intimate rethinking of his own theological journey he explores the changing nature of belief and the complexities of reconciling the intellectual, emotional and moral questions of his own searching mind and soul. If what we have in recognizing, speaking of and experiencing God is a wide-ranging treasury of humanly crafted metaphors, what, then, is the ultimate reality, the ultimate nature of God? What lies beyond the metaphors? If humanity was an active partner in revelation--if the human community participated in what was revealed and gave it meaning--what then should be the authority of Jewish law? How do we cope--intellectually, emotionally and morally--with suffering, the greatest challenge to our faith commitment, relationship with God and sense of a fundamentally ordered world? Death is inevitable but why is it built in as part of the total life experience?

The Way Into the Varieties of Jewishness

The Way Into the Varieties of Jewishness PDF Author: Sylvia Barack Fishman
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
ISBN: 158023030X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
This fifth volume in The Way Into... series examines the many ways that the Jewish tradition has approached differences in religious and cultural orientation and practices among Jewish people, from ancient times to the present controversy over "Who is a Jew?"The Way Into Varieties of Jewishness explores some of the major questions that have challenged individual Jews and Jewish communities to examine what it means to be a Jew. If Jewishness is a faith, what does it mean to be a secular Jew? If it is an ethnicity, what does it mean to convert into it -- or out of it?The struggles and compromises between different movements of Judaism in earlier centuries -- such as the schools of Hillel and Shammai two millennia ago, or the mystics and the rationalists of medieval Europe -- may shed light on the complicated relationships among today's traditional and liberal Jewish movements.

The Way Into Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World)

The Way Into Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World) PDF Author: Elliot N. Dorff
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
ISBN: 1580233287
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
An accessible introduction to the Jewish concept of our responsibility to care for others and repair the world. For everyone who wants to understand the meaning and significance of tikkun olam (repairing the world) in Jewish spiritual life, this book shows the way into an essential aspect of Judaism and allows you to interact directly with the sacred texts of the Jewish tradition. Guided by Dr. Elliot N. Dorff, Rector and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Judaism, this comprehensive introduction explores the roots of the beliefs and laws that are the basis of the Jewish commitment to improve the world. It looks at the various motivations that the sacred texts provide for caring for others, the ways the Jewish tradition seeks to foster such concerns in our social and family relationships, and the kind of society that Jews should strive to create as partners with God. What tikkun olam is. Ancient idea? New concept? The underlying theory has developed over time and branched into related terms and concepts that Judaism has used over thousands of years to describe the duties we now identify as acts of tikkun loam. Why we engage in acts of tikkun loam. Reasons include, but go far beyond, a general humanitarian feeling that we might have or the hope that if we help others, others will be there to help us. How we repair the world. The concrete expressions of tikkun olam in our families, our communities, the wider Jewish community, and the world at large help shape one of the most important aspects of the Jewish tradition. By illuminating Judaism's understanding of the components of an ideal world, and the importance of justice, compassion, education, piety, social and familial harmony and enrichment, and physical flourishing for both the individual and society, we see how this ancient quest for a world with all these elements helps us define Jewish identity and mission today.

The Death of Death

The Death of Death PDF Author: Rabbi Neil Gillman, PhD
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1580235425
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
Does death end life, or is it the passage from one stage of life to another? In The Death of Death, noted theologian Neil Gillman offers readers an original and compelling argument that Judaism, a religion often thought to pay little attention to the afterlife, not only presents us with rich ideas on this subject—but delivers a deathblow to death itself. Combining astute scholarship with keen historical, theological and liturgical insights, Gillman outlines the evolution of Jewish thought about bodily resurrection and spiritual immortality. Beginning with the near-silence of the Bible on the afterlife, he traces the development of these two doctrines through Jewish history. He also describes why today, somewhat surprisingly, more contemporary Jewish scholars—including Gillman—have unabashedly reaffirmed the notion of bodily resurrection. In this innovative and personal synthesis, Gillman creates a strikingly modern statement on resurrection and immortality. The Death of Death gives new and fascinating life to an ancient debate. This new work is an intellectual and spiritual milestone for all of us interested in the meaning of life, as well as the meaning of death.