Description
Book SynopsisTable of ContentsIntroduction 1
About This Book 1
Conventions Used in This Book 2
Pronouncing Jewish Words 2
About the translations 3
Foolish Assumptions 4
How This Book Is Organized 5
Part 1: What Jews Generally Believe 5
Part 2: From Womb to Tomb: The Life Cycle 5
Part 3: An Overview of Jewish History 5
Part 4: Celebrations and Holy Days 5
Part 5: The Part of Tens 5
Part 6: Appendixes 6
Icons Used in This Book 6
Where to Go from Here 7
Part 1: What Jews Generally Believe 9
Chapter 1: That’s Funny, You Don’t Look Jewish: Who’s a Jew and Why 11
The Jewish Tribe 12
What’s in a name? 12
Jews far and wide 13
Who decides if you’re Jewish? 13
After all, it’s a small world 14
Major Branches of the Tree 15
Orthodox Jews 16
Breakaway denominations 18
Guess Who Else Is Jewish 22
Chapter 2: It’s All One: Judaism and God 25
Pondering Jewish Beliefs about God 26
A religion of deed, not creed 26
Arguing with God 26
Where God is 27
Calling One God Many Names 27
What’s in a name? 28
The four-letter Name of God 28
The Singular Being hidden in the plural 28
God’s Own name 29
No end to the names of God 30
Looking behind the Name 30
God creates 31
God reveals 31
God redeems 33
Embarking on a Quest for Ultimate Reality 34
Chapter 3: A Never-Ending Torah: The Unfolding of a Tradition 35
Torah: The Light That Never Dims 35
The five books of Moses 36
The weekly readings 37
The TaNaKH: The Hebrew Bible 39
Nevi’im (“Prophets”) 39
Ketuvim (“Writings”) 39
The Haftarah 40
Interpreting the Bible 40
A Hidden Revolution: The Oral Torah 41
The law of the land: The Mishnah 41
The teachings explained: The Talmud 43
Telling stories: The midrash 45
The Expanding Torah 46
Chapter 4: A Path of Blessing: Judaism as a Daily Practice 47
Connecting With God and Community through Practice: The Mitzvot 48
613 habits of highly effective people 49
Women and mitzvot 50
The reasons for mitzvot 51
Connecting With God and Community through Blessings and Prayers 52
Private worship 53
The community worship service 54
Going to Synagogue 57
Four things you’ll find in every synagogue 57
Who’s who at shul 58
Following Jewish Dietary Laws: A Brief Guide to Kosher Food 60
The reasons behind kosher 62
OU means OK for most 63
Purifying the Spirit: Rites and Rituals 63
Dressing for God: Jewish Garments and Clothing Customs 64
The yarmulka 65
Fringes and shawls 66
You shall bind them as a sign: Laying tefillin 67
The Jewish Home 68
On every doorpost: The mezuzah 68
The candelabra extraordinaire: The menorah 69
So Go Now and Live 69
Chapter 5: Jewish Mysticism 71
Delving Into Jewish Mysticism 71
What mystics tend to believe 72
The Kabbalah 72
Taking a Magical Mystical Tour 74
Early mystical texts 74
Isaac Luria, Safed’s sage 76
Israel ben Eliezer, the good master 78
Going Above and Beyond: Jewish Meditation 79
Following Maps to Understanding: The Images and Symbols 81
The Tree of Life 81
The ten sefirot 84
The Four Worlds 87
The five levels of soul 88
Chapter 6: Ethical Challenges 91
Getting to the Heart of the Matter 92
The Golden Rule 92
Expressions of God 92
Tikkun olam 93
Charged to act 93
Meeting at the Intersection of Righteousness and Charity 94
Unraveling the Problem of the Other 96
Intra- and Interfaith Challenges 97
Embracing Our Sexuality 98
Mystical visions of sexual union 99
Birth control and abortion 99
Homosexuality 100
Prohibited relationships 100
Finding a Way to Peace 101
Breaking the cycle 101
Respecting Animals and the Environment 103
Bal Tashkhit: Do not destroy 104
Tza’ar ba’alei khayim: Treat living creatures with dignity 104
Striving for tikkun olam 105
Part 2: From Womb To Tomb: The Life Cycle 107
Chapter 7: In the Beginning: Birth and Bris 109
Making the Cut: Ritual Circumcision 110
Knowing who’s involved 110
Adhering to the rituals and ceremonies 111
Making the choice 112
Thanking God for Little Girls 114
Playing the Name Game 115
Buying Back the First Born 117
Chapter 8: Coming of Age: The Bar/Bat Mitzvah 119
Preparing for the Big Day 120
Celebrating the Bar/Bat Mitzvah 121
Reading from the Good Book 121
Speech! Speech! 122
A night to celebrate 123
Celebrating as a grown up 125
Confirming Your Beliefs 125
Chapter 9: Get Me to the Chuppah On Time: Weddings 127
Looking at the Origins of Jewish Marriage 127
Preparing for the Ceremony 128
Enjoying the Wedding 129
Raising the chuppah 130
Drinking the fruit of the vine 130
Exchanging the rings 131
Sharing the seven blessings 131
Breaking the glass 133
Putting it in writing 133
Enjoying sacred moments, before and after 134
Getting a Get: Divorce 135
Walking through a divorce 136
Encountering rare troubles 137
Chapter 10: Stepping Through the Valley: The Shadow of Death 139
Planning for Death 140
Writing an ethical will 140
Making final confessions 141
Reciting parting words 142
Arranging the Funeral 143
Returning to the earth 143
Preparing the body 144
Attending a funeral and burial 145
Observing the Mourning Period 147
The first week following a funeral 147
The first month and year 148
Saying Kaddish 149
Remembering the Dead 150
Part 3: An Overview of Jewish History 153
Chapter 11: Let My People Go: From Abraham to Exodus 155
The Genesis of a People 157
Beginnings of a Way 157
The next generation 158
Who gets blessed? 159
Wrestling with God 160
The Son Also Rises 161
Interpreting dreams 161
A dream comes true 163
The Enslavement and Exodus 163
A star is born 164
Are we there yet? 165
Entering the Promised Land 166
Chapter 12: The Kings of Israel: The First Temple 167
Finding the Right Guy to Be King 168
Continuing War and Peace 169
Enter David, stage left 169
Magic and mayhem 170
Living under the Lion of Judah 170
The Wisdom of Solomon 172
Building the Temple 172
Telling a Tale of Two Kingdoms 173
The Fall of the First Temple 174
Chapter 13: Bracketed by Exile: The Second Temple 177
Finding a Home away from Home 178
There’s no place like home 178
Building and rebuilding 178
It’s All Greek to Me 179
The ptol and short of it 179
The last emperor 180
A Parting of Ways 180
All Roads Lead to Rome 181
An Edifice Complex 182
Not one but many messiahs 182
Death and dismemberment 183
Sects and Violence 183
Chapter 14: The Exiles Continue: The First Millennium 185
Beware, the End Is Nigh! 186
Revolutions and messiahs 186
The raising of the Talmud 187
Running Out of Rome 188
Jews under Islam 189
Second class is better than no class 190
The rise of the Gaon 190
All that glitters is gold 191
Let My People Stay: Prosperity and Persecution 191
Turn the other cheek 192
Take the money and run 192
The Reign in Spain 194
No one expects the Spanish Inquisition 194
Christianity or bust 195
Chapter 15: The Greatest Horror, the Greatest Triumph 197
When Poland Was a Heartland 198
Four lands, one people 198
The Chmielnicki massacres 198
The Dawning of a New Age 199
The Enlightenment 199
The question of citizenship 200
Going Beyond the Pale 201
Responses to Enlightenment 201
Reform 202
To change or not to change 203
The Rise of Nationalism and Racism 203
The return of anti-Jewish policies 204
The pogroms 204
Getting Worse and Getting Out 205
Passage to Palestine 205
Close, but not quite there 206
Hitler’s rise to power 206
The Holocaust 207
Too little, too late 207
The war against the Jews 208
The death camps 209
The fall of the Third Reich 210
Founding a New Jewish State 211
Chapter 16: Jewish Buddhists and Other Challenges of the New Age 215
In the Shadow of the Holocaust 215
The Mixed Blessing of America 216
You will be assimilated 216
The choosing people 217
Jews as Spiritual Teachers of Other Traditions 218
I didn’t know Jews did that! 218
Finding parallels 219
The New Jewish Spirituality 219
Jew versus Jew versus Jew 220
Who is a Jew 221
Can’t we just work it out? 222
Considering the Future of Judaism 223
Chapter 17: The Problem of Anti-Semitism 225
Recounting the Incomprehensible 226
Fearing an Unknown Quantity: The Origins of Hate 227
Exploding Dangerous and False Beliefs 228
Belief #1: The Jews killed Jesus 228
Belief #2: There’s an international Jewish conspiracy 230
Belief #3: Jews practice ritual murder 230
Anti-Semitism in literature and art 231
From Religion to Race: Anti-Semitism in Modern Times 232
Israel and anti-Semitism 233
The color of anti-Semitism 233
Twenty-first century anti-Semitism 234
Toward Healing 235
Part 4: Celebrations and Holy Days 237
Chapter 18: A Taste of Paradise: Shabbat 239
Understanding Shabbat 240
Shabbat: Restriction or Relief? 240
Knowing what work to avoid 241
Discovering what’s enough 241
Redefining the rules 242
Doing what you can on Shabbat 243
Welcoming the Sabbath 243
Lighting the candles 244
Saying the blessings over family, wine, and bread 245
Eating the meal 248
Attending Shabbat evening services 251
Morning has broken 251
Bidding Farewell to Shabbat 252
Wine and candles 252
Sugar, spice, and everything nice 253
The Universal Aspects of Shabbat 255
Chapter 19: In with the New: Rosh Hashanah 257
A Day for Making Judgments 258
The Book of Life: Take two 259
Teshuvah: Getting back on track 260
The 40-Day Plan 260
The days of Elul 261
Preparations: S’lichot 261
Celebrating Rosh Hashanah 262
The Makhzor: The High Holy Day prayer book 264
Blowing your horn 265
Tashlikh 266
The Ten Days of Awe 267
Cleaning your spiritual house 267
Kapparot 268
Real Beginnings Mean Real Changes 269
Chapter 20: Getting Serious: Yom Kippur 271
Yom Kippur Means Always Having to Say You’re Sorry 272
Seeking forgiveness from God 272
Repenting 272
Celebrating Yom Kippur 274
Fasting, but not quickly 274
Taking a long day’s journey 275
Preparing for Yom Kippur 276
Considering the Kol Nidre: The evening service 277
Reading and kneeling 279
Honoring the Light of Yom Kippur 281
Chapter 21: The Great Outdoors: Sukkot 283
A Jewish Thanksgiving 283
Giving thanks 284
Getting outdoorsy: Building a sukkah 284
How to Sukkot 285
A sukkah born every minute 285
Waving the lulav and etrog 287
Sh’mini Atzeret 290
Simkhat Torah 290
Chapter 22: Seeking Light in Dark Times: Chanukkah 293
Shining a Light on the Darkest Night 293
The Good Fight: What Chanukkah Celebrates 294
The two books of the Maccabees 294
Judah puts the hammer down 295
The story of the oil miracle 295
The Maccabees get their due 296
Embracing Chanukkah Customs 296
Lighting the candles 298
Blessings for the moment 299
Remembering the oil: Yummy fried foods 299
Spinning the dreidel 301
To gift, or not to gift 302
Receiving the Real Gift of Chanukkah: Personal Renewal 302
Chapter 23: Celebrating Renewal: Tu B’Shvat 305
Tithing Fruits of Land and Spirit 305
A Seder of Fruit and Wine 306
Try This at Home 307
Enlightened Gardeners 308
An Ever-Living Tree 308
Chapter 24: A Jewish Carnival: Purim 309
Purim: Based on a True Story (Sort Of) 309
It all starts with a banished queen 310
Enter Esther, stage left 310
Enter Haman, stage right 310
Haman’s big mistake 311
The final battle 312
Why Purim Survived 312
The persistence of persecution 313
Within you and without you 313
Bang a Gong: Celebrating Purim 313
Reading the Book of Esther — the whole megillah 315
Partying and playing dress up 315
Giving the gift of sweets 316
Remembering the poor 318
Other traditions: The Fast of Esther 318
Bringing Darkness to Light 318
Chapter 25: From Groan to Glee: Passover 319
Looking at the Reasons behind Passover 320
Edible Do’s and Don’ts 321
Kosher for Passover 321
The symbolism of Passover restrictions 322
First Things First: Preparing for Passover 323
Cleaning out the khametz 323
Giving to charity at Passover time 325
The Seder: As Easy as 1, 2, 3 325
The haggadah: Seder’s little instruction booklet 326
Look who’s coming to dinner 326
The prepared table 327
Steps of the seder 333
New traditions: Miriam’s Cup 338
A Time to Think about Freedom 339
It’s all about choice 340
Dayenu: So much gratitude 340
It’s Not Over till It’s Omer 341
Agricultural roots 341
The magical, mystical seven 342
Yom Ha-Shoah 343
Israeli Independence Day 343
Lag B’Omer 343
The Universal Themes in Passover 344
Chapter 26: Spring Is Busting Out All Over: Shavuot 345
The Ideas Behind Shavuot 346
Receiving the Torah 346
Meeting at Sinai 346
Tune in today! 347
Go tell it on the mountain 347
Telling stories 348
Searching for New Rituals 349
Pulling the mystical all-nighter 350
Deck the halls 351
Got milk? 351
Reading Ruth 354
Nontraditional traditions 355
Rewakening 356
Chapter 27: A Day of Mourning: Tisha B’Av 357
Fasting, Reading, and Reflecting 358
Today’s Tisha B’Av 359
Tu B’Av: Releasing into Joy 360
Part 5: The Part of Tens 361
Chapter 28: Ten People Who Helped Shape Judaism 363
Hillel 364
Rashi 364
Maimonides 365
Joseph Caro 365
Isaac Luria 366
Ba’al Shem Tov 367
Henrietta Szold 367
Abraham Isaac Kook 368
Martin Buber 369
Abraham Joshua Heschel 369
Chapter 29: Answers to Ten Common Questions about Judaism 371
Why Don’t Jews Believe in Jesus? 371
What Does It Mean to Be the “Chosen” People? 372
Why Is Israel So Important to the Jews? 372
Why Are So Many Doctors, Lawyers, and Entertainers Jewish? 373
What Is the Role of Women in Judaism? 374
What Is “Jewish Humor”? 375
Self-examination: Try it at home! 375
Dress British, think Yiddish 378
What Role Does Music Play in Jewish Culture? 378
Who’s In Charge of Judaism? 379
Can You Convert to Judaism? 380
What’s the Relationship Between Judaism and Islam? 381
Part 6: Appendixes 383
Appendix A: Oy Vey! and Other Words You Should Know 385
A Primer of Basic Words 385
Yiddish, Yinglish, Oy! 389
Appendix B: A Sampler of Jewish Prayers and Blessings 397
The Central Focus: Sh’ma and V’ahavta 398
First Thing in the Morning 398
Last Thing at Night 399
Various, Sundry, and Otherwise Useful Blessings 399
Blessings for food 400
Blessings making moments special 402
Blessings for ritual acts 403
Blessings as reminders and as teachers 404
Appendix C: Go Now and Learn 405
Books for The People of the Book 405
On the Newsstand 407
Some Jewish Organizations 407
Education and social action 408
Charities 408
Judaism on the Web 409
Index 411
