"Samuel Heilman has walked the mourner's path both as an anthropologist observing the socio-cultural death practices of the Jewish community, and as a bereaved son grieving the loss of a beloved father. In the wake of his successful navigation through these two worlds—academic and personal—he presents an acute understanding of the detailed intricacies of the cycle of Jewish rituals from deathbed to burial, from mourning to memorialization. Heilman emerges from his journey through grief with a wise and seasoned appreciation of the symbols and practices which are at the foundation of Jewish life and culture. When a Jew Dies provides an insightful roadmap to the subtle and profound vicissitudes of grief in the Jewish tradition. For mourner and scholar alike, this is a book to be savored, a friend to walk with, a companion with which to explore the reality of the walk through the valley of the shadow of death."—Simcha Raphael, author of Jewish Views of the Afterlife "Heilman has an unusually keen sense of perception and ability to put everything into an almost universal, social scientific perspective while, at the same time, retaining his personal ties, thought and feelings. As in his previous work, he here examines something that almost every traditional Jew is familiar with, and gives it new perspectives and new meaning. When a Jew Dies includes significant discussion of prevalent customs and the Jewish bases for them. The author's particularistic-universalistic synthesis as well as his deeply-rooted, personal-scholarly synthesis set this book apart from all others."—Chaim I. Waxman, Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University and author of America's Jews in Transition "Heilman offers a unique synthesis of historical scholarship and ethnographic description in this rich account of the complex processes by which Judaism brings the dying to the end of life and the mourning to the end of grief and a return to life. This is, as far as I know, the only study combining the legal-historical, social-historical, and ethnographic perspectives in a single volume. It offers a remarkable glimpse of how one sector of contemporary Jewry confronts the reality of death and transfigures it."—Martin S. Jaffee, author of Torah in the Mouth

Dying is not a moment at the end of life, but instead a path lined with opportunities to reflect, explore, and contemplate. In an insightful guidebook on the meaning of death, Rabbi Ariel Stone shares spiritual commentary, Jewish stories, and other writings that provide information and inspiration about the process of death as seen through the prism of Jewish learning and culture. Through stories of those who have gone before us and a step-by-step process that addresses the spiritual significance of death, Stone offers ways to think, feel, and wonder about death while inviting the dying to overcome fears and view the end of earthly life as an opportunity to repent, reflect on the influence we have upon others, and find peace as our light merges with the eternal light. "The Alef-Bet of Death: Dying as a Jew" is a valuable guide that teaches the meaning of death in the Jewish tradition while offering clarity, light, and comfort to those walking the often vague and dark path to dying.

The demands of modern society often create distance between Jews and their cultural heritage. Author Barbara Sheklin Davis, a New York City native and longtime Jewish educator, offers ways to embrace and uphold Jewish influences in everyday life. Suggestions range from simple activities like indulging in a Woody Allen movie marathon and noshing on pastrami on rye to more involved activities including hosting a Shabbat dinner or exploring tikkun olam to bring about social justice and repair the world. Feeling more Jew-ish than Jewish these days? Let this list of 100 tips reconnect you! Start now with #12 and call your mother--after all, she worries! Sample Contents Binge-watch Woody Allen Face the future Guess how many of these people are Jewish Join a Jewish dating site Make an impact on social justice Unravel a Jewish superstition A Jewish educator for well over 50 years, Barbara Sheklin Davis has devoted her life to teaching and upholding Jewish traditions in the United States. She earned her PhD in Spanish literature from Columbia University and serves as executive editor of HaYidion, a journal of Jewish education. An accomplished author, noted scholar, and community leader, Davis received the 2015 Hannah G. Solomon Award from the National Council of Jewish Women. She is a true Jewish mother to three children and the grandmother of nine.

Keine Angaben

Numerous ritual manuals from the Jewish tradition have been written outlining the prayers and ceremonies that can be offered to the sick, the dying, and the dead. Two of the most outstanding of these manuals are Maavor Yabok and Sefer HaHayiim from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, respectively. This is the first book to analyze and compare these two important works, showing how they differ and compare. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of the prayers and rituals presented in Maavor Yabok and their spiritual underpinnings taken from the tradition of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism. This book can be useful to those individuals who are sick or dying and looking for help and comfort from the Jewish sources. It is written, however, as a challenge to those in the Jewish community today, especially workers in Jewish burial societies, the Chevra Kadisha, to take these manuals and re-write them for the twenty-first century, including the spiritual directives to make these rituals and prayers more meaningful not only for their recipients but for those offering them.

In the late eighteenth century, German Jews began entering the middle class with remarkable speed. That upward mobility, it has often been said, coincided with Jews' increasing alienation from religion and Jewish nationhood. In fact, Michah Gottlieb argues, this period was one of intense engagement with Jewish texts and traditions. One expression of this was the remarkable turn to Bible translation. In the century and a half beginning with Moses Mendelssohn's pioneering translation and the final one by Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, German Jews produced sixteen different translations of at least the Pentateuch. Exploring Bible translations by Mendelssohn, Leopold Zunz, and Samson Raphael Hirsch, Michah Gottlieb argues that each translator sought a "reformation" of Judaism along bourgeois lines, which involved aligning Judaism with a Protestant concept of religion. Buber and Rosenzweig famously critiqued bourgeois German Judaism as a craven attempt to establish social respectability to facilitate Jews' entry into the middle class through a vapid, domesticated Judaism. But Mendelssohn, Zunz, and Hirsch saw in bourgeois values the best means to serve God and the authentic actualization of Jewish tradition. Through their learned, creative Bible translations, these scholars presented competing visions of middle-class Judaism that affirmed Jewish nationhood while lighting the path to a purposeful, emotionally-rich spiritual life grounded in ethical responsibility.