A guide to help you invigorate your Seder, create lively discussions, and make personal connections with the Exodus story today. For many people, the act of simply reading the Haggadah no longer fulfills the Passover Seder's purpose: to help you feel as if you personally had gone out of Egypt. Too often, the ritual meal has become predictable, boring, and uninspiring. Creating Lively Passover Seders, Second Edition, is an innovative, interactive guide to help encourage fresh perspectives and lively dialogue. With three new chapters, this intriguing Haggadah companion has been revised, updated, and expanded, and offers thematic discussion topics, text study ideas, activities, and readings that come alive in the traditional group setting of the Passover Seder. Each activity and discussion idea aims to: Deepen your understanding of the Haggadah Provide new opportunities for engaging the themes of the Passover festival Develop familiarity with the Exodus story, as well as the life and times of the people who shaped the development of the Haggadah Reliving the Exodus is not about remembering an event long ago, but about participating in a conversation that provides hope and strength for the struggle to make tomorrow a brighter day. With this complete resource, you can create more meaningful encounters with Jewish values, traditions, and texts that lead well beyond the Seder itself.

The first comprehensive resource for pastoral care in the Jewish tradition--and a vital resource for counselors and caregivers of other faith traditions. The essential reference for rabbis, cantors and laypeople who are called to spiritually accompany those encountering joy, sorrow and change--now in paperback. This groundbreaking volume draws upon both Jewish tradition and the classical foundations of pastoral care to provide invaluable guidance. Offering insight on pastoral care technique, theory and theological implications, the contributors to Jewish Pastoral Care are innovators in their fields, and represent all four contemporary Jewish movements. This comprehensive resource provides you with the latest theological perspectives and tools, along with basic theory and skills for assisting the ill and those who care for them, the aging and dying, those with dementia and other mental disorders, engaged couples, and others, and for responding to issues such as domestic violence, substance abuse and disasters. Contributors: Barbara Eve Breitman, MSW, LSW * Anne Brener, MAJCS, MA, LCSW * Rabbi Amy Eilberg, MSW * Rabbi Nancy Flam, MA * Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman, MSW, MAJCS, BCC * Gus Kaufman, Jr., PhD * Rabbi Myriam Klotz, MA * Rabbi Yaacov Kravitz, EdD * Rabbi Ellen Jay Lewis, NCPsyA * Wendy Lipshutz, LMSW * Rabbi Sheldon Marder * Rabbi Joseph S. Ozarowski, DMin * Simcha Paull Raphael, PhD * Rabbi Stephen Roberts, BCC * Rabbi Rochelle Robins * Rabbi Drorah Setel, MTS * Rabbi Jeffery M. Silberman, DMin * Marcia Cohn Spiegel, MAJCS * Rabbi Karen Sussan * Rabbi Bonita E. Taylor, MA, BCC * Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, CSW * Rabbi David J. Zucker, PhD, BCC

A breakthrough "how to meditate" guide! “Jewish meditation is a practice that can sustain you and deepen your connection to the Divine over the course of your lifetime. Seekers throughout history have practiced it and reaped its rewards, and today many people are making it a significant part of their everyday spiritual practice.” —from the Introduction A supportive and wise guide that is an absolute must for anyone who wants to learn Jewish meditation or improve their practice—now updated and expanded. Nan Fink Gefen teaches you how to meditate on your own, and starts you on the path to a deeper connection with the Divine and to greater insight about your own life. Whatever your level of understanding, she gives you the tools and support you need to discover the transformative power of meditation. This most comprehensive introduction to a time-honored spiritual practice: Answers commonly asked questions about the nature and history of Jewish meditation, and examines how it differs from other meditative practices Shows beginners how to start their practice, including where and how to do it Gives step-by-step instructions for meditations that are at the core of Jewish meditative practice Explains the challenges and rewards of a Jewish meditative practice

In this daring blend of Jewish theology, science and Process Thought, theologian Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson explores our actions through Judaism and the sciences as dynamically interactive and mutually informative.

Make the world a better place through good deeds—big or small. "Thank you, really, for devoting your energies to making the world just a little bit better. By doing so, you are saying to yourself, and to others, that this whole Bar/Bat Mitzvah thing is real and important. And, this book will help you figure out great ways to put your own passions, interests, and hobbies to work for mitzvah." —from the Foreword Are you searching for a meaningful and fun mitzvah project? This inspiring book is packed with ideas to help you connect something you love to a mitzvah project or tikkun olam initiative that you can be passionate about. It is filled with information, ideas and activities to spark your imagination, as well as a planning guide to get you organized and off to a good start. Creativity and Compassion Arts & Crafts • Clothes & Fashion • Computers & Technology • Food & Cooking • Movies & Drama • Reading & Writing Putting Mitzvot in Motion Animals • Camp • Fitness • Health • Music & Dance • Sports Your World, Our World Environment • Family • Friends, Neighbors & Your Community • Global Community • Israel • Your Jewish Heritage

By presenting a Jewish perspective on The Twelve Steps and offering consolation, inspiration, and motivation towards recovery, this guide explains how the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous are relevant for Jewish people as well as Christians. Afterword on "Where to Go for Help" by The JACS Foundation (Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent Persons and Significant Others). Illustrations by Maty Grunberg.

How to manage the process with grace, joy and good sense. A practical guide that gives parents and teens the "how-to" information they need to navigate the bar/bat mitzvah process and grow as a family through this experience. For the first time in one book, everyone directly involved offers practical insights into how the process can be made easier and more enjoyable for all. Rabbis, cantors and Jewish educators from the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements, parents, and even teens speak from their own experience. • What's it all about? • Preparation for Parent and Child • Tutoring, stress, expectations, enjoyment, planning for children with special needs • Negotiating the ceremony and celebration • Designing a creative service, heightening the spiritual exercise, special issues related to divorced and interfaith families, planning a party that neither breaks the bank nor detracts from the inherent spirituality of the event.

A powerful collection of writings about Yom Kippur that will add spiritual depth and holiness to your experience of the Day of Atonement. As Rosh Hashanah ends and you look ahead to Yom Kippur, what do you think about? The familiar melody of Kol Nidre? The long hours of fasting? The days of self-examination? You know that the Day of Atonement is the holiest on the Jewish calendar, but sometimes it just feels long, tiresome and devoid of personal meaning. The readings in this book are for anyone seeking a deeper level of personal reflection and spiritual intimacy—and a clearer understanding of just what makes Yom Kippur so holy. Drawn from a variety of sources—ancient, medieval, modern, Jewish and non-Jewish—this selection of readings, prayers and insights explores the opportunities for inspiration and reflection inherent in the themes addressed on the Day of Atonement: sin, forgiveness, repentance, spiritual growth, and being at one with self, family, community and God. These readings enable you to enter into the spirit of Yom Kippur in a personal and powerful way while they uplift and inform. They will add to the benefits of your High Holy Day experience year after year.

A Probing and Powerful Look at the Role You Play in Shaping Your Relationship with God “No matter how hard we look, the God of Israel cannot be seen. Looking is not seeing, and seeing God is not like seeing an apple. It is much more like making a medical diagnosis on the basis of looking at a complex set of symptoms. Each of the symptoms is a dot. We can look at the dots and still miss the pattern.” —from Part I The Torah is replete with references to hearing God but precious few references to seeing God. Seeing is complicated. What we look for and see are traces of God’s presence in the world and in history, but not God. In order to identify those traces as reflections of divine presence, we need to re-examine how we see, what we see, and how we interpret that information. In this challenging and inspiring look at the dynamics of the religious experience, award-winning author and theologian Neil Gillman guides you into a new way of seeing the complex patterns in the Bible, history, and everyday experiences and helps you interpret what those patterns mean to you and your relationship with God. Examining faith and doubt, revelation and law, suffering and redemption, Gillman candidly deconstructs familiar biblical moments in order to help you develop and refine your own spiritual vision, so that you are able to discern the presence of God in unanticipated ways.

This provocative fusion of religion and science offers new ways to express spiritual beliefs, harmonizes Judaism with modern scientific thinking, and introduces a new expression of our relationship with God in the exciting context of contemporary science.