Psychology in the Talmud uncovers important insights from the Jewish tradition and offers tools for success, joy, growth, and inspiration. Timeless ideas are elaborated on from the writings of classical Torah commentaries as well as current leaders in the fields of psychology and personal growth. Short summaries enable readers to more easily implement these crucial concepts into their lives.

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This exceptional work, with entries from Rav Abba to Rav Zutra, is an unprecedented study of every rabbi in the Talmud. The reader will find concise entries on every rabbinic personality mentioned in the Talmud, major and minor alike, and will discover such facts as their dates of birth, education, and occupation. Most entries are accompanied by a brief story about the rabbinic personality, with sources cited for easy reference.

In much of Western literature and Greek mythology, women have an evident lack of purpose; a woman needs to either enter or leave a relationship in order to find herself and her own identity. Matthew Schwartz and Kalman Kaplan set out to prove that the converse is true in the text of the Hebrew Bible. Examining the stories of women in Scripture -- Rebecca, Miriam, Gomer, Ruth and Naomi, Lot's wife, Zipporah, and dozens more -- Schwartz and Kaplan illustrate the biblical woman's strong feminine sense of being crucial to God's plan for the world and for history, courageously seeking the greatest good for herself and others whatever the circumstances. Empowering, illuminating, and fascinating, The Fruit of Her Hands makes a singular contribution to the fields of biblical and women's studies.

Beyond Your Ego is an exploration of the mind, the ego, and the formation of personality in the light of the Torah. It goes far beyond the limitations of conventional psychology, drawing its guidelines from the source of the true meaning of life. The model of Torah psychology presented in this book has been developed by the world-renowned Dr. Shalom Srebrenik, one of the founders of Arachim. The richness of Dr. Srebrenik's own background, both as a trained scientist and as a dedicated Torah scholar, manifests itself in the clarity of his teachings on Torah-inspired mental health and emotional well-being. Dr. Judith Mishell, who wrote this work based on Dr. Srebrenik's teachings, is a prominent psychologist who has found in the Torah an enrichment of her own life and her ability to help patients. She writes with conviction, erudition, clarity, and wit. Dr. Mishell brings superb credentials to the task of writing this important book. After completing her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology at Rutgers University Graduate School she established and served as director of Psychological Services for Douglass College and was an Adjunct Professor at Rutgers Medical School. She also had a busy private practice and was a psychological consultant to Emek Hebrew Academy. She lectured widely on both Jewish and psychological issues all across the country. She now lives in Jerusalem where she taught at Neve Yerushalayim Seminary and has a private practice. Beyond Your Ego has been much acclaimed by leading rabbanim and roshei yeshivah, who graciously permitted their glowing testimonials and approbations to accompany this seminal work.

What does rabbinical Judaism have to teach us about the way the mind works? How do the rabbis of the Talmud, Middle Ages, and our own time shed light on emotional disturbances, and on the cognitive-behavioral therapies used to treat them? In this panoramic view of rabbinical Judaism, psychiatrist Ronald Pies MD shows how cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and rational emotive behavioral therapy (REBT) rely on psychological principles found in both ancient and modern Judaic writings. “The interplay between thought and deed is a central feature of Judaic affirmation. Control the thought and the deed will follow. Dr. Ronald Pies’s book explores this connection in depth, and the inter-relationships that he weaves are at once illuminating and empowering.” –Rabbi Dr. Reuven P. Bulka

In Demonic Desires, Ishay Rosen-Zvi examines the concept of yetzer hara, or evil inclination, and its evolution in biblical and rabbinic literature. Contrary to existing scholarship, which reads the term under the rubric of destructive sexual desire, Rosen-Zvi contends that in late antiquity the yetzer represents a general tendency toward evil. Rather than the lower bodily part of a human, the rabbinic yetzer is a wicked, sophisticated inciter, attempting to snare humans to sin. The rabbinic yetzer should therefore not be read in the tradition of the Hellenistic quest for control over the lower parts of the psyche, writes Rosen-Zvi, but rather in the tradition of ancient Jewish and Christian demonology. Rosen-Zvi conducts a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the some one hundred and fifty appearances of the evil yetzer in classical rabbinic literature to explore the biblical and postbiblical search for the sources of human sinfulness. By examining the yetzer within a specific demonological tradition, Demonic Desires places the yetzer discourse in the larger context of a move toward psychologization in late antiquity, in which evil—and even demons—became internalized within the human psyche. The book discusses various manifestations of this move in patristic and monastic material, from Clement and Origin to Antony, Athanasius, and Evagrius. It concludes with a consideration of the broader implications of the yetzer discourse in rabbinic anthropology.

Dr. Edward Hoffman, world-renowned thinker and writer in humanistic psychology, reveals how the Kabbalah exerted a profound influence on the establishment and growth of Western psychological thought. With a new introduction and updated bibliography, The Way of Splendor: The 25th Anniversary begins with an historical presentation of Kabalistic metaphysics and cosmology, then discusses the psychological dimensions of Kabbalah on such topics as dreams, meditation, sexuality, community, health and emotions.

The present volume includes a brief collection of Torah sources on Cognitive behavioral therapy Dialectical behavior therapy General psychotherapy Anxiety, obsessions, compulsions, and depression Parenting Mental health and well-being