Contemporary Jews. The book is at once a beginner's invitation to the profundity of Jewish spirituality and a rich rethinking of texts and positions for those who have already walked some distance along the Jewish path.

The new Jewish spirituality lies somewhere between God's elusive presence in our world and our search for authentic language to describe it. Personal journeys seldom have a clear beginning, and they rarely have a definite end. If there is an end to our journey, surely it is one that leads to some measure of wisdom, and thence back to its own beginning. But somewhere along the way, we come to realize that we must know where we have been going, why we have been going. Most of all, we come to understand as best we can the One who sends us on our way. —from the Introduction Rabbi Arthur Green leads us on a journey of discovery to seek God, the world, and ourselves. One of the most influential Jewish thinkers of our time, Green has created a roadmap of meaning for our lives in the light of Jewish mysticism, using the Hebrew letters that make up the divine name: Yod— Reality at the beginning. God as the oneness of being at the outset, before it unfolds into our universe. Heh— Creation and God’s presence in the world. A renewed faith in God as Creator has powerful implications for us today. Vav— Revelation, the central faith claim of Judaism and the claim it makes on our lives. Heh— Redemption and our return to God through the life of Torah and by participating in the ongoing repair of the world. A personal and honest framework of understanding for the seeker, this revised and updated edition of a classic sheds new light on our search for the divine presence in our everyday lives.

Develop a relationship with God by following examples in Scripture. In Seek My Face, William Barry introduces situations and personalities from Scripture to show readers the various ways in which people in the Bible formed a relationship with God.

Arthur Green's classic work of contemporary Jewish theology, revised and updated. He tackles the topics of the reality of God, creation, revelation, and the return to God that are so much a part of our times. It is a profound, deeply personal statement of the lasting truths of Jewish mysticism and the basic faith claims of Judaism.

The Ten Commandments is an exploration into the background, meaning, and implications of the Decalogue from a Judaic perspective. Although they have become a universal symbol of Judeo-Christian civilization, it is only within Judaism that the Ten Commandments have a juridical function that goes beyond the mere announcement of a set of key precepts for man and society. In Judaism, the Ten Commandments are considered an epitome of the vast body of biblical legislation, a concise statement of a mere 172 Hebrew words that was presented as a credo that could easily be memorized and serve as a basic list of essentially easily understandable general rules. It was not expected that the ordinary citizen would remember or fully understand the plethora of commandments found in the Torah that demand compliance and observance by the children of Israel, their descendents, and those who chose to cast their lot in life with them. To understand the meaning and significance of the Ten Commandments in Judaic thought, it is therefore necessary to correlate them with the body of legislative enactments set forth in the Torah dealing with the same subject matter, a rather complex endeavor that this study hopes to facilitate.

An internationally recognized scholar and theologian shares a Jewish mysticism for our times Judaism, one of the world’s great spiritual traditions, is not addressed to Jews alone. In this masterful book, Arthur Green calls out to seekers of all sorts, offering a universal response to the eternal human questions of who we are, why we exist, where we are going, and how to live. Drawing on over half a century as a Jewish seeker and teacher, he shows us a Judaism that cultivates the life of the spirit, that inspires an inward journey leading precisely toward self-transcendence, to an awareness of the universal Self in whose presence we exist. As a neo-hasidic seeker, he is both devotional and boldly questioning in his understanding of God and tradition. Engaging with the mystical sources, he translates the insights of the Hasidic masters into a new religious language accessible to all those eager to build an inner life and a human society that treasures the divine spark in each person and throughout Creation.

How do American Jews identify as both Jewish and American? American Post-Judaism argues that Zionism and the Holocaust, two anchors of contemporary American Jewish identity, will no longer be centers of identity formation for future generations of American Jews. Shaul Magid articulates a new, post-ethnic American Jewishness. He discusses pragmatism and spirituality, monotheism and post-monotheism, Jesus, Jewish law, sainthood and self-realization, and the meaning of the Holocaust for those who have never known survivors. Magid presents Jewish Renewal as a movement that takes this radical cultural transition seriously in its strivings for a new era in Jewish thought and practice.

An annotated anthology of Jewish mystical works, concepts, and experiences, A Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism Reader explores issues relating to what has compelled Jews to seek a more intimate relationship with God. It does this by providing readings from the most important mystical texts, accompanied by Daniel M. Horwitz's insightful introductions and commentary. It is carefully designed to make the basic concepts and teachings of Jewish mysticism accessible to a wide audience and to ground these ideas within the broader Jewish tradition. Horwitz's introduction describes five major types of Jewish mysticism and includes a brief chronology of its development, with a timeline. He begins with biblical prophecy and proceeds through the early mystical movements up through current beliefs. Chapters on key subjects characterize mystical expression through the ages, such as Creation and deveikut ("cleaving to God"); the role of Torah; the erotic; inclinations toward good and evil; magic; prayer and ritual; and more. Later chapters deal with Hasidism, the great mystical revival, and twentieth-century mystics, including Abraham Isaac Kook, Kalonymous Kalman Shapira, and Abraham Joshua Heschel. A final chapter addresses today's controversies concerning mysticism's place within Judaism and its potential for enriching the religion. Daniel M. Horwitz is chapel rabbi at Congregation Beth Yeshurun in Houston, Texas. He is a teacher at the Akiba Academy of Beth Yeshurun and the Houston Melton Adult Mini-School.

This book describes a three- to four-year period of my many mundane and ordinary interactions through the Holy Spirit interspersed with infrequent dramatic and life-changing encounters, such as being a conduit for healing. For most of these testimonies, I have tried to explain what I learned from the experience, if anything. I have also introduced some discussion about ideas that I have had trouble grasping, such as how we as Christians should pray and fast. I have also included some probably "nontraditional" views of mainstream Christianity, including an understanding of sin and repentance, with the hope that the reader may embrace the option of engaging a different perspective. A different perspective does not necessarily mean agreement, but rather the willingness to accept that God's ways and understanding of the universe are probably a little different from our own ideas of what we believe are the ways of our Holy Father. I use scripture to support my understanding, and to a lesser extent, my testimonies, as best I can. I suspect that the scope of the material within is somewhat limited, as I look primarily at healing, peace, prayer, demonic influences, and my experiences of moving into a non-egoic understanding of God. My overall approach is not academic but is generally experiential and in places feels almost conversational. In the chapter on "Prayer," however, it is primarily didactic. I have come to believe that relationship with God through surrender is one way that we may get a glimpse of what it means to live an inclusive Christian life, a life from the perspective of love.

In the 2002 edition of From Ideology to Liturgy, Eric Caplan examined Reconstructionism's interpretation and adaptation of the traditional Jewish liturgy and its creation of new prayer texts to convey and express the movement's changing ideology. Further insight into Reconstructionist liturgy was gained through comparing these prayerbooks to the contemporaneous liturgies of Reform and Conservative Judaism and to the work of Jewish Renewal. In this new supplemented reprint edition, Caplan offers an expansive study of liberal Jewish prayerbooks published in the decades since From Ideology to Liturgy first appeared and revisits his earlier conclusions in light of more recent expanded access to Mordecai Kaplan's diaries and archives.