The Institute of Jewish Studies, founded in 1954 by the late Alexander Altmann, is dedicated to the promotion of all aspects of scholarship in Jewish Studies and related fields. Its programmes include public lectures, seminars, and annual conferences. All lectures and conferences are open to the general public. This book is an in-depth study of the function of music in religious experience according to Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlay. It provides new insights on his unique doctrine of the "Good Points", which represent the core of loving kindness and holiness in the human soul, and the musical context in which they become both a means and a metaphor for spiritual transformation. Drawing on midrashic and kabbalistic sources, the book explores Nahman's perception of differenttypes of "tzadiqim" (religious leaders), including himself, and the special role music plays in their leadership. It highlights the importance of creativity and renewal in the messianic process that involves both music and loving kindness.

A practical guide to vocally resonating your energetic and psychological centers to balance the emotions, purify the soul, and dissipate negative states • Explores the intimate connections between specific sounds and syllables, the 7 chakras, and their corresponding psychological traits • Provides toning exercises using these seed sounds to re-tune and purify the chakras, leading to spiritual transformation and wholeness as energetic blockages and negative states are dissipated • Includes 66 minutes of audio tracks to guide you through each exercise and the toning of each chakra’s sounds Using the Sacred Alphabet--the universal sounds of all languages--sound-healing teacher James D’Angelo explores the intimate connections between vowel, consonant, and syllable combinations, each of the 7 chakras, and their corresponding psychological traits. He explains, for example, how the vowel sound “uh” connects to the root chakra and is found in such words as “support” and “trust,” words deeply linked to the emotional character of this chakra. Revealing the voice as the master instrument for transformation--attested by the spiritual traditions that use chanting as an aid to enlightenment--he provides an extensive selection of vocal exercises to re-tune and purify each chakra and dissipate any related negative states as well as exercises that incorporate multiple chakras for general well-being. The accompanying 66-minutes of audio tracks guide you through each exercise and the proper toning of each chakra’s sounds. In uniting these sacred seed sounds with their corresponding chakras and psychologies, the author shows how you can enhance the power of these syllables and purposefully harness them for healing, states of deep meditation, and spiritual development. By bringing you closer to the voice of the Absolute, your own voice can be the conduit to the blissful union the soul so deeply desires.

Reimagining Gospel : An Introduction -- "A Balm In Gilead" : "Tuning Up" and the Gospel Imagination -- The Moment That Changed Everything : Gospel Music and the Incarnation of Time -- "The Evidence of Things Not Seen" : Gospel Vamps and the Incarnation of Text -- The Pursuit of Intensity : A Formal Theory of the Gospel Vamp.

Tuning the Eardrums invites the reader to approach listening as an intentional act. Gary Diggins draws upon his background as a musician and therapist in order to help individuals become more present to the ever-shifting nature of sound, music, words, or even silence. This guidebook considers our aural sense from multiple angles and provides practical ways to relate to someone or something through deep listening. The content mixes personal stories, psycho-spiritual principles, scientific research with mindful and musical practices. In a time when distractions and multi-tasking abound, this book helps us remain attentive as we receive or respond to the unseen world of sound.

Enriched by numerous case studies and years of client experience, this book guides readers to move beyond the tangled web of stories they tell themselves and others about their lives, relationships, illnesses, and disruptive life patterns. Step-by-step, the chapters uncover the origins of behaviors and feelings such as drug or alcohol addiction, failed careers, and depression. Hidden loyalties to people and ideas are introduced as the underlying causes of these obstacles, which cloud the path to success and cause people to believe the stories they tell themselves, eventually losing touch with the truth. Through the examples in this book, readers will learn to acknowledge and embrace truth, spelling out the explicit facts and rejecting the fictions they have created to excuse their failings.

An eye-opening guide to the world’s best parenting strategies Research reveals that American kids lag behind in academic achievement, happiness, and wellness. Christine Gross-Loh exposes culturally determined norms we have about “good parenting,” and asks, Are there parenting strategies other countries are getting right that we are not? This book takes us across the globe and examines how parents successfully foster resilience, creativity, independence, and academic excellence in their children. Illuminating the surprising ways in which culture shapes our parenting practices, Gross-Loh offers objective, research-based insight such as: Co-sleeping may promote independence in kids. “Hoverparenting” can damage a child’s resilience. Finnish children, who rank among the highest academic achievers, enjoy multiple recesses a day. Our obsession with self-esteem may limit a child’s potential.

Learn to Play Neo Soul Guitar With Mark Lettieri

Inspirational and deeply illuminating, The Soul Frequency takes you into the unseen world of energy and emotion, which is the birthplace of every physical manifestation in your body and life. Step by insightful step, personal coach Shanna Lee will show you how to align your energy to manifest any darn thing your little heart desires.

In this book you will discover what the messages from the different body systems mean and how you can heal any situation by understanding the message that is being delivered and acting appropriately on that message. This is a secret language that is now being revealed. It is no longer a mystery. Discover for yourself what YOU are trying to say to YOURSELF.

Starting from the late Renaissance, efforts to make vocal music more expressive heightened the power of words, which, in turn, gave birth to the modern semantics of musical expression. As the skepticism of seventeenth-century science divorced the acoustic properties from the metaphysical qualities of music, the door was opened to dicern the rich links between musical perception and varied mental faculties. In Tuning the Mind, Ruth Katz and Ruth HaCohen trace how eighteenth century theoreticians of music examined anew the role of the arts within a general theory of knowledge. As the authors note, the differences between the physical and emotional dimensions of music stimulated novel conceptions and empirical inquiries into the old aesthetic queries. Tracing this development, their opening chapter deals with seventeenth-century epistemological issues concerning the artistic qualities of music. Katz and HaCohen show that painting and literature displayed a comparable tendency toward "musicalization," whereby the dynamic of forms-the modalities specific to each artistic medium-rather than subject matter was believed to determine expression. Katz and HaCohen explore the ambiguities inherent in idealization of an art form whose mimetic function has always been problematic. They discuss the major outlines of this development, from Descartes to Vico through Condillac. Particular emphasis is placed on eighteenth-century British thinkers, from Shaftesbury to Adam Smith, who perceived these problems in their full complexity. They also explore how the French and the Germans dealt differently with questions that preoccupied the British, each nation in accordance with their own past tradition and tendencies. The concluding chapter summarizes the parallel development of abstract art and basic hypotheses concerning the mind and explores basic theoretical questions pertaining to the relationship between perception and cognition. In addressing some of the most complex problems in musical aesthetics, Katz and HaCohen provide a unique historical perspective on the ways their art creates and develops coherent worlds, and, in so doing, contribute to our understanding of the workings of the mind.