Jewish Tales of Holy Women

Jewish Tales of Holy Women PDF

Author: Yitzhak Buxbaum

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2002-11-08

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 0787966959

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What is a "holy woman," or a holy man for that matter? According to the Jewish mystics, a holy person is someone who has not lost the holiness that every baby is born with. A holy person is someone who fulfills it. Stories about Jewish holy women have rarely been collected in such an engaging and entertaining form. The tales display a specifically female Jewish spirituality, giving us a peek into a world of devotional beauty that focuses on kindness. These stories of laughter and tears, humility and bravery, striving and trance, have an appeal spanning the denominational spectrum: they are spiritual nourishment for the soul. The rabbis say there are both male and female angels and angels are on earth as well as in heaven. These tales enhance our appreciation of the female angels on earth.

Jewish Tales of Mystic Joy

Jewish Tales of Mystic Joy PDF

Author: Yitzhak Buxbaum

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2002-11-08

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 0787966967

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Jewish Tales of Mystic Joy reveals the happiness that awaits us if we strive for real spirituality. The stories are about pious rabbis and humble tailors, about dancing, singing, laughing, and crying, but their common denominator is always joyous ecstasy. Drawing us into a world of devotion, the tales allow us to taste the bliss that comes from a life lived from the very center of one's self. Each story comes alive in joy and produces a "holy shiver" that speaks to the soul.

Holy Woman

Holy Woman PDF

Author: Sara Yoheved Rigler

Publisher: Mesorah Publications, Limited

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13:

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Holy Woman chronicles the life, times, hardships, and legacy of Rebbitzen Chaya Sara Kramer, an extraordinary woman whom many considered a Jewish saint. A survivor of the medical experiments of Nazi death camp Doctor Joseph Mengele, she made a new life in Israel, where she married an unusually gifted mystic. In spite of penury and deprivation, the couple was an inspiration and guide to thousands. More of a life manual than a biography, this book explicates the profound life lessons by which Rebbitzen Kramer lived. Author Sara Yoheved Rigler draws the reader into the inner circle of her own close relationship with the Rebbitzen. Herself a serious searcher, Rigler spent 15 years in an Indian ashram before coming to Israel to reconnect with her Jewish origins. Refreshingly written and elegantly relevant, Holy Woman is a book for spiritually oriented persons who yearn to learn secrets of personal greatness from a truly hidden and humble Jewish luminary.

The Maiden of Ludmir

The Maiden of Ludmir PDF

Author: Nathaniel Deutsch

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2003-10-06

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 0520927974

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Hannah Rochel Verbermacher, a Hasidic holy woman known as the Maiden of Ludmir, was born in early-nineteenth-century Russia and became famous as the only woman in the three-hundred-year history of Hasidism to function as a rebbe—or charismatic leader—in her own right. Nathaniel Deutsch follows the traces left by the Maiden in both history and legend to fully explore her fascinating story for the first time. The Maiden of Ludmir offers powerful insights into the Jewish mystical tradition, into the Maiden’s place within it, and into the remarkable Jewish community of Ludmir. Her biography ultimately becomes a provocative meditation on the complex relationships between history and memory, Judaism and modernity. History first finds the Maiden in the eastern European town of Ludmir, venerated by her followers as a master of the Kabbalah, teacher, and visionary, and accused by her detractors of being possessed by a dybbuk, or evil spirit. Deutsch traces the Maiden’s steps from Ludmir to Ottoman Palestine, where she eventually immigrated and re-established herself as a holy woman. While the Maiden’s story—including her adamant refusal to marry—recalls the lives of holy women in other traditions, it also brings to light the largely unwritten history of early-modern Jewish women. To this day, her transgressive behavior, a challenge to traditional Jewish views of gender and sexuality, continues to inspire debate and, sometimes, censorship within the Jewish community.

The Jewish Story Finder

The Jewish Story Finder PDF

Author: Sharon Barcan Elswit

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2012-08-02

Total Pages: 413

ISBN-13: 0786492864

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Storytelling, as oral tradition and in writing, has long played a central role in Jewish society. Family, educators, and clergy employ stories to transmit Jewish culture, traditions, and values. This comprehensive bibliography identifies 668 Jewish folktales by title and subject, summarizing plot lines for easy access to the right story for any occasion. Some centuries old and others freshly imagined, the tales include animal fables, supernatural yarns, and anecdotes for festivals and holidays. Themes include justice, community, cause and effect, and mitzvahs, or good deeds. This second edition nearly doubles the number of stories and expands the guide's global reach, with new pieces from Turkey, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, and Chile. Subject cross-references and a glossary complete the volume, a living tool for understanding the ever-evolving world of Jewish folklore.

Devils, Women, and Jews

Devils, Women, and Jews PDF

Author: Joan Young Gregg

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9781438404790

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Contemporary misogyny and antisemitism have their roots in the demonization of women and Jews in medieval Christendom. In church art and mass preaching, the construct of the devil as an outcast from heaven and the source of all evil was linked both to the conception of women as sensual and malicious figures betraying man's soul on its arduous journey to salvation and to the notion of Jews as treacherous dissidents in the Christian landscape. These stereotypes, widely disseminated for over three hundred years, persist today. The exemplum, or cautionary story incorporated into preachers' manuals and popular homilies, was an important mode of religious teaching for clerical and lay folk alike. Sermon narratives drawn from Hindu mythology, Arab storytelling, and secular folktales entertained all classes of medieval society while dispensing theological and cultural instruction. In Devils, Women, and Jews, the vital genre of the medieval sermon story is, for the first time, made accessible to specialists and nonspecialists alike. Rendered in modern English, the tales provide an invaluable primary resource for medievalists, anthropologists, psychologists, folklorists, and students of women's studies and Judaica. Critical introductions and explanatory headnotes contextualize the tales, and comprehensive endnotes and a bibliography allow readers to follow up analogue and subject studies in their own areas of interest.

Imagining Holiness

Imagining Holiness PDF

Author: Justin Jaron Lewis

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 0773576312

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Hasidic tales are often read as charming expressions of Jewish spirituality. This title offers a radical reappraisal of how we think of Hasidic tales, calling into question received notions of authenticity. It focuses on the neglected Hasidic literature of the early 20th century - primarily the work of Israel Berger and Abraham Hayim Michelson.

Tales of the Holy Mysticat

Tales of the Holy Mysticat PDF

Author: Rachel Adler

Publisher: Banot Press

Published: 2020-09-29

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9780976305019

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In early 2007, Professor Rachel Adler, a Jewish feminist theologian, decided her new apartment needed a cat. As she searched through photos from local shelters, one gaunt feline caught her eye. Despite being caged, he retained the spiritual beauty of face and dignity of bearing that mark a great soul. As he settled into his new homeƒ‚‚"ƒ‚‚€ƒ‚‚"purring at the Hebrew volumes in Adler's rabbinic library, nodding attentively to the mezzuzot on the doorposts, and engaging in soulful meditation three times each dayƒ‚‚"ƒ‚‚€ƒ‚‚"it became clear that he was no ordinary kitty. Over the years, these eccentric practices revealed him to be a Hasidic master reincarnated to a higher level in the form of a gray tabby. This whimsical and engaging book began as several years of Adler's Facebook posts describing the idiosyncrasies of her peculiar cat, whom she called the Holy Mysticat. He became a holy teacher of sorts, leading her and her online friends on a journey through thousands of years of Jewish spiritual texts and p

Sisters at Sinai

Sisters at Sinai PDF

Author: Jill Hammer

Publisher: Jewish Publication Society

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0827610203

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In this marvelous anthology of 24 stories about women in the Bible, Rabbi Jill Hammer draws from the ancient tradition of Midrash -- creative interpretation that elaborates upon the sparse details of the biblical text -- and brings to life the inner world and experiences of these unforget-table characters. The stories reintroduce Lilith, Sarah, Leah, Miriam, and many other notable women of the Bible as the author weaves together the rabbinic legends and her own vivid imagination. Hammer's commentary includes a list of biblical texts and an explanation of how each story came to be written and why. Praised for its originality and expressiveness, this book gives biblical women the honor they deserve -- an honor due them as prophets, rulers, and teachers. Book jacket.

Crossing Confessional Boundaries

Crossing Confessional Boundaries PDF

Author: John Renard

Publisher: University of California Press

Published: 2020-01-28

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 0520287916

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Arguably the single most important element in Abrahamic cross-confessional relations has been an ongoing mutual interest in perennial spiritual and ethical exemplars of one another’s communities. Ranging from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages, Crossing Confessional Boundaries explores the complex roles played by saints, sages, and Friends of God in the communal and intercommunal lives of Christians, Muslims, and Jews across the Mediterranean world, from Spain and North Africa to the Middle East to the Balkans. By examining these stories in their broad institutional, social, and cultural contexts, Crossing Confessional Boundaries reveals unique theological insights into the interlocking histories of the Abrahamic faiths.