The "Shabbes Goy"

The

Author: Jacob Katz

Publisher: Jewish Publication Society of America

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13:

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From the Babylonian period to the twentieth century, strictly observant Jews have depended on a non-Jew, or shabbes goy to perform work that was forbidden on the Sabbath. The author traces the role of the shabbes goy through the centuries. Katz affords the shabbes goy the central role in this fascinating case study on the larger question of the adapatability of halakhah to the ever-changing circumstances of life.

Washing the Dead

Washing the Dead PDF

Author: Michelle Brafman

Publisher: Prospect Park Books

Published: 2015-03-16

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 1938849523

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“Intimate, big-hearted, compassionate and clear-eyed, Brafman’s novel turns secrets into truths and the truth into the heart of fiction.” —AMY BLOOM, author of Lucky Us and Away “From roots in one religious tradition, comes a tale of emotional redemption for all of us. Michelle Brafman’s astonishing compassion for all human frailty infuses this story about the need for truth and the promise of forgiveness.” —HELEN SIMONSON, author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand “Heartfelt and genuine, Washing the Dead never betrays the complicated truths of family and tradition.” — DAVID BEZMOZGIS, author of Natasha and Other Stories and The Betrayers “Like a Jewish Anne Lamott, Brafman reels you in with warmth, depth and heart.” —SUSAN COLL, author of The Stager and Acceptance Three generations of women confront family secrets in this exquisitely wrought debut novel that examines the experience of religious community, the perilous emotional path to adulthood, and the power of sacred rituals to repair damaged bonds between mothers and daughters. Michelle Brafman’s award-winning short stories and essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Slate, Tablet, Lilith Magazine, Bethesda Magazine and elsewhere. She teaches fiction writing at the Johns Hopkins University MA in Writing Program and lives in Glen Echo, Maryland with her husband and two children.

The Shabbat Elevator and other Sabbath Subterfuges

The Shabbat Elevator and other Sabbath Subterfuges PDF

Author: Alan Dundes

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 2002-01-21

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1461645603

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There are literally hundreds if not thousands of books written about Judaism and Jews, but this book is unlike any previously published. It focuses on the topic of 'circumventing custom' with special emphasis on the ingenious ways Orthodox (and other) Jews have devised to avoid breaking the extensive list of activities forbidden on the Sabbath. After examining the sources of Sabbath observance as set forth in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and rabbinical writings, some of the most salient forms of circumvention are described. These include: riding a special Shabbat elevator, unscrewing the lightbulb in the refrigerator, constructing an eruv (a space extending one's domicile so that objects may be carried outside the home), and relying on the services of the so-called 'Shabbes Goy,' among others. Dundes respectfully analyzes such facets of Jewish characteristics as an undue concern with purity, and a long-established tradition of indulging in nit-picking and argumentation. The resultant picture of Jewish character is drawn from an unusual mixture of religious written texts and oral tradition (jokes and proverbs). The sources range from ancient Israel to works from the twenty-first century. In many ways, it is an authentic and striking Jewish self-portrait that is painted for the very first time in this fascinating volume.

No Joke

No Joke PDF

Author: Ruth R. Wisse

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2015-03

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 0691165815

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"Humor is the most celebrated of all Jewish responses to modernity. In this book, Ruth Wisse evokes and applauds the genius of spontaneous Jewish joking--as well as the brilliance of comic masterworks by writers like Heinrich Heine, Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Babel, S. Y. Agnon, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Philip Roth. At the same time, Wisse draws attention to the precarious conditions that call Jewish humor into being--and the price it may exact from its practitioners and audience"--

The Sabbath World

The Sabbath World PDF

Author: Judith Shulevitz

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

Published: 2011-04-05

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0812971736

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What is the Sabbath, anyway? The holy day of rest? The first effort to protect the rights of workers? A smart way to manage stress in a world in which computers never get turned off and work never comes to an end? Or simply an oppressive, outmoded rite? In The Sabbath World, Judith Shulevitz explores the Jewish and Christian day of rest, from its origins in the ancient world to its complicated observance in the modern one. Braiding ideas together with memories, Shulevitz delves into the legends, history, and philosophy that have grown up around a custom that has lessons for all of us, not just the religious. The shared day of nonwork has built communities, sustained cultures, and connected us to the memory of our ancestors and to our better selves, but it has also aroused as much resentment as love. The Sabbath World tells this surprising story together with an account of Shulevitz’s own struggle to keep this difficult, rewarding day.

The Sabbath Girl

The Sabbath Girl PDF

Author: Cary Gitter

Publisher: Steele Spring Stage Rights

Published: 2020-11-17

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 9781647230296

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Full-Length Play | Angie Mastrantoni has a lot going for her-a job at a hip art gallery, a new apartment on the Upper West Side-but not much time or hope for relationships. Then her neighbor Seth, a divorced Orthodox Jew with a knish store on the Lower East Side, knocks on her door. The Sabbath Girl is a contemporary romantic comedy about the loneliness of big-city life and the possibility of finding love next door. (3F, 2M)

The I.L. Peretz Reader

The I.L. Peretz Reader PDF

Author: I. L. Peretz

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2002-07-11

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 9780300092455

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This "brilliantly evocative tribute to a bygone era" ("Publishers Weekly") presents a memoir, poem, travelogue, and 26 stories by Peretz (1852-1915), one of the most influential figures of modern Jewish culture.

The Devil's Arithmetic

The Devil's Arithmetic PDF

Author: Jane Yolen

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 1990-10-01

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1101664304

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"A triumphantly moving book." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review Hannah dreads going to her family's Passover Seder—she's tired of hearing her relatives talk about the past. But when she opens the front door to symbolically welcome the prophet Elijah, she's transported to a Polish village in the year 1942. Why is she there, and who is this "Chaya" that everyone seems to think she is? Just as she begins to unravel the mystery, Nazi soldiers come to take everyone in the village away. And only Hannah knows the unspeakable horrors that await. A critically acclaimed novel from multi-award-winning author Jane Yolen. "[Yolen] adds much to understanding the effects of the Holocaust, which will reverberate throughout history, today and tomorrow." —SLJ, starred review "Readers will come away with a sense of tragic history that both disturbs and compels." —Booklist Winner of the National Jewish Book Award An American Bookseller "Pick of the Lists"

Snow in August

Snow in August PDF

Author: Pete Hamill

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Published: 2009-10-31

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 0446569666

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Deeply affecting and wonderfully evocative of old New York, Snow in August is a brilliant fable for our time and all time -- and another triumph for Pete Hamill. Brooklyn, 1947. The war veterans have come home. Jackie Robinson is about to become a Dodger. And in one close-knit working-class neighborhood, an eleven-year-old Irish Catholic boy named Michael Devlin has just made friends with a lonely rabbi from Prague. Snow in August is the story of that unlikely friendship -- and of how the neighborhood reacts to it. For Michael, the rabbi opens a window to ancient learning and lore that rival anything in Captain Marvel. For the rabbi, Michael illuminates the everyday mysteries of America, including the strange language of baseball. But like their hero Jackie Robinson, neither can entirely escape from the swirling prejudices of the time. Terrorized by a local gang of anti-Semitic Irish toughs, Michael and the rabbi are caught in an escalating spiral of hate for which there's only one way out -- a miracle....

The Sabbath

The Sabbath PDF

Author: Abraham Joshua Heschel

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2005-08-17

Total Pages: 118

ISBN-13: 1466800097

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Elegant, passionate, and filled with the love of God's creation, Abraham Joshua Heschel's The Sabbath has been hailed as a classic of Jewish spirituality ever since its original publication--and has been read by thousands of people seeking meaning in modern life. In this brief yet profound meditation on the meaning of the Seventh Day, Heschel, one of the most widely respected religious leaders of the twentieth century, introduced the influential idea of an 'architecture of holiness" that appears not in space but in time. Judaism, he argues, is a religion of time: it finds meaning not in space and the materials things that fill it but in time and the eternity that imbues it, so that 'the Sabbaths are our greatcatherdrals.'