The House of Secrets

The House of Secrets
Author: Varda Polak-Sahm
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2009
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780807077429

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The first inside look at the experiences of women who visit traditional mikvehs-ritual baths used to achieve purityFor Orthodox Jews, immersion in the mikveh-a ritual cleansing bath for women based on purity laws-is the cornerstone of family life. All Orthodox women must immerse in the mikveh before marriage, and Ashkenazi women must immerse every month after their menstrual cycle before sexual relations with their husbands may resume. But while the mikveh has been a tool for the exclusion of women, it has also, surprisingly, become an instrument of women's power-a place men cannot enter and thus cannot control.Roused by her own experiences of immersion, for eleven years Varda Polak-Sahm patiently observed and interviewed Jewish women using the mikveh, gaining unprecedented access to the entirely hidden feminine culture and sensual atmosphere within traditional mikvehs. The result is a richly nuanced, uncensored look at an experience that is for some holy and for others coercive. The House of Secretsgives voice to women from all branches of Judaism as they open up about what the mikveh means to them; how it fits in with their attitudes toward religion; its effect on their marriages and families as well as on their sexual, physical, and spiritual self-perception and on their relationship with God.Already widely praised in Israel, this English translation provides a firsthand account of the power of ritual immersion for the growing number of American Jews interested in reclaiming this practice.

Louis I. Kahn's Jewish Architecture

Louis I. Kahn's Jewish Architecture
Author: Susan G. Solomon
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2015-05-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 161168868X

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In 1961, famed architect Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974) received a commission to design a new synagogue. His client was one of the oldest Sephardic Orthodox congregations in the United States: Philadelphia's Mikveh Israel. Due to the loss of financial backing, Kahn's plans were never realized. Nevertheless, the haunting and imaginative schemes for Mikveh Israel remain among Kahn's most revered designs. Susan G. Solomon uses Kahn's designs for Mikveh Israel as a lens through which to examine the transformation of the American synagogue from 1955 to 1970. She shows how Kahn wrestled with issues that challenged postwar Jewish institutions and evaluates his creative attempts to bridge modernism and Judaism. She argues that Kahn provided a fresh paradigm for synagogues, one that offered innovations in planning, decoration, and the incorporation of light and nature into building design.

On Women and Judaism

On Women and Judaism
Author: Blu Greenberg
Publisher: Jewish Publication Society of America
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2013-12-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780827611597

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A classic for more than 20 years, this thought-provoking volume explores the role of Jewish women in the synagogue, in the family, and in the secular world. Greenberg offers ways to change present Jewish practices so that they more readily reflect feminine equality.

Letters to Josep

Letters to Josep
Author: Levy Daniella
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016-03-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9789659254002

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This book is a collection of letters from a religious Jew in Israel to a Christian friend in Barcelona on life as an Orthodox Jew. Equal parts lighthearted and insightful, it's a thorough and entertaining introduction to the basic concepts of Judaism.

Jesus: His Story in Stone

Jesus: His Story in Stone
Author: Mike Mason
Publisher: FriesenPress
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2017-09-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1525512218

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Jesus: His Story in Stone is a reflection on still-existing stone objects that Jesus would have known, seen, or even touched. Each of the seventy short chapters is accompanied by a photograph taken on location in Israel. Arranged chronologically, the one-page meditations compose a portrait of Christ as seen through the significant stones in His life, from the cave where He was born to the rock of Calvary. While packed with historical and archaeological detail, the book’s main thrust is devotional, leading the reader both spiritually and physically closer to Jesus.

The Passionate Torah

The Passionate Torah
Author: Danya Ruttenberg
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2009-06-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0814776345

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In this unique collection of essays, some of today’s smartest Jewish thinkers explore a broad range of fundamental questions in an effort to balance ancient tradition and modern sexuality In the last few decades a number of factors—post-modernism, feminism, queer liberation, and more—have brought discussion of sexuality to the fore, and with it a whole new set of questions that challenge time-honored traditions and ways of thinking. For Jews of all backgrounds, this has often led to an unhappy standoff between tradition and sexual empowerment. Yet as The Passionate Torah illustrates, it is of critical importance to see beyond this apparent conflict if Jews are to embrace both their religious beliefs and their sexuality. With incisive essays from contemporary rabbis, scholars, thinkers, and writers, this collection not only surveys the challenges that sexuality poses to Jewish belief, but also offers fresh new perspectives and insights on the changing place of sexuality within Jewish theology—and Jewish lives. Covering topics such as monogamy, inter-faith relationships, reproductive technology, homosexuality, and a host of other hot-button issues, these writings consider how contemporary Jews can engage themselves, their loved ones, and their tradition in a way that’s both sexy and sanctified. Seeking to deepen the Jewish conversation about sexuality, The Passionate Torah brings together brilliant thinkers in an attempt to bridge the gap between the sacred and the sexual. Contributors: Rebecca Alpert, Wendy Love Anderson, Judith R. Baskin, Aryeh Cohen, Elliot Dorff, Esther Fuchs, Bonna Haberman, Elliot Kukla, Gail Labovitz, Malka Landau, Sarra Lev, Laura Levitt, Sara Meirowitz, Jay Michaelson, Haviva Ner-David, Danya Ruttenberg, Naomi Seidman, and Arthur Waskow.

Total Immersion

Total Immersion
Author: Rivkah Slonim
Publisher:
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2006
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

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Total Immersion will at once educate those who are unfamiliar with the Mikvah ritual, inspire those who have, thus far, been hesitant to make this rite their own, and will reveal the blessing it bestows upon those who immerse themselves in its waters.

Mikveh

Mikveh
Author: Barry Fike
Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-08-07
Genre:
ISBN:

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Jewish ritual immersion and Christian baptism have deep roots. Most Christians understand baptism to be an undeniable doctrine of early believers. Most don't grasp that this practice goes far beyond Jesus and John the Baptist to some of the earliest recorded stages of God's people in the Hebrew scriptures. This means that this practice has always been a part of God's plan of redemption. This book goes through the background of the Christian practices of baptism into the Jewish understanding of the ritual practice that included the Mikveh.

The Secret of Jewish Femininity

The Secret of Jewish Femininity
Author: Tehilla Abramov
Publisher: Taschen
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2005
Genre: Jewish women
ISBN: 9781568713519

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Waters of Eden

Waters of Eden
Author: Aryeh Kaplan
Publisher: Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America/National Conference of Synagogue Youth
Total Pages: 108
Release: 1982
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

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"It has been called the secret of Jewish survival - a mystical connection to the Garden of Eden. What is the Mikvah's fundamental connection to birth, marriage conversaion and death? How does a Mikvah purify? How can a proper understanding of Mikvah bring happiness, freshness and fulfillment to your life? Waters of Eden is a revealing book that explores old myths and prejudices and offers insights never before available to the English reading public. The author Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, gathers concepts from the Bible, Talmud, Midrash, Kabbalah, Zohar, Rashi, Rambam, Ba'al Hatanya, Hirsch and many others.. Waters of Eden is the first attempt to explore the ancient Jewish practice of spiritual purification and immersion, lucidly and attractively in contemporary English." -- Back cover