Essential Judaism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs, Customs & Rituals

Front Cover
Simon and Schuster, Jun 30, 2008 - Religion - 672 pages
You’ll find everything you need to know about being Jewish in this indispensable, revised and updated guide to the religious traditions, everyday practices, philosophical beliefs, and historical foundations of Judaism.

What happens at a synagogue service? What are the rules for keeping kosher? How do I light the Hanukah candles? What is in the Hebrew Bible? What do the Jewish holidays signify? What should I be teaching my children about being Jewish?

With the first edition of Essential Judaism, George Robinson offered the world the accessible compendium that he sought when he rediscovered his Jewish identity as an adult. In his “ambitious and all-inclusive” (New York Times Book Review) guide, Robinson illuminates the Jewish life cycle at every stage and lays out many fascinating aspects of the religion—the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, the evolution of Hasidism, and much more—while keeping a firm focus on the different paths to living a good Jewish life in today’s world.

Now, a decade and a half later, Robinson has updated this valuable introductory text with information on topics including denominational shifts, same-sex marriage, the intermarriage debate, transgender Jews, the growth of anti-Semitism, and the changing role of women in worship, along with many other hotly debated topics in the contemporary Jewish world and beyond.

The perfect gift for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah or anyone thinking about conversion—this is the ultimate companion for anyone interested in learning more about Judaism, the kind of book its readers will revisit over and over for years to come.

From inside the book

Contents

Derash
304
RABBINICAL WRITINGS
310
O You Scribes and Pharisees
319
How the Mishnah Works
329
The First Great Academy
337
How the Gemara Works
343
A Page of Talmud
350
CHAPTER 7
360

Havurah
65
CHAPTER 2
76
The High Holy Days
92
CHAPTER 6
94
Sukkot
101
Shemini Atzeret
108
Tu bShevat
115
Counting the Omer
125
Tisha bAv
131
CHAPTER 3
138
Brit Milah
145
Pidyon HaBen
151
BarBat Mitzvah
157
Divorce
170
Illness
181
Unveiling and Yahrzeit
191
Whos Counting?
201
Why Observe?
219
Opponents of Halakhah
229
Gemilut KhasadimActs of Lovingkindness
235
Tikkun OlamRepairing the World
243
CHAPTER 5
257
The Torah
264
and II Kings
283
The KetuvimThe Writings
289
Ezra and Nehemiah
295
Sefer Yetzirah
366
Early Kabbalah and the Ashkenazi Hasidim
368
The Tree of Life
375
Lurianic Kabbalah
381
Hasidic Mysticism
388
Gershom Scholem and the Study of Mysticism
395
The Lasting Influence of Jewish Mysticism
401
Maimonides c 1135 c E 1204 C E
415
Judah HaLevi 1075 c e 1141 C E
421
Franz Rosenzweig 1886 C E 1929 C E
433
Abraham Joshua Heschel 1907 C E 1972 c E
446
CHAPTER 9
458
The Jewish Question
470
Herzl and His Successors
483
The Evolution of AntiSemitism
489
Exiles Return
495
The Temptations of Assimilation
501
SOME KEY DOCUMENTS
505
Anniversary of the Zionist Movement
515
Reconstructionism
528
Orthodoxy
534
APPENDIX 2
541
APPENDIX 3
551
HOW DO I KNOW ITS KOSHER?
557
INDEX
619
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 537 - The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and national identity was formed. Here they achieved independence and created a culture of national and universal significance. Here they wrote and gave the Bible to the world.
Page 505 - We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state.
Page 505 - We reassert the doctrine of Judaism that the soul is immortal, grounding this belief on the divine nature of the human spirit, which forever finds bliss in righteousness and misery in wickedness. We reject, as ideas not rooted in Judaism, the beliefs both in bodily resurrection and in Gehenna and Eden ( Hell and Paradise) as abodes for ever-lasting punishment and reward.
Page 230 - We recognize in the Mosaic legislation a system of training the Jewish people for its mission during its national life in Palestine, and today we accept as binding only the moral laws and maintain only such ceremonies as elevate and sanctify our lives, but reject all such as are not adapted to the views and habits of modern civilization.
Page 537 - In the Second World War the Jewish people in Palestine made their full contribution to the struggle of the freedom-loving nations against the Nazi evil. The sacrifices of their soldiers and their war effort gained them the right to rank with the nations which founded the United Nations.
Page 96 - And it shall be a statute for ever unto you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and shall do no manner of work, the homeborn, or the stranger that sojourneth among you: for on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins shall ye be clean before the LORD.
Page 537 - Impelled by this historic association, Jews strove throughout the centuries to go back to the land of their fathers and regain their statehood.

About the author (2008)

George Robinson is the author of the critically acclaimed Essential Judaism, as well as Essential Torah: A Complete Guide to the Five Books of Moses (2006). The recipient of a Simon Rockower Award for excellence in Jewish journalism from the American Jewish Press Association, Robinson is a senior writer for The Jewish Week, the largest Jewish newspaper in North America. He is a contributor to the new edition of Encyclopedia Judaica and has written frequently for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsday, and Hadassah Magazine.

Bibliographic information