Meaning & Mitzvah

Goldie Milgram

Description

Delve deeper into spiritual practice to find the power and meaning waiting there for you.

“Spiritual practice reveals that the Garden of Eden is right where you are standing and helps you to be here, now. Therefore, Jewish spiritual practices cultivate joy, hope, resilience and understanding so that you can undertake your soul’s work in this lifetime with vision, passion and integrity.”
from the Introduction

This innovative guidebook makes accessible Judaism’s spiritual pathways, principles and applications, and empowers you to test their value within your own life. Each chapter provides step-by-step, recipe-like guides to a particular Jewish practice or group of practices, gives examples of how they might unfold inside your life, and shows how each can help refuel your spirit throughout the day.

You’ll discover:

• Prayer practices for embracing the body and creation with awe, limbering up your mind, and preparing for compassionate action
• How to draw sustenance from the Great Mystery, the inexplicable and unknowable Source of Life
• How to mine the Torah’s stories, commentaries, symbols and metaphors for meaning
• Ways to develop your Hebrew vocabulary so you can formulate your own interpretations of sacred text
• How to explore and practice mitzvot as meaningful, compelling parts of your spiritual life
• How to view the Jewish people as a precious human resource and as a model for resilience
• … and much, much more.

Sujets

• Hebrew
• Philosophie et théologie
• Mitzvá
• Torá
• List of Jewish prayers and blessings
• Judaism
• Hebrew language
• Religion
• Mitzvah
• 613 commandements
• Torah
• Hébreu

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 24 juin 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580234757
• Langue: English

Extrait

Meaning Mitzvah :
Daily Practices for Reclaiming Judaism through Prayer, God, Torah, Hebrew, Mitzvot and Peoplehood
2005 First Printing
2005 by Goldie Milgram
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or reprinted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information regarding permission to reprint material from this book, please write or fax your request to Jewish Lights Publishing, Permissions Department, at the address / fax number listed below, or e-mail your request to [e-mail] .
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Milgram, Goldie, 1955-
Meaning mitzvah: daily practices for reclaiming Judaism through God, Torah, mitzvot, Hebrew, prayer and peoplehood / Goldie Milgram.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-58023-256-6 (quality pbk.)
1. Spiritual life-Judaism. 2. Jewish way of life. 3. Judaism-Doctrines. I. Title.
BM723.M46 2005
296.7-dc22
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cover Design: Sara Dismukes
Published by Jewish Lights Publishing
A Division of LongHill Partners, Inc.
Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4, P.O. Box 237
Woodstock, VT 05091
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]
www.jewishlights.com
This book is dedicated
to my beloved hubbatzin,
Barry Ben Tzion Bub
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction

1 Finding Meaning in Jewish Prayer
2 Reclaiming God with Integrity
3 Taking Torah Personally
4 Hebrew Is a Spiritual Practice
5 Living a Mitzvah-Centered Life
6 The Positive Power of Peoplehood
Appendix: Mitzvah Cards
Glossary
Suggestions for Further Reading
Index
About Jewish Lights
Copyright
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book has been made possible by a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation with the support and encouragement of Dr. Ruth Durchslag.
Meaning and Mitzvah was written over the course of four years of teaching in more than thirteen countries and fifty-three cities. A team of stunningly loving, bright, and perceptive family members, friends, publishing professionals, colleagues, and students provided the support that is making this book and its companion volume possible and successful in reaching those seeking spirituality and meaning for living through a Jewish lens. As this book is released, Reclaiming Judaism as a Spiritual Practice: Holy Days and Shabbat has made its way into the homes of seekers as well as both congregational and college classrooms, where understanding Judaism and its applications to daily living are matters of study and compelling interest.
I am tremendously grateful to my beloved hubbatzin, Barry Bub, who so freely contributed his amazing mind, great deep soul, hundreds of hours of driving, and attention to the logistics and activities of daily living during the writing of this work.
The concept for these two books began at the recommendation of Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, who reached out to me upon reviewing the original ReclaimingJudaism.org website. Her encouragement and sharing of her contact with her agent, Anne Edelstein, greatly helped to set this process in motion. Nancy is my esteemed colleague; and in rabbinical school, as a professor of Contemporary Jewish Philosophy, she was among the first to incorporate the vision, views, values, and voices of Jewish women into the seminary curriculum as well as to engage our attention and depth of learning through effective experiential techniques.
Giving freely of their time and acumen have been the dedicated focus group readers and consultants for Meaning and Mitzvah : Ania Bien, Carola de Vries Robles, Rabbi Kevin Haley, Rabbi Burt Jacobson, Tzeitl Locher, Dr. Lenore Mennin, Dr. Samuel Milgram, Lara Rosenthal, Ellen Triebwasser, Dr. Sharon Ufberg, Dr. Laura Vidmar, and Ellen Weaver.
The smooth flow of the text is directly the result of the professional editing of Judith Kern and Emily Wichland. Stuart M. Matlins, publisher of Jewish Lights, thank you for envisioning and captaining a publishing house of such high caliber and creativity that supports an author with excellence at every step of the publishing process.
The following teachers and colleagues have been primary sources of professional inspiration to me. I hope readers will seek out these remarkable individuals and their works: Anne Brener; Rabbi Samuel Barth; Dr. Judith Baskin; Sylvia Boorstein; Rabbis Marcello Bronstein, David A. Cooper, Julie Hilton-Danan, and Gail Diamond; Dr. Marcia Falk; Dr. Harold Frank; Dr. Tikveh Frymer-Kensky; Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, Cindy Gabriel, and Rabbis Yaacov Gabriel and Elliot Ginsberg; Dr. David Golomb; Rabbis Lynn Gottlieb, Arthur Green, Shefa Gold, Victor and Nadia Gross, Jill Hammer, Linda Holtzman, Irving Greenberg, and Raachel Jurovics; Dr. Aaron Katcher; Hazzan Richard Kaplan; Rabbis Burt Jacobson, Myriam Klotz, Jonathan Kligler, Arthur Kurzweil, Isaac Mann, and Natan Margalit; Dr. George McClain; Dr. Shulamit Magnus; Rabbis Itzchak Marmorstein, Yitchak Mann, Roly Matalon, and Leah Novick; Dr. Peter Pitzele; Dr. Judith Plaskow; Rabbis Marcia Prager and Geelah Rayzl Raphael; Dr. Simcha Paull Raphael; Rabbis Jeff Roth, Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi, Robert Scheinberg, and Peninnah Schram, David Seidenberg, Rami Shapiro, and Daniel Siegel; Dr. Edward Shils; Rabbis Jacob Staub, Margot Stein, Adin Steinsaltz, David Teutsch, and Shawn Zevit; Rabbis Arthur Waskow, Shohama Wiener, and David Zaslow; and Dr. Noam Zohar. And for this volume, in particular, Rabbi David Wolfe-Blank of blessed memory.
And finally, deepest appreciation to the board and faculty members of Reclaiming Judaism, the teaching and research educational nonprofit that is the primary vehicle for my work in the world-Sara Harwin, Lynn Hazan, Janice Rubin, Dr. Sharon Ufberg, and Rabbi Shohama Wiener. And also to the leadership of the ever-inspiring Project Kesher-Karen Gerson, Sallie E. Gratch, Natasha Slobodyanik, and Svetlana Yakimenko. And to my students everywhere-thank you for your stimulating questions and creative responses: You are the best teachers.
With love and appreciation from my heart to yours,
R Goldie Milgram
INTRODUCTION
Quality of life is a phrase that s bandied about all too easily these days, but I believe that the true quality of your life depends greatly on your daily preparations for living. Consider, for example, the difference between awakening to birdsong and awe, and awakening to traumatic world news spilling from your bedside clock radio. Awakenings come more easily when the you who loves, learns, remembers, reacts, and yearns also trusts that you will begin each day with a spiritual stretch. Awakenings could be called periods of threshold consciousness, tender times for spiritual practice. The word adonai -often translated in the language of the old paradigm as Lord or Master -appears frequently in Jewish prayer practice. Through the mystery of Hebrew s remarkable nature as a uniquely spiritual language, one root word of adonai is ehden , threshold. Perhaps this is why one of our practices for awakening, as well as for going to sleep and dying, is to say the biblical prayer verse known as the shema. Shema means listen. So if waking, sleeping, and dying are all threshold times, saying this prayer (found in every mezuzah, the prayer box Jews place on our doorposts) is like putting up a mezuzah of spirit. Saying the shema draws a line of intention, a kavannah , to enter your day listening, enter your dreams listening, and enter death listening, which might be termed one of the penimiut , inner, spiritual meanings of mezuzah practice.
The emphasis in Jewish spiritual practice is on the magnificence of what can be experienced and the good that can be accomplished while your soul is in this lifetime, in this body, in this world-because the only world to come of which Jews claim certainty is the one we leave to the children. And even proponents of those strands in our tradition that accept reincarnation or resurrection emphasize that hell is not an otherworldly destination; it is, in the words of Rebbe Na h man of Breslov (eighteenth century), how people are -suffering now. Spiritual practice reveals that the Garden of Eden is right where you are standing and helps you to be here, now. Therefore, Jewish spiritual practices cultivate joy, hope, resilience, and understanding so that you can undertake your soul s work in this lifetime with vision, passion, and integrity.
Perhaps this is not the way Judaism sounded if you went to religious school. As a post-World War II people who had been subjected to an attempted extinction-whose books, homes, safe havens, sacred places, and sages had mostly been incinerated or overtaken for use by others-our Jewish ancestors immediate needs were for physical survival and data storage. While they labored to create social welfare networks in new lands, they also built religious schools and synagogues that functioned as places where the knowledge of our traditions and history was stuffed into our youth. It was a primitive uploading from one generation to the next. We, their children and grandchildren, became human hard drives carrying a sacred trust. But while they faithfully passed on to us the texts and traditions, our parents and grandparents were, for the most part, too wounded to show us how to turn on the light carried by Judaism as a living spiritual path.
Spiritual education, however, is quite different from what you might remember as religious education. Once you become familiar with the ingredients of a practice-the steps, contexts, symbols, metaphors, and technical language-spiritual education continues as a guiding, sharing, and maturing of experience. Like any acquired skill-be it sailing, meditating, playing an instrument, or growing healthy roses-spiritual practice may seem awkw