Our new cover for our Kindle ebook "Kosher Prayers"

We happily promote the publication of the new cover of the Kindle Edition of Kosher Prayers, our ebook anthology of texts from the Talmud Yerushalmi Berakhot on the topic of prayer, $4.99.

Friends told us we needed a more distinctive cover. Psst, better buy it quick. We keep raising the price.

And here is a description of the contents: The ancient rabbis had rare wisdom concerning how to talk to God in prayer. The Talmud of Land of Israel in Tractate Berakhot presents many of the ancient rabbis’ discussions about Jewish prayers with particular attention to how to pray the major Jewish prayers, the Shema and the Amidah for the weekdays, Sabbaths and holidays.

Berakhot is the first tractate of the Talmud of the Land of Israel (Yerushalmi, Palestinian Talmud). It was composed in the Land of Israel at the beginning of the fifth century C.E. This book is the author's original English translation of the most pertinent texts about prayer from the first five chapters of that Hebrew and Aramaic compilation.

Here is the Table of Contents
Preface
Kosher Prayers
Yerushalmi Tractate Berakhot
Additional Reading
The Daily Morning Prayers
The Shema and its Blessings
The Amidah
Yerushalmi Berakhot Chapter One
Mishnah 1:1
The Right Time to Pray
What is the right way to stand and pray?
The Bedtime Shema and the Demons
Juxtaposing Rituals I
The Early Shema Reciters
Mishnah 1:2
The Shema’s Early Light
Juxtaposing Rituals II
Interrupting Your Life to Recite the Shema
Interrupting Your Studies to Recite the Shema
Mishnah 1:3
Proper Positions for Reciting the Shema
Mishnah 1:4
Why Recite the Blessings of the Shema?
The Ten Commandments are in the Shema
History of Liturgy I
Why Not Recite the Ten Commandments Every Day?
History of Liturgy II
The Blessings for Torah Study
Precedents for Exigent Circumstances
There are Long and Short Blessings
Blessings and Bowing
Praying During Praying in an Undertone
How Now to Bow?
Questions about Blessings that Begin with Blessed
One Who Erred While Reciting a Composite Blessing
Mishnah 1:5
Practices for Reciting the Exodus at Night
Mentionings in the Morning Shema and Grace after the Meal
Mentionings in the Messianic Age
Yerushalmi Berakhot Chapter Two
Mishnah 2:1
Intention for Reciting the Shema
The Protocol for Reciting the Shema
The Duration of Disruption in Rituals
The Purpose of Interrupting
Mishnah 2:2
Rules for Tefillin
More Protocols for Praying
Mishnah 2:3
Important Enunciations
The Logical Order of the Hallel Liturgy
The Logical Order of the Amidah
More on the Order of the Amidah
Focus on your Prayers
Mishnah 2:4
Focus on Praying for Householders and Workers
Focus when Praying with your Purse
Yerushalmi Berakhot Chapter Three
Mishnah 3:1
Mishnah 3:2
Protocols for Conflicting Rituals and Recitations
Mishnah 3:3
Religious Exemptions of Women, Slaves and Children
Religious Obligations of Women
Conundrums about Women’s Obligations
Other Proxy Recitation Conundrums
Various Notions about Prayer in Filthy Locations
Mishnah 3:6
Yerushalmi Berakhot Chapter Four
Mishnah 4:1
Precedents of Prayer
Derivations of Prayer
Limits of the Time Frame of Prayer
Derivations of the Time Frame of Prayer
Precedence among Prayers
Calculating the Time of Prayer
The Closing Prayer on Yom Kippur
Prayers on Coinciding Holy Days
Torah Readings on Coinciding Holy Days
Bending the Time Frame for Sabbath Prayers
Political Upheaval over the Evening Prayer
Mishnah 4:2
Prayer Versions of the Rabbis
Mishnah 4:3
Derivations of the Amidah of Eighteen Blessings
Derivations and Contents of the Amidah Variants
Mishnah 4:4
Variety in Praying
Duplication in Praying
Mistaken Praying
Digests of Praying
Insertions in Praying
Derivations for the Locus of Praying
Mishnah 4:5
Mishnah 4:6
Orientation for Praying
Mishnah 4:7
Protocols for the Additional Prayer
Repeating one’s Prayers
Yerushalmi Berakhot Chapter Five
Mishnah 5:1
Creating Serious Contexts
Redirecting Consciousness by Contemplation of Laws
Postures and Protocols of Praying
Protocols for Prayer in Synagogues
Concentration for the Amidah
Mishnah 5:2
Praying for Rain
Erring in Praying for Rain and Dew
Stories about Praying for Rain
Protocols for the Prayer of Division
Formulas and Rules for the Prayer of Division
Mishnah 5:3
What Makes the Formulas Heretical
Protocols for Replacing the Faulty Leader
Mishnah 5:4
Reciting Amen in Synagogue
Prerogatives of the Priests
Mishnah 5:5
Prayer as an Omen

Now that's a lot of eTalmud!

"God's Favorite Prayers"

Read More

Is Desexualizing Jewish?

Rabbi Zev Farber discusses "Desexualizing Public Space" in a column in the Jewish Journal.

The rabbi intelligently reviews several recent events, statements and controversies that he groups under the rubric of "desexualizing" within Orthodox Judaism.

On fact and on its face, the answer is yes, desexualizing is an Orthodox Jewish activity. Farber provides texts and examples of how that works.

There's no doubt that rabbis engage in many methods of desexualizing, of prescribing numerous taboos that forbid many forms of dress, taboos that forbid a lot of ordinary contact between men and women, and also what appear to be haphazard and unfocused prohibitions, extended for the sake of making restrictions on the social lives of Jews.

Aside from the potential of social ostracism, the violation of many of the desexualizing taboos bring upon the transgressor no punishments or repercussions of any kind.

The taboos are therefore in effect suggestions, not regulations. We assume that these proscriptions are meaningful to some Orthodox men and women. And yet we do know Orthodox people who just ignore them, others who mock them, and others who feel uncomfortable about them.

So yes, desexualizing is (Orthodox) Jewish.

But personally we don't think it does much good for Judaism. Across the board generalizations about sexuality make about as much sense to us as the idea that we legislate that only one shoe size will be sold in our shoe stores. People have different sized feet and yes, they have different sized sexualities.

Read More

Is Mindful Eating Jewish?

The Times, in an informative article, describes mindful eating as a Buddhist practice.

...The concept has roots in Buddhist teachings. Just as there are forms of meditation that involve sitting, breathing, standing and walking, many Buddhist teachers encourage their students to meditate with food, expanding consciousness by paying close attention to the sensation and purpose of each morsel. In one common exercise, a student is given three raisins, or a tangerine, to spend 10 or 20 minutes gazing at, musing on, holding and patiently masticating.

Lately, though, such experiments of the mouth and mind have begun to seep into a secular arena, from the Harvard School of Public Health to the California campus of Google. In the eyes of some experts, what seems like the simplest of acts — eating slowly and genuinely relishing each bite — could be the remedy for a fast-paced Paula Deen Nation in which an endless parade of new diets never seems to slow a stampede toward obesity.

Mindful eating is not a diet, or about giving up anything at all. It’s about experiencing food more intensely — especially the pleasure of it. You can eat a cheeseburger mindfully, if you wish. You might enjoy it a lot more. Or you might decide, halfway through, that your body has had enough. Or that it really needs some salad.

“This is anti-diet,” said Dr. Jan Chozen Bays, a pediatrician and meditation teacher in Oregon and the author of “Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food.” “I think the fundamental problem is that we go unconscious when we eat.”...

We disagree with the limited definition of mindful eating, as we discuss in our chapter, "The Meditator" in our recent book, "God's Favorite Prayers."

We definitely argue that a certain kind of mindful eating is Jewish. It is a mode that includes the recitation of blessings and all that goes with that. It is an act of of mindful eating to a higher degree, one clothed in meaningful cultural and religious wrappers.

Please buy yourself a copy of "God's Favorite Prayers"-- a meditative and mindful Jewish Book

Read More

Was Jesus Kosher?

Was Jesus Kosher? That question automatically demands an absolute answer. It's a total no-brainer. No, Jesus was not and is not Kosher. There are thousands, perhaps millions of reasons that Jesus cannot be considered kosher -- meaning in a narrow sense, "(of a person) Observing Jewish food laws" or "Satisfying the requirements of Jewish law" and in a wider sense, "proper" or "acceptable" to Jews.

And yet, there's a new book by our neighbor Shmuley Boteach called "Kosher Jesus." We did an Amazon-read of the book, meaning we read whatever Amazon let us in its preview window, without actually buying the book. It's a good thing we did not buy it. The book has been banned by some of our Orthodox rabbinical colleagues.

Of course getting a book banned is the dream of every author and publisher. In theory it sends sales skyrocketing. "Banned in Boston" makes people interested.

According to news reports (Rabbis decry Jesus book, UPI), at least one Orthodox rabbi has said directly that the book is heretical.

"Boteach's latest book is apikorsus and must be treated as such," Rabbi Yitzchok Wolf of Chicago said Jan. 10, using a Hebrew word that roughly translates as heresy. Wolf said he had "utter contempt" for the idea of the book: He had only read its title.

Rabbi Jacob Immanuel Schochet wrote on an Orthodox Jewish Web site saying, based on his interpretation of Jewish law, the book "poses a tremendous risk to the Jewish community." He also said it was "forbidden for anyone to buy or read this book, or give its author a platform in any way, shape or form to discuss this topic."

The Times said Boteach was furious when he responded.

"We in the Jewish community have a choice. We can either, as has happened for 2,000 years, allow the Christian community to teach us about the Christian Christ, or we can take the initiative and the responsibility of teaching the Christian community about the Jewish Jesus. He was a Jew, after all," Boteach said.

"God's Favorite Prayers"-- a Kosher Book

Read More

Religion Dispatches: Fake Rabbi Alert from Peter Manseau

In Religion Dispatches we read an illuminating and funny Fake Rabbi Alert essay by Peter Manseau. He takes down Rabbi Ralph Messer who bizarrely proclaimed as king “on behalf of the Jewish people” the Atlanta megachurch pastor Bishop Eddie Long. (It was so phoney, Long has since apologized to us Jews.) He also calls out Rabbi Dr. Mordehi Waldman who blew his shofar to announce the coming of the messiah one Reverend Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church.

Lord knows, there are plenty of phoney rabbis. So many that we had just about sworn off trying to keep up with the news of their celebrity goings-on. But then just when we thought we could move on to other stories, along comes another fabulous and fake holy man. Amen and hallelujah.

Read More

WSJ: Tel Aviv is the World's Top Technology Business Hub

Here is confirmation from the WSJ of what many of us already knew.

...Who is going to be Europe's main technology hub? While London and Berlin both see themselves as claimants to the title, if you look at the numbers (and you take a Eurovision Song Contest view of the Continent) arguably neither can challenge Tel Aviv.

It was Ron Huldai, Tel Aviv's 13-year mayor and a former combat pilot, who, while London's Tech City was not even the subject of an interdepartmental memo, had got on with building a tech center second only to Silicon Valley. He did it not by installing high-speed fiber or hosting conferences. His approach, as he said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, was much simpler.

"Tel Aviv had become a city that people used, not a city they lived in," he said. "We are creating a good place for hi-tech people to live in—I am doing it for the people working in hi-tech," he said.

It is the ''Field of Dreams'' model. If you build it, they will come. It is no coincidence that Tel Aviv was recently named the world¹s best gay city.

"It is about building an environment that is supportive," he said. Young digital entrepreneurs tend to be counter-cultural— attracted to cities that are vibrant, diverse and international. One third of the city is under the age of 35, and there is one bar for every 200 residents.

His bottom-up model—worry about the people—has proved successful.

According to a report commissioned by the city, Tel Aviv and its surrounding area, hosts more than 600 early stage companies. Access to venture capital is, per capita, 20-fold greater in Israel than in the rest of Europe. "If you take the amount of VC per capita, in Europe, it is $7. In the U.S. it is $72. In Israel it is double that," Jan Müehlfeit, Microsoft's European chairman asserted last year...

"God's Favorite Prayers"- innovation in Jewish Theology

Read More

Times: Marvin Hier is the only Rabbi in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

In a charming story, the Times asserts that Marvin Hier is the only rabbi in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, "...Rabbi Hier...has been an active member for three decades. Teni Melidonian, a spokeswoman for the Academy, said he doesn’t know of any other rabbis among approximately 5,800 voting members..."

Yasher Koach, good job, Rabbi Hier.

"God's Favorite Prayers"- worthy of an Oscar

Read More