Suggested Reading for Adults

The Rabbi Lifson Library has a great collection of books to help you prepare for and deepen your understanding of the High Holy Days. We also have a large collection of children books about the holidays. Please visit the library to discover the right book for you.

We are open library Sunday 9-1, Monday 10:30-12:30, Tuesday through Thursday 10-6. For further information, call 617 558-8126 or email grosen@templeemanuel.com.

New Additions to the Library

The Jewish Annotated New Testament
     edited by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler,

"Brings the Jewish context of the New Testament to the fore, enabling all readers to see these writings both in their original contexts and in the history of interpretation" (from book's website).

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
     by Stephen Greenblatt

This spring's TE Reads book. Rabbi Gardenswartz will lead a discussion of this title on Sunday March 25.

Hope: A Tragedy
     by Shalom Auslander is a new novel featuring Anne Frank.

The Hebrew Republic: Jewish Sources and the Transformation of European Political Thought
     by Eric Nelson

Examines how the availability of rabbinic writings affected the development of modern political thought.

The Arrogant Years: One Girls Search for Here Lost Youth from Cairo to Brooklyn
      by Lucette Lagnado

A follow-up to the story of her father, The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit. Read the New York Times review here.

Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore

A monumental (650 page) history of the holy city. Read the Washington Post review.

Ben-Gurion: A Political Life by Shimon Peres
Sharon: The Life of a Leader by Gilad Sharon.

Two recent biographies of great Israeli leaders

Yiddishkeit: Jewish Vernacular and the New Land by Harvey Pekar and Paul Buhle

Explores in pictures and words the interaction of Yiddish with American culture.

The List: A Novel by Martin Fletcher,

This book by the former NBC correspondent and winner of the National Jewish Book Award, delves into the lives of Holocaust survivors in postwar London, based on the author's family's history.

Today I Am a Woman: Stories of Bat Mitzvah Around the World
      edited by Barbara Vinick and Shulamit Reinharz

This book is a collection of testimonies about bat mitzvahs from around the world.

A High Holiday Bibliography

Preparation

60 Days: A Spiritual Guide to the High Holidays by Simon Jacobson.

This book offers day by day practical and spiritual tools to revitalize and reinvigorate your passage through the holiday season, beginning on the first day of Elul.

Beginning Anew: A Woman's Companion to the High Holy Days by Gail Twersky

Reimer is an anthology of women's spiritual writing for the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippurs, includes new interpretations of the Biblical texts used throughout the liturgy of this period.

Preparing Your Heart for the High Holy Days: a Guided Journal by Kerry M. Olitzky.

"In these splendid and heartfelt meditations, rabbis Olitzky and Sabath weave a colorful tapestry of repentance and renewal from the threads of Scripture and tradition." (Library Journal review).

Repentance: The Meaning and Practice of Teshuvah by Dr. Louis E. Newman

Examines how our society deals with moral failings and how the Jewish principle of teshuvah is the key to rehabilitation and reconciliation, both divine and human.

This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared: the Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation by Alan Lew.

The late Rabbi Lew takes the reader on a journey of spiritual transformation-"from birth to death and back to renewal again"...He is a perceptive thinker and a highly skilled writer, making this book a hard-hitting yet compassionate cry for spiritual renewal during the High Holy Days as well as the rest of the year. (Publisher's Weekly review)

Waiting for Rain: Reflections at the Turning of the Year by Bryna Jocheved Levy.

This book offers fresh insights into traditional rabbinic interpretation, together with the author's perspective as a modern Orthodox woman bible scholar. Levy explores the psyches of the biblical characters and addresses issues such as our connectedness to others, the tragedy of wasted opportunity, confronting evil, the denial of death, faith and doubt, personal and communal responsibility, universalism versus particularism, the challenge of leadership, sin and atonement, and the efficacy of prayer.

Prayers

All These Vows: Kol Nidre
Who by Fire, Who by Water: Un'taneh Tokef both edited by Lawrence A. Hoffman.

These are the first two volumes in the series Prayers of Awe. Each book is a collection of essays by a wide range of scholars examining the history, meaning and relevance of each prayer.

Entering the High Holy Days: a Guide to the Origins, Themes and Prayers by

Reuven Hammer provides the needed historical background to understand the complex liturgy of the holidays. The book also interprets the ideas, practices and prayers of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

The Easy Guide to Shofar Sounding by Arthur L. Finkle

This is both a history and how-to guide about the shofar.

Collections

1001 Questions and Answers on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur by Jeffrey M. Cohen.

This volume presents an astounding breadth of information about the High Holy Days, tracing their origins and development, describing their essential spirit, both at home and in the synagogue.

Days of Awe: Being a Treasury of Traditions, Legends and Learned Commentaries concerning Rosh ha-Shanah, Yom Kippur by S. Y. Agnon.

Compiled by one of the greatest Hebrew writers of the 20th century and first published in 1948, Days of Awe is the long-acknowledged classic companion to the High Holy Days prayer book. If you have not read this yet, this is the year to do so.

The Rosh Hashanah Anthology by Philip Goodman.
The Yom Kippur Anthology by Philip Goodman.

These two standard anthologies of treasures from the Bible, Talmud, Midrash and by writers from medieval to modern times strike a balance between the solemn and the festive.

Rosh Hashanah Readings: Inspiration, Information, and Contemplation
Yom Kippur Readings: Inspiration, Information, and Contemplation both edited by Dov Peretz Elkins

Drawn from a variety of sources, these anthologies of readings, prayers and insights explores the opportunities for inspiration and reflection inherent in the subjects addressed on the Jewish New Year.

TE Reads November 2011: The Cairo Genizah Bibliography

This is the bibliography of resources used in our presentation. Most of the genizah projects allow you to view and examine actual documents.

TE Reads books

Glickman, Mark. Sacred Treasure-the Cairo Genizah: The Amazing Discoveries of Forgotten Jewish History in an Egyptian Synagogue Attic. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Pub, 2011.

Hoffman, Adina, Peter Cole, and S. Schechter. Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza. New York: Nextbook, 2011.

Genizah projects online

The Friedberg Genizah Project. Internet resource. http://www.genizah.org/

The Penn/Cambridge Genizah Fragment Project. Internet resource. http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/genizah/

Princeton University Geniza Project. Internet resource. http://www.princeton.edu/~geniza/

Rylands Cairo Genizah Collection (John Rylands University Library of the University of Manchester). Internet resource. http://enriqueta.man.ac.uk/luna/servlet/ManchesterDev~95~2

Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit (Cambridge University). Internet resource. http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Taylor-Schechter/index.html

Other sources

Aderet, Ofer. "Reuniting the Dispersed Fragments." Haaretz. October 21, 2011. Retrieved from http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/reuniting-the-dispersed-fragments-1.391259

Broshi, Magen. Twelve Pages from the Cairo Geniza. Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1984.

Choueka, Yaacov. Lecture. Alliance Israelite Universelle, Paris. March 2008. Video. English. Retrieved from http://www.akadem.org/sommaire/themes/histoire/10/1/module_3880.php

Cole, Peter and Adina Hoffman. April 13, 2011. Up in the Attic. Vox Tablet. Podcast retrieved from http://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/64458/up-in-the-attic/

Goitein, S D, and Paula Sanders. A Mediterranean Society : the Jewish Communities of the Arab World As Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.

Horowitz, Yehoshua, et al. "Genizah, Cairo." Encyclopaedia Judaica. Ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed. Vol. 7. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 460-483. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 27 Oct. 2011. (Available through the Newton Public Library.)

Shurkin, Joel N. "Hidden Treasures of Cairo Genizah : High-Tech Science Pieces Together Ancient Scraps of Jewish Life." Jewish Forward. November 18, 2011. Retrieved from http://www.forward.com/articles/145977/