Jewish Wisdom

by Telushkin, Joseph

• ISBN13: 9780688129583
• ISBN10: 0688129587
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-11-06
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

When, if ever, should lying be permitted? If you've damaged a person's reputation unfairly, can the damage be undone? Is a person who sells weapons responsible for how those weapons are used? if the fetus is not a life, what is it? How, as an adult, can one carry out the command to honor one's parents when they make unreasonable demands? What are the nine biblical challenges a good person must meet?What do the great Jewish writings of the last 3,500 years tell us about these and all other vital questions about our lives? Rabbi Joseph Telushkin has devoted his life to the search for answers within the teachings of Judaism. In Jewish Wisdom, Rabbi Telushkin, the author of the highly acclaimed Jewish Literacy, weaves together a tapestry of stories from the Bible and Talmud, and the insights of Jewish commentators and writers from Maimonides, Rashi, and Hillel to Einstein, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Elie Wiesel. A richer source of crucial life lessons would be hard to imagine.Accompanying this extraordinary compilation is Teluslikins compelling commentary, which reveals how these texts continue to instruct and challenge Jewsand all people concerned with leading ethical livestoday As he discusses these texts, Rabbi Telushkin addresses issues of fundamental interest to modern readers: how to live with honesty and integrity in an often dishonest world; how to care for the sick and dying; how to teach children to respect both themselvesand others, how to understand and confront such great tragedies as antisemitism. and the Holocaust; what God wants from humankind. Within Jewish Wisdom's ninety chapters the reader will find extended sections illuminating Jewish perspectives on sex, romance, and marriage, what kind of belief in God a Jew can have after the Holocaust, how to use language ethically, the conflicting views of the Bible and Talmud on the death penalty, and much, much more.Jewish Wisdom adds a new dimension to the many widely read contemporary books that retell the stones and reveal the essence of classic religious and secular literature. Possibly the most far-ranging volume of stories and quotations from Jewish texts, Jewish Wisdom will itself become a classic, a book that not only has the capacity to transform how you view the world, but one that well might change how you choose to live your life.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Between People: How to Be a Good Person in a Complicated World
Does Judaism Have an Essence?	p. 3
When to Give, What to Give, How to Give: Why Tzedaka Is Not Charity	p. 11
Helping the Helpless: What Are Our Obligations to Society's Most Vulnerable Members?	p. 26
Mensch - Nine Challenges a Good Person Must Meet	p. 33
Honesty, Dishonesty, and the "Gray Areas" in Between	p. 46
"You Must Pay Him His Wages on the Same Day": Between Employers and Employees	p. 54
Truth, Lies, and Permissible Lies	p. 58
"Sticks and Stones" and Words: The Ethics of Speech	p. 65
Arguing Ethically	p. 70
The Obligation to Criticize, How to Do So, and When to Remain Silent	p. 76
When Life Is at Stake	p. 80
"It Is As If He Saved the Entire World": The Infinite Value of Each Human Life	p. 88
"All Jews Are Responsible One for Another": Communal Responsibilities	p. 91
Models of Leadership	p. 99
"Listen to Her Voice": Conflicting Biblical and Talmudic Views of the Character of Women	p. 104
"It Is Not Good for Man to Be Alone": Jewish Perspectives on Marriage	p. 118
"For Love Is As Strong as Death": Romantic Love	p. 128
Sex: The Commanded, the Permitted, the Forbidden	p. 131
"Be Fruitful and Multiply": The Duty to Have Children	p. 143
Between Parents and Children	p. 147
If the Fetus Is Not a Life, What Is It?: Judaism and Abortion	p. 161
"Even the Altar Sheds Tears": Divorce	p. 168
"Love Your Neighbor"	p. 174
"Either Friends or Death": Friendship	p. 178
"When I Was Young, I Admired Clever People. Now that I Am Old...": Kindness and Compassion	p. 182
"What Does a Good Guest Say?": Good Manners	p. 187
"If You See Your Enemy's Donkey": A Jewish Alternative to Jesus' Command: "Love Your Enemies"	p. 191
The Terrible Toll of Hatred	p. 196
Good Advice on Fifteen Subjects	p. 199
Personal Issues: Judaism and the Quest for Meaning
Human Nature - A Somber Look	p. 207
The Human Condition: Four Parables and a Bushel of Quotes	p. 216
On Suffering	p. 222
"One Does More, and One Does Less": Humility	p. 225
"Did You See My Alps?": Against Asceticism	p. 230
"What Have I in Common with Jews?": Alienation	p. 239
"A Person Is Always Liable for His Actions": Free Will and Human Responsibility	p. 243
Old Age: Anguish and Opportunities	p. 248
"The Anniversary of a Death, That a Jew Remembers": Death and Mourning	p. 255
"A Sentinel Who Has Deserted His Post": Suicide	p. 271
The Afterlife	p. 276
"Who Is Rich?"	p. 279
Between People and God: What God Wants from Us
God	p. 283
Is God Necessary for Morality?	p. 290
Idolatry and Its Attractions	p. 294
Chosen People: A Beautiful, but Often Misunderstood, Concept	p. 298
Jews and God After the Holocaust	p. 303
How Does One Sanctify God's Name? How Does One Desecrate It?	p. 316
Martyrs: Those Who Died at Kiddush ha-Shem (to Sanctify God's Name)	p. 320
Mitzvah (Commandment) and Some of the Distinguishing Characteristics of Judaism	p. 329
Studying Torah	p. 336
"How Can We Tell When a Sin We Have Committed Has Been Pardoned?": On Repentance and Sin	p. 345
Prayer	p. 356
Rabbis	p. 371
"Your People Shall Be My People": Converts	p. 374
"You Shall Rejoice in Your Festival": A Few Scattered Thoughts on Jewish Holidays	p. 382
Between People and the World: Jewish Values Confront Modern Values
"People Would Swallow Each Other Alive": Against Anarchy	p. 393
"Let the Law Cut Through the Mountain": Jewish Principles of Justice	p. 398
Murder and the Death Penalty: The Conflicting Views of the Bible and Talmud	p. 407
"Must the Sword Devour Forever?": Jewish Reflections on War	p. 417
Against Utopianism	p. 425
"Poverty Would Outweigh Them All": The Curse of Poverty	p. 427
"A Physician Who Heals for Nothing Is Worth Nothing": Medicine and Doctors	p. 433
"For There Will Be No One to Repair It After You": Toward a Jewish Ecology	p. 438
"His Mercy Is upon All His Works": Jewish Ethics Toward Animals	p. 444
Modern Jewish Experience: Major Themes
Antisemitism	p. 457
Antisemitism and the American-Jewish Experience	p. 480
Philosemitism	p. 496
Assimilation and Intermarriage	p. 503
A Miscellany: On Sports, Jewish Denominations, and Communism	p. 508
The Holocaust
The Holocaust: A Prologue	p. 515
What the Nazis Said	p. 517
The Experience of the "Final Solution": Six Stories out of Six Million	p. 522
Before and During the Holocaust: Reactions in the West	p. 528
"Like Lambs to the Slaughter": Why Did More Jews Not Fight Back?	p. 532
"Then They Came for Me, and There Was No One Left": Heroic Words and Tragic Quotes	p. 536
"Let Them Go to Hell": Jewish Rage at the Nazis	p. 542
"Let Not the Murderers of Our Nation Also Be Its Heirs": The Debate over German Reparations	p. 545
"As Your Sword Has Made Women Childless...": The Eichmann Trial	p. 550
"That Place Is Not Your Place:" Ronald Reagan and the Bitburg Controversy	p. 552
On Holocaust Deniers	p. 554
The Holocaust and Its Meaning for Christians	p. 557
"One, Plus One, Plus One": Six Final Quotes on the Holocaust	p. 561
Zionism and Israel
The Land of Israel in the Bible, the Talmud, and Jewish Law	p. 567
Theodor Herzl: Zionism's Founder	p. 572
Chaim Weizmann and the Balfour Declaration	p. 579
Vladimir Jabotinsky	p. 584
David Ben-Gurion	p. 588
Golda Meir	p. 593
Menachem Begin	p. 596
"It Is Good to Die for Our Country": Other Zionist Leaders and Other Quotes About Israel	p. 601
Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism	p. 607
On Being a Jew: Modern Reflections	p. 613
Bibliography	p. 619
Index	p. 638
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