General Practice Books

One side-effect of the common lectionary used by Catholics, Episcopaleans, Lutheran, and various mainstream Protestant churches is the development of some excellent lectionary based resources. (A lectionary contains the Biblical readings for a given Sunday).

This series of three volumes for the three year lectionary cycle (each year concentrates on a synoptic Gospel - Matthew, Mark or Luke) contains music, poetry, art, etc. that in some way reflect on the Scripture for a given Sunday. The volumes are carefully multicultural.

An example: for the first Sunday in Advent, there are poems by Philipp Nicolai with Carl P. Daw Jr, and Alberto Taule; a photo of a cross of the community by the artisans of La Palma, El Salvador; a responsory reading by Miriam Therese Winter; and a painting by Glen Strock.

Each Sunday is equally diverse. You should always be able to find something that meets your needs and/or challenges you to reconsider your needs. Highly recommended.

One side-effect of the common lectionary used by Catholics, Episcopaleans, Lutheran, and various mainstream Protestant churches is the development of some excellent lectionary based resources. (A lectionary contains the Biblical readings for a given Sunday).

This series of three volumes for the three year lectionary cycle (each year concentrates on a synoptic Gospel - Matthew, Mark or Luke) contains music, poetry, art, etc. that in some way reflect on the Scripture for a given Sunday. The volumes are carefully multicultural.

An example: for the first Sunday in Advent, there are photos by Paul Chesley, David Austen and Dennis Oda;excerpts from Robert A. Raines and Jospeh Wood Krutch; poetry by Dom Helder Camara and Thomas John Carlisle; and a detail from art by Naul Ojeda.

Each Sunday is equally diverse. You should always be able to find something that meets your needs and/or challenges you to reconsider your needs. Highly recommended.

This is a thick soft cover art book that accompanies Biblical passages with art objects - paintings, sculptures from all cultures, Italian Renaissance to Modern Chinese water-colour that attempts to IMAGE the WORD - the gospel, and puts the love of Jesus in Christianity into a non-preachy, very emotionally and aesthetically moving document that appeals to the modern, intellectual, sophisticated, sensitive, cultured but atheist reader. It makes the Bible come alive in a fantasy of visual ecstasy. A marvellous gift for those who are hurting from a lack of understanding God's love. A spiritually soothing gift in a coffee-table book format.

One side-effect of the common lectionary used by Catholics, Episcopaleans, Lutheran, and various mainstream Protestant churches is the development of some excellent lectionary based resources. (A lectionary contains the Biblical readings for a given Sunday).

This series of three volumes for the three year lectionary cycle (each year concentrates on a synoptic Gospel - Matthew, Mark or Luke) contains music, poetry, art, etc. that in some way reflect on the Scripture for a given Sunday. The volumes are carefully multicultural.

An example: for the first Sunday in Advent, there are poems by Czeslaw Milosz, Sandra Cisneros and Janet Morley; a photo of a festive cross by Claudio Jimenez; quotations from Lamar Williamson Jr. and the Gelasian Sacramentary; a song by Arthur G. Clyde (contemporary); paintings by Rodolfo Abularach and Salvador Dali.

Each Sunday is equally diverse. You should always be able to find something that meets your needs and/or challenges you to reconsider your needs. Highly recommended.

Gorgeous book of art tied to the Christian lectionary. Poetry, paintings, photographs, sculpture, scripture quotes. A real treat!

This is a very good book for every programmer to grow to next level. Book is written to address almost all issues related to software development. Need to have book for every programmer.

All .Net developers have to keep Patterns & Practices publications under thier radar screen because one of the best works come out of that group.

A great book that covers in detail any areas you need: CLR, strings management, collections, asp.net, ado.net, xml, SQL Server and much more. A practical handbook that should be on your desktop as a reference for you everyday programming.
[...]

To be honest, I hate two kilos books. Usually such a book contains not much information. But not this book.
It starts from design guidelines and 40-pages(!) length questionnaire, and covers in detail a lot of subjects, including CLR, interop, remoting, ASP, XML, Web Services, etc. performance. How to measure, how to test, how to tune.
If you have to know a lot of things about a lot of things concerned with .NET performance, this book is for you.

In a word...WOW! There is such a wealth of info in this book. Direct for the source, one of the performance architects of the CLR (among other authors). This book is a must have for any developer who writes high use web apps or web services. The book goes into so much detail, and explains why one coding method is more efficient than another. Probably not a good beginner book, you should have a good grasp on .Net development first.

One moment Taylor will have you pondering a simple yet astounding truth and the next you'll be laughing over the sad state of his family's car rental. His style of writing is very approachable and endearing. In this book you will not have to deal with a self-righteous narrator on his way to tell you how to reach his level of spirituality. Rather, Dan Taylor openly admits his doubts, concerns, and failures. But, he also gives us something to aspire to and helps us to seek out our own pilgrimages not only when we're abroad, but also when we come home again.

I've visited all three of these places and, at least for me, Taylor has captured a good bit of their magic. His writing is easy to read and entertaining and leavened with just the right touch of humor.

Let Dan Taylor take you to unplanned destinations, traveling with a family grouping of seven in an unreliable Toyota van over forbidding roads and through staggering vistas. Perhaps not your idea of a relaxing vacation; but Dan (an English literature professor friend) in his "...Search of Sacred Places" doesn't intend to make the reader comfortable. However, his sense of humor is evident in facing unscheduled, difficult obstacles as is his awe at the devotion of Celtic extremists and frustration over his own frailties along with those of spoiled 21st century Christians. He smoothly blends Celtic biographies and historic Christianity along with insights from loved English poets, leaving the reader - and himself - with more questions to answer than when the Taylor clan first set out on pilgrimage. A thoughtful book to reread and give to others.

Literature and writing professor Daniel Taylor presents In Search Of Sacred Places, the testimony of his spiritual quest and journey toward understanding in his experience among islands once considered holy to the ancient Celts. Part history, part memoir, part travelogue, part spiritual quest, and part personal introspection, In Search Of Sacred Places ponders both the unknowable and the mundane, and brims with the author's abiding insights and wonder. A handful of black-and-white photographs illustrate this deeply respectful and spiritual account.

Although the sacred places Taylor shares with us are moving, it is his personal honesty, humility and his wry humor that make sacredness and pilgrimage, commitment and faith, accessible. I am grateful to the author for voicing the questions and the doubts that I have as he (and I and many others) try to live our lives in ways that keep us awake to the wonders and blessings of our world in the midst of what often seems hopeless.

The book itself is a fantastic example of very thorough investigative journalism. The writers obviously spent years doing massive amounts of research and interviews. It reads very well and presents a cast of characters as they truly are. It is written for the layman and casual reader. Once you put it down you will be extraordinarily disheartened at how the S&L crisis came about. The book sheds light on the roots and origins - the push for industry deregulation in the '80s and its massive, and quite apparently not well thought through, embrace by legislators. But it does a fair and balanced portrayal of the actors - highlighting that the worst people were already professional con artists and had links to organized crime. What is truly disheartening is the massive participation by and interference by top level career politicians (a handful of whom are still around)- many of whom were found by their peers to have severely violated ethics standards. It does a good job of portraying why regulation and oversight of certain industries - particularly the financial services industry, is so difficult. The rulemakers (legislators) are often severely conflicted because they are so heavily funded by the industry - most people don't like taking shots at their meal ticket. Some legislators, as detailed here, won't even hesitate to attack regulators when they threaten their lobbyist/campaign lifeline - rather than protect their citizens overall.

This is a very good read in light of current events with the mortgage lending crisis. One will find creepy, even shocking similarities. The bottom line is the same - poorly written loans (given to an elite group in the S&L case) with no real, credible basis for believing they would be repaid - shoddy underwriting, shoddy controls, shoddy monitoring, weak regulation/deregulation/regulation with no teeth [which is always exploited by those opportunistic few who quite literally make a living as con artists (criminals)], massive interference by the rich and connected.

The best, and saddest part, is this book is real - the events really happened, the facts are portrayed very objectively (the writers did an extraordinary job with research and documenting sources of information), the people involved were people well known and are still around in some circles, the costs and consequences are real and still being paid for to this day. Reading this book in light of current events will make one pause...pause and worry.

A must read - will leave you speechless and much wiser.

I give this 4.5 stars out of 5 - very well done. The most accessible, well-documented history of the S&L crisis caused by Reagan in the 80's. Even though the topic is dated, the book provides a good subject for students of history, and also an eye-opener for people interested in the irresponsible (and costly) fiscal policies of the neo-con right wing.

In the first few pages, this book summarizes a problem (a scam, actually) perpetuated on the American taxpayers by a small handful of ultra-wealthy elitists. In just a few minutes, you will have a firm grasp on how the scam works, and the long term effects on the US economy - something even the press never really understood and failed to adequately convey to the public. The author uses metaphors and plain language, and even though it is dense, the book is easy to read.

Besides being a good overview, what I found most interesting was the secion on Neil Bush and his insurance fraud scams (over 100 of them), and how George H Bush was able to pardon him before the public or press got full wind of his embezzlement. Subsequently, I read the book "Silverado: Neil Bush and the Savings & Loan Scandal" - which was also very good, but franky, I thought that the short section on Bush in the Inside Job did more than an adequate job of covering all the facts.

Except for the historian, economist, or political scientist, this book is probably too much detail for the average reader. For those of you who want the quick & dirty fact, I suggest reading about it online (Wikipedia), or getting the the abridged version of this book, or listening to the abridged audio book. But the length of the book does not detract from my positive rating - very well done.

I highly recommend this to those of us who were not adults at the time: in the 80's, I was still a kid - I couldn't be bothered to know what was happening in the world of S&Ls. Little did I know, but those high-flyers would affect my taxes for years (and years and years).

The book is easy to read - not too technical. It was a bit repetitive at times, but I think that's because many of the S&L crooks used the same types of illegal ponzi schemes to move money from one pocket to the other.

If you're like me, and knew very little about the S&L debacle, then let this book educate you. It's a telling tale of the problems brought-about by rampant de-regulation. I never knew that the S&L scandal(s) involved the wholesale looting of these banks (and American taxpayers - since they were federally protected deposits).

If you're already well-versed in the subject, you can read this to get some of the more personal stories of theft and graft.

There were also stories of corrupt politicians. I know it's a shock, but to me there's nothing more disgusting than a public trustee bending the rules to their advantage: they work for us.

This is a tragic story of the looting of hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayers money, money that could've gone for needed social services or other things. The government let it happen and this book tells you how.

I read a couple of pages each day and try to implement a little goodness into my life and others. It's almost like a little reference to the good life for me. It's in list format and I LOVE lists! I highly recommend this little book.

A collection of the simplest possible ideas for adding positive influence to your life and the lives of those around you. With few exceptions, the suggested actions in this book transcend religion and culture; they should raise little controversy and are beyond debate. If you find one you are uncomfortable with, turn the page. Open the book anywhere and find a gem of universal wisdom--simple everyday direction on living well on planet earth. If you're christian, buddhist, muslim, jewish, hindu or atheist, buy this and draw inspiration from it daily. Make the world a better place. HIGHLY recommended.

This book is one that I actually carry around with me almost everywhere. It's fun to read, and many of the suggestions inside actually are a great pick-me-up during the day. I like it's small size, and I also like how you don't have to read the suggestions for good karma in order if you don't want to.

As far as to say if the book actually does bring good fortune is something that I can't really prove... but it really does make one feel good.

This is, by far, my favorite book. Inside, you will find 8,879 amazing pieces of inspiration and advice. It's great for bad moods, rainy days, boredom, or anytime.

This has been the most uplifting little book I've put my hands on in years. So, great that I've purchased about 20 of these over the past 4 years to give as gifts for birthday, new job, new home, Christmas, etc. Every time I pick it up, I find something new and great to think about and share. You will surely find this a great little book with BIG uplifting appeal.

Adding this book to your collection is like the ribbon on a wrapped gift.ý
This book brings many concepts that Rabbi Aaron brings in his previous books. And will help one ýexecute his admirable approach to your Holy-days.ý

Rabbi David Aaron writes in plain conversational English, easy to understand. He stresses the importance of interconnectedness, and the concept of monotheism, that all people are one and God is within all of us. To live this truth people must be willing to give up self-centeredness and care about others. Aaron says that a possible bad effect of psychotherapy is that it focuses one on the self and can cause self absorption which is against the principles of Judaism. Overall the book is a joy to read, Aaron's words ring with truth.

This short little book packs a lot of punch for its size. It never overwhelms the reader with preachiness, overly flowery language, or stiff boring academic prose. Instead it delivers neat compact messages that are deeply moving, inspirational, and thought-provoking. Rabbi Aaron starts with Pesach, since it occurs in the month of Nisan, which is supposed to be the real calendar beginning of the year, even though most people think of Tishrei and Rosh Hashanah as starting the Jewish year. He goes through all of the major holidays and fast days in chronological order (Pesach, Shavuot, Tisha B'Av, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Hanukah, Tu B'Sh'vat, and Purim), and ends with a recap of all of these spiritual lessons. He assigns each holiday or fast day a theme relating to God and love, such as celebrating loss and sadness on Tisha B'Av, celebrating pleasure on Tu B'Sh'vat, celebrating unconditional love on Pesach, and celebrating accountability on Rosh Hashanah. Through these eye-opening lessons, he gives the reader the impetus to break out of boxes and old paradigms of looking at God, the holidays, the Torah, and the world. Although many Jews tend to shun the notion of having a personal relationship with God as being a Christian concept and not something rooted in their faith tradition, that's a very mistaken belief. We might not use the same language or examples to talk about it, and might not view it in the same way, but as Rabbi Aaron so beautifully illustrates, it's a very Jewish concept indeed. And though all of these themes he discusses are different, in the end, he points out, they're all centered around the concept of reciprocal and unconditional love, love of God, love of one another, and God's love for us. It becomes a lot easier to invite God in on these holidays and major fast days when one understands that all one needs is love.

Amazing book.
Rav David Aaron - is a master to put key concepts in the clear form.
I'm a kabbala teacher - use his books for my students.

Rabbi David Aaron takes us on a soulful, intensely spiritual journey of the Jewish calendar year in this well written and finely crafted book. From Passover to Rosh HaShanah to Purim, this book explains the multi-faceted nature of God's role in our lives, both on a highly personal level and on a collective one as well.

We begin to understand God's love for us, His infinite compassion and kindness and His own unique ability to forgive us, despite our sins.

Rabbi Aaron does not write in a didactic or preachy fashion, but rather his style is a most refreshing one as he unravels spiritual mysteries with much simplicity while including personal stories that make this subject feel so real and tangible to the reader.

This book implores the reader to connect with God, to understand what our relationship with God is and how we can benefit from it. On each holiday we are taught what role God plays and what is expected of us. Leading a life that is devoid of God's presence and a spiritually bankrupt one, robs us of not only a genuine understanding of our great heritage, but of a unique and cherished bond that has sustained us as people and a nation.

There is a story told of a great Chassidic rabbi named the Kotzker Rebbe who lived in Europe in the 1800s. A child was once walking down the street. The Kotzker Rebbe passed by and motioned for him to stop. "Let me ask you a question, little boy," said the Kotzker Rebbe. "Where is G-d?" The youngster smiled. "Oh, that's easy," he replied. "G-d is everywhere." The Kotzker Rebbe looked at the boy for a moment. "No, my son," he answered gently. "G-d is only where you allow Him to enter."

Our holiday observance can only become more profound and meaningful by adopting a policy of inviting God into our hearts and homes. Rabbi Aaron's book will be a tremendous addition to our libraries as well as a significant contribution to the corpus of Jewish spiritual literature.

These books are "must haves" for every Jew, or even those who are "friends of Jews." There are explanations of all of our holidays, customs, etc. written in layman's terms.

The books have not only been helpful to us as adults, but also as tools for our middle school children. They are invaluable to us!

The time of the delivery was very good, in less than 3 weeks I had my books with me.

Best, I think, for children, Jews by Choice, and non-Jews with questions. It is written on a very basic level. Wonderful reference source for when those occasional "trivia question" moments come up, and you simply "have to know."

These wonderful books deal with tradtional judaism and more controversial issues like conversion and marriage. The first volume is essentially detailed with accounts of 'who is a Jew' 'What is a Jew' 'What are Jewish holidays' 'What is the Jewish service and its structure' 'What are essential Jewish rituals' 'How do Jews interpret the Torah'. These chapters detail almost any question one might have about what it means to be a Jew, how to live a Jewish life and how to interpret the essential Torah. This volume is wonderful for non-Jews, return Jews, Secualt Jews and normal Jews intreested in exploring their religion deeper. Wonderful excerts explain the origins of such simple items like the Kipa(Yarmluke) and essential questions about Jewish dietary laws.

The second volume tackles more modern and controversial topics. it explores the major streams of Judaism in America(Reform, Conservative, Orthodox) and it looks at the Hasidic community. This book explores the essential topic of conversion to Judaism and how that relates to the various Jewish streams. It also tackels intermarriage questions.

This wonderful boxed set is perfect as a present and for information regarding the wonderful jewish heritage and its 5000 years of development.

A well written and easily searchable reference source of the "whys" of Judaism. Explains traditions connected with holidays and major life events (weddings, births, funerals) clearly and concisely. The book has a serious tone, and the reader can expect a serious treatment of the subjects covered.

B"H

Excellent book!! Really gives insight and helps further trust in HaShem. I would recommend this book to all. I would recommend this author to all as well.

This highly uplifting tome is pragmatically oriented spirituality, primarily derived from Hasidic sources. IMHO its emphasis is on d'vekut--cleaving to God: pp. 6-10: "All your actions, speech, & thoughts be directed by God, who is within you. The person who has attained to this high level will have continuous God consciousness at all times...God-consciousness is the purpose of the main mitzvah of the Torah, when they are performed with complete intentionality...If you want to do something & see that this action will increase your God-consciousness & love of God, then know that this is a mitzvah & God's will...The goal of Hasidim d'vekut is continual God-consciousness." The author advises the reader to p. 51: "Choose a practice that fits your mood & spiritual level", To this end, many techniques are given & described including: frequent repetition of holy phrases & words (pp. 36 & 444), equanimity (p. 474), forgiveness (p. 543), spiritual sex (p. 589), nonattachment (pp. 590 & 675), spiritual seclusion/hitbodedut (pp. 614 & 632), selflessness (p. 675), generosity/tzedaka (pp. 458-9), gratitude (p. 457), overcoming anger (p. 634), accepting the bad with the good (p. 517), and meditation. pp. 379-80: "Hasidic spirituality is ideally one continuous meditation on God by diverse means...Sefer Haredim quotes the Ari as saying that a meditation for achieving d'vekut is `seventy times more valuable for the soul than Torah study'...Certainly Torah study & doing mitzvot involve d'vekut but it is less than that d'vekut directly achieved by meditation." Examples include: p. 109--Breathing Meditation, p. 436: blessings (as short meditations), p. 451: visualization of God's name & concentration on the mind of God, pp. 378 & 466: understanding your thoughts as coming from God, everything coming from God (p. 672), and meditating on the skies (pp. 321, 498-502, & 678).

The plethora of techniques allows one to pick & choose those activities appropriate to one's nature & life situation at a moment in time. There are a great many wonderful quotes (I added pages of them to my collection); my favorites include some advocating role reversals:
pp. 458-9: R. Aaron of Apt--When a poor person accepts Tzedaka...if the poor person receives it with this kavvanah..."If I have to take, I am going to do so to give merit to the rich person who gives me the tzedaka,' then he is doing a mitzvah. This is what our Sages of blessed memory said: `More than what the householder does for the poor person, the poor person does for the householder.' (Leviticus Rabbah 34:10)
p. 675: R. Yitzhak of Vorki--No one ever stole anything from me for each day I give up all my possessions, abandoning my claim to their ownership. So whatever anyone stole--it was from what was already without an owner.
This is a fabulous book for anyone wishing to understand Hasidism but even more for someone wishing to add to his or her spiritual repertoire or activities/techniques. It may be an expensive book, but it's the size of 3 books--and it's worth much more than most. Highly recommended!

Yitzhak Buxbaum has made a tremendous contribution to the world of Jewish Learning with this book. He collects Hasidic hanagot ( customary practices) and considers the way they can enrich one's spiritual life and practice. He teaches in the work how the religious Jew can in every detail of his life, in every experience transform the ordinary into the sacred. He teaches how the Jew can transform his consciousness to greater ' devekut ' clinging to God.
This book has been one of the most important in my own life. Time and again it has given me new insight into Jewish practice and thought. It is written in a most clear and understandable way.
It too , it seems to me, without advertising itself as such provides a framework for Jewish thought and belief as strong as any other work I know. If I had to recommend one book to be in each Jewish home ( aside of course from the canon of Sifrei Kodesh ) it would be this one.
What a great great great book.

Yitzhak Buxbaum has done a great service in compiling these Jewish spiritual practices from a variety of sources, many of them Chassidic. The book is so helpful and informative in its tone, that it is easy to overlook the amount of research, scholarship, and organization which underlies it. For the Jew wondering how to enhance kavannah, how to make another part of daily life more kodesh, and how to benefit from the particular religious genius of our forebearers, this book will be a welcome, and oft-perused addition to the family library. Synagogues would do well to make this book available to their membership as well.

I teach Kabbalah classes and lead a Jewish Renewal women's havurah. (For more information about Jewish Renewal, the newest denomination in Judaism, go to www.aleph.org). I recommend Yitzhak Buxbaum's "Jewish Spiritual Practices" to all of my classes and have put it on their reading lists.

For years I searched for a practical book that would offer a comprehensive overview of simple techniques to enhance a person's practice of Jewish mysticism and enable them to deepen their connection with God.

Many Kabbalah books I consulted were exasperatingly esoteric, were not Jewish-oriented, were too simplistic, had too many techniques from other religions, etc. Then I found "Jewish Spiritual Practices" in a bookstore, and was overjoyed. It has over 2,000 simple Jewish spiritual practices from the classic Hasidic tradition, all clearly explained.

I have read the book twice. It is one of the most valuable books in my Jewish spirituality library. I plan on rereading the book (God willing) several more times in my lifetime. It immeasurably deepened my personal spiritual practice.

Don't be put off by the price of the book. I would have gladly paid twice as much.

A secular view of intimacy and marriage has become pervasive in today's society. High divorce rates and low marriage satisfaction are all too common, it is evident that something is wrong. Fortunately, there is hope for those willing to follow traditional, time-tested principles. Maurice Lamm provides sound adviced based on biblical principles and Jewish law. This book contains a great deal of information on a variety of topics.

If you are a single Jew, this book will help you know what your responsiblities are and what you should look for in a future mate. If you have already decided on your spouse, this book is useful for the practical information it gives about Jewish Marriage.

Thank you Rabbi Lamm for supporting biblicals morales in a time when they are not valued enough in our society!

If you are Jewish and want to get married read this book first. It covers the wedding and related issues as well as the question of how to know whom to marry in a clear pleasant fashion. I read this after I met my wife, in preparation for the wedding so that I would fully understand the wedding day and all the other issues. Reading and understanding the material in this book really enhanced the very special day of our wedding and laid the foundations for our marriage together.

Rabbi Morris Lamm is a well-known and well-regarded author of books on Jewish practice. Regardless of the level of one's observance, this book is well worth reading and owning.

The old adage, "Ignorance is bliss," could have been applied, a couple of generations back, to just about every human endeavor. But today, when it comes to making marriage a success this philosophy is deadly. And as post modern society continues to redefine what marriage is and what constitutes a successful one, the rate of divorce continues to skyrocket.
But this does not have to be so when resources like Maurice Lamm's book The Jewish Way in Love and Marriage are so easily accessible. Mr. Lamm wrote for the common person in 1980 with the hope of answering the question, "How do you make a marriage work in this modern world?" In its '90's reprint it still stands as a definitive work to help Jewish couples succeed in their marriages. Mr. Lamm, however, needs to be introduced to a much wider audience. Christian marriage mortality statistics have rapidly, in the last two decades, caught up with the numbers of the greater society. In some Christian circles the rate of dissolving marriages may in fact exceed the rest of society. Some Christian perspectives may be challenged to accept the teachings of Judaism on any subject. But the crisis of marriages in the Church could just possibly permit Christians to read Lamm's work with humility and an open mind. Once into his tremendous treatise, Christians will be exposed to a profoundly biblical approach to marriage. They will find ancient and timeless answers to the problems of making a man and a woman live together as one in harmony and bliss.
Most helpful to the Christian church, which remains a bastion of the Romantic Movement and of sexual confusion, is Lamm's exposé on the role of sexual desire and satisfaction in marriage. His presentation of the biblical view of romance clears away the shaky ground upon which most relationships are being founded in the Hollywood driven tradition. His revelation of the intricate ways the rabbi's have ruled to help people make "perfect" matches is thought provoking. Reflective people looking for their beloved ones are given tremendously helpful criteria based on generations of experience and application of the wise rabbis to assist in their modern day search. And finally, any serious Christian worker will want to read this book to have a broader and better educated view of biblical marriages with which to counsel broken relationships in the church.
Lamms style is straightforward and easy to understand. But don't let that fool you. His book is thoroughly researched and will give more than enough resources for the one who needs to know more. As an ordained, Evangelical minister of twenty-five years, I recommend this work without hesitation to all who desire to live distinctive biblical lives.

I'm so glad I got this book, even though I don't hold to the legal strictures in Chapter 5. Chapter 8, "Jewish Insights Into Marriage", is worth the price of admission: "Marriage is the natural home of love", says Rabbi Lamm, and then presents the considered and road-tested advice of the sages about how to make commitment last, and why.

I read other sections with trepidation (being a feminist and not so high on the ladder of observance) and found such beautiful material attesting to centuries of recognition that a wife is not property, but a person made in the image of G-d.

Chapter 6, "Qualities of the Ideal Mate", speaks first of compassion, including compassion towards animals -- going all the way back to Rebekah (Rivka). I'd like to show that chapter to some of the adolescents in my life. And at the same time, reading his explanation of what modesty (tzniut) of character means, I have more appreciation for women who choose to cover their hair.

This is not the ultimate checklist book, but I really like Part Five, where the author fills in the history of each component ceremony of a Jewish wedding. Actually, the reason I bought this book is because I didn't like the current century's spin on the veiling ritual (bedeken). The classic explanations (set forth at the end of Ch.14) do much more both to respect the bride as an individual and to focus on the specialness of the link between bride and groom.

That same chapter goes over every detail of the traditional ketubah, line by line... Anyone who is passionate about the rights of women could find inspiration in those details, especially when you figure for how many centuries wives were still chattel in British and other legal systems. Or you can skip the details and just glance at the headings in Ch. 10. The ideas come through.

To broaden out from this book, particularly for Conservative, Reform, or interfaith couples, do try Anita Diamant's "New Jewish Wedding" (it's probably on the screen right now) and/or Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer's "Creative Jewish Wedding Book" for some beautiful artwork, inclusive translations, and other goodies. Either of those books would be an affirming resource for same-sex couples, to balance this one.

But pretty much anyone who thinks there's value in marriage and who finds some wisdom in the Bible could find something to inspire them in this book, like in Ch. 9's celebration of companionship. Of course, if you have the time to read through the Talmud and Rambam and all that yourself, no problem! But for me, I'm very happy Rabbi Lamm brought these gems together in this thoughtful book.

A secular view of intimacy and marriage has become pervasive in today's society. High divorce rates and low marriage satisfaction are all too common, it is evident that something is wrong. Fortunately, there is hope for those willing to follow traditional, time-tested principles. Maurice Lamm provides sound adviced based on biblical principles and Jewish law. This book contains a great deal of information on a variety of topics.

If you are a single Jew, this book will help you know what your responsiblities are and what you should look for in a future mate. If you have already decided on your spouse, this book is useful for the practical information it gives about Jewish Marriage.

Thank you Rabbi Lamm for supporting biblicals morales in a time when they are not valued enough in our society!

Joy for the Journey- a practical application of Biblical principles to daily life and life's struggles...

I enjoyed this book immensely and have already purchased several more to give as gifts. I will also be recommending that our church use this as a Bible Study. I was encouraged by the book and know it will be an encouragement to others. Well done Larry Hamblen!

Larry Hamblen's book, Joy for the Journey, is an excellent discussion of Paul's admonition and theme of his Philippian epistle. It reminds us that worry is always counterproductive and sometimes destructive. Larry's practical applications and anecdotal illustrations well illuminate the veracity of God's prescription for worry - trust God in every situation.

I recently purchased this book and am using it as a guide for a study group I am conducting. Larry has presented a treatment and cure for worry in a contemporary way, so that we can apply that which the Apostle Paul wrote about in the book of Phillipians. This book is one of the most definitive I've read on this subject, and if this prescription is followed it can be a great source of help and healing for those afflicted by worry.
Ken Birch
Union City, CaliforniaJOY FOR THE JOURNEY-A Prescription for Worry

This book is a great read for both new and seasoned Christians, either individual or group study! We all have tendencies to worry and this book is a reminder that no matter what we're facing, Christ has given us JOY for OUR Journey!!! A must read for every Christian!