Why do bad things happen to good people? Where is God in our suffering? Can faith survive heartbreak?In Dear God, Why?, Rabbi Benjamin Blech-internationally renowned educator, bestselling author, and spiritual guide-confronts the timeless and anguished cry of the human soul. Drawing on Jewish wisdom, personal experience, and decades of pastoral counseling, Rabbi Blech offers profound yet accessible answers to life's most difficult questions.Whether...

Your Name Is Your Blessing: Hebrew Names and Their Mystical Meanings represents the first time that the secrets of the Kabbalah, the mystical teachings of Jewish spiritual leaders, were introduced to the general public for the purpose of explaining the profound meanings hidden in every person’s name. Your Name is Your Blessing remains alone in its application of Kabbalistic teachings to the choice and understanding of one’s name. A name tells a story that captures a perso...

Ever since the earliest times, Jewish scholars have looked to the Hebrew language as a source of holiness and a wellspring of wisdom. Both letters and words, it has always been assumed, they have hidden messages and secrets to be sought after, as if we are opening a shell to extract the fruit. Rabbi Benjamin Blech has gathered many examples of the meanings hidden within Hebrew words and has explained them to the modern reader_even those who do not know any Hebrew. The result is both a fine...

In Hope, Not Fear Benjamin Blech helps readers approach the end of life with calm. More than six years ago Blech was diagnosed with a fatal illness and given six months to live. Over the course of his career Rabbi Blech had counseled hundreds of people through the losses of loved ones and their own end of life, but when confronted with his own unexpected diagnosis he struggled with mortality in a new way. This personal and heartfelt book shares the answers people grappling with th...

Just as in his previous volume, The Secrets of Hebrew Words, Rabbi Blech brings readers into the fascinating world of gematria (the reckoning of numbers) and acronyms to uncover the vast profundity hidden in everyday Hebrew language. Rabbi Blech demonstrates that the language through which God creates the world is not composed of a haphazard arrangement of Hebrew letters. The letters are also numbers that define the essence of things with the exactitude of mathematics.

This ebook is now available from Bloomsbury Academic. Bloomsbury Academic publish acclaimed resources for undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as the general reader, across a broad range of subjects including Archaeology, Art & Visual Culture, Biblical Studies, Business & Management, Drama & Performance Studies, Economics, Education, Film & Media, History, Linguistics, Literary Studies, Music & Sound Studies, Philosophy, Politics & International Relations, Psychology, Religious ...

Part of The Complete Idiot's Guides® popular religion and history titles. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish History and Culture contains information about Jews in early American history through the 19th century as well as coverage of Jewish history and culture in the places you might least expect - Asia and South America.

The New York Times bestselling history of early Christianity in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East—from "one of America's best scholars of religion" ( The Economist).In this groundbreaking book, renowned scholar Philip Jenkins explores a vast and forgotten network of the world's largest and most influential Christian churches that existed to the east of the Roman Empire. These churches and their leaders ruled the Middle East for centuries and became...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER"An elegantly written account of leadership at the most pivotal moment in American history" ( Philadelphia Inquirer): Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward J. Larson reveals how George Washington saved the United States by coming out of retirement to lead the Constitutional Convention and serve as our first president.After leading the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War, George Washington shocked...

One of the world's most beautiful endangered species, butterflies are as lucrative as gorillas, pandas, and rhinos on the black market. In this cutthroat $200 million business, no one was more successful—or posed a greater ecological danger—than Yoshi Kojima, the kingpin of butterfly smugglers.In Winged Obsession, author Jessica Speart tells the riveting true story of rookie U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agent Ed Newcomer's determined crusade to halt the career of a brazen and in...

“Gracefully written . . . thoroughly researched . . . America is a banquet prepared by the Indians—who were forgotten when it was time to give thanks at the table.”—St. Paul Pioneer-Express“Well written, imagery-ridden . . . A tale of what was, what became, and what is today regarding the Indian relation to the European civilization that ‘grafted’ itself onto this ‘ancient stem’”—Minneapolis Star TribuneIn Indian Giver...