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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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 ...

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.

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...

Told with consummate skill by the writer of the bestselling, award-winning A Civil Action, The Lost Painting is a remarkable synthesis of history and detective story.An Italian village on a hilltop near the Adriatic coast, a decaying palazzo facing the sea, and in the basement, cobwebbed and dusty, lit by a single bulb, an archive unknown to scholars. Here, a young graduate student from Rome, Francesca Cappelletti, makes a discovery that inspires ...

"Fascinating and beautiful . . . if only chemistry had been like this at school." —Matt Ridley, New York Times–bestselling author of Genome, in Prospect magazineLike the alphabet, the calendar, or the zodiac, the periodic table of the chemical elements has a permanent place in our imagination. But aside from the handful of common ones (iron, carbon, copper, gold), the elements themselves remain wrapped in mystery. We do not know what most...

"Witham's highly readable history of the American sermon strongly bolsters the contention that words change minds and alter the course of events." — BooklistPivotal moments in U.S. history are indelibly marked by the sermons of the nation's greatest orators . From colonial times to the present, the sermon has motivated Americans to fight wars as well as fight for peace. Sermons have provoked the mob mentality of witch hunts and blacklists, but they...