The big Jewish book for Jews
Ellis Weiner and Barbara Davilman
A whimsical guide to Judaism that covers such topics as how to serve far too much food, passive-aggression, excessive worrying, and things not to do on the Sabbath.
Read Time: ~3.5 hr
Interpreting ladies
by Pat Gill (1994)
About this book
Interpreting Ladies explores the defense by the Restoration comedy of manners of an ideal of aristocratic, conservative, English masculinity against the heavily satirized encroachments of French foppishness and the pretensions of the aspiring merchant class. Using Freud's theory of obscene wit, in which obscene jokes become reassuring testimonies of male privilege, as well as more recent theoretical descriptions of the discursive processes of meaning and desire, Gill considers the position of both the female protagonists and the female spectators in Restoration satire. She sketches the historical events and issues that create the link between morality and rhetoric and that serve to connect each to class and status. . Gill posits that the moral indeterminacy and slippage in satiric language is closely linked to male uneasiness about female honesty, and the dramatists' arguments in defense of their satiric treatments of female hypocrisy, duplicity, and sexual desire expose the gap in the moral premise of Restoration comic satire. It is a gap, Gill contends, that has everything to do with women - with female characters and putative female spectators - and it is why she states that "any reading that proposes to account for the equivocal satiric practice of Restoration comedy must therefore of necessity include a feminist critique."
Setting / LocationGlobal
Story EraModern Era
Protagonist / CoreInterpreting ladies Lead Character
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"C. S. Lewis wrote that belief in Christianity was the only viable option if one thought honestly and rationally, and famously challenged nonbelievers by writing. "I am not asking anyone to accept Christianity if his best reasoning tells him the weight of the evidence is against it." Philosopher John Beversluis accepts Lewis's challenge in his new edition of C. S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion, subjecting each of Lewis's arguments for Christianity to the rigors of logical argument and finding them wanting. Beversluis also investigates C. S. Lewis's crisis of faith and asks whether Lewis lost his faith after the tragic death of his wife. Finally, he argues that Lewis's popularity is largely the result of his effective rhetorical style rather than the validity of his logical arguments."--book jacket.
The story of the other wise man
adapted by Gabriel Bradford Millar
Story of Artaban, the "fourth wise man", who sold all he possessed and bought three jewels to present to the Christ-child. He could not have predicted how his eventful journey would end.
Die Legende des Baalschem
Martin Buber
«Die Legende des Baalschem» erschließt dem Nachgeborenen die untergegangene Welt der Chassidim in ihrer heiter-gläubigen Lebenshaltung und ihrer bilderreichen Spiritualität. «In diesen Geschichten wird Nie geschehenes zur Gestalt gebracht; überall geht es um das Ringen der Seele, um das Letzte, um das Schauen und Verwirklichen Gottes.» (Gustav Landauer) »Es ist etwas Zartes und Ehrwürdiges, etwas Heimliches und Geheimnisvolles, etwas Ausgelassenes und Paradiesisches um die Atmosphäre des ‹Stübels›, in dem der chassidische Rabbi, der ‹Zaddig›, der ‹Bewährte›, der Heilige, der Mittler zwischen Gott und Mensch, mit weisem und lächelndem Mund das Mysterium und das Märchen austeilt», schreibt Martin Buber (1878–1965) in seiner Vorrede. Der Autor versteht es, in seinen vielgerühmten Nachdichtungen, erstmals 1908 erschienen, eben diese Atmosphäre zu neuem Leben zu erwecken. Die Geisteswelt der Chassidim, einer um die Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts entstandenen ostjüdischen Sekte, fasziniert durch Spiritualität, Humor und mythische Kraft. Es ist ein unschätzbares Verdienst des Autors, diese Welt an der Schwelle ihres Verschwindens nochmals einer breiten Leserschaft vermittelt zu haben. Was später in den «Erzählungen der Chassidim» (1949) einen krönenden Abschluss finden sollte, bereitet sich hier vor: die Literarisierung des mündlich, beziehungsweise anonym tradierten Sagen- und Mythenschatzes. Denn still und heimlich, von der übrigen Welt völlig unbemerkt, war die chassidische Legende über die Jahrhunderte hinweg von Generation zu Generation weitergegeben worden. Über das Buch, hier in der sprachlich aufgefrischten, doch im Charakter unverändert gebliebenen Fassung von 1955 dargeboten, schrieb der Buber-Bewunderer Gustav Landauer, es sei «in eine Melancholie getaucht, die ganz irdische Depression und doch zugleich ganz himmlische Sehnsucht ist».