Winner of the 2017 Nautilus Award in the Religion/Spirituality of Western Thought category A bestselling author and rabbi’s profoundly affecting exploration of the meaning and purpose of the soul, inspired by the famous correspondence between Albert Einstein and a grieving rabbi. “A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness...” —Albert Einstein When Rabbi Naomi Levy came across this poignant letter by Einstein it shook her to her core. His words perfectly captured what she has come to believe about the human condition: That we are intimately connected, and that we are blind to this truth. Levy wondered what had elicited such spiritual wisdom from a man of science? Thus began a three-year search into the mystery of Einstein’s letter, and into the mystery of the human soul. What emerges is an inspiring, deeply affecting book for people of all faiths filled with universal truths that will help us reclaim our own souls and glimpse the unity that has been evading us. We all long to see more expansively, to live up to our gifts, to understand why we are here. Levy leads us on a breathtaking journey full of wisdom, empathy and humor, challenging us to wake up and heed the voice calling from within—a voice beckoning us to become who we were born be.
To Begin Again signals the arrival of an important new voice. In words that are as wise as they are comforting and as universal as they are specific, Rabbi Naomi Levy tells us how to survive, emotionally and spiritually, when we feel overwhelmed by grief, loss, or life itself. Her book provides a safe harbor where we can begin to reconstitute our lives. Where do we find the strength to rebuild our lives after difficult times? Is it possible to recapture our hope? Our innocence? Our faith? The answers, never simple but always inspiring, are indeed found in this wonderful book. Naomi Levy was a bright, cheerful fifteen-year-old girl who awoke to the devastating news that her father had been shot. His senseless murder shattered her belief in God and left her feeling helpless and full of rage. But, in time, she learned to fight her way through the darkness to conquer her heartbreaking pain. She describes, with humor and extraordinary honesty, how she managed to emerge victorious over sorrow. Later, in her years as the rabbi of a congregation in Venice, California, Levy quickly learned that her own painful experiences were not unique. Many of her congregants had also suffered--divorce, addiction, rape, loss, illness. They too had searched long and hard for ways to bring joy back into their lives. A natural and engaging storyteller, Levy weaves together her own story and the struggles of her congregants with the ancient lessons of great sages. She offers up exquisitely simple prayers, which--no matter what our religious beliefs--remind us that we are far, far stronger than we ever imagined. What emerges is a remarkable tapestry that teaches us how to mend our hearts and souls. To Begin Again is a book that will be passed to friends when tragedy strikes, a book that will rest at our bedside tables during troubling times. It is a testament to the human spirit--to the undying strength that enables us to make our way through whatever darkness we may face and begin living once again.
In this moving, personal work, Levy tells of the painful circumstances she endured with her young daughter's illness, how they grew together, and ultimately how much Levy learned from her daughter's example.
This is a guide to recovering from personal tragedy and loss. The author, Naomi Levy, was shocked by the violent murder of her father into a spiritual struggle. At that time she lost her faith in the idea of a benevolent God and felt let down and alone. Her book speaks to to anyone whose life has been shaken in a similar way. She tells how she and many of the members of her synagogue who have been buffeted by tragedy have found the courage to redefine their faith and return to life. She helps the reader, no matter what their religious beliefs are, to gather forces after the death of a loved person, after a physical assault, after a divorce, or after the wounding loss of a job.
After the publication of her best-selling book To Begin Again, Naomi Levy received a flood of feedback from readers telling her how much the prayers in it had helped and moved them. Many urged her to publish a collection of her prayers—and now she has. In a time when we all need inspiration, comfort, and connection, Talking to God will help us reclaim prayer as an integral part of our lives, making it as natural and uninhibited as talking to our loved ones. Prayer is essential to the lives of millions, but many of us are searching for ways to supplement traditional prayers with ones that are less formal and more intimate. Written in a simple and direct style, the prayers in this book—and the wonderful stories that accompany them—are for people of all faiths, and for all occasions large and small. Naomi Levy’s personal prayers address the anxieties and roadblocks we all face in contemporary life. There are prayers for facing a new day, realizing one’s potential at work, celebrating an anniversary or birthday, and going to sleep at night. And there are prayers for the more profound occurrences in life—love and marriage, pregnancy and childbirth, illness, loss, and death. Rabbi Levy’s words, imbued with grace and empathy, touch on the entire range of human experience. Many of us will recognize ourselves in her prayers and stories and will be comforted by them, as well as challenged and uplifted. Perhaps most important, they are stepping-stones for us to go on and create our own prayers, to find meaning in our own lives, and to begin or renew our own relationships with God. From the Hardcover edition.
Bringing together columns, speeches, essays, and reportage, the author of "No Logo" offers a bird's-eye view of the life of an activist and the development of the "anti-globalization" movement from the Seattle World Trade Organization protests in 1999 through September 11, 2001.
With more than half a million copies of her novels sold, Naomi Ragen has connected with the hearts of readers as well as reviewers who have met her work with unanimous praise. In The Saturday Wife, Ragen utilizes her fluid writing style--rich with charm and detail--to break new ground as she harnesses satire to expose a world filled with contradiction. Beautiful, blonde, materialistc Delilah Levy steps into a life she could have never imagined when in a moment of panic she decides to marry a sincere Rabbinical student. But the reality of becoming a paragon of virtue for a demanding and hypocritical congregation leads sexy Delilah into a vortex of shocking choices which spiral out of control into a catastrophe which is as sadly believeable as it is wildly amusing. Told with immense warmth, fascinating insight, and wicked humor, The Saturday Wife depicts the pitched and often losing battle of all of us as we struggle to hold on to our faith and our values amid the often delicious temptations of the modern world.
This book chronicles a life long journey of stunning and tragic events. It took some five plus years of a "backward glance" to describe that journey. It begins within the doors of a small, seemingly insignificant church on the south side of Chicago where "ordinary people" did extraordinary things; a little assembly of believers gathered together in the Lord's name. The church had been founded by an icon, a giant in the Christian community named B. M. Nottage, who started, along with his brothers, several assemblies in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and other cities. This book, "From Grace to Glory", gives a vivid picture of the marvelous grace of God and his unbounded, unlimited mercy through great tragedy and devastating losses. Read the shocking "unpleasant history" of this little church, and its' resilience through it all. Laugh out loud in "A Little Bit About A Lot of Things", as you look at Bob Hope's jokes and Mae West's one-liners. Read the jaw-dropping "You in six words" from Oprah Winfrey. Go back to another era of great books, outstanding movies, and awe-inspiring music. Share in the great pride of cultural icons who contributed so much to our country and ultimately to the whole world. Don't miss the chapter on the "Onslaught of Nines", where you will discover unknown facts, or surprising facts, or maybe "not-new facts", or just affirmation for the people, places, and things. You will wonder what is the "Fine As Wine In the Summertime" chapter all about? And then, this book gives a vivid picture of the great love and the deep ties of family; a family with an ancestor who could not read or write, but amassed a fortune in land and property. Love of family runs through this family whether you are rich and famous, or poor and needy, or somewhere in between. All families can affirm this, but this book tells it in a different way, in a different format. By reading "From Grace to Glory ... A little Bit About A Lot of Things", we are reminded of what is important in life. We are encouraged by the dear ones who have gone on before us. We can build on that strong love, that strong foundation that has been left, and we can trust our God to take us from His grace to His glory as we continue on life's journey.
In August, 1929, Arabs in Palestine rose up in bloody riots against Jews. More than 130 Jews were killed, among them eight young American students. American Jews, hampered by the postwar mood of disillusionment and isolationism and by the vicious anti-Semitic attacks of the 1920s, failed to mount an effective campaign to influence either the government or public opinion. In addition, the community itself was hopelessly divided. Rival factions, some led by men who frequently sacrificed issue for ego, could not counter the anti-Zionist case. In The Year After the Riots, Naomi W. Cohen makes the first in-depth study of American responses to the riots and reveals the isolation and weaknesses of American Jewry. Official noninvolvement, anti-Semitism, and Jewish disunity are presented as an ominous prologue to the Hitler era.
In Always On, Naomi S. Baron reveals that online and mobile technologies--including instant messaging, cell phones, multitasking, Facebook, blogs, and wikis--are profoundly influencing how we read and write, speak and listen, but not in the ways we might suppose. Baron draws on a decade of research to provide an eye-opening look at language in an online and mobile world. She reveals for instance that email, IM, and text messaging have had surprisingly little impact on student writing. Electronic media has magnified the laid-back "whatever" attitude toward formal writing that young people everywhere have embraced, but it is not a cause of it. A more troubling trend, according to Baron, is the myriad ways in which we block incoming IMs, camouflage ourselves on Facebook, and use ring tones or caller ID to screen incoming calls on our mobile phones. Our ability to decide who to talk to, she argues, is likely to be among the most lasting influences that information technology has upon the ways we communicate with one another. Moreover, as more and more people are "always on" one technology or another--whether communicating, working, or just surfing the web or playing games--we have to ask what kind of people do we become, as individuals and as family members or friends, if the relationships we form must increasingly compete for our attention with digital media? Our 300-year-old written culture is on the verge of redefinition, Baron notes. It's up to us to determine how and when we use language technologies, and to weigh the personal and social benefits--and costs--of being "always on." This engaging and lucidly-crafted book gives us the tools for taking on these challenges.
This original interpretation of the lives and social interactions of Quaker women in the British Atlantic between 1650 and 1750 highlights the unique ways in which adherence to the movement shaped women's lives, as well as the ways in which female Friends transformed seventeenth- and eighteenth-century religious and political culture.
This book integrates the economics of aging and insight based on political economy and explores generational conflict in the context of governmental spending. This problem is general, as the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted: lockdowns protect the elderly, but hurt the young. Policies to address global warming impose taxes on the elderly, but would bring benefits largely in the future. This book addresses intergenerational problems by placing its focus on budget allocation, taxation, and regulation. By using Japanese and US data, the authors conduct statistical analysis of whether regions with aging populations may adopt policies that generate benefits during a short period of time instead of policies that could benefit current young generations for an extended period of time. If the policy preferences of voters depend on their age, and if policy adoption by a government reflects public opinion, the change in demographic composition in a region may affect governmental policies. In an aged society, the elderly are pivotal voters. Budgets may be reallocated from policies favored by younger generations, such as education, to policies the elderly prefer, such as welfare programs. This generates an intergenerational externality problem: voters with short life expectancy do not take into consideration long-term benefits. Moreover, the current tax bases may be replaced by other tax bases that do not harm the elderly. The results reported in the book largely support these hypotheses. Evidence also shows that the gender and racial composition and institutional factors, including the extent of fiscal decentralization, are important in anticipating effects of population aging in other countries.
Organizational Health is an organization's ability to function effectively, to cope adequately, to change appropriately, and to grow from within. A healthy organization is just that in all its aspects: people, process, structures, systems, behaviours and governance. It is one where appropriate adaptive, maintenance and development activities are integral to maintaining performance and alignment in the operating environment. Organizational Health takes an informed look at the critical and interdependent elements of an organization that must be maintained in a healthy state for managers to meet their business goals. Using a practical, structured approach it covers: understanding and assessing organizational health; the impact of structures on organizational health such as hierarchies, alliances and joint ventures; control methods such as corporate governance, ethics and compliance; maintenance and development including OD, change management, learning and workplace environment; sustainability including carbon footprint and business ecosystems; indicators of health and dysfunction.
Mappa mundi texts and images present a panorama of the medieval world-view, c.1300; the Hereford map studied in close detail. Filled with information and lore, mappae mundi present an encyclopaedic panorama of the conceptual "landscape" of the middle ages. Previously objects of study for cartographers and geographers, the value of medieval maps to scholars in other fields is now recognised and this book, written from an art historical perspective, illuminates the medieval view of the world represented in a group of maps of c.1300. Naomi Kline's detailed examination of the literary, visual, oral and textual evidence of the Hereford mappa mundi and others like it, such as the Psalter Maps, the '"Sawley Map", and the Ebstorf Map, places them within the larger context of medieval art and intellectual history. The mappa mundi in Hereford cathedral is at the heart of this study: it has more than one thousand texts and images of geographical subjects, monuments, animals, plants, peoples, biblical sites and incidents, legendary material, historical information and much more; distinctions between "real" and "fantastic" are fluid; time and space are telescoped, presenting past, present, and future. Naomi Kline provides, for the first time, a full and detailed analysis of the images and texts of the Hereford map which, thus deciphered, allow comparison with related mappae mundi as well as with other texts and images. NAOMI REED KLINE is Professor of Art History at Plymouth State College.
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