New Release Books by Rachel Barenblat

"When I wake your name is honey on my lips." So begins this latest collection by poet and rabbi Rachel Barenblat. These love songs to an unnamed other capture a God-intoxicated spirituality in plain-spoken language redolent of the Bible yet anchored in modern life. Texts to the Holy follows in the tradition of the Song of Songs, the great Biblical poem that describes love between two human beloveds and is also read as an allegory for the love between us and God. It's in the tradition of the medieval poet Judah ha-Levi, whose writings of yearning for God use human love as a metaphor. And it's in the tradition of Adrienne Rich and Pablo Neruda, whose poems of human love and passion are suffused with awareness of the sanctity of the tangible and the everyday. These poems can be read purely as love poems from one human beloved to another, and they can be read as poems of love between a soul and her Source. Texts to the Holy expresses deep emotion in contemporary language, without sentimentality. It reminds us of the truths that the yearning heart finds reminders of the beloved everywhere and that even a text message can be a locus for holiness.

In poems written during the first year of mourning after her mother's death, Rabbi Rachel Barenblat traces the unpredictable mourner's path while examining a complicated relationship with poignancy and honesty, allowing us to look at our own griefs and loves with new eyes.

"Edited and designed by Elizabeth Adams."

The Omer is the period of 49 days between Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot. Through counting the Omer, we link liberation with revelation. Once we counted the days between the Pesach barley offering and the Shavuot wheat offering at the Temple in Jerusalem. Now as we count the days we prepare an internal harvest of reflection, discernment, and readiness. Kabbalistic (mystical) and Mussar (personal refinement) traditions offer lenses through which we can examine ourselves as we prepare ourselves to receive Torah anew at Shavuot. Here are 49 poems, one for each day of the Omer, accompanied by helpful Omer-counting materials. Use these poems to deepen your own practice as we move together through this seven-week corridor of holy time. Rachel Barenblat has gifted her readers with a set of insightful poems to accompany our journey through the wilderness during the Counting of the Omer. Deft of image and reference, engaging and provocative, meditative and surprising, this collection is like a small purse of jewels. Each sparkling gem can support and enlighten readers on their paths toward psycho-spiritual Truth. -- Rabbi Min Kantrowitz, author of Counting the Omer: A Kabbalistic Meditation Guide Rachel Barenblat comes bearing a rich harvest. In Toward Sinai, her series of poems to be read daily during the counting of the Omer, a poem chronicles every step between Exodus and Sinai. The poems exist in the voices of the ancient Hebrews measuring grain each day between Passover and Shavuot, and also in a contemporary voice that explores the meaning of the Omer in our own day. Together, the poems constitute a layered journey that integrates mysticism, nature, and personal growth. As Barenblat writes: "Gratitude, quantified." -- Rabbi Jill Hammer, author of The Omer Calendar of Biblical Women

Each of the poems in Seventy Faces arose in conversation with the Five Books of Moses. These poems interrogate, explore, and lovingly respond to Torah texts-the uplifting parts alongside the passages which may challenge contemporary liberal theology. Here are responses to the familiar tales of Genesis, the liberation story of Exodus, the priestly details of Leviticus, the desert wisdom of Numbers, and the anticipation of Deuteronomy. These poems balance feminism with respect for classical traditions of interpretation. They enrich any (re)reading of the Bible, and will inspire readers to their own new responses to these familiar texts.

Illustrations and text present the history, geography, people, politics and government, economy, and social life and customs of Massachusetts, home to Plymouth Rock and the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Illustrations and text present the history, geography, people, politics an government, economy, and social life and customs of Wisconsin.

Illustrations and text present the history, geography, people, politics and government, economy, and social life and customs of Michigan, which is the only state to touch four of the five Great Lakes.

A Year of Building Torah is a volume of parshanut (Torah commentary) accompanied by #VisualTorah. The volume features a variety of voices (both clergy and lay) from across and beyond the denominations, and each essay is accompanied and uplifted by Steve Silbert's VisualTorah sketchnotes.Built on the foundation of Bayit's animating principle - that the Jewish future is always under construction and that all of us are tasked with building that future - the essays in A Year of Building Torah explore Torah through a building-focused lens.What does Torah teach us about building the Jewish future wisely and well? What tools do we inherit from Jewish tradition that can help us build? How can we skillfully build on history's foundations to meet the spiritual needs of today and tomorrow? This volume contains a year's worth of answers to these questions and more.

A machzor (high holiday prayerbook) for the Yamim Nora'im (Days of Awe / High Holidays), edited and assembled in the transdenominational spirit of Jewish Renewal. Featuring liturgy both classical and innovative; translations both faithful and creative; original artwork and photographs intended to stir the soul; teachings from Rabbis Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Burt Jacobson, Rami Shapiro, Hanna Tiferet Siegel, and many others; and powerful poetry by poets ranging from Yehuda Amichai to Marie Howe, Alicia Ostriker to Myra Sklarew.