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L'Chaim!: Prayers and Blessings That Shape Our Faith - Hardcover

Shire, Michael

 
9780711216020: L'Chaim!: Prayers and Blessings That Shape Our Faith
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0711216029 ISBN 13: 9780711216020
Publisher: Frances Lincoln, 2000

Synopsis

There are many blessings and prayers for the Jewish family and the Jewish home, from the daily and Sabbath prayer books, the Haggadah, the High Holy Day prayer book, the Talmud and the Pilgrim festivals prayer book. In this selection, Rabbi Dr Michael Shire includes over 100 of the most relevant for enhancing the spiritual quality of Jewish life. The blessings appear in Hebrew as well as in English, and the translation is gender-free. Illustrated with images from illuminated manuscripts, Ashkenazi and Sephardi in origin, the prayers and blessings echo the voices of the past. Introductory passages exploring their history and traditions provide a context for understanding the Jewish heritage in a way which is designed to inspire and educate all members of the family, even the youngest.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review

With his Illuminated Haggadah, British educationalist Rabbi Dr Michael Shire hit upon the successful formula of marrying illustrations from medieval Hebrew manuscripts to modern interpretations of the age-old text. In L'Chaim! he has extended the idea to a slim but exquisitely produced volume of prayers and blessings for the home, aimed at enhancing the spiritual quality of Jewish life.

Almost every page is decorated with illuminations from Hebraica treasures in Oxford's Bodleian Library or the British Library in London, among them the world-renowned Kennicott Bible (1476), Golden Haggadah (c. 1320), French Miscellany (c. 1280) and Italian Machzor (1466). Each is annotated by Stephen Massil (Bodleian) and Ilana Tahan (British Library), providing a brief yet scholarly background to the history and artistic merits of the works.

The 100 or so prayers and blessings--in the original Hebrew, with a modern, gender-free English translation--are arranged into groups spanning the cycle of life, the Jewish calendar, and everyday events. Among the innovations are prayers for attempts to conceive and for the onset of pregnancy, as well as for adoption, miscarriage, and for welcoming a child or grandchild into the home. The well-known Sabbath-eve Eshet Chayil blessing for one's wife (Proverbs 31) is complemented here by an excerpt from Psalm 112:1-9: "Happy is the man who reveres God/Who delights in doing God's commands..."

There are blessings for rain and rainbows, good news and bad news, morning and night, wonderful happenings and beautiful sights; for fate, fulfilment and friendship; for God's love and a good life. All are designed to inspire commitment and instil faith, and each provides another link in the chain of Jewish tradition which, despite its millennia-long history, is able to adapt to the here and now.--Meir Persoff

Synopsis

There are many blessings and prayers for the Jewish family and the Jewish home, from the daily and Sabbath prayer books, the Haggadah, the High Holy Day prayer book, the Talmud and the Pilgrim festivals prayer book. In this selection, Rabbi Dr Michael Shire includes over 100 of the most relevant for enhancing the spiritual quality of Jewish life. The blessings appear in Hebrew as well as in English, and the translation is gender-free. Illustrated with images from illuminated manuscripts, Ashkenazi and Sephardi in origin, the prayers and blessings echo the voices of the past. Introductory passages exploring their history and traditions provide a context for understanding the Jewish heritage in a way which is designed to inspire and educate all members of the family, even the youngest.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Frances Lincoln
Publication date
2000
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0711216029
ISBN 13 
9780711216020
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
80