Celebrating the Jewish Year: The Winter Holidays

"Celebrating the Jewish Year" named a 2007 National Jewish Book Award Runner-Up in the category of Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice. JPS' new holiday books take us through the joys, spirit, and meaning of the seasons. Blending the old and the new, they ground us in the origins and traditions of each holiday and open up to us ways we can add our own expression to these special days. Although synagogue ritual is touched upon, the real focus here is on our personal connections to each holiday and our home observance. As we move from season to season, Paul Steinberg shares with us a rich collection of readings from many of the Jewish greats - Maimonides, Rashi, Nachmanides, Shlomo Carlebach, Marge Piercy, Elie Wiesel, Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Arthur Green, and others - and he guides us in discovering for ourselves the many treasures within each text. The readings teach us about the history of each holiday, as well as its theological, ethical, agricultural, and seasonal importance and interpretation; others give us inspiration and much food for thought. These stories, essays, poems, anecdotes, and rituals help us discover how deeply Jewish traditions are rooted in nature's yearly cycle, and how beautifully season and spirit are woven together throughout the Jewish year. The Fall Holidays: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot is also available. "The Spring and Summer Holidays: Passover, Shavuot, The Omer, and Tisha B'Av" will follow in 2008. About the author Paul Steinberg is a rabbi and the director of Jewish studies and Hebrew at the Levine Academy in Dallas, Texas. He holds master's degrees in both education and rabbinic studies and was ordained from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies. He is the author of "The Study Guide to Jewish Ethics" (JPS, 2003), articles on Hebrew Bible and Jewish education, and a monthly column on the spirit of Jewish holidays and family in the Texas Jewish Post. Janet Greenstein Potter is the editor of several JPS publications, including the National Jewish Book Award Finalist "Wise and Not So Wise", "Praise Her Works", "Zayda Was a Cowboy", "Sarah's Journey", and "The Kids' Catalog of Animals and the Earth", a book about the environment and the Jewish tradition.