Blatner David - Judaism For Dummies

Judaism For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
111 River St.
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com

Copyright 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions .

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport .

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com . For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com .

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013932102

ISBN 978-1-118-40751-6 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-46016-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-46018-4 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-46019-1 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Authors

Rabbi Ted Falcon, Ph.D., one of the pioneers of Jewish spirituality within the Reform Jewish context, was ordained in 1968 from the Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He received a doctorate from the California School of Professional Psychology in 1975. He is a nationally recognized lecturer and teacher, and the author of A Journey of Awakening: A Guide for Using the Kabbalistic Tree of Life in Jewish Meditation. Since 2001, Rabbi Falcon has worked with Pastor Don Mackenzie and Imam Jamal Rahman, together known as the Interfaith Amigos. With them he has authored Getting to the Heart of Interfaith: The Eye-Opening, Hope-Filled Friendship of a Pastor, a Rabbi, and an Imam, and Religion Gone Astray: What We Found at the Heart of Interfaith . Rabbi Falcon founded Makom Ohr Shalom, a Synagogue for Jewish Meditation in Los Angeles, and Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue in Seattle. He is a speaker, a writer, and a spiritual therapist in private practice.

David Blatner is an award-winning, best-selling author of 15 books on a wide range of topicsfrom aviation to digital imaging to the number pi (). Known for his easy-to-read and humorous style of writing about difficult subjects, Blatner is a Seattle-based writer whose books have sold over a half-million copies and have been translated into 14 languages. He has presented seminars in North America, Australia, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, and can be found online at 63p.com. Mr. Blatner has been a Jew his whole life.

Dedication

Ted: For my grandchildren, Ezra and Veronica, with much love.

David: To my mother, Barbara, who always encouraged me

Authors Acknowledgments

Remember the adage Never trust a book by its cover? Well, this cover has our names on it, but that only tells part of a much bigger story. Wed like to thank our many teachers, friends, family, and supporters (some of whom fall into more than one of those categories).

First, weve got to give a hand to our wives, Ruth Neuwald Falcon and Debra Carlson, whose patience and love made this grueling process bearable. Thanks, too, to the lead technical reviewer from the first edition, Rabbi Harry Zeitlin, whose wise and kind availability never failed to offer two interpretations when we had room for only one. We also relied on the wise and helpful comments of Rabbi Yossi Liebowitz and Arielle Vale.

Similarly, dozens of others such as David Morgenstern and Gabe Harbs contributed facts and figures that helped immeasurably. Thanks, too, to Rabbi Rami Shapiro and Aaron Shapiro, our great technical editors for this second edition. This book couldnt have been produced without considerable caffeine (Ted drinks decaf) from Seattles Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park. Many thanks to our agent, Reid Boates, and to the folks at Wiley, including Tracy Boggier and our excellent editor, Jennifer Moore.

David: Id like to thank David Weinstein (and his family) for dragging me to shul as a child to eat great food, as well as Lawrence Horwitz, Mordy Golding, and Glenn Fleishman for their inspiration, kind words, and help along the way. Thanks, too, to my sons Gabriel and Daniel, who love learning alongside me. And great thanks go to my coauthor, Ted, whose profound, open-hearted teaching helped me see Judaism in a new way.

Ted: I would like to thank my teachers and my students (who are often the same people) over the years, and especially my communities in Seattle and in Los Angeles, who taught me what it means to be a rabbi. My work as one of the Interfaith Amigos has deepened my appreciation for the wisdom of Judaism while at the same time celebrating the truths of other traditions, and I am grateful for the presence of Pastor Don Mackenzie and Imam Jamal Rahman in my life. And I continue to be deeply grateful for the expertise, the humor, the wisdom, and the friendship of my coauthor, David Blatner.

Publishers Acknowledgments

Were proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com . For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.