Rebbe Nachman said, "The world is a very narrow bridge. The main thing is not to be afraid." This upbeat, down-to-earth book gives clear, detailed guidance for applying Rebbe Nachman's teachings to our everyday lives. Exploring a broad range of topics - from joy, peace and charity to earning a living, taking care of one's health, and raising children - this work answers many of the practical and technical questions that puzzle those who are making their first acquaintance with Breslov teachings.
“A book that looks at existence with equal measures of fear, humility and gratitude. In a time when novelists tend to be more concerned with psychology than the soul, that makes it a rare and valuable thing.” --Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal From the author of Mr. Eternity, a darkly comic road novel about a millennial couple facing the ultimate question: how to live and love in an age of catastrophe. Young Miami couple Murphy and Eva have almost decided to have a baby when Yahweh, the Old Testament God, appears to Eva and makes an unwelcome demand: He wants her to be his prophet. He also wants her to manage his social media presence. Yahweh sends the two on a wild road trip across the country, making incomprehensible demands and mandating arcane rituals as they go. He gives them a hundred million dollars, but he asks them to use it to build a temple on top of a landfill. He forces them to endure a period of Biblical wandering in the deserts of the southwest. Along the way they are continually mistaken for another couple, a pair of North Carolina society people, and find themselves attending increasingly bizarre events in their names. At odds with their mission but helpless to disobey, Murphy and Eva search their surroundings for signs of a future they can have faith in. Through wry observations about the biggest things--cosmology and theology--and the smallest things--the joys and irritations of daily life--Thier questions the mysterious forces that shape our fates, and wonders how much free will we really have. Equal parts hilarious and poignant, The World Is a Narrow Bridge asks: What kind of hope can we pass on to the next generation in a frightening but beautiful world?
Why did Rebbe Nachman's followers never choose another rebbe? How has the Breslov Movement survived and flourished for over 180 years without a dynasty of rebbes? To find the answer, meet Reb Noson -- Rabbi Noson Sternhartz (1780-1844), Rebbe Nachman's closest disciple, who devoted his life to bringing the Rebbe's message of faith, hope and joy out into the world. A young rabbinic scholar, and astute businessman as well, what made Reb Noson feel his life was empty and futile? What drove him to persevere in the face of familial opposition in order to follow Rebbe Nachman? What powered him to singlehandedly print the Rebbe's books and fire a new generation of chassidim in the face of relentless persecution, a gruesome assassination attempt, and a campaign to have him sent to Siberia? This thoroughly-researched biography will keep you absorbed for hours as you relive Reb Noson's life with him step by step. Includes full background information, appendices, maps and indices. Also available in Hebrew.
They came from different parts of the old British Empire: Alistair Randall from Kenya and Rashid Hassan from India. Perhaps, they should have been enemies, but they were not. It was a defining moment in Alistairs life when he sat on the floor across from Rashid one cold winters day in Edmonton in 1969, and Rashid spoke with unsmiling logic about the need to shoot Alistair. But before that collision there was Jenadie MacIlwaine; without her Alistair would not have met Rashid. Telling a story set mostly on the campus of Capilano College in the 1960s, Crossing Second Narrows narrates the interplay among this unlikely triangle of characters who believed they could change the world: Alistair, the liberal white migr from postMau Mau Kenya; Rashid, the self-styled, dark-skinned Marxist from India; and Jenadie, the outspoken American blonde in the middle. It provides a historically accurate account of the searching for answers to the questions of the times: Why did the conservative universities try to squash innovative upstart community institutions? Why did the students and faculty at British Columbias fledgling Simon Fraser University militantly go on strike? How did these become literally life-and-death issues in a world stripped of its comfortable traditions, including, on occasion, clothing? In Crossing Second Narrows, author Bill Schermbrucker uses what Michael Ondaatje once described as the truth of fiction, to reconstruct an important story out of the heady Age of Aquarius.
Preliminary material -- INTRODUCTION -- DELIMITATION AND MORPHOLOGY OF THE PHENOMENON -- A HISTORICAL FALLACY: THE THEORIES OF THE “RELIGIONSGESCHICHTLICHE SCHULE” -- A CHALLENGE: THE THEORY OF THE GREEK ORIGINS -- THE ORIGINS OF THE APOCALYPTIC GENRE -- THE CELESTIAL ESCHATOLOGY AND ITS TRANSFORMATIONS -- THE MYTHS OF PLUTARCH -- THE PASSAGE OF THE SOUL THROUGH THE SPHERES -- FROM THE JEWISH APOCALYPSES TO THE MI'RAJ -- PROBLEMS CONCERNING THE MEDIEV AL APOCALYPSES -- NOTES TO CHAPTER ONE -- INDEX NOMINUM RERUMQUE.
Distributed Systems: An Algorithmic Approach, Second Edition provides a balanced and straightforward treatment of the underlying theory and practical applications of distributed computing. As in the previous version, the language is kept as unobscured as possible—clarity is given priority over mathematical formalism. This easily digestible text: Features significant updates that mirror the phenomenal growth of distributed systems Explores new topics related to peer-to-peer and social networks Includes fresh exercises, examples, and case studies Supplying a solid understanding of the key principles of distributed computing and their relationship to real-world applications, Distributed Systems: An Algorithmic Approach, Second Edition makes both an ideal textbook and a handy professional reference.
