After being introduced by a mutual friend in the winter of 2000, Reform Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch and Orthodox Rabbi Yosef Reinman embarked on an unprecedented eighteen-month e-mail correspondence on the fundamental principles of Jewish faith and practice. What resulted is this book: an honest, intelligent, no-holds-barred discussion of virtually every “hot button” issue on which Reform and Orthodox Jews differ, among them the existence of a Supreme Being, the origins and authenticity of the Bible and the Oral Law, the role of women, assimilation, the value of secular culture, and Israel. Sometimes they agree; more often than not they disagree—and quite sharply, too. But the important thing is that, as they keep talking to each other, they discover that they actually like each other, and, above all, they respect each other. Their journey from mutual suspicion to mutual regard is an extraordinary one; from it, both Jews and non-Jews of all backgrounds can learn a great deal about the practice of Judaism today and about the continuity of the Jewish people into the future.
One Love, Two Worlds: First Visit is about the discovery of another world through the unknowing help of a trance medium. The words are transcribed off of actual audio tapes from the other world. Sadie is a very old spirit but appears to the children she meets as a 12-year-old. Author Ian T Howard says that when Sadie talks to him, she says she loves to help children cross over to the spirit world. This book is the adaption from audio talks with Sadie which have been made into stories. Ian says, I was asked on one of the tapes to write these things. One evening, a man's voice came through and asked me to do so. The spirit told him: You do need to be writing. You will write the words to help others to understand why they are here on this physical plain and you will help them to get on with their lives and live it in the right way. You will have to reach out to many people. The author notes, This was the first contact that let me know that I had to write up these recordings. It is a hard task where I have to listen to the recording, then, transfer to the written word, at the same time make it so that it is understood. The rest I will leave up to you, the reader. Author Ian Howard's next book is a sequel. He is retired and lives with his wife just north of Leicester, England. Publisher's website: http: //www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/OneLoveTwoWorlds-FirstVisit.htm
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the expanding Russian empire was embroiled in a dramatic confrontation with the nomadic people known as the Kalmyks who had moved westward from Inner Asia onto the vast Caspian and Volga steppes. Drawing on an unparalleled body of Russian and Turkish sources--including chronicles, epics, travelogues, and previously unstudied Ottoman archival materials--Michael Khodarkovsky offers a fresh interpretation of this long and destructive conflict, which ended with the unruly frontier becoming another province of the Russian empire.Khodarkovsky first sketches a cultural anthropology of the Kalmyk tribes, focusing on the assumptions they brought to the interactions with one another and with the sedentary cultures they encountered. In light of this portrait of Kalmyk culture and internal politics, Khodarkovsky rereads from the Kalmyk point of view the Russian history of disputes between the two peoples. Whenever possible, he compares Ottoman accounts of these events with the Russian sources on which earlier interpretations have been based. Khodarkovsky's analysis deepens our understanding of the history of Russian expansion and establishes a new paradigm for future study of the interaction between the Russians and the non-Russian peoples of Central Asia and Transcaucasia.
After a mysterious vision, MetamorphoÑthe Element Man, gifted with the ability to transform into any form of matterÑhas been set free from his prisonÉand all hell has broken loose. Breaking out of the chains of ruthless industrialist Simon Stagg, MetamorphoÕs on the runÑwith StaggÕs brilliant daughter, Sapphire, by his side. Now theyÕre in a race to recover the Orb of Ra, the ancient alien artifact that gave Rex his incredible powers. But theyÕre not the only ones on the hunt! If Kanjar Ro and his army of space pirates get their hands on the Orb, entire planets will fall before his wrath. Can Metamorpho save two worlds? Or is the Element Man about to be atomized forever? Find out in METAMORPHO, an epic saga of magic, science and the thin line between them, from writer and artist Aaron Lopresti! Collects the Metamorpho stories from LEGENDS OF TOMORROW #1-6.
In Alan Lightman's new book, a verse narrative, we meet a man who has lost his faith in all things following a mysterious personal tragedy. After decades of living "hung like a dried fly," emptied and haunted by his past, the narrator awakens one morning revitalized and begins a Dante-like journey to find something to believe in, first turning to t
An Indigenous teen girl is caught between two worlds, both real and virtual, in the YA fantasy debut from bestselling Indigenous author Wab Kinew. Perfect for fans of Ready Player One and the Otherworld series. In the real world, Bugz is a shy and self-conscious Indigenous teen who faces the stresses of teenage angst and life on the Rez. But in the virtual world, her alter ego is not just confident but dominant in a massively multiplayer video game universe. Feng is a teen boy who has been sent from China to live with his aunt, a doctor on the Rez, after his online activity suggests he may be developing extremist sympathies. Meeting each other in real life, as well as in the virtual world, Bugz and Feng immediately relate to each other as outsiders and as avid gamers. And as their connection is strengthened through their virtual adventures, they find that they have much in common in the real world, too: both must decide what to do in the face of temptations and pitfalls, and both must grapple with the impacts of family challenges and community trauma. But betrayal threatens everything Bugz has built in the virtual world, as well as her relationships in the real world, and it will take all her newfound strength to restore her friendship with Feng and reconcile the parallel aspects of her life: the traditional and the mainstream, the east and the west, the real and the virtual.