Hasidic Judaism

As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. Yet in spite of her repressive upbringing, Deborah grew into an independent-minded young woman whose stolen moments reading about the empowered literary characters of Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott helped her to imagine an alternative way of life among the skyscrapers of Manhattan.

From a multitude of sources, Elie Wiesel culls facts, legends, and anecdotes to give us fascinating portraits of notable figures throughout Jewish history. Here is the prophet Elisha, wonder-worker and adviser to kings, whose compassion for those in need is matched only by his fiery temper. Here is the renowned scholar Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, whose ingenuity in escaping from a besieged Jerusalem on the eve of its destruction by Roman legions in 70 CE laid the foundation for the rab­binic teachings and commentaries that revolutionized the practice and study of Judaism.

In Uncovered, Leah Lax tells her story - beginning as a young teen who left her liberal, secular home for life as a Hasidic Jew and ending as a 40-something woman who has to abandon the only world she's known for 30 years in order to achieve personal freedom.

Hasidic and Ethical Teachings from Grand Rabbi Yechiel Yehoshua Rabinowitz, the Biala Rebbe zy"a

What is authentic Kabbalah? What did the Chassidic teachings innovate? Finally, a book that introduces and explains the most basic precepts of this ancient wisdom, in a practical, user-friendly way. Through the 32 Gates of awareness, from The Infinite Source of all life - to finite, immediate creation, Rav Pinson guides us along the map of creation and existence according to the deeper teachings of Torah.

Simcha Raz has the unique ability to gather profound Jewish teachings from many places and deposit the sweetness and beauty of this Jewish wisdom into outstanding collections. Now in their seventh book together, Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins presents the English edition of Simcha Raz’s collection of wisdom and tales from the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism. Yisrael son of Eliezer was born in 1698 in the village of Okopy, Ukraine, in the Carpathian Mountains. In 1735, he revealed himself as a “Baal Shem” – a master of special qualities appropriate for performing miracles. Soon he ...

A Hasidic Jewish woman who is past prime marrying age and unhappy with her life meets a nice single guy her age working at a supermarket. He isn't Jewish but she agrees to go out on a date with him.

Inside the hidden world of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn's Crown Heights--a close-knit but divided community. On a cold night in December, the members of a Hasidic anti-crime patrol called the Shomrim are summoned to a yeshiva dormitory in Crown Heights. There to break up a brawl, the Shomrim instead find themselves embroiled in a religious schism which has split the community and turned roommate against roommate, neighbor against neighbor. At the center of the storm is Aron Hershkop....