The best books about a rabbi

The practice of Zen and Judaism are like two wings of a bird. Both are needed to be able to fly. In our world where everything is in great flux, both roots and wings are necessary to live truly and fully. Both Jewish and Zen practices have enormous wisdom so relevant to our struggles today. Jewish Dharma shows how each practice illuminates, challenges, and enriches the other.

Zen is based on radical freedom, individuality, being in the present, and nonattachment. Judaism comes rooted in relationships, family, love, prayer to a Higher power, and the instruction to always remember. A Jewish heart is warm, giving, human, and devoted to family and friends. A Zen eye is fresh, direct, spontaneous, and planted in the present moment. Together they are like two wings of a bird, both are needed to be able to fly.

After centuries of virtual isolation, during which time international sea travel was forbidden outside of Japan’s immediate fishing shores, Japanese shogunal authorities in 1862 made the unprecedented decision to launch an official delegation to China by sea. Concerned by the fast-changing global environment, they had witnessed the ever-increasing number of incursions into Asia by European powers―not the least of which was Commodore Perry’s arrival in Japan in 1853–54 and the forced opening of a handful of Japanese ports at the end of the decade. 

This was the first official meeting of Chinese and Japanese in several centuries. Although the Chinese authorities agreed to few of the Japanese requests for trade relations and a consulate, nine years later China and Japan would sign the first bilateral treaty of amity in their history, a completely equal treaty. East Asia―and the diplomatic and trade relations between the region’s two major players in the modern era―would never be the same.

Kimo Kanapa'aka's world turns upside down in Mahu. At 32, he has reached the pinnacle of his profession, detective on the Honolulu Police Department's homicide squad, based at the Waikiki station. But a difficult murder case, as well as turmoil in his personal life, is about to threaten everything he has worked for.

A life-threatening drug bust in chapter 1 makes Kimo realize that it's time to stop lying to himself. He's drawn to the Rod and Reel Club, a gay bar in Waikiki, where he has a couple of beers and begins the long process of accepting his attraction to other men. Leaving the club, though, he stumbles onto two men dropping a dead body in an alley, and he launches himself into a nightmare where his private life becomes public news.

Greensborough, North Carolina, 1828. Abrahan Naggar arrives in America from the slums of East London in search of a better life. But Abe’s vision of golden opportunity are soon replaced by the grim reality of indentured servitude.

Fifty miles west, Dark Water of the Mountains, the daughter of a Cherokee chief, leads a life of solitude. Twenty years before, she renounced her family’s plans for her to marry a wealthy white man—a decision that proves fateful. And in Georgia, Jacob, a Black slave, resigns himself to a life of loss in a Cherokee city of refuge for criminals. As their stories converge, the three outsiders will witness the horrors of Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act—just as they also discover the possibility for hope. 

In 1531, British pirates captured a Spanish galleon in the New World. Caught in a violent storm, the ship drifted south to Antarctica, where the survivors built a civilization on a verdant patch of earth concealed beneath the ice. They called their new home Shalemar.

In modern day, Shara Kennington, a college student on a research mission to Antarctica, falls through a crevasse and into the hidden world, where her arrival has been foretold for 500 years. Her resolve is tested by the clash of her modern values with Shalemar’s medieval culture. Set in a land where the sun rises and sets only once each year, Shara transforms from reluctant heroine to warrior queen, battling dark forces that will stop at nothing to claim the throne.

Neely is a telepath with a deadly secret. Lucas is an alpha shifter with secrets of his own. When a homicidal alpha from Neely's past shows up threatening the people she cares about, she must put her faith in the one man she knows she can't trust in order to save them.

A highly visual fractured-fairy-tale retelling of Little Red Riding Hood (and a cat who loves cake) from Caldecott Honor–winner Barbara Lehman. With simple picture bubbles and pictograms, this is perfect for budding graphic novel readers. This playful retelling of a beloved classic is a visual delight, with references to other fairy tales hidden throughout Lehman's inviting illustrations. Master of the wordless picture book, Lehman tells a rich story using only pictures, perfect for teaching visual literacy and for young graphic novel enthusiasts.

A troubled high schooler traps a peer in an underground storage space. A traumatized felon returns home to rob the man who molested him as a child. A videogame help-line operator suspects a regular caller, obsessed with a disturbing role-playing game, of real-life misdeeds. In the title story, an unhappy couple adopts a “designer animal,” a genetic hybrid created to be the perfect pet. But the “grot” makes trouble in the neighborhood, becoming emblematic of a deeper problem. “Something is wrong with the world,” the narrator’s husband explains. “A design flaw. It’s so thoroughly corrupted, I’m not sure how to fix it.”

Inventive and unpredictable, these thirteen stories are wholly immersive, showing Sheehy at his captivating best.

As Abraham's descendants prepare to cross into the Promised Land, led by Moses, Hannah, a disillusioned midwife will be tested in more ways than she can imagine. She wants love, a home, and children but she gave up on that dream years ago. One heartbreak and humiliation was enough.

Ze-ev is God’s warrior, protecting his people. Busy doing what must be done, finding a wife is not his priority. Besides, since his childhood sweetheart married another, he lost interest in seeking a wife.When he meets Hannah, they are both tested in ways they never imagined. Will either of them let down their guard long enough to trust again?

In frank and emotionally rewarding stories, a woman recalls her life from a feminist, Jewish, and largely humorous perspective. Her stories and her prose are delightful and sometimes hilarious, illustrated with original sculptures, drawings, and photographs. "Each story is a lovingly curated memory."

Growing up the youngest in a family of multilingual refugees, where each generation spoke a different language, caused her to turn to art to express feelings for which she had no words. She has an ability to write like a bright child thinks and feels. The variety of her life’s experiences allows her to formulate insights about memory that many people would enjoy. A fulfilling, cheering, and comforting book overall, describing (the kind of) wisdom that only time can impart!