Presents stories of heroic individuals from the Talmud and Midrash.

This collection gives the reader a taste of the thousands of stories one can find in the treasure house of rabbinic literature. Some of these stories are humorous, some mysteriuos, some tense with drama or adventure, some filled with the joy of a miracle and the beauty of faith. All of these stories come from either the Talmud or the Midrash. This collection shows that these rabbinical stories are not old and outdated, but alive and timeless, for future generations to continue to enjoy.

Retells a folktale in which Lailah, a guardian angel, places the indentation that everyone has on the upper lip just before a baby is born.

The stories in this book have become part of the legacy that links both the written tradition (the Torah) and the oral tradition (the Talmud) to the Jewish people.

The Rabbis of old believed that the Torah was divinely revealed and therefore contained eternal, perfect truths and hidden meaning that required elucidation. The meaning of a text was more complicated than simply reading it. And meaning changed over time. This understanding of how the Bible mystically relates to all of life is the fertile ground from which midrash emerged. "The rabbis believed that nothing in the Bible, not the choice of words or their spellings, not the order of events or the relationship of one text to another, was haphazard or inconsequential. Everything was there with purpose. They deemed it their reponsibility to discover connections and harmony where on the surface none appeared to exist. A text may contain multiple meanings. Time is of no consequence. They felt free to read back into old stories what happened in future eras, and to see in the early stories of Genesis a foreshadowing of future events." In this engaging book, Rabbi Sasso explores how midrash originated, how it is still used today, and offers new translations and interpretations of more than twenty essential midrash texts.

Everyone and everything in the world has a name. What is God’s name? In poetic text and vibrant illustrations, this modern fable celebrates the diversity and, at the same time, the unity of all people. “God must have a single name this greater and more powerful than all other names.” All the people of the world set out to find God’s name ... and each of the many seekers is sure that he or she alone has found the right name, the only name, for God. Finally, they come together—and at last learn what God’s name really is. In God’s Name is a spiritual celebration of all people of the world and their belief in one God.

The rabbis of old believed that the Torah was divinely revealed and therefore contained eternal, perfect truths and hidden meaning that required elucidation. The meaning of a text was more complicated than simply reading it. And meaning changed over time. This understanding of how the Bible mystically relates to all of life is the fertile ground from which Midrash emerged. Rabbi Sasso explores how Midrash originated, how it is still used today, and offers new translations and interpretations of more than twenty essential Midrash texts.