These Are the Words: A Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Life

While writing this book, Green (Your Word Is Fire) asked himself: ""What are the most essential terms that an educated Jewish seeker needs to know? What is the basic vocabulary of the Jewish spiritual life?"" As he began his vocabulary list, he tried to limit it to 100 terms to correspond to the Jewish tradition of reciting 100 blessings each day. But the list grew, and he eventually included 148 Hebrew words fundamental to Jewish spirituality. Green contends that for Judaism, language constitutes the basic vocabulary of ""religious/communal identity"" and provides a ""rootedness in the many centuries of cultural life that have come before us."" The book is divided into seven sections: ""God and Worlds Above,"" ""Torah: Text and Process,"" ""Religious Practice,"" ""Spiritual Life,"" ""Community,"" ""Holy Things"" and ""Holy Times, Holy Seasons."" In each section, Green offers brief meditations on various Hebrew terms that are central to the understanding and practice of Jewish life in that specific area. Each meditation uses the Torah as well as rabbinic and other historical sources to trace the ways in which the use of the chosen words have developed in Judaism. In the Religious Practice section, for example, in his reflection on ""Bar Mitzvah/Bat Mitzvah,"" Green first discusses the original meaning of the phrase. He then shows how the practice developed in the 1920s to include lavish parties, and finally he discusses the way that Mordechai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, instituted the bat mitzvah, a kind of bar mitzvah for girls. Green's lively prose introduces readers to the living character of these foundational Hebrew terms. (June)