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From Joshua to Caiaphas: High Priests After the Exile by James VanderKam (Augsburg Fortress Publishers) For a relatively thorough account of Second Temple Judaism, VanderKam’s work is likely to become a well regarded version of this seminal period in Jewish and Christian studies of origins. More

Justice Matters: Legacies of the Holocaust and World War II by Mona Sue Weissmark (Oxford University Press) In the grim litany of twentieth-century geno­cides, few events cut a broader and more lasting swath through humanity than the Holocaust. How then would the offspring of Nazis and survivors react to the idea of reestablishing a relationship? Could they talk to each other without open hostility? Could they even attempt to imagine the experiences and outlook of the other? Would they be willing to abandon their self-definition as aggrieved victims as a means of moving forward? More

Environment in Jewish Law: Essays and Responsa edited by Walter Jacob, Moshe Zemer (Studies in Progressive Halakhah, 12:  Berghahn Books) Environmental concerns are at the top of the agenda around the world. There is hardly a newscast or a newspaper that does not mention them on a daily basis. The issues range from the chang­ing global climate to how those changes affect a nearly extinct owl in the forests of the western United States . Global climate change is a worldwide phenomenon, but concern on such as air quality in congested cities will differ greatly in Los Angeles and Mogadishu . Thus some responses to environmental problems need to be inter-national or national, while others will be highly localized. More

A Day of Gladness: The Sabbath Among Jews and Christians in Antiquity by Herold Weiss ( University of South Carolina Press ) compares the ways in which Christians and Jews of antiquity viewed the Sabbath. Rather than attending to the minutiae of its observance among Jews or its connection with Sunday observance among Christians, he examines major extant texts for the fundamental religious concerns of their authors and communities, particularly how those concerns shaped their thoughts about the Sabbath. Weiss contends that the wide spectrums of theological beliefs illustrate the internal diversities of these two faiths as well as their commonalities. More

Not to Worry: Jewish Wisdom and Folklore by Michele Klein (Jewish Publication Society) What Jewish history and wisdom teach us about coping with worry.
Michele Klein brings her training in psychology to the notion of worry -- the normal, everyday angst that we all feel to varying degrees. She explores the ways in which Jews have experienced, expressed, and coped with it since biblical times, and right up to the post-9/11 present.
The book addresses such questions as What is worry? Why, when and how do all of us do it? Is it a "Jewish" thing? Is it avoidable, and is it all bad? How can we turn our tendency to worry into a positive force in our lives?
Not to Worry explains how Jewish tradition can teach us about psychological strength, creative thinking, and peace of mind. Klein shows how Jewish wisdom and centuries-old, finely honed coping skills -- including prayer, wisdom from the Sages, meditation, mysticism and dream interpretation, music, and humor -- can give us the courage to face a world that often appears threatening and uncertain.

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