Sue Elwell

Chapters of the Heart: Jewish Women Sharing the Torah of Our Lives Sue Elwell

Brief Description: Chapters of the Heart: Jewish Women Sharing the Torah of Our Lives invites readers into the lives of twenty women for whom Jewish language and texts provide a lens for understanding their experiences. The authors don't just use religious words (texts, theologies, or liturgies) like a cookbook. Instead they serve readers something closer to a real meal, prepared with love and intention. Each essay shares one piece of its writer's heart, one chapter of experience as refracted through the author's particular Jewish optic. The authors write about being daughters, mothers, sisters, partners, lovers, and friends. They share their experiences of parenting, infertility, and abortion. One describes accompanying her young husband through his life-threatening illness. Another tells of her daughter's struggle with an eating disorder. Still another reflects on long decline of a parent with Alzheimer's. All these writers wrestle with Jewish texts while growing as rabbis, as feminists, and as interfaith leaders. They open their hearts and minds, telling when Jewish tradition has helped make meaning and, on occasion, when it has come up empty. The results are sometimes inspiring, sometimes provocative. Readers will find new insights into God, into Judaism, and into themselves. Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-199).; Chapters of the Heart invites readers into the lives of twenty women for whom Jewish language and texts provide a lens for understanding their experiences. The authors don't just use religious words (texts, theologies, or liturgies) like a cookbook. Instead they serve readers something closer to a real meal, prepared with love and intention. Each essay shares one piece of its writer's heart, one chapter of experience as refracted through the author's particular Jewish optic. The authors write about being daughters, mothers, sisters, partners, lovers, and friends. They share their experiences of parenting, infertility, and abortion. One describes accompanying her young husband through his life-threatening illness. Another tells of her daughter's struggle with an eating disorder. Still another reflects on long decline of a parent with Alzheimer's. All these writers wrestle with Jewish texts while growing as rabbis, as feminists, and as interfaith leaders. They open their hearts and minds, telling when Jewish tradition has helped make meaning and, on occasion, when it has come up empty. The results are sometimes inspiring, sometimes provocative.--Publisher's web site. Table of Contents: Gratitude -- Introduction -- Abbreviations -- I. All the Days of Our Lives (Psalm 27:4) -- 1. A Life with Things / Vanessa L. Ochs -- 2. On Raising a Son: One Mothers Search for Wisdom / Hara E. Person -- 3. Between Sisters / Ellen M. Umansky -- 4. The Face under the Huppah: Relating to My Closest Stranger / Nancy Fuchs Kreimer -- 5. Loving Our Mothers / Vivian Mayer -- 6. Portals to Sacred Family Life / Julie Greenberg -- II. From the Narrow Places (Psalm 118:5) -- 7. Sing, O Barren One: Ambushed by a Hysterectomy at A Twenty-Six / Ellen Frankel -- 8. El Na Refa Na La: Please, God, Heal My Daughter! / Amy Eilberg -- 9. Facing Pain, Facing My Fears / Ruth H. Sohn -- 10. My Mother as a Ruined City: Insights from the Book of Lamentations / Rachel Adler -- 11. Wrestling with God and Evil / Judith Plaskow -- III. Opening the Gates (Psalm 118:19) -- 12. In the Right Time: Reflections on an Abortion / Sue Levi Elwell -- 13. My Life as a Talking Horse: Hybridity and Gender Equity as Jewish Values / Wendy Zierler -- 14. My Interfaith Friendships: Blessings and Challenges / Blu Greenberg -- 15. The Remembrance of These Things: War, Occupation, Parsley, Bitter Herb / Margaret Holub -- IV. Be Still and Know (Psalm 46:10) -- 16. Shattering and Rebirth: My Midlife Gap Year / Dayle A. Friedman -- 17. Letting Go and Drawing Close / Laura Geller -- 18. Leaving Egypt Again: Aging with Awareness / Sheila Peltz Weinberg -- 19. A Heart So Broken It Melts Like Water / Barbara Eve Breitman -- 20. With the Song of Songs in Our Hearts / Tamara Cohn Eskenazi -- Biographies of Contributors -- Authors' Endnotes -- Glossary. Publisher Marketing: About the Contributor(s): Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, who works for the Reform movement as a congregational consultant, edited Lesbian Rabbis (2001) and The Open Door (2002). Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer is the founding director of the Department of Multifaith Studies and Initiatives at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She blogs at www.multifaithworld.org/ and is the author of Parenting as a Spiritual Journey (1998).

Contributor Bio:  Elwell, Sue Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, who works for the Reform movement as a congregational consultant, edited Lesbian Rabbis (2001) and The Open Door (2002). Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer is the founding director of the Department of Multifaith Studies and Initiatives at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She blogs at www.multifaithworld.org/ and is the author of Parenting as a Spiritual Journey (1998). Contributor Bio:  Kreimer, Nancy Fuchs Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, who works for the Reform movement as a congregational consultant, edited Lesbian Rabbis (2001) and The Open Door (2002). Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer is the founding director of the Department of Multifaith Studies and Initiatives at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She blogs at www.multifaithworld.org/ and is the author of Parenting as a Spiritual Journey (1998).