These Are the Words: A Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Life

Arthur Green, who is among the foremost scholars of Jewish spirituality, considers Judaism to be a kind of language--a "way of expressing our beliefs, longings, aspirations, dreams.... The vocabulary of Jewish life is the framework through which we hand on the past. It also provides the pegs on which we hang our hopes and dreams for the future." These Are The Words gathers Green's explanations of the basic terms of this language, from Adonai ("My Lord") to zekhut ("merit"). These 149 essays constitute a brief encyclopedia of Judaism--a helpful reminder of what the key Jewish terms mean (in a definitional sense), and of how these words shape the lives of those who speak them.