Jew­ish Text

With All Your Heart: A Shab­bat and Fes­ti­val Companion

Rab­bi Julie K. Gor­dan, ed. and trans.
  • Review
By – December 16, 2011
Like its com­pan­ion, With All Your Heart: AWeek­day Prayer Book, this is a visu­al­ly attrac­tive fam­i­ly prayer book, with appeal­ing col­or illus­tra­tions cre­at­ed by Jew­ish day school stu­dents. Designed to make cel­e­bra­tions at home, school and syn­a­gogue more acces­si­ble and mean­ing­ful,” it was cho­sen be to be a 2007 Notable Book for Young Read­ers by AJL’s Syd­ney Tay­lor Book Award Com­mit­tee. It reads from right to left, with prayers first in Hebrew, then translit­er­at­ed, then trans­lat­ed into childaccessible/​under­stand­able Eng­lish. The sec­tions are col­or cod­ed to offer com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers or fam­i­ly mem­bers visu­al cues when lead­ing, teach­ing or respond­ing. The book con­tains an expla­na­tion of Tzedakah; rit­u­als asso­ci­at­ed with Erev Shab­bat, Shab­bat morn­ing, Hav­dalah, bed­time, and hol­i­days; Shab­bat and fes­ti­val bless­ings; a guide to Torah study for the whole fam­i­ly; sources for prayers and songs; and both a short­ened and a com­plete ver­sion of the Birkat Hama­zon, The Bless­ing after Meals. High­ly rec­om­mend­ed for all ages, it con­veys a joy­ous mes­sage: learn­ing the struc­ture and mean­ing of the rit­u­als and prayers will add to our enjoy­ment of cel­e­brat­ing Shab­bat and the Jew­ish festivals.
Andrea David­son is the librar­i­an of The Tem­ple-Tifer­eth Israel in Beach­wood, Ohio. She holds an M.L.S. from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan and is a for­mer mem­ber of the Syd­ney Tay­lor Book Awards Com­mit­tee. She enjoys try­ing out the books she reviews on the kids at the Tem­ple and on her grandchildren.

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