#BringThemHomeNow

Books

Find all of Rabbi Creditor's books on Bookshop.org!



co-edited with Dr. Ora Horn Prouser

Pesach (Passover) is one of the holidays that is most widely celebrated in the Jewish community. This year, as so many are struggling with the events of October 7, the tragic suffering of Israeli hostages, and the rise of Antisemitism in the United States and beyond, the texts and observances of Passover are open to new and difficult meanings, new interpretation, and deep connections. How are we thinking about the definition of freedom this year? How do we read Vehi She’amdah this year as we see on a daily basis those who “seek our destruction”? What is the new meaning in L’shanah Haba’ah B’yerushalayim as many in the American Jewish community are strengthening connections to Israel? What will we be thinking during Shfoch Chamat'cha when we struggle with the concept of calling for God’s anger against our enemies? Seder Interrupted is a timely resource for the Jewish community that will help us all to process and celebrate Pesach 2024/5784 – finding joy and allowing ourselves to experience sadness, and connecting to the Divine and each other, perhaps in different ways in the new world we are experiencing.



The great Israeli poet Lea Goldberg (1911-1970) once said that "it is not only permissible for a poet to write a love poem in times of war, but a necessity." It is in that spirit that this volume of love letters from 14 poets to Am Yisrael, the Jewish People, emerged in the months since October 7, 2023, the worst day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. The poems in "To Write of Love During War" demonstrate with eloquence and raw emotionality the wounded heart, inspired defiance, and resilient spirit of the Jewish People in a very difficult time.


Am Yisrael Chai is a Two-Volume emergency response anthology of voices from all over the world, grieving and writhing from the horrors perpetrated upon the State of Israel on Simchat Torah 5784, October 7, 2023. Unfathomably terrible images are now forever emblazoned in our eyes, spread through social media where children have seen them as well. We bear witness. We must. This is a book of testimony and recollection, response and prayer. In the immediate aftermath of trauma, one cannot be expected to be thoughtful, mindful, creative. And yet this Two-Volume collection of soulful and eloquent expressions of pain and Global Jewish Solidarity makes the choice of title for this collection even more clear, and emphatic: Am Yisrael Chai! (Reviewed at JewishForwardJewishSF)



The essays in this volume span four tumultuous years of human history, interpreted by Rabbi Menachem Creditor, recognized as one of the most influential rabbis in America. From global pandemic to the January 6th Insurrection, from racial injustice to antisemitism, from political/social polarization to the resurgence of populism, Rabbi Creditor offers spiritual response, lighting the path forward with hope, wisdom, and strength. Yes, this was a harsh and scary time, but there was beauty too. The Consequences of Listening are many. One of them, thanks to this soulful voice, is the possibility of an inspired life.


Paperback: amazon.com/dp/B0BYFTWLMD

Through the technology of OpenAI ChatGPT, diverse voices from throughout history and culture are brought back to life, each generated to reflect on a Torah portion through the unique prism of their life's recorded work. The only consciously written component of the book are Rabbi Creditor's introduction and conclusion, reflecting on the project itself. Be fascinated and confused as you explore what this all means in the world of Torah and Jewish meaning-making. (Related essays here and here.)


Foreword by Fred Guttenberg

For over a decade, Rabbi Menachem Creditor's leadership of Rabbis Against Gun Violence has inspired the American Jewish community's religious leadership to mobilize in response to the American Gun Violence epidemic. Here, gathered in one place for the first time, are all of Rabbi Creditor's essays, poems, and prayers, writings described by American Jewish social justice warrior Ruth Messinger, "as if he sat at his desk, slit open his heart and poured his feelings onto the page." This book is important, but it is, above all, a spiritual cry for a world in which it would never have been necessary in the first place.

Fault Lines: Exploring the complicated place of Progressive American Jewish Zionism
co-edited with Amanda Berman

paperback link: amazon.com/dp/B0977X1NLS

It can be very lonely to stand in the world as an advocate for multiple commitments many consider incompatible. One such hybrid stance is Progressive Zionism, deemed racist by many American Progressives and considered suspect (or naïve) by many American Zionists. Those zero-sum approaches of extremist politics and "cancel culture" make even less imaginable a better day for Israelis and Palestinians, for Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews, and for Jewish Republicans and Jewish Democrats. Zionism commits to Theodor Herzl's two-fold vision: securing the right of the Jewish people to a state of our own AND building a national home worthy of Judaism's multi-millennia ethical legacy. The diverse voices collected in "Fault Lines" explore the unique and often-lonely experience of American Jews within all the worlds they consider home. (Reviewed at JewishInsider)



"Everything feeds into Rabbi Creditor’s observations about the world and about the soul. He is a Magid, a storyteller, and a Musarnick, a moral counselor and advisor. Menachem Creditor is a Rabbi. These are not essays that demand to be read in sequence but they demand to be read with seriousness. Don’t get me wrong — they are not difficult to read or to understand. But each one has many levels, and you can skip from one part to the other and find your appreciation deepening with each reading. The Talmud teaches, in one of its most beautiful and fanciful statements, that behind each blade of grass is an angel that whispers ‘grow.’ Behind each essay here is the same whisper, urging us to grow. Only it does not come from an angel; it comes from a Rabbi. Read, and grow." - from the Foreword by Rabbi David Wolpe (Click here for videos of the book tour.)

Paperback: amazon.com/dp/B0848W626Q)
Kindle: amazon.com/dp/B0848L9ZDG)

With essays from a diverse group of Jewish leaders, "Loud, Proud, and Jewish" explores an unapologetic Jewish Pride that stands within and for - not against - the world, even in this moment of Jewish vulnerability and growing antisemitism. Read and be inspired! 

A Year of Torah
Beginning the morning of March 18, 2020, UJA-Federation of NY Scholar in Residence Rabbi Menachem Creditor began broadcasting a 15-minute daily opportunity for the New York Jewish community to come together and start each day with learning and inspiration. Born as a timely, local response to the dislocating impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic, these broadcasts quickly grew into an unprecedented online Jewish learning platform, engaging people from all around New York and spanning the globe, reaching as far as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Holland, England, India, Canada, and beyond. Regular participants became more than 'viewers' over the months; they coalesced into a new form of community, centered on sharing Torah and personal moments every day. To mark the completion of learning the entire Torah together, Rabbi Creditor convened rabbinical students representing the amazing diversity of American Jewish expression to each study two weeks of the broadcast and express the core ideas in their own voice, which Rabbi Creditor then edited into this special volume. This contemporary Torah commentary is testimony to the kind souls who turned screens into portals every day, and who built something sacred together during a very difficult time. (Reviewed at ejPhilanthropy)





When We Turned Within: Reflections on COVID-19
co-edited with Sarah Tuttle-Singer

Vol 1: (Paperback: amazon.com/dp/B089TS37YP)
Vol 1: (Kindle: amazon.com/dp/B089WGB8ZZ)

Vol 2: (Paperback: amazon.com/dp/B08L9S68T4
Vol 2: (Kindle: amazon.com/dp/B08LDYZNKP)

These books are much more than a record of loss. They are a collection of reflections, prayers, and poems of 165 individual souls who collectively tell the story of right now with depth and heart and startling brilliance. On these pages you will find honest testimony of a very difficult time on our planet. Be inspired by these voices and see patterns emerge, feel the pain and longing and hope and faith and frustration and loneliness and transcendence of each contribution. When We Turned Within will help you believe once again that all people share a common humanity, that our souls bind us together, that a better day is possible. (Reviewed at Jewish Book Council, LA Jewish Journal.) (book talk at MyJewishLearning .com)

co-edited with Rabbi Rachel Timoner, Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein, and Rabbi Michelle Dardashti

Paperback: 
amazon.com/All-Who-Can-Protest-Rabbinic/dp/B0B4SZYT6T

How can this be? Over and over and over and over, we are shocked to our cores by mass shooting after mass shooting after mass shooting. Or, even worse, we become less shocked. We must heed the teaching of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who wrote, "When I see an act of evil, I'm not accommodated. I don't accommodate myself to the violence that goes on everywhere; I'm still surprised. That's why I'm against it, why I can hope against it. We must learn how to be surprised. Not to adjust ourselves.” In the aftermath of recent mass shootings in 2022, including at the Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and at a Taiwanese church in Laguna Woods, California, ALL WHO CAN PROTEST documents the ongoing call of American Jewish Rabbinic leadership to END THE AMERICAN GUN VIOLENCE EPIDEMIC.


Honey from the Rock:A Pandemic-Era Rabbinic Anthology
Foreword by Betsy Stone, PhD
Afterword by Rabbi Jeffrey Arnowitz


Paperback: amazon.com/dp/B09WKHSZPZ
ebook: amazon.com/dp/B09WKKL2J9

For 2 years, the COVID-19 pandemic redefined life itself in every corner of the world. No one could have imagined the immensity of our losses, nor could anyone have foreseen the new possibilities that have emerged as a result of communal and individual relocation. Rabbis have joined the armies of angels responding to all of this, channeling the best of Jewish tradition to support their communities and make meaning of the world we share. New technologies have extended the reach of religious leaders far beyond the physical boundaries of community that once felt more defined, and their soulful offerings have helped countless others feel less alone. Honey from the Rock is an anthology of reflective writings from within the rabbinic community, representing a true diversity of voices, grounded and vulnerable, inspiring and honest, published in order to amplify the meaning and comfort rabbis have offered during a very difficult time in human history.

Foreword by Rabbi Angela Buchdahl

On Saturday, January 15, 2022, a gunman held 4 members of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas hostage. Thanks to emergency training and brave action taken by their rabbi, they escaped with their lives. In the days following the attack, the wisdom and words of America's rabbis offered not answers but presence, not resolution but resilience. Yes, the Talmudic sages were correct: more recent troubles cause the earlier troubles to be forgotten. The horrific attack on Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas made other woes somehow feel smaller. Not forgotten, but smaller. The entire Jewish world united in prayer in multi-thousand zoom-vigils that very long Saturday night. “Jewish Resistance” is both a multivocal commentary on Parashat Yitro (the Torah portion that followed the attack) and also an exquisite collection of modern sages making meaning of the imponderable.


co-edited with Rabbi Jesse Olitzky

We will forever remember the events of January 6, 2021. We also understand that, just like Torah, there is power in collective memory. This is especially true considering that we may remember the events of this day differently, each of us reflecting on it using our own eyes, hearts – and our unique choices of words. (Book reading hosted by Zioness.)


As long as human beings have existed, questions have too. The stability of home, the pursuits of justice and sacred meaning, the horrors of violence and the dangers of political corruption, all of this is not new. But the speed of it all – and our immediate exposure to its breakneck pace – that’s new. These essays explore today's world through the heart and mind of one of America's leading rabbis as he helps us ask our questions and seek our answers. [click here]

Paperback: amazon.com/dp/1797559079
ebook: amazon.com/dp/B09Z8YNCQX

Rabbis Against Gun Violence, a coalition of over 1,600 American faith leaders, feels a fierce moral imperative to move beyond moments of silence and prayer and into action. We use our rabbinic voice to educate and advocate for positive, achievable solutions, such as legislative and legal measures, intervention strategies and culture change. Jewish tradition believes in a world without violence, a world the prophet Micah described where "every person will sit under their own vine and fig tree, and none shall make them afraid." We will join together with allies of all kinds, committed to the work it will take to see that day in our children's lifetimes. [click here]


Holding Fast: Jews Respond to American Gun Violence
On October 27, 2018, a domestic terrorist murdered 11 Jews during Shabbat services at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. This was both the worst Anti-Semitic attack in America's history and the 12th shooting massacre at an American house of worship in 3 years. Too much blood has spilled, killing upwards of 30,000 Americans every year. The Pittsburgh Shooting Massacre was both Jewish trauma and American blasphemy. The voices assembled in this collection - teens, rabbis, and others - reflect a particular Jewish experience of hatred as well as the understanding that the United States of America is in the midst of a Gun Violence epidemic that violates both sanctuary and street. Every Shabbat Jews pray "It is a Tree of Life for all who hold fast to it." We hold fast to each other - fellow ravaged citizens - as we cry out for more than the necessary healing. We demand an end to the ongoing Gun Violence Epidemic plaguing our nation. [click here]

“Thousands of years ago, the Hebrew people were brutally enslaved in Egypt. The story of their redemption from bondage has planted in our collective American consciousness the deepest human truth: that though we suffer, the trajectory of history moves from slavery to freedom, darkness to light, narrowness to expansiveness. Like Egypt, our country dwells today in narrow straits. But we are not powerless. We are armed us a blueprint for spiritual resistance: the marriage of radical empathy and moral action. Sometimes—maybe once in a generation—a spirit of resistance is awakened at the intersection of love, faith and holy outrage. In those moments, we are reminded what we’re fighting for, what our armed forces are willing to die for, what this country was built for and what our flag flies for: liberty and justice, for all. This is one of those sacred moments.” – Rabbi Sharon Brous 

To Banish Darkness: Modern Reflections on Hanukkah

Channukah, the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, celebrates the power of light to banish darkness and tells the story of a vulnerable people's dedication. This collection of dynamic American Jewish leaders adds contemporary meaning to the messages and symbols of an ancient ritual. [click here]

yes, my child: poems
"Rabbi Creditor is a poet of the soul. These prayer/poems will break your heart open, shining a light that runs from the core of the world through the depths of our pain to the heights of our joy. The book is a portal; it's author, a visionary." - Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit ArtsonDean, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, American Jewish University [click here]

Intense Beginnings (Selected Writings 2014)
“Now, perhaps more than ever, we need our faith leaders to step forward and speak out bravely about the deep connections between our religious moral values and social justice. Rabbi Creditor has modeled for years the kind of fierce ethical commitment to justice — for women, for the poor, for victims of gun violence, for communities of color, for our cousins in Israel — that lies at the heart of Jewish teaching and scholarship. The essays collected here offer a roadmap into difficult conversations. You may not always agree with his conclusions but Creditor’s courage in marrying law to faith to social justice in these pages stands as an intense beginning to a dialogue; an invitation to speak out boldly about how the work of tikkun olam must proceed.” - Dahlia Lithwick, Senior Supreme Court correspondent, Slate ...[click here]
"Menachem Creditor's writing shows us the gift of Judaism in the world. That gift could be called "Judaism, Unbound" - a religion of universal values with meaning far outside the synagogue walls, far beyond Israel, far beyond even its own rich religious history and traditions. It's a Judaism that sees the divine image of the creator in every living soul, in every corner of the globe. We need that today, maybe more than ever." - Andrew Hanauer, Director, One America Movement ...[click here]

The future of Conservative/Masorti Judaism depends on voices like those shared in this book, which was created to fulfill the mission of ShefaNetwork: to bring together dreamers from within the Conservative/Masorti Movement and to give their dreams an audible voice.

"The emergence of Rabbis Against Gun Violence and this powerful collection of American faith voices reassures me that citizens of every variety are ready to stand together, to speak, preach, and act to demand an end to the ongoing American gun violence epidemic." - from the Foreword by Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America ...[click here]

And Yet We Love: Poems
"Rabbi Menachem Creditor’s poems read as if he sat at his desk, slit open his heart and poured his feelings onto the page. Nothing is held back, worded “properly” or edited into blandness. For which we should say a special blessing because he is a person with huge emotions, compassion for the world and for the people around him, an amazing ability to take us with him into nature, world conflict, personal pain and the ravages of gun violence. He takes us with him, he lets us experience what he is experiencing, and in his own way he reminds us to breathe more deeply, to let our feelings out, to become fuller people.""
- Ruth Messinger, President of American Jewish World Service ...[click here]
“Rabbi Menachem Creditor has given us all a gift. This book of prayers is here to accompany us though the joys and challenges of our daily lives. These are prayers we can relate to, prayers that heal our hearts and revive our souls.”
- Rabbi Naomi Levy, Author of Talking to God ...[click here]
Jews around the world hold our sisters and brothers in our hearts at all times. We are a family that spans the globe and whose heart pulses with the hope of 2,000 years. The diverse American Jewish voices included in this volume all communicate one sacred truth: Am Yisrael Chai! The People of Israel Lives!  ...[click here] (Review on NYJewishWeek)

Shabbat Eveningamazon.com/dp/1676300562

Siddur (prayerbook) Tov leHodot is an ongoing project dedicated to inspiring Jewish meaning and helping those finding their way into Jewish prayer. Arranged according to the current Shabbat Evening customs of many Traditional Egalitarian communities, Tov LeHodot is fully transliterated and partially translated. 


Peace in Our Cities: Rabbis Against Gun Violence 
The prophet Jeremiah told the weary and heart-broken exiles of Jerusalem that they should “seek the peace of the city.” Rabbis, along with faith leaders of every tradition, teach that a broken society is one in which we fail to take care of others. This book asks some very hard questions of America in the midst of a Gun Violence epidemic, and presents a passionate, hopeful, healing response to a moment of national pain and fragility. The rabbis in this collection ask: How many innocent deaths will it take for our elected officials to respond with moral conviction? How long must America wait to acknowledge that we lose 30+ American lives to Gun Violence every day, scarring our national life? How many tears must be shed? Learn, connect, and be inspired with the voices of today's rabbinic leaders. ...[click here]


Commanded to Live: One Rabbi's Reflections on Gun Violence
A hint of the historic social contract between Jews and African-Americans in the United States is peeking through once again. No person or group is immune to the blood spilled in the streets of America, where children have easy access to firearms, where the NRA has bought undue influence within American elected leadership, a world in which the social contract Jews must help resurrect is of basic necessity, a world in which "we" are "they," a world in which and every slain (and, please God, saved) child is our own. Rabbis are reclaiming their roles as partners in the prophetic American impulse, amplifying the American value of communal obligation over the inadequate and isolating American philosophies self-reliance and rugged individualism. 33 Divine images are snuffed out every day in America, every day. 7 Newtowns a week, every week. This book is a call to the Jewish community to do our part in restoring God's holy and battered image, one saved human life at a time.  ...[click here]

Slavery, Freedom, and Everything Between: The Why, How and What of Passover
Like all Jewish festivals, Passover has its roots in Jewish history, in our connection to creation and in the rich spiritual and moral values of Judaism. Passover beckons us to embrace and expand freedom. The authors of this collection explore the themes and commitments of the most-celebrated Jewish holiday, one that contains amazing ingredients to fix the world. ...[click here]


Children's Books

A Seder Rhyme
This delightful children's book about Passover is a rhyming kids' companion for the seder! Illustrations by children accompany a text that explains while it entertains! ...[click here]

Avodah: A Yom Kippur Story
The drama of the High Priest on Yom Kippur unfolds in this rhyming riff from the High Priest's perspective, pointing to the powerful difference one person can make! ...[click here]

Rabbi Rebecca and the Thanksgiving Leftovers
Rabbi Rebecca is a special teacher who travels around the world, sharing Torah with everyone she meets. Many of her students have become rabbis themselves - maybe your rabbi once learned with Rabbi Rebecca! This book contains of her favorite stories: a Jewish Thanksgiving lesson of wisdom and love.  ...[click here]

OUT OF PRINT:

Thanksgiving Torah: Jewish Reflections on an American Holiday (2013)
There is not one day on the Jewish calendar on which thanksgiving is suspended. So why is the American Thanksgiving day different from all other days? The five rabbinic voices in this collection reflect openness to the wisdom of a diverse American community. Each reflection offers one way to deepen the impulse to offer thanksgiving, encouraging the reader to translate gratitude into a commitment to provide others a reason to be thankful.

Total Pageviews