Discover a progressive Jewish interpretation of Maimonides' 13 principles here!


Filene Best of Boston NYC UWS Brandeis Love Your Neighbor Watertown, New Town, & Muddy River Walk Near Water
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The Vilner Shul, Boston, MA 1998


Celebrating 353 Years


of Jews in America

Celebrating 353 Years


of Jews in America



*The* Ten Commandments



Should orthodox women have the same opportunities to participate in learning, davening, and minhagim as men?


Click here for an original, creative, poetic elaboration of such a question,

Sheaylot

by Michael Alan Ross




Now available!


The Jewish Friendship Trail Guidebook

6 Self-Guided Walking/Bicycling Jewish Boston History Tours

Covers Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge

Softcover 198 pages with maps & b/w photos

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Now available!


The Ten Commandments Guidebook

Ways to Self-Struggle with Classic Morals

In Song, Poetry, and Prose

Covers 10 Commandments Plus One Other!

Softcover 153 pages with practical suggestions pages!

Print out this
Book Order Form
to order now!






Click here for


Sheaylot



by Michael Alan Ross







Copyright Michael Alan Ross, 2007.
All Rights Reserved.


Email: Boston Walks Publishers

Telephone: 617-489-5020





















Can a post-denominational, American Jew elucidate both spiritual and practical
ways to self-struggle with our Ten Commandments?

In The Ten Commandments Guidebook, Mr. Ross uses his creative poetry, prose, and lyrics to construct modern midrashim and piyyutim, prosaic and poetic commentaries, to meet such a challenge. Rabbi Ellen Pildis, a post-denominational rabbi, offers praise of his text on the book's back cover.


New Guidebook Re-Visits The Ten Commandments

Can a modern, post-denominational, committed, American Jew find meaningful ways to struggle with our Ten Commandments?
Michael Alan Ross, author of the newly published, The Ten Commandments Guidebook, offers many such ways.
Mr. Ross, author of BostonWalks' The Jewish Friendship Trail Guidebook - 6 Self-guided Jewish History Walk Tours of Downtown Boston, now has written The Ten Commandments Guidebook as a spiritual invitation to the Ten Commandments.
In The Ten Commandments Guidebook, Mr. Ross offers a personal and creative perspective of the Ten Commandments by means of his original poetry, prose, and song lyrics. His writings are drawn from a lifetime of Jewish American experiences.
Here is an example of his original, creative, poetic questioning,Sheaylot:







Sheaylot

Copyright Michael Alan Ross 2007. All rights reserved.


  • When a man or a woman grows into a marriage with God;
    how does that commitment affect the responsibilities and privileges of each?


  • If honoring each other is holy, if learning to honor is holy, if practicing respect is holy;
    how does limiting by gender the responsibility and privilege to honor, attain, and practice advance holiness?


  • If words create an existence, if words produce meaning and fullness, if words confirm relationships;
    is it possible that Torah would not want full and equal participation of women and men in the Jewish story, in the rabbinic understandings, and in tefilla and minhagim?


  • If Hashem intended that men and women have distinct and separate responsibilities and privileges;
    wouldn’t God have been wise enough to have placed men and women on different planets?


  • Does God really give men alone the responsibility and privilege of transmitting our story, our interpretations, and our celebrations?
    Does God simply relegate to women a different role?


  • Are the neshamas of men, women, and God intrinsically different?


  • Have we confused the separate biological responsibilities and privileges of insemination and carrying/feeding of birth
    with the souls of those who inseminate and carry/feed?


  • Is not each of us within the image of God?


  • Can we overcome our egotistical commitment to frozen writings and re-imagine and re-interpret our texts?
    Have we not done such dynamic interpretation before?


  • Can we breathe more life into our marriage among ourselves and God?


  • If we will it, can we not find halachically responsible and acceptable ways to allow pluralistic responsibilities and privileges
    for men AND women within traditional Judaism?










Midrashim and Piyyutim!


Mr. Ross' poetry about the Ten Commandments, his prosaic warm memories of family life, and his lyrical voicing of social concerns can be called by the Hebrew words piyyutim and midrashim, poems and commentaries, which offer uplifting, spiritual and, sometimes, challenging interpretations. In addition, Mr. Ross offers many suggestions for the reader to consider in struggling with the Ten Commandments, making this Guidebook a fine teaching tool, usable not only for its inspirational reading but also for its suggestions of good deeds.
The Ten Commandments Guidebook, ISBN 0970082525, by Michael Alan Ross is available for purchase online at http://bostonwalks.tripod.com/TCbookorderform.html and for sale in selected bookstores such as Kolbo Fine Judaica and Israel Book Shop in Boston/Brookline. It also can be purchased in multiple copies for Hebrew, day school, and adult classes directly from the publisher.
The Ten Commandments Guidebook, ISBN 0970082525, by Michael Alan Ross, BostonWalks Publishers 2004. In paperback, 153 pages, list price: $19.95 (Wholesale purchase of 12 or more copies available at 40% discount.).
Contact information: BostonWalks Publishers, 50 Grove St., Belmont MA 02478
Email: bostonwalks@hotmail.com, Telephone: 617-489-5020.





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For further information, email BostonWalks directly

BostonWalks
or telephone us at: 617-489-5020.




Have you clicked on these other, on-line selections from Michael Alan Ross' new,
The Ten Commandments Guidebook?





More Links to Meander!




Now available!


The Jewish Friendship Trail Guidebook

6 Self-Guided Walking/Bicycling Jewish Boston History Tours

Covers Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge

Softcover 198 pages with maps & b/w photos

Print out this
Book Order Form
to ordernow!



Now available!


The Ten Commandments Guidebook

Ways to Self-Struggle with Classic Morals

In Song, Poetry, and Prose

Covers 10 Commandments Plus One Other!

Softcover 153 pages with practical suggestions pages!

Print out this
Book Order Form
to order now!







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Begun by 35 Jewish boys in 1903!
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