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| Israel A Spiritual Travel Guide: A Companion For The Modern Jewish Pilgrim | 
 enlarge | Author: Lawrence A. Hoffman
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $18.99
Buy New: $11.68
You Save: $7.31 (38%)
Buy New/Used from $4.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  (7 reviews)
Sales Rank: 518372
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 247
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 10 x 4.7 x 0.6
ISBN: 1580232612
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.6940454
EAN: 9781580232616
ASIN: 1580232612
Publication Date: January 29, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Fodor and Frommer tell you how to get there. This guide tells how to make it a spiritual experience.The plane tickets to Israel are bought, the itinerary is planned, and the suitcases are finally packed....Journeys take preparation; but being ready is one thing-being spiritually prepared is another.Now, in time for the 50th anniversary of the State of Israel, here's a Jewish spiritual travel guide to Israel. It combines, in quick reference format, ancient blessings, medieval prayers, biblical references, and modern poetry, to help today's pilgrim tap into the deep spiritual meaning of the ancient-and modern-sites of the Holy Land.For each of 25 major tourist destinations (from the Western Wall to Masada to a kibbutz in the Galilee), arranged by geographic regions, it gives guidance in sharply-focused three-step sections:* Anticipation: To read in advance. Facts to help orient you in the site's historical context.* Approach: To read on the way there. Readings from varied sources to orient you in the site's spiritual context.* Acknowledgment: To read at the site. A prayer or blessing to integrate the experience into your spiritual consciousness, as well as a journaling space for writing your thoughts and reactions.The only travel book that helps readers to prepare spiritually for the occasion, Israel-A Spiritual Travel Guide is more than a guidebook: It is a spiritual map.
Amazon.com Review
Israel: A Spiritual Travel Guide: A Companion for Modern Jewish Pilgrims by Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman is slender enough to slip in your backpack and big enough to change your life. On his first visit to Israel, the American Rabbi Hoffman was disappointed that his reactions to the holy sites seemed to stop with "Wow." His subsequent trips have been more fulfilling, because he's developed a system of preparation and approach involving reading, prayer, and journaling that is summarized in Israel: A Spiritual Travel Guide. Look to Lonely Planet to help you find cheap eats and soft beds; and keep this guide handy for maps, time lines, and blessings (in both Hebrew and English) appropriate to most destinations that draw pilgrims--ranging from the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem to the mystical center Safed. Rabbi Hoffman's writing describes pilgrimages with an appealing blend of gravity and levity; his guide can help shape your memories of pilgrimage into your own distinctive "contribution to the memory of this people that has never suffered from amnesia." --Michael Joseph Gross
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Great Israel Trip Companion July 23, 2008
This is a great book to have with you on your trip to Israel. The readings and blessings add so much to an already special experience.
 It's all Hebrew to me February 9, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Had to return this book. Chunks of it were written in Hebrew script with a romanized translation underneath followed by an English translation.
Made my trip! February 5, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
When I went on my Birthright Israel trip, I was like many young Jewish people and just didn't know all that much about my religion and it's history.
Aside from prayers and tips on how you can approach these places with a more spiritual frame of mind, it also gives you the requisite history about it. And it's a tiny book and an easy read, so you can even read the section on the place you're going to during the bus ride there, or even the night before you go. This made a huge impact on what I got out of my trip to Israel.
Another book I recommend for a similar reason, and you can check out my review of that one too, is Telushkin's Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History
A Guide for a Sacred Journey July 19, 2006
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
As a first time traveler to Israel, I found this book to be an extremely helpful guide for both mind and soul. It is well organized and it provides a great framework to prepare you spirtually for the trip as well as each remarkable location when you are there. I felt connected to the places I visited, to the people who have come before me, and to God. I was able to reflect on how the experiences affected me each day. This book helped me to organize my thoughts and memories that I will cherish forever. I am grateful to the author for his hard work in creating this well written book.
 Use Fodors for the hotel & body, and this for the spirit February 7, 2000
21 out of 21 found this review helpful
It is the must companion for any traveler to Israel. The blurb says it best, "the other travel books tell you how to get there, Hoffman tells you why to go and what to do when you're there." Hoffman, a Professor of Liturgy at HUC-JIR, is best known for his book, "What Is A Jew?" His travel guide is in four sections. The first contains eighteen (chai) meditations to be read before embarking on one's trip to Israel. The second section is on preparations for "the eve before the trip." Section three focuses on "How to prepare while on the way." And Section four is filled with 25 specific pilgrimage destinations for the traveler. For each site, such as The Kotel or a Kibbutz, Professor Hoffman provides THE FOUR A's -- four sections on "Anticipation," "Approach," "Acknowledgment," and "Afterthought." In Anticipation, one reads an overview of the sight; Approach contains biblical, rabbinic and other writings about the site; Acknowledgment is filled with prayers or readings for you to recite at your destination; and Afterthought provides a blank space in which you may record your feelings, emotions, or just plain journal entries that you can keep forever. This is an excellent companion for a trip to Israel.
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