Rachel R. (A2JC4life) reviewed Celebrating Biblical Feasts: In Your Home or Church on + 40 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
While this book did contain some good ideas, overall I was not impressed. Only the Levitical feasts are covered (no Purim or Hanukkah). This is fine, but I would have expected some explanation of WHY Purim is omitted, at least. The book falls short of being either "free" of Jewish tradition, or of being Jewish: the formal Jewish "flavor" of the celebrations is kept, along with many of the extra-biblical Jewish ceremonies, and yet blessings are changed and other traditions are added. The author does not make it clear which components are altered (or even THAT they're altered - I only know because I'm slightly familiar with the holidays already).
The layout of each chapter is difficult to follow, as the biblical reasons for celebrating, the traditional means of celebration, and the author's ideas are all jumbled together. I was also not crazy about the fact that several Bible translations were used and most of them were very loose ones - even some of the blessings and other parts of the ceremonies are quotes from paraphrases.
If you have no desire to use the book as a reference and simply want someone to tell you exactly what to do, you might appreciate the book. It also addresses the Passover Seder more thoroughly than some other books (although the ceremony and the reason behind each element are in different parts of the book, making it difficult to decide whether you want to incorporate them all). If you are looking for a solid introduction to the reasons for the holidays, for the historical means of celebrating each holiday, for a more "relaxed" idea of Christian celebration, for a thoroughly Jewish treatment of the holidays, and/or for something which incorporates Purim and/or Hanukkah, keep looking.
The layout of each chapter is difficult to follow, as the biblical reasons for celebrating, the traditional means of celebration, and the author's ideas are all jumbled together. I was also not crazy about the fact that several Bible translations were used and most of them were very loose ones - even some of the blessings and other parts of the ceremonies are quotes from paraphrases.
If you have no desire to use the book as a reference and simply want someone to tell you exactly what to do, you might appreciate the book. It also addresses the Passover Seder more thoroughly than some other books (although the ceremony and the reason behind each element are in different parts of the book, making it difficult to decide whether you want to incorporate them all). If you are looking for a solid introduction to the reasons for the holidays, for the historical means of celebrating each holiday, for a more "relaxed" idea of Christian celebration, for a thoroughly Jewish treatment of the holidays, and/or for something which incorporates Purim and/or Hanukkah, keep looking.
