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BostonWalks

Integrating the urban, modern Jewish American city experience with its historical sites and themes in such locales as Boston, MA, Portland, ME, East Bay and Providence, RI, and the Upper West Side of Manhattan, NYC.




Question: What's a political mensch?

Answer #1
Answer #2



Celebrating 353 Years


of Jews in America


The Ten Commandments



See below, Michael Alan Ross' original mystical, kabbalistic, tour de force, pause for refreshment,

Commit


considering the 1st Commandment,
Recognize God/Goodness!




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 order now!



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!








Boston Walks Publishers presents



The mystical, kabbalistic, tour de force,
pause for refreshment


Commit



From the New


The Ten Commandments Guidebook




Spiritual and practical ways to self-struggle
with our Ten Commandments












Copyright © Michael Alan Ross, 2004-2007.
All Rights Reserved.

Email: BostonWalks

Telephone: 617-489-5020





















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

In this book, 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. As an example, his tour de force, Commit, considers the 1st Commandment in the following verses:





Commit


© Michael Alan Ross 2004-2007. All rights reserved.


Bicycling from Bedford to Lexington Green,
During a Friday respite from the rain-machine,
I paused to sip water at Chabad’s corner repose,
where stood a bearded fellow in casual clothes.


After we substituted a nod for hello,
I drank from my bottle, cooling H2O,
In the moments I sipped, hesitating to go,
He faced me head-on, and said, “You know?”


“It’s not known whether Torah comes from God,
whom is its source or its rod?
Did humans compile some folk tradition?
Draw from our own well, erudition?”


Did I hear him correctly? I asked myself.
As he spoke again to his audience of one:
“Does it really matter from whom the words of Torah come?
For a student, aren’t its teachings, what are to be won?”


My hesitation to remount my bike seemed to encourage him.
“Aren’t our tales as instructive as sociology and psychology?
Aren’t the stories of the Jewish people as powerful as Greek mythology?”
Fleetingly, I imagined blue Jews with Torahs marching on a white-glazed bowl rim.
I nodded yes, as he looked skyward, toward a thickening black cloud.
“Morality, democracy, and justice, aren’t those issues about which Torah speaks loud?”
He raised his arms, like he was a prophet on a soapbox.
“Torah is our tool for finding flowers among rocks!”


He turned once more to me.
“If there is a force behind the universe door, God it may be.”
He now smiled, returning from possible heresy,
“Torah’s teachings are my key.”


With that said, he shook my hand, and walked away,
Leaving me wondering, was it a Spinoza who blessed my last day of May?
Astounded and awed, I mounted and peddled with home in sight.
To celebrate Shabbat’s arrival that coming night.




Notes
1. Chabad (Hebrew acronym for wisdom, understanding, & knowledge) is a Jewish movement with local synagogues.
2. Spinoza was a 17th century, Jewish philosopher.





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.




Click on some of these other BostonWalks sites!



For further information, email 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?




Other Good Links






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 order now!



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!









"West End House" circa 2004
Begun by 35 Jewish boys in 1903!
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Boston's Best!


























Yea, Team! The Boston Red Sox and The New England Patriots!


From the Charles River, Americans can swim in a red, white, & blue direction!



Copyright Michael Alan Ross, 1999-2007. All Rights Reserved.

Email: BostonWalks

Telephone:617-489-5020




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Chazak Ve-ematz
be strong and resolute

(Moses words to Joshua in Deut. 31:7)









Boston Walks

The Jewish
Friendship Trail



Sing Sense to America


Are you ready to participate in the '08 presidential election
by singing some salivatingly satirical and serious song lyrics?

If so, try these on your tongue: