In the ancient Jewish practice of the kavannah (a meditation designed to focus one’s heart on its spiritual goal), Lawrence Kushner and David Mamet offer their own reactions to key verses from each week’s Torah portion, opening the biblical text to new layers of understanding. Here is a fascinating glimpse into two great minds, as each author approaches the text from his unique perspective, each seeking an understanding of the Bible’s personalities and commandments, paradoxes and ambiguities. Kushner offers his words of Torah with a conversational enthusiasm that ranges from family dynamics to the Kabbalah; Mamet challenges the reader, often beginning his comment far afield—with Freud or the American judiciary—before returning to a text now wholly reinterpreted. In the tradition of Israel as a people who wrestle with God, Kushner and Mamet grapple with the biblical text, succumbing neither to apologetics nor parochialism, asking questions without fear of the answers they may find. Over the course of a year of weekly readings, they comment on all aspects of the Bible: its richness of theme and language, its contradictions, its commandments, and its often unfathomable demands. If you are already familiar with the Bible, this book will draw you back to the text for a deeper look. If you have not yet explored the Bible in depth, Kushner and Mamet are guides of unparalleled wisdom and discernment. Five Cities of Refuge is easily accessible yet powerfully illuminating. Each week’s comments can be read in a few minutes, but they will give you something to think about all week long. Lawrence Kushner teaches and writes as the Emanu-El Scholar at The Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco. He has taught at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City and served for twenty-eight years as rabbi of Congregation Beth El in Sudbury, Massachusetts. A frequent lecturer, he is also the author of more than a dozen books on Jewish spirituality and mysticism. He lives in San Francisco. David Mamet is a Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright. He is the author of Glengarry Glen Ross, The Cryptogram, and Boston Marriage, among other plays. He has also published three novels and many screenplays, children's books, and essay collections.

The worship and organization of the Christian church must be defined by the Hellenistic world in which it took root and emerged victorious over Roman Imperial paganism. The struggle of the early church to maintain a testimony and doctrine that would be faithful to the Rule of Faith--which was established by the authority of certain Apostles who had the biggest impact in setting up the missional churches of the first century--and would conform to Jesus Christ's earthly ministry. Eusebia (piety) marks the Hellenistic understanding of all worship based on the relationships that are changed as a result of an encounter with a supreme being. This opens the door to explore all the aspects of Church History as a product of corporate worship. Five cities emerge in the apologetic and concilar church ages (150-850 CE) that have the greatest impact on the world of Christianity for all time. Those churches are called the Patristic churches because their bishops became the power holders of all the churches (for good or for bad). This book provides insight into the contribution of the five patriarchal cities (Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, and Constantinople) to the worship, polity, doctrine, and traditions of the church. The account begins with the exegetical back-drop of the Hebrew and Greek words for worship and the impact of these in the milieu of a Jewish church and a gentile church. The study of the patriarchal leadership in the apostolic, apologetic, and concilar ages of the church marks a clear direction of the church to the beginnings of the medieval era. It clearly delineates the differences in the East and West and the struggles within the Empire to gain unity through preeminence of polity. A unique approach was taken to combine the historical events and activities of the leaders of each of the churches with motive and intent toward good or bad. It was written from a Protestant and Orthodox perspective, which adds insight to set up the spiritual and theological reasons for the Reformation that begun under Wycliffe, Huss, and later Luther.