The Shema in the Mezuzah: Listening to Each Other
In a divided world, where the one who shouts the loudest often gets the most attention, a story about compromise and listening.
"Standing UP!" "Lying DOWN!"
What were the people to do? They decided to ask the rabbi of the town. "What are we to do?" they asked. “Shall we put the mezuzah standing up or lying down?”
The townspeople have mezuzahs but cannot agree on how to put them up on their doorways. Should they place them horizontally or vertically, standing up or lying down? To end their arguing, they consult the wise rabbi of the town, who advises them to carefully read the Shema in the mezuzah to find the answer. With this lively tale, based on a twelfth-century rabbinic debate, best-selling, award-winning children's author Sandy Eisenberg Sasso helps young people discover that there is often more than one solution to a problem, and that living together and creating “home” requires cooperation and listening to one another.
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Book details
- Author
- Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
- Imprint
- Jewish Lights, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Formats
- Hardcover
- Subjects
- Juvenile Nonfiction › Religion › Judaism
Juvenile Fiction › Religious › Jewish - Topics
- Judaism · compromise and listening · Jewish culture · rabbinic wisdom · picture book
- ISBN-13
- 9781580235068
About the author
RABBI SANDY EISENBERG SASSO is the second woman to be ordained as a rabbi and the author of God’s Paintbrush, In God’s Name and God In Between, among many other books for children of all faiths and backgrounds.
Sasso holds a doctorate in ministry and, with her husband Dennis, formed the first rabbinical couple to jointly lead a congregation — Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis. She was also the first rabbi to become a mother.
When she’s not writing, Sasso is active in the interfaith community and has written and lectured on the renewal of spirituality and the discovery of religious imagination in children of all faiths.
Sandy lives in Indianapolis with her husband Dennis; they have two children, David and Debora, and three grandchildren.