Longing for the Blessing
In poetry and prose, psychologist and dream scholar Judith Schmidt plumbs the depths of the stories in the Torah portion named Toldot, “Generations.” Her midrashic (aggadic / narrative) imaginings yield new insights into familiar figures, and her interweaving of Torah with family history illuminates how our Torah stories are always about our ancient spiritual ancestors and also about us.
This is the second edition of a book originally published by Time Being Books in 2013, now with a new introduction by the author.
Coming soon.
About the Author
Judith Sarah Schmidt PhD is a clinical psychologist. She is co-director of the Center for Intentional Living. Judith studied Waking Dream Therapy with Mme. Colette Aboulker-Muscat in Jerusalem and also works with grief and trauma. Judith is a poet and prose writer, presently writing personal responses to the weekly parsha, her way of bowing to her ancestors. Her poems and articles are published in a variety of journals. She is author of In the Garden of Love and Loss: A Year-Long Spiritual Guide Through Grief.
Praise for the First Edition
Judith Schmidt’s bold and original poetic meditations on the Biblical stories in the Torah portion of Toldot will surprise you with their subtle psychological insights and inspire you with their fresh and spiritually mature midrashic interpolations. The book will change the way we read these stories forever; its imaginative poetic gifts will enlighten readers and also challenge them to make the Torah portion their own. –Lawrence Besserman, Professor of English, Emeritus The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
To enter Judith Sarah Schmidt’s stunningly profound and beautiful Longing for the Blessing, her refl ections on the section of the Torah called Toldot, is to become intimate with words of Torah, dream images, the collected insights of over a thousand years of religious commentary, contemporary psychology and literature and personal memories. Through these words and images you enter into the soul of Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Esau, as well as of her great-grandfather Judah, and of Judith herself. Through these images you deeply understand and love them, their faith, their prayers, their struggles and triumphs. In their light, you see your own. –Rabbi Rachel Cowan, Co-founder of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality
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