Michael Levin began his biblical and Talmadic studies in a postgraduate year at Yeshivat HaMivtar, in Israel, where he learned biblical, Hebrew and the very complex language of the Talmad. He has written on the subject of Judaism for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and CBS News. He is the author of 22 books, and has taught both fiction and non-fiction writing for eleven years as a faculty member of the Writing Program at UCLA and at New York University. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

I. OUT OF THE BIBLE. 1. Defining Jewish Mysticism and Spirituality. So Who's in Charge Here? Some Unifying Principles. Prophecy, Spirituality, and Mysticism. 2. The Bible: Judaism's Spirituality Sourcebook. What's Missing from the Bible? The Magic Ingredients. Just Like Us. "In the Beginning!". 3. Who Is God? Is There Somebody out There? God's First Mistakes, Er!Humans. 4. Noah and the Flood. Noah, This Is Your Life! Beyond the Ark's Doors. 5. Lessons from Abraham. Leaving Home. Layered Is "In". Sodom and Gomorrah. The One-Sentence Guide to Happy Marriages. II. FROM ISAAC TO SINAI. 6. The Son Also Rises. The Big Test. Bound to God. 7. Nobody's Perfect. Perfection Not Necessary. The Key to Rebecca. 8. The First National Bank of Pharaoh. Talk About Sibling Rivalry! Arrogance vs. Self-Confidence. The Jews' History Begins. 9. Spirituality Secrets of Sinai. Hitting the Road. 10. The Main Event. Follow Your Own Leader. III. BETWEEN GOD AND PEOPLE. 11. Making Contact. Too Jewish? Keep an Open Mind. Just in Time. 12. Like a Prayer. Prayer I: Spontaneous Prayer. Prayer II: Blessings. 13. God Loves to Hear from Strangers. Formal Prayer. Hear, O Israel. 14. Get Busy! On the Move. Learning and Practicing. Who's Got the Cliff's Notes? 15. The Mystical Nature of Human Character. Character Counts. IV. REVELATIONS. 16. Kabbalah: Spiritual Life at a Million Miles Per Hour. The Jewish Anomaly. Kabbalah and Creation. Recognizing Perfection. The Zohar. 17. The End of Time: The Messiah and the World to Come. The Afterlife. The Messiah. The Supreme Irony. 18. Guarding Your Tongue: The Spiritual Significance of Speech. Selective Perception. The Gamut of Lashon Hara. 19. Shechinah: The Presence of God. Use the Force. Is the Shechinah Feminine? V. SPIRITUAL SIDE NOTES. 20. Gematria: The Numbers Never Lie. It All Adds Up. The Gift. 21. Do Jews Believe in Angels? Are Angels Jewish? Who Exactly Are the Angels? 22. Reforming Judaism. Why Johnny Can't Daven. What About Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism? 23. Hitting the Books. Give Yourself a Mitzvah. Set Your Own Table. Where Do I Go from Here? Whaddaya Know? 24. About the Sabbath. Six Days Shalt Thou Work. Work Is a Four-Letter Word. Enjoying the Sabbath. It's All Greek to Me. Reentering the Weekday World. 25. Holiday In's and Out's. America's Holy Days? The Month of Elul. Rosh Hashanah. Yom Kippur. Sukkot. At the Simchat Torah. Hanukah. Purim. Passover. Sefirat Haomer. Shavuot. The Fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz. Tisha B'Av. Tu B'Av. Rosh Chodesh Elul. 26. In the Land of Israel. A Word About Violence. Jerusalem, the Golden. Beyond Jerusalem's Borders. 27. Is Judaism Spiritual? A Moscow Sabbath. Judaism Today. VI. APPENDIXES. Appendix A. For Further Reading. Appendix B. Twenty Top Websites. Appendix C. Glossary. Index.