Israel. The small strip of arid land is 5,700 miles away but remains a hot-button issue and a thorny topic of debate. But while everyone seems to have a strong opinion about Israel, how many people actually know the facts? Here to fill in the information gap is Israeli American Noa Tishby.

In 1948, Israel’s founders sought a “national home for the Jewish people,” where Jewish life would be transformed. The state they ultimately made, says Daniel Gordis, is a place of extraordinary success and maddening disappointment, a story of both unprecedented human triumph and great suffering.

In the Bible Elijah is a zealous prophet, attacking idolatry and injustice, championing God. He performs miracles, restoring life and calling down fire. When his earthly life ends, he vanishes in a whirlwind, carried off to heaven in a fiery chariot. Was this a spectacular death, or did Elijah escape death entirely? The latter view prevailed. Though residing in heaven, Elijah revisits earth—to help, rescue, enlighten, and eventually herald the Messiah.

Renowned and beloved as a prizewinning novelist, Dara Horn has also been publishing penetrating essays since she was a teenager. Often asked by major publications to write on subjects related to Jewish culture - and increasingly in response to a recent wave of deadly anti-Semitic attacks - Horn was troubled to realize what all of these assignments had in common: She was being asked to write about dead Jews, never about living ones.

On February 22, 2013, Kathy Izard’s world was shattered when her healthy husband, Charlie, suffered a catastrophic heart attack. Although he was miraculously still alive, there could be no return to normal living after doctors diagnosed the cause to be an incurable disease: spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD). Living with an exceedingly rare condition and facing the unfathomable prospect of life as a young widow, Kathy had to learn to accept the radical uncertainty that life often brings completely without warning.

After film critic Gene Siskel asked her, "What do you know for sure?" Oprah Winfrey began writing the "What I Know for Sure" column in O, The Oprah Magazine. Saying that the question offered her a way to take "stock of her life", Oprah has penned one column a month over the last 14 years.

Oprah shares what she sees as a guide for activating your deepest vision of yourself, offering the framework for creating not just a life of success, but one of significance. The audiobook’s ten chapters are organized to help you recognize the important milestones along the road to self-discovery, laying out what you really need in order to achieve personal contentment, and what life’s detours are there to teach us.

We all have a longing to be significant. We want to make a contribution, to be a part of something noble and purposeful. But many people wrongly believe significance is unattainable. They worry that it's too big for them to achieve. That they have to have an amazing idea, be a certain age, have a lot of money, or be powerful or famous to make a real difference. The good news is that none of those things is necessary for you to achieve significance and create a lasting legacy.

Now published in over 70 languages, this number one international best seller gently offers answers to life's biggest questions as well as a practical process to help you create prosperity, vitality, happiness and inner peace. This is the incredible story of Julian Mantle, a superstar lawyer whose out-of-balance lifestyle leads him to a near-fatal heart attack in a packed courtroom. His collapse brings on a spiritual crisis, forcing him to seek answers to life's most important questions.

The first two limbs of the eight-fold path of yoga sutras - the basic text for classical yoga - are examined in this spiritual guide to the practice of yoga. Foundational to all yogic thought, they are considered to be the guidelines to the yoga way of living that free individuals to take ownership of their lives, direct them toward the fulfillment they seek, and gain the skills to choose attitude, thought, and action.

In a shallow light-speed world, how can we really know and be known by another person? How do we make true friends? The Digital Age is all about change, but the need for true friendship never changes. We are designed for real engagement with others - for affirmation that goes beyond a simple "like" on social media, for connection over meals, for hope and excitement about the future. Above all, we need to be known and accepted for who we are.

The path of personal development, happiness, and self-improvement begins with a choice. Life either happens to you or happens for you. You can choose to accept your circumstances or you can take full responsibility for your life and change your reality. Whichever you choose becomes your experience. But did you know it’s possible to hack your brain into changing its self-perception? You have the power to successfully manifest your best life in the mist of the struggle.

In The Rhythm of Life, Matthew Kelly exposes the lifestyle challenges and problems that face us in this age obsessed with noise, speed, and perpetual activity. Kelly's message rings out with a truth that is challenging and unmistakably attractive. Who you become is infinitely more important than what you do or what you have. Are you ready to meet the best version of yourself?

Some ideas are so powerful that simply becoming aware of them changes our lives forever. Holy Moments is such an idea. It is profoundly simple, astonishingly practical, and once you discover it, your life will finally makes sense. It's time to let Holy Moments show you what is possible. It is time to explore your soul-potential.

Anyone embarking upon a new path or business venture has heard the key to success lies in networking - who you know and how they can get you ahead. But according to entertainment attorney Mark H. Maxwell, this is not only untrue, but potentially dangerous to those hoping to succeed. Networking Kills lays out what the Bible and Jesus say about true success.

In this easy-to-listen-to yet wisdom-rich manual, Robin S. Sharma offers 101 simple solutions to life's most complex problems, ranging from a little-known method for beating stress and worry to a powerful way to enjoy the journey while you create a legacy that lasts.

Living as if each day is a thank you can help transform fear into courage, anger into forgiveness, and isolation into belonging. Authors Nina Lesowitz and Mary Beth Sammons present a simple yet comprehensive approach for incorporating gratitude into one's life and reaping its many benefits. The book is divided into ten chapters, including "Ways to Stay Thankful in Difficult Times,” "Gratitude as a Spiritual Practice,” and "Putting Gratitude into Action."

Jack Valentine seemed to have it all. He made good money as an ad man and looked good doing it. He had a hot apartment, cool friends, even a slick car - at least until the hectic Monday morning a truck smashed into it, sending the critically injured Jack to the hospital. Everything happens for a reason, though, and Jack’s reason reveals itself in the silver-haired cancer patient who becomes his roommate one evening. The elderly man, Cal, shares his life story - one not dissimilar to Jack’s - of material wealth masking a gaping hole within.

In this radically illuminating audiobook, Alan Cohen delves into one of the world’s most venerated wisdom texts for answers and brings the lofty and enigmatic concepts of the Tao Te Ching down to earth in fresh, easy-to-grasp language with practical, personal examples we can use to uplift our daily lives.

God has made you with the capacity to live courageously, to have great faith, and to become a person of influence. Sally Clarkson has raised her family, ministered around the world, and mentored countless women with this soul-resounding message. And in Own Your Life, she brings it straight to your heart.

In a shallow light-speed world, how can we really know and be known by another person? How do we make true friends? The Digital Age is all about change, but the need for true friendship never changes. We are designed for real engagement with others - for affirmation that goes beyond a simple "like" on social media, for connection over meals, for hope and excitement about the future. Above all, we need to be known and accepted for who we are.

The best selling Leading with Soul is a contemporary parable chronicling the journey of a beleaguered executive's quest for passion and purpose in work and in life. True to the essence of leadership, Bolman and Deal offer an invitation to participate with them in understanding the ties that bind spirituality and leadership together. Interludes between the story chapters explore the everyday application of lessons learned along the way and provide practical ways to get the most from work and life.

Overscheduled. Exhausted. Overwhelmed. Sound familiar? Too familiar? You are living at a velocity you know deep down is unsustainable. Your life is off course - too crammed with busyness, too out of focus. You keep waiting for things to get better, but they never do. In Simplify, best-selling author Bill Hybels identifies core issues that drive this kind of living and offers action steps to help you live a better way. By eradicating clutter from your inner world, you can experience immediate rewards: greater energy, clearer purpose, richer relationships, and more.

If you've been dealing with the loss of a job or home, or have had a health or financial crisis, Start Where You Are abounds with lessons that offer hope and provide a road map for starting anew. This is also the ideal book for anyone ready to launch a personal or professional undertaking, or someone who simply wants to break through the cycles and thinking that have limited his or her potential in the past.

To know your true calling - your dharma, as the yogis say - is perhaps the greatest desire within each of us. And yet, few can say we know our purpose with absolute certainty. Fortunately, there is a time-tested guide - an ancient map - for discovering and fulfilling your unique calling. In The Great Work of Your Life, Stephen Cope walks you through each step of the journey.

Essence is the fundamental, universal, loving energy that connects the entire universe and all its living things. This universal loving goodness binds us all together in an intimate and powerful way. America’s beloved psychic Char Margolis shows listeners how to tap into the vital power of Essence and draw strength and wisdom from these deep, fundamental connections. With Char as a guide, listeners will explore the vast and connected world of Essence and delve into their own inherent spiritual awareness.

Whether or not you remember Trista (Rehn) Sutter from her heartbreak on the first season of The Bachelor reality show or as the original Bachelorette, you’ve probably seen her on the cover of magazines like People and US Weekly or on shows like Ellen and Dancing with the Stars. She has rarely been out of the public eye since falling in love with Ryan Sutter on The Bachelorette more than ten years ago.

In The Artisan Soul, Erwin Raphael McManus, author, thought leader, and founder of MOSAIC in Los Angeles, pens a manifesto for human creativity and the beginning of a new renaissance. McManus not only calls us to reclaim our creative essence but reveals how we can craft our lives into works of art. There are no shortcuts to quality, and McManus celebrates the spiritual process that can help us discover our true selves.

The author of the multiple award-winning Grounded and leading trend spotter in contemporary Christianity explores why gratitude is missing as a modern spiritual practice, offers practical suggestions for reclaiming it, and illuminates how the shared practice of gratitude can lead to greater connection with God, our world, and our own souls.

For many years, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer’s fans have wondered when he would write a memoir. Well, Wayne has finally done just that! However, he has written it in a way that only he can—with a remarkable take-home message for his longtime followers and new readers alike—and the result is an exciting new twist on the old format. Rather than a plain old memoir, Wayne has gathered together quantum-moment recollections.