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On erev Pesach this year,  the Jewish People will have an opportunity to make a berachah that happens, not once a year, not even once a decade – but once every twenty-eight years. For a few short minutes, we will gaze up at the sky and see the sun in the same place, on the same day of the week, at the same time of the day, as it was when Hashem first hung it in the heavens. We will openly proclaim Hashem as the Creator, and thank Him for the blessings of the universe He created for us.
To ensure that we take the fullest advantage of this brief but precious moment, we must prepare for it. And what better way than to study the halachos, the Talmudic background, the history and the hashkafah of the blessing? What better way than to read and study Bircas HaChammah, newly-revised and released by ArtScroll?
Written by noted rosh yeshivah and posek Rabbi J. David Bleich, with an Overview by Rabbi Nosson Scherman, Bircas HaChammah brought this rare mitzvah to the attention of the Jewish world 28 years ago, selling over 70,000 copies. The new edition is updated and greatly expanded, with over 80 pages of  material added, as well as the zemanim  for saying Bircas HaChammah in more than 150 cities, both in the U.S. and internationally.
Bircas HaChammah explains the astronomical calculations, illuminates the Talmudic background, and includes the complete prayer service for Bircas HaChammah, with translation and commentary. It offers a brilliant explanation of the workings of the Jewish calendar, giving us a new appreciation of its incredible precision. We are astounded and awed by the profound knowledge of astronomy that our Sages possessed 1,800 years ago. And we learn how to use this event to strengthen our belief in a Creator and our understanding of our place in His Creation.
This rarest of berachos takes only a few short minutes, and then we have another 28-year wait. Let’s make sure we take full of advantage, by preparing ourselves properly to thank Hashem for His creation.

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The scene is repeated every Shabbos, hundreds of thousands of times: In grand architectural edifices and tiny storefront minyanim, in shtieblach and synagogues and shuls, Jews are praying and listening to the holy words of Torah – and they’re holding an ArtScroll Siddur and an ArtScroll Chumash in their hands.
The words of the Torah and of our prayers are eternal – but books are not. After years of daily synagogue use, after thousands of hands have turned their pages, Siddurim and Chumashim begin to show their age.
And that is why ArtScroll is making an exclusive “upgrade” offer to help shuls replace their aging Hebrew-English Chumashim and Siddurim at an extraordinary price.
If you’re a shul president or administrator – or a loyal member — check this offer out:  You can replace your worn out Hebrew-English Chumashim and Siddurim – from any publisher, not just ArtScroll –  with a brand new ArtScroll Hebrew-English Chumash or Siddur with an extra durable reinforced binding and save 50% off the retail price!
Here’s how it works. The synagogue cuts off the front cover of its worn Hebrew-English Siddurim and Chumashim and sends them in to ArtScroll or gives them to an authorized Judaica retailer. (To participate in this special offer a minimum of 25 covers must be sent in.)
Upon receipt of the covers, ArtScroll will send the same number of brand new reinforced ArtScroll sefarim at 50% off the list price!
For every worn out Chumash cover sent in, the synagogue can order a Stone Edition Chumash. Worn out Siddurim can be exchanged for the Classic Complete Hebrew-English ArtScroll Siddur or the RCA Complete ArtScroll Siddur,  both with reinforced bindings – and all at half price! This is an unparalleled opportunity for shuls to restock.
For individuals or shuls that want to order additional ArtScroll Chumashim and Siddurim, ArtScroll is making another exciting offer. It’s been thirty-three wonderful years since ArtScroll was founded, and to mark the event ArtScroll is offering a 33% discount on selected editions of its Hebrew-English Siddurim and Chumashim.
So there you have it. For three weeks only (January 28 – February 17), two great ways to join the millions who have made their tefillos and Torah study more meaningful through the ArtScroll Hebrew-English Siddurim and Chumashim.
For more information on these exciting offers, call 1-800-MESORAH, ext. 216 or 233.

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In these tough financial times,  here’s one unexpected, and effective, recession-buster: Crafting Jewish, ArtScroll’s beautifully-crafted (!), bestselling book on crafts. Children and adults alike find crafting a wonderful way to express their creativity, but it’s also a terrific, low-priced way to keep the kids entertained. With midwinter vacation drawing near and travel budgets shrinking, why not have the kids work together to make a decoupage fruit tray? Take a little sandpaper and an unfinished wooden tray, add some acrylic paint and a heaping tablespoon of creativity and, for only a few dollars, you get a group of happy children who don’t have to travel to foreign shores or overpriced amusement parks. Or get a head start on Purim, by crafting a gorgeous cape or crown (it’s fun, it’s easy – and no more high-priced costumes to buy!).  A recent New York Times article noted the trend towards using crafts as an antidote to recession blues. While almost all retailers noted a significant drop in sales compared to last year, crafting equipment was flying off the shelves. According to the spokesman of the Craft and Hobby Association, said the Times, “Across the country, people are crafting more… With the recession, people are looking for ways to save money, and doctors are recommending it as a major form of stress relief.” Crafting Jewish. It keeps everyone entertained and busy. It encourages creativity and cooperation. Its final product is practical and beautiful. It won’t cure today’s financial ills, but as an affordable way to keep everyone smiling it can’t be beat. It is a truly effective recession-buster.

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Finding Jews on Wall Street is no big surprise, not in 2008. But when these are Jews of the 17th century, a time when a person walking down Wall Street could still see the “wall” that gave the tiny street its name, a real wall built by Dutch traders to keep out Indians and pirates,  you know you’ve got one unusual story going on. 
Welcome to the world of Avner Gold. Welcome to The Fur Traders.
Avner Gold needs no introduction to readers of Jewish novels. His beloved series of historical novels captured the imagination of a generation. After a long hiatus, Rabbi Gold restarted the series, which followed the fortunes of the extraordinary Dominguez family, with The Long Road to Freedom, published by ArtScroll this past summer. In the second of the series, Scandal in Amsterdam, the setting moves out of Spain and France and into Holland – where Sebastian finds greater religious freedom, but where betrayal and mystery still lurk at every turn.
In the newest book in the acclaimed series, The Fur Traders, the Dominguez family fortunes turn to the New World. And what a world it is, brimming with fascinating characters and breathtaking adventure, populated by Indians hostile and friendly, slaves, rogues, and man-eating bears. Sebastian Dominguez and his two friends, one of them a Marrano just rediscovering his stolen heritage, the other a Dutch Jew looking to escape a personal tragedy, survive a terrifying ocean voyage and a disastrous shipwreck and join the fledgling Jewish community of New York. Here, the trio must rebuild their lives, and learn how to bring their faith and their Torah learning into a place where Jewish life has never existed.
If a New York City with a few dozen Jewish residents seems very far distant from today’s world, The Fur Traders touches our contemporary lives in a very real way, dealing with issues such as true – and false – friendship, intolerance, and the Jewish people’s responsibility for one another. As the author tells us: “Although the story is set three hundred years in the past, it could just as well have happened today.”

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Talk about focus groups and market research! On a recent visit to the U.S., Yael Mermelstein, author of the newly-released The Stupendous Adventures of Shragi and Shia, spoke to 250 young people, in lectures given in several New York area schools.

So we asked her, “Yael, what are kids looking for in a book?’’

“They want mystery,” she told me. “And lots of adventure, and humor. Most of all, the kids I surveyed want ‘a story that’s interesting.’”

The good news is, giving the kids “a story that’s interesting” for this Chanukah couldn’t be simpler. If the children are ages 7 – 12, offer them a new friendship, with the inimitable Shragi & Shia. These are two brothers who get into the most unusual – dare we say outrageous? – adventures, involving things like a homemade bicycle-built-for-four,  exploding science projects, and vats of liquid toffee. Shragi and Shia mean well, it’s just that…somehow…things always seem to get a little out of control when they’re around. With its short, laugh-out-loud stories, its gently-delivered messages, and its wonderful black-and-white illustrations, The Stupendous Adventures of Shragi & Shia makes a terrific Chanukah gift for your child and, more important, is a great way to introduce any reader (even the reluctant ones!) to the joys of a good book.

The Story of Chanukah by Sarah Leon is a marvelous way to introduce younger readers to the wonders of the holiday, and the wonders of reading. This lavishly illustrated picture book brings a fascinating era of Jewish history to life. The decrees of wicked King Antiochus, the courage of Jews who stood up for their beliefs, the dreidel-playing youngsters who used their toys to fool the Syrian-Greek soldiers – children will relive it all as they pore over the innovative pictures that combine real-life backgrounds with adorable, evocative illustrations. Divided into eight chapters, one for each night of the holiday, the read-aloud rhymed text, with its combination of high drama, humor, and history, will enchant any young (or not so young) person.

So what are you giving the kids for Chanukah this year?  Clothing? They’ll outgrow it. Electronic gadgets? Obsolete by next month. If it’s a puzzle, they’ll lose its pieces; if it’s a drum set, you’ll lose your mind.

But a book? Give children a book, and you’ve given them the gift of imagination. The gift of words. And the gift of reading, that lasts a lifetime.

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After the Jews left Egypt, as the newly-formed Jewish People wandered through the desert, it was the Mishkan (the Tabernacle) that stood at the center of their encampment. But despite its centrality to Jewish life and the many verses of Chumash describing it, the Mishkan and its keilim (sacred vessels)  always remained difficult for us to visualize.

That is, until now, with the release of one of ArtScroll’s most ambitious projects ever, an interactive computer program unlike anything ever undertaken before: The Kleinman Edition of THE MISHKAN. 

For this groundbreaking project, ArtScroll brought in the talents of top experts worldwide. Consultants worked on the project in New Orleans, Baltimore, and the U.S.Armed Forces Aberdeen Multimedia Test Center. Animations, models, and technical work were done as far away as Ottawa and Eastern Europe. At the hub of all this activity was ArtScroll’s New York office, home to the team whose research formed the basis of this unprecedented project. Scholars created hundreds of pages outlining every detail of the Mishkan, the bigdei kehunah, and the keilim. The research was then combined with the full power of today’s cutting edge animation technology. The end result of all this dedicated activity is The Kleinman Edition of THE MISHKAN, an unprecedented achievement in the audiovisual presentation of Torah knowledge.

So boot up your computer (THE MISHKAN is compatible with PC computers) and join us to see just what this “virtual Mishkan” looks like.

.Let’s start with a “fly-in.” From the encampment surrounding the Mishkan, we soar over the tents of the tribes, into the Mishkan itself. The Mishkan comes to life with spectacular, high impact animations and videos, simulating the construction and assembly of the Mishkan and its vessels, right before our eyes. The beauty, grandeur and accuracy of these images are unimaginable, and would have been impossible just a few years ago.

In the verse by verse exploration, we see on our screens each pasuk that talks about the Mishkan and the keilim, in Hebrew and English, together with its corresponding image. We can access the Rashi on the verse, in Hebrew and English. We can take closer looks at the stunning 3D models, rotate some of the vessels to better understand what they looked like, check the measurements, learn of alternate opinions, and gain more insight through audio comments by Rabbi Nosson Scherman. An easy-to-work sliding bar lets us look at single verses, read through the entire Torah portion, or find references to specific keilim. This is an invaluable educational tool for students, parents, teachers, or anyone who wants to understand the Chumash’s descriptions.

We  harness cutting-edge animation technology for the most moving part of the program: Seeing the Mishkan through the eyes of a Kohen walking through it. Imagine walking through the Courtyard into the Mishkan itself. Before us is the shulchan with the lechem hapanim lying upon it. We can view the keruvim from up close, see the Menorah with its flames burning. The walk-through, with its stunning visuals and background music, is so realistic we can almost smell the ketores rising from the Inner Incense Altar.

All of Klal Yisrael contributed to the construction of the Mishkan. How appropriate, then, that all of Klal Yisrael can now finally understand the glory and beauty that once was, through this unbelievable, magnificent project.

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Released just a few short days ago, the first large printing of Crafting Jewish has sold out. That’s not a surprise to anyone in the office who was involved in the book. After all, one of our proofreaders, going through the pages of Crafting Jewish, was so taken by what she was reading that she started to follow the instructions she was proofreading – and, together with her children, began making her very own crafts projects for the first time in years.

It’s no wonder that this breakthrough book had our proofreader putting down her red pen and picking up a glue stick instead. With its step-by-step instructions, its large variety of techniques, and its gorgeous, full-color photos of more than 120 projects, this is a book that makes Jewish crafts simply too much fun to miss. 

Author Rivky Koenig, a veteran educator and the Crafting Workshop Director at Camp Hedva, has long recognized the importance of crafts in developing our children’s self-esteem, as well as our family ties. “Preparing a unique piece of artwork that resonates with a particular holiday helps children and parents bond while expanding their creativity and helping develop their imagination—and there’s something beautiful in upholding traditions in such a personal way,” she explains.

Crafting Jewish appeals to all ages and all levels of crafting experience. Projects range from simple crafts that need only a bit of glue and a few buttons, that even a four- or five-year-old can do, to more challenging projects for older or more experienced crafters. Techniques include decoupage, fruit decoration, and fabric painting. We learn to work with glass and clay, and enjoy stamping, card-making and scrapbooking. For Chanukah, the family can make a glowing glass menorah, a project that will be featured in Women’s Day Magazine’s December 2nd edition. Mrs. Koenig has designed these crafts for our busy, time-conscious world, and most can be finished in less an hour. Crafting Jewish also includes unique ideas for holiday get-togethers, with fun-to-make recipes for yummy yom tov treats.

In today’s uncertain economy, crafts can be a terrific way to keep our children busy and amused, without having to send them to expensive getaways and activities. Even more important than the dollars-and-cents savings, though, is the wonderful, warm feeling of accomplishment that we – and our children – enjoy, as we create homemade, handmade traditions.

Don’t believe me? Just ask our proofreader!

Want to see sample pages of some the great things you and your family can create?  Click here.

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