Winner of the Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel, Minyan is both bittersweet and hilarious in a way that hurts to laugh. It is the tale of Norbert Wilner, a man who has mastered the art of arrested development who, at 37, is still single and living in New York City, surrounded by the Jewish guys he grew up with in Jersey. They are all searching for God, women, and most of all, a good pastrami-on-rye with spicy brown mustard, a side of potato salad and a cream soda. Bernstein is a Hindu, Greenblatt's a Sufi, Weissbaum worships Willie Mays, and nobody likes Finkelstein, the big-shot lawyer and born-again Christian. And Freddy Lipschitz has just died. As these middle-aged men gather to mourn their childhood friend, they begin to take stock—and make shtick—of their failed relationships, missed opportunities, questionable careers, and the underlying sense of dread that pervades their existence. For despite growing up in the seemingly carefree atmosphere of America in the 1950s, Norbert and his friends still find themselves living in the long shadow of the Holocaust. Fearful children of nervous Jewish mothers, they were instructed to be wary of everything and everyone; to lock the doors, wear earmuffs, and marry Jewish girls. “Who knew, at age 12, that there could be a direct link between little Mary-Anne Hamilton and Hitler? But there was. The innocent Sunday school cross around her neck may as well have been a swastika, to anyone who had survived the war, as my mother did. I saw a cute girl in pigtails; my mother saw Hitler Youth, saw ovens and smoke and her dead grandmother.” A chance meeting with the eccentric Reb Miltie helps Norbert begin to find salvation through the humor, teachings and melodies of the Ba'al Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, as well as through the camaraderie of his life-long friends as they passionately pursue meaning, marriage, and the healing properties of brisket.

Minyan: Ten Jewish Men In A World That Is Heartbroken

Literature & Fiction

Sobel, Eliezer

World Literature

Eliezer Sobel

Norbert Wilner leads a life of arrested development--middle-aged, single, and still hanging out with the guys he grew up with--until the death of a friend leads to a spiritual and social awakening, leading Norbert to resolve to become a rabbi and save souls.

Minyan: Ten Jewish Men

Univ Tennessee Press

Suffused with a unique brand of irreverent humor, this account recalls the autobiographical explorations of the most significant alternative communities, ashrams, gurus, shamans, and consciousness-raising seminars of the past 40 years. Serving as a human guinea pig for many of the most popular cutting-edge New Age, human potential, and spiritual experiments, Eliezer Sobel recounts intercontinental adventures in India, Israel, Brazil, and Haiti. From Primal Therapy to the Dalai Lama, this perceptively witty analysis includes brushes with cults, wild experiments with sex and psychedelics, and encounters with visionary gurus and contemporary madmen.

The 99th Monkey: A Spiritual Journalist's Misadventures with Gurus, Messiahs, Sex, Psychedelics, and Other Consciousness-Raising Experiments

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Santa Monica Press

About the Author\nEliezer Sobel is also the author of:\nBlue Sky, White Clouds: A Book for Memory-Challenged Adults, and L'Chaim: Pictures to Evoke Memories of Jewish Life. Among 20,000 books for caregivers, these are some of the only books around for the patient. Simple picture books, they require no memory to read and enjoy. If you are caring for a loved one with dementia, these books provide a shared activity that can stimulate tender moments of connection regardless of their stage of memory-loss.\nThe 99th Monkey: A Spiritual Journalist's Misadventures with Gurus, Messiahs, Sex, Psychedelics and Other Consciousness-Raising Experiments, the tale of the author's hilarious and poignant 30-year journey that regularly took him from the sublime to the insane in equal measure. 
Minyan: Ten Jewish Men in a World That is Heartbroken, winner of the Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel among 400 entries, selected by National Book Award winner John Casey, Ten middle-aged guys in NYC searching for God, women and a decent corned beed on rye.\nWild Heart Dancing: A Personal One-Day Quest to Liberate the Artist & Lover Within, designed to awaken and unleash the reader's dormant creativity in a one-day, at-home self-retreat.\nWhy I Am Not Enlightened, an e-book that will make you feel better about failing to be a Perfectly Realized Master.\nMordecai's Book, an e-book about a fictional Jewish mystical poet, lifted from the pages of Minyan.\nThe Manual of Good Luck, long out of print.\nEliezer blogs on PsychologyToday.com, and has led creativity intensives and meditation retreats around the United States. He is married to Shari Cordon and resides in Red Bank, NJ.\nSee details of all the above on eliezersobel dot com slash books.\nThe late Gabrielle Roth was the source and force behind a worldwide community of many thousands of people who loved and practiced "The 5Rhythms ®," a path of spiritual healing rooted in the body and movement (see 5Rhythms.com). This book is a collection of personal stories from about 170 of those people from every corner of the globe, relating intimate and powerful, unforgettable and often life-changing moments they experienced engaging with Gabrielle. She was known far and wide for being outrageous, profound, hilarious, mysterious and impenetrable, as well as utterly transparent, vulnerable, and completely attentive, present and loving with each soul she encountered. Everyone she met, for a moment on the street, or for decades doing her work, felt, above all, seen, and connected as if to a very special, life-long friend.

Dark Light of the Soul

BookBaby

In spending time with his 86-year-old mother in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease, author Eliezer Sobel discovered something astounding. Although she could no longer speak full sentences or follow a story line, his mother could still read! He observed her sitting in rapt attention as she paged through magazines and coffee-table books, reading individual words and short phrases aloud. He wrote Blue Sky, White Clouds for her: a simple, adult picture book with beautiful, realistic photographs and large, easy-to-read captions. Perfect for any loved one suffering with Alzheimer's or dementia.

Blue Sky, White Clouds: A Book for Memory-Challenged Adults

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Mental Health

Rainbow Ridge

In spending time with his mother in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease, Eliezer Sobel recognized something astounding. Although she had seemingly lost all of her language skills several years earlier, he discovered that she still enjoyed gazing at pictures in magazines and actually reading the headlines aloud! He searched for a simple picture book with easy-to-read captions in big print, but learned that while there are over 20,000 books for caregivers, there are virtually no books written for dementia patients. L’Chaim: Pictures to Evoke Memories of Jewish Life is an effort to remedy this situation. Created for Jewish elders suffering with memory loss, each page stands alone, requiring no memory to enjoy the rich images. Over 30 million people suffer from Alzheimer’s disease worldwide, with nearly 500,000 new cases diagnosed yearly. L’Chaim is intended to stimulate reminiscence and provide tender moments of connection with our loved ones who suffer from memory-related illnesses.

L'Chaim!: Pictures to Evoke Memories of Jewish Life (Book 2 of a Series)

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