Moses Maimonides’ Treatise on Resurrection An Inquiry into its Authenticity By Lea Naomi Goldfeld Ktav Publishing House, 1986, 167 pages     Maimonides made it very clear in his work called Chelek that he felt that the intellect goes to the world to come as soon as a person dies and remains there for eternity. He states [...]

Maimonides Essential Teachings on Jewish Faith & Ethics The Book of Knowledge & the Thirteen Principles of Faith Annotated & Explained By Rabbi Marc D. Angel, PhD Skylight Illuminations, 2012, 177 pages There are many divergent interpretations of the great sage Moses Maimonides (1138-1204). Some scholars, such as Leo Strauss of the University of Chicago [...]

The Lonely Man of Faith By Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Maggid Books and OU Press, 2012, 79 pages     Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903-1993) was a highly respected rabbi and teacher and the mentor of over 2,000 rabbis. He had a PhD from the University of Berlin, wrote his doctoral dissertation on the philosopher [...]

Kohelet A Modern Commentary on Ecclesiastes By Leonard S. Kravitz and Kerry M. Olitzky UAHC Press, 2003, 132 pages     Kohelet, its Hebrew name, Ecclesiastes in English, is one of the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible. Both names mean “assembly” or “assembler.” The book’s author states that he was the son of King [...]

Tolstoy A Russian Life By Rosamund Bartlett Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, 544 pages    Rosamund Bartlett, an authority on Russian culture, describes Lev Tolstoy, as she calls him, the greatest Russian writer, probably a genius, but a failure as a man. When he was young, he drank too much, gambled, and was over amorous with [...]

A Daughter’s Recitation of Mourner’s Kaddish By Rahel Berkovits JOFA, 2011, 93 pages   Orthodox Judaism, like American and other judges, makes legal decisions based on precedences, not only on what modern people think is correct. When a question arises, Orthodox rabbis examine what has been said about the matter in the past, and scrutinize [...]

The Elephants Journey By Jose Saramago Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010, 205 pages Anyone doubting Jose Saramago’s right to the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature will rapidly change their mind when they read this superbly written book. Virtually every third sentence, on the average, is filled with clever eye-opening humor. The narrator also interrupts the drama [...]

Bringing the Prophets to Life By Neil N. Winkler Gefen Publishing House, 2011, 193 pages   Many Jews consider the Bible to be the sacred text revealed by God to the Israelites trough Moses. Multiple commentaries were composed on the Torah. Some emphasized the Torah’s literal meaning, such as the commentaries of Rashbam, David Kinchi, [...]

The First Ten Days By Rabbi Yaacov Haber Torah Lab, 2010, 88 pages There are essentially four different ways that people use to try to learn the truth about the world: religion, mysticism, philosophy and science, and a mixture of two or three of the previous methods. All should be lauded, for people should try [...]

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ By Jose Saramago   The reviews of 1998 Noble Prize winner Jose Saramago’s brilliant book on Amazon and elsewhere have generally been quite comprehensive, very well written, and informative. Therefore I will not delve again into the aspects of the novel that they discussed, such as the book’s plot; [...]