Readers will enjoy Rabbi Dr. Nachum Amsel’s 2025 301-page book, “Jewish Values in the Torah Portion,” published by Gefen Publishing House. Rabbi Amsel writes interestingly and openly about subjects that will fascinate readers.
Rabbi Amsel is the Director of Education at Rabbi Berel Wein’s Destiny Foundation, which aims to excite and entertain people with Jewish history.
He devotes each of his fifty-four chapters to the fifty-four portions Jews read weekly from the Torah each year. Rather than attempting to prove he is a scholar, what he does not need to confirm, or tell readers mystical or sermonic lessons, he devotes each chapter of generally five pages to a single fundamental Jewish value, which he examines at length insightfully.
Among the fifty-four values Rabbi Amsel discusses are how to live forever, whether Judaism is a culture or religion, the attitude to less observant Jews, the primacy of the Land of Israel, keeping a Jewish name, the Jewish attitude to animals, God, prophecy, lying, dreams, war, revenge, time, jealousy, holiness, birthdays, family, and antisemitism.
For example, the biblical portion Behar examines eight Jewish thoughts that prohibit making people feel bad. It gives examples from various Jewish sources, such as the biblical and talmudic commentator Rashi, born in 1040.
Rashi tells readers the lesson of Leviticus 25:17, based on the Talmud Bava Metzia 58b, that overcharging a person in a financial transaction violates the Torah because it makes the person feel bad. Rashi adds that the following verse, 18, can cause bad feelings simply by the use of improper words or by teasing others.
Rashi quotes Talmud Bava Metzia 59a, which states that inflicting distress “is not just another sin, but indeed one of the most serious sins in the Torah.”
He also tells us what Nechama Leibowitz, Sefer Chasidim, Shulchan Aruch, Igeret Hateshuvah, Maharal, Tosafot, and others say.
Another example is the biblical portion, Bechukotai, which focuses on retirement. He tells us that the “idea of ending one’s profession or work due to old age seems to be antithetical to Jewish thought.” The Talmud Kinim 25a states that Torah scholars’ minds hold firm as they age, and the Talmud Shabbat 152a states that the brains of Jewish scholars grow stronger as they grow older. Avot d’Rabbi Natan 11 warns that old people may die if their brains are not sufficiently engaged. According to Rashi’s commentary on Genesis 37:2, the patriarch Jacob wanted to end his days in shalvah, serenity, but God told him that humans cannot live leisurely in this or even the next world.
He also discusses other views, such as how practices in the USA are not consistent and how sometimes people must retire. Still, Supreme Court Justices and government officials have no retirement age, and there are some curious historical events.
The concept of retirement, for example, where a government pays citizens who leave work because of old age or sickness, is modern. The German statesman Otto von Bismarck, who unified Germany (1815-1898), instituted the system in 1879. He gave the money only to people over seventy when the average age of death was under forty. Why?
Similarly, when US President Roosevelt started the Social Security system in 1935 to pay workers when they reached age sixty-five, the average age of death in the USA was fifty-nine. What was he thinking?
The unusual examples of Bismarck and Roosevelt aside, it appears that there is no universal rule about retirement; ideas change regarding it, but generally speaking, but not always, there is no mandatory requirement to retire today in Judaism—just the opposite.
In short, Rabbi Amsel’s book is excellent. It teaches values, informs readers of lots of new information, and entertains them.
Among the fifty-four values Rabbi Amsel discusses are how to live forever, whether Judaism is a culture or religion
This is important Can u explain more rabbi?
Is it a culture or religion?
For Jews you can’t force others to believe in God only convince them.
If this is true it can’t possibly be a religion which REQUIRES a belief in a deity
If its a culture; does that mean anyone that eats “Jewish Food” is a Jew?
I think Judaism is both a culture and religion and even more.
“The German statesman Otto von Bismarck, who unified Germany (1815-1898), instituted the system in 1879. He gave the money only to people over seventy when the average age of death was under forty. Why? Similarly, when US President Roosevelt started the Social Security system in 1935 to pay workers when they reached age sixty-five, the average age of death in the USA was fifty-nine. What was he thinking?”
These are good questions. Here is my explanation. Most people still think that people in the Middle Ages died when they were thirty years old, but that is not true. The premise that everybody died when they were 40 or that everyone was five feet tall is wrong. People who say that do not understand averages or the concept of a mean. During the Middle Ages (for example), you had so much child mortality that it lowered the average age down to thirty, but that doesn’t mean that people literally lived till they were thirty and then died. If you made it past birth, then you had a very high chance of living a long life. Indeed, we have records of people still working their trade even at 70 in colonial times. In fact, in the psalm (90:10), it says that the average lifespan was around 70 years. Thus, when Otto von Bismarck and FDR made retirement age 70, this was perfectly normal.
Very interesting and most likely correct.
, the patriarch Jacob wanted to end his days in shalvah, serenity, but God told him that humans cannot live leisurely in this or even the next world.
WHAT
Why people are not in peace after death is a good question. Perhaps the answer is that this view is the view of those people who believe that people are alive in some way even after death and since humans always need to deal with difficulties they thought this would occur even after death.
I look forward to reading this book. Thanks again for all that you do!
Thank you, Yaaqoub.
He gave the money only to people over seventy when the average age of death was under forty. Why?
perhaps he wanted the system to last long enough for people. even though average age is 40. perhaps people over the age of 70 should always be given an option not to work and relax.
You may be right.
Rabbi Amsel’s approach, dear Rabbi Israel Drazin, resonates with my own approach to Torah study. By focusing on a single fundamental Jewish value in each chapter, he is able to provide a nuanced and insightful exploration of the Torah’s teachings. This approach allows readers to grasp the underlying principles that guide our actions and decisions, and to see how these values are woven throughout the Torah.
I must say that I am impressed by Rabbi Amsel’s decision to devote each chapter to a single value, rather than attempting to prove his scholarly credentials or to impart mystical or sermonic lessons. This approach suggests a humility and a commitment to clarity that is all too rare in contemporary Jewish scholarship. Best: stephen
We agree.