In my previous reviews of Chaim Grade’s books, I gave my opinion that Grade (1910-1982) should receive the Nobel Prize for literature. He was one of the leading Yiddish writers of the twentieth century. According to many, he was the best of an amazing group. His books are classics. I still feel this way. [...]
Maggid Books just published "Days are Coming" by Sivan Rahav-Meir, an easy-to-read, enjoyable, and inspiring book translated from Hebrew by Yehoshua Siskin. The book has many insightful ideas from sages, Bible commentators, and others regarding Jewish holidays, days following the holidays, and times when we remember people who taught us significant lessons that can improve [...]
Many people have wrong ideas about the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. The following are a few examples: Hanukkah does not celebrate a victory over the Greeks. The Greeks ruled many kingdoms due to Alexander the Great’s conquests, such as Egypt and Greece. Judea, the name Israel had at that time, was persecuted by the Syrians, [...]
Maggid Books, together with Yeshiva University Press, published “A Guide for the Jewish Undecided: A Philosopher makes a case for Orthodox Judaism” by Dr. Samuel Lebens, a rabbi and Orthodox Jew who is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Haifa in Israel. His other books are “The Principles of Judaism” (2020) [...]
Anyone interested in understanding the government of Iran must read the brilliant ten-page analysis by Nolan Drazin in the current issue of the prestigious Cambridge Journal of Political Affairs. The article is remarkably easy to read despite the vast amount of information that it contains. For example, the author cites close to 100 sources. By [...]
Many Jews are convinced that the laws and customs that originated with the rabbis were taught at Sinai to the Israelites during the days of Moses and are called “Oral Law,” even though the Torah itself states that only the Decalogue that people call The Ten Commandments were spoken there. Rabbi Dr. Benyamin Lau [...]
People should be familiar with "The Origin of the Species" by Charles R. Darwin (1809-1882), published in 1859. The book started a controversy that still, unfortunately, continues today between some religious and secular people. What is generally ignored is the idea that evolution can, indeed, should, be accepted even by the most conservative religious. They [...]
Unthinking prejudice resulted in the deaths of millions. The stories of Voltaire and Jenner are examples. The Frenchman Voltaire (1694-1778) tried unsuccessfully to get the French to inoculate children from smallpox. He was a very intelligent member of the Enlightenment, a writer, historian, and philosopher who criticized Christianity and slavery. He was an advocate [...]
The question of when did Jews begin to observe the practices and prohibitions of biblical laws is one of the most important yet thorniest questions that has bothered scholars for centuries. While traditional Jews believe their ancestors accepted and practiced Torah laws since the time of Moses, there is no clear statement that this [...]
In Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed, book 3, chapter 51, in the easy-to-read translation by Michael Friedlander, Maimonides tells readers: “The present chapter does not contain any additional matter that has not been treated in the (previous) chapters of this treatise. It is a kind of conclusion, and at the same time, it will explain in [...]
The Chaim Grade masterpiece “The Yeshiva II” is subtitled “Masters and Disciples” because it tells of dozens of lives of people in a manner unequaled by other writers. Each of the many people who populate this story has interesting and exciting lives that fascinate readers. Grade is uniquely capable of telling their tales and [...]
“Journeys to Heaven and Hell” by Bart D. Ehrman, a highly respected New Testament scholar, tells some of the different notions various nations and people had about the afterlife in ancient times. He describes a wide variety of katabases and anabases, but not all. Katabasis means going down, a descent. It is used to [...]
I wrote in past reviews of Chaim Grade’s books that I and many others are convinced Grade deserves the Nobel Prize for literature. Most readers of his book published in Yiddish in 1967 titled Tsemakh Atlas and translated into English in 1976 as The Yeshiva in two parts will agree. The first part [...]
There are many widely different interpretations of the biblical book Ecclesiastes in Hebrew Kohelet. Here is another one. A non-traditional one. It sees the book telling readers how they should behave. The name The root kahal in Hebrew means “assembly. The Latin Ecclesiastes has the same meaning. Tradition claims that King Solomon wrote the book. [...]
Urim Publications and Ktav Publishing in Jerusalem and New York have just republished “Jewish Women in Time and Torah.” It focuses on three periods of time in how Judaism treated women: (1) The early period of more than a thousand years until around the beginning of the Common Era when women were treated [...]
“Maimonides’ Hidden Torah Commentary: Numbers” is another of the many brilliant, learned, eye-opening, easy-to-read, and understood books by the brilliant scholar Rabbi Dr. Michael L. Samuel. It is another of his excellent contributions to scholarship. Rabbi Samuel was born in San Francisco and grew up [...]
The Rabbi and scholar Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel has made a significant contribution to Jewish scholarship with his book “The Unknown English Torah Commentator Marcus M. Kalisch,” the first in a series of books introducing readers to the thinking and teachings of Marcus M. Kalisch. This first volume focuses on the first half [...]
Judaism has dozens of meaningful customs and ceremonies, but most people, even Jews, do not know all of them, their origins and their rationale. Rabbi Abraham Chill (1912-2004) gives readers of his book “The Minhagim,” Hebrew for customs and ceremonies, a very readable discussion of many Jewish practices. He focuses on 27 holidays and events: [...]
“The Sacred and the Profane’ contains three excellent novellas by Chaim Grade translated from the original Yiddish by Harold Rabinowitz and Inna Hecker Grade, Chaim Grade’s second wife, whom he married sometime after the Nazis murdered his first wife and his mother along with six million other Jews. The Yiddish name was Kloyz un [...]
As with Rosh Hashanah, Orthodox Jews like me recognize that Yom Kippur is not mentioned in the Bible. It replaces another day known as Yom Hakippurim, mentioned in the Bible in Leviticus 16:29–31, 23:27–32, and Numbers 29:7–11. Orthodox Jews follow the Oral Law, the ways that the rabbis interpreted the Torah. This can be [...]
I am an Orthodox Jew. Orthodox Judaism recognizes that Judaism today is Rabbinical Judaism. It is based on what is called the Oral Law, the rabbinical interpretation of the Bible. For example, the Oral Law teaches that “an eye for an eye” should not be taken literally; it means monetary compensation. Rosh [...]
After reading and reviewing the Swede, John Ajvide Lindqvist’s splendid book "Let the Old Dreams Die" and viewing his film “Border,” I decided to watch his first 2008 film “Let the Right One In.” The movie is in Swedish, as is “Border,” with easy-to-follow caption translations. It is based on his first 2004 [...]
I found a writer I did not know and enjoyed his writing. The Swede, John Ajvide Lindqvist (born 1968), is a splendid writer, both his novels and short stories. He can write in a fashion that others cannot do. "Let the Old Dreams Die" is an example. It is a beautiful book. The book has [...]
“My Mother’s Sabbath Days” is a beautiful, fascinating, and eye-opening story by the Yiddish writer Chaim Grade (1910-1982). His name is pronounced gra, as in open your mouth and say ah, and de at the end pronounced as in eh, the word said in surprise. Grade in German and Yiddish means “straight.” Since [...]
Jeffry Bloom, a graduate of the University of Chicago who studied in several Orthodox yeshivas (rabbinical schools) in Israel after college, was bothered by what the scholar Leo Strauss wrote in his book Spinoza’s Critique of Religion.[1] Strauss emigrated from Germany to the United States in the 1930s. He taught at the University of [...]
The comprehensive 1229-page "Koren Selihot Minhag Lita, Hebrew and English Edition" contains a wealth of information about many aspects of Judaism. Since reciting Selihot is done before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and is a significant, often repeated part of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, and these holidays teach essential lessons, [...]
Virginia Woolf’s principal suggestion in her excellent essay “How Should One Read a Book” is to try to understand what point or points the author wants to make and enjoy what you are reading. She adds a clever idea that God is jealous of humanity because humans can get enjoyment from reading, while God cannot [...]
Although virtually all readers of Tom Sawyer did not live or think as Tom, they enjoyed and still enjoy his adventures, Mark Twain's sterling writing, his humor, and insights. The same applies to Levi Welton's magnificent memoir, “Be Like the Moon.” Welton's book does this and more. In 1979, the US Army called [...]
I enjoyed "The Old Testament and the Truth" by S. Seth Haas. His book deserves five stars. I did not agree with all of Haas's conclusions from his study of the Five Books of Moses. But this did not detract from my enjoyment. I found, as his readers will, that whether I agreed or [...]
I enjoyed the poetry book "Brought Down" by Simon Constam. It is both delightful to read and thought-provoking. The phrase “brought down” is a literal translation of Yiddish, Hebrew, and Aramaic terms suggesting an ancient Jewish idea or teaching being recalled. The thirty poems are easy to read. The images created by the poetry are [...]
