Koren Publishers’ “The Steinsaltz Humash: Humash Translation and Commentary” by Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz is excellent. The word “Humash” means “five” and refers to the Five Books of Moses which is in this volume in clear Hebrew text in the beautiful Koren font, with a completely new modern English translation that is faithful to the [...]
While the idea presented in Samuel J. Levine’s book Was Yosef on the Spectrum, that the biblical Joseph, son of Jacob, was autistic, having Asperger’s Syndrome, may bother some people who prefer to think that Israel’s ancient leaders had no imperfection,[1] they will still find much to learn and much to appreciate in this [...]
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein’s book “God versus gods: Judaism in the Age of Idolatry" (Mosaica Press, 2018), which is found on Amazon at https://amzn.to/2NO4jLy is filled with information on every page about Jewish history, ideology, God, idols, superstition, and mistakes made by the ancients. There are seven chapters on the history of monotheism in 276 pages, many [...]
As I mentioned in my review of Miriam & Other Stories, Micha Yosef Berdichevsky, who changed his name to Micha Joseph bin Gorion, was bothered his entire life with ideas and practices in Judaism which turned him into a scoffer, an attitude that is reflected in his stories in Miriam and sometimes in this book [...]
This new 1452-page siddur, which includes 106 additional pages of essays, edited in chief by Rabbi Basil Herring, shows why it is beneficial to have more than one version of the siddur. This new version, with weekday, shabbat, yom tov prayers, and a host of additional sections, offers much that is not in many [...]
Many people are mistakenly convinced that the Jewish holiday of Chanukah celebrates the victory of the Jewish religion over Hellenism and that the enemy was Greece. Neither supposed fact is true. The Jews in Judea, Egypt and other countries of the diaspora had a longstanding favorable relationship with the Greeks and Hellenism well before [...]
The extraordinary and astonishing episode of Jacob wrestling an angel at the Wadi Jabbok raises many questions and an assortment of conflicting answers. The text The wrestling episode is related in Genesis 32:25–33. Jacob had reached the Wadi Jabbok on his return home after an absence from Canaan of some twenty years. He [...]
The Bible and prayers mention angels, but Jews differed in the past and still do today on the existence of angels. Should we interpret these allusions symbolically, and deny the existence of angels? Or, should we take these references literally, and insist that not only do angels exist but that they are involved in and [...]
There are free short books written in easy to read English that contain significant history that can be obtained from “Hourly History” every Friday. The books can be read in their entirety in an hour. This past Friday, on November 2, 2018, for example, the free books were: Babylon, Anne Frank, Spartacus and the Slave [...]
On November 2, 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour sent a historic letter to a leading British Jewish citizen Lord Rothschild that publicized British support of a Jewish homeland. This was the first national recognition of the Jewish right to Israel since the destruction of Israel in 70 CE by the Romans. The letter [...]
The Bible has many obscure matters. In my forthcoming book “Mysteries of Judaism III,” I will give many examples of the obscurities and how some people have used the obscurities to disparage women. The following is a short version of what will appear in the 2019 book. These examples focus on women. Eve [...]
The thrust of Soren Kierkegaard’s 1843 influential book “Fear and Trembling” is long reflections on Abraham’s near sacrifice of his son Isaac, a story told in Genesis 22.[1] Kierkegaard concludes from his analysis that Abraham represents the prototype of faith, for he showed faith when he was willing to obey God’s command to [...]
There are multiple examples of additions by mystics to the siddur and machzor and to the practices concerning how and when the prayers are said. The following are a few examples. Additions to the Shema The several sections from the Torah which the siddur and machzor call the Shema are recited in the [...]
Contrary to what most people think, the siddur and machzor are not books containing a single view of Judaism. Additionally, much of what is in it are not prayers seeking help. The siddur and machzor are anthologies of diverse, even conflicting views, composed and collected and inserted into the collections by various people during [...]
The great scholar Arnold Ehrlich (1848-1919) authored Mikra Kipheshuto, “The Bible Literally,” in three Hebrew volumes.[1] His ideas are frequently unconventional, even untraditional – for example, he denied that Kings David and Solomon ever existed – yet his ideas are generally very intelligent and thought provoking. The following are [...]
Scholars have recognized long ago that the Bible has “wisdom books,” books that contain philosophy. They are Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes (also called Qohelet), and Ben Sira (also called Sirach and Ecclesiasticus) and the [...]
In the September 9, 2018 “thetorah.com,” Dr. Rabbi Zev Farber[1] offers a very thoughtful essay “Does YHWH Remit Punishment.” He asks does God inflict punishment even after a person repents. He cites several Torah statements that seem to indicate that even after people repent, they and their innocent descendants are punished for several generations. [...]
In his 1919 superb novel Demian, the 1946 Nobel Prize winning author Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) suggested, despite the biblical text clearly stating that Cain criminally murdered his brother Abel, that it is possible to interpret the biblical story of Genesis 4 hinting that Abel was the brother who acted improperly. The 1919 novel Hesse’s [...]
I received these jokes from a former study partner, a smart fellow, and I think you will like them as I did. A little boy went up to his father and asked: 'Dad, where did my Intelligence come from?' The father replied. 'Well, son, you must have got it from your mother, Cause I [...]
In my last essay, I included some of the facts about the great sage Nachmanides that are in my recent book “Nachmanides, An Unusual Thinker.” I did not include the supporting notes that are in the book. Here are some additional views by the great sage. Reading Mystic ideas into halakhah Nachmanides inserted his [...]
Gefen Publishing House just published my “Nachmanides: An Unusual Thinker.” In the book, I tell much about Nachmanides, his views about the Torah, about God, his praise but misunderstanding of Targum Onkelos, his views about such things as demons, hell, souls, and other subjects. The following is an abbreviated version of some of his unusual [...]
Dr. Oliver Kent wrote a fascinating educational book called “Inspirational Buddhist Quotations: Meditations and Reflections.”[1] He quotes 100 Buddhist teachings and adds his own brief reflections on each of them. The famed philosopher Maimonides wrote that people should realize that “The truth is the truth no matter what its source.” Although Jewish, he saw [...]
In an exccelent and informative article, Professor Marty Lockshin of York University, a rabbi, examined the difficulty raised by Deuteronomy 13:2-4 and tells the solutions offered in a Midrash and by several medieval Jewish commentators.[1] I will add another solution. Deuteronomy states: “If there appears among you a prophet or a dream-diviner – [...]
We are not Bible Jews. We are Rabbinical Jews. The Torah only forbids intermarriages with certain non-Israelites, not all of them. But at least since the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, Judaism has forbidden intermarriages with non-Jews who have not converted. There are many verses that proscribe marriages with non-Israelites, but until the time [...]
Pub date: October 2018 Nachmanides An Unusual Thinker by Israel Drazin ISBN: 9789652298874 Price: $24.95 Pages: 217 Binding: Hardcover Nachmanides was and still is a highly respected scholar. Yet despite his brilliance he had ideas that many modern Jews are unable to accept. He was the first person who contended that the Bible, Targum Onkelos, [...]
The 1596 Merchant of Venice play seems to me to be nonsensical, filled with actions that make no sense, and it is extremely anti-Semitic. Contrary to what most people think, that it is only Shylock's demand that the merchant of Venice, Antonio, fulfills his vow that he made to give Shylock a pound of his [...]
Some things are hard if not impossible to understand unless a person has a good background of knowledge about the subject. One would not expect a person to understand the philosophy of Aristotle or Maimonides if the individual never took a course in philosophy, even if he or she spends twelve hours a day “learning” [...]
In his sixth “Young People’s Concert: Humor in Music,” Leonard Bernstein tells viewers that many very good pleasant pieces of music contain humor. He proves this by examining parts of musical compositions by Haydn, Mahler, Mozart, and Shostakovich. He tells us what it is in music that can make it funny. He tells us [...]
Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts was one of the best things on TV. He introduced people, not only young but even older people, to music, what it is, what does it means, and how to enjoy it. In the 1958 hour-long film, the first in the series, he focused on What Does Music Mean? While [...]
Today, July 22, 2018, 10 Av according to the Jewish calendar, many Jews fast. The fast this year is not on 9 Av because 9 Av, Tisha B’Av in Hebrew, occurs on Shabbat when it is inappropriate to fast, so the fast is delayed until the next day.[1] Tradition states that the ninth of Av [...]