Synopses & Reviews
A publishing sensation long at the top of the best-seller lists in Israel, the original Hebrew edition of
Maimonides and the Book That Changed Judaism has been called the most successful book ever published in Israel on the preeminent medieval Jewish thinker Moses Maimonides. The works of Maimonides, particularly
The Guide for the Perplexed, are reckoned among the fundamental texts that influenced all subsequent Jewish philosophy and also proved to be highly influential in Christian and Islamic thought.
Spanning subjects ranging from God, prophecy, miracles, revelation, and evil, to politics, messianism, reason in religion, and the therapeutic role of doubt, Maimonides and the Book That Changed Judaism elucidates the complex ideas of The Guide in remarkably clear and engaging prose.
Drawing on his own experience as a central figure in the current Israeli renaissance of Jewish culture and spirituality, Micah Goodman brings Maimonidess masterwork into dialogue with the intellectual and spiritual worlds of twenty-first-century readers. Goodman contends that in Maimonidess view, the Torahs purpose is not to bring clarity about God but rather to make us realize that we do not understand God at all; not to resolve inscrutable religious issues but to give us insight into the true nature and purpose of our lives.
Review
“Can a single story unfold the history of a nation and some of the deepest truths of tradition? Yes, if that story is the rabbis tale of Abraham and its interpreter is Rabbi Salkin. There is much to learn in this absorbing, important book.”—David J. Wolpe, rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and the author of Why Faith Matters David J. Wolpe
Review
“Jeffrey Salkin takes us on a magical journey through Jewish history and texts, showing us how a simple, ancient postbiblical tale is essential for our understanding of the totality of the Jewish experience. It is full of insights that will challenge how we as readers view modern society and the idolatries that are inherent in it.”—Norman J. Cohen, rabbi and professor of Midrash at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York, and author of Masking and Unmasking Ourselves
Review
"Mining the vast troves of Jewish legendry and midrashim, Salkin expands and deepens knowledge and understanding of the biblical Abram."—Ray Olson, Booklist
Review
"Smoothly weaving together contemporary scholarship, midrashic elaborations of scripture, and meditation on the key symbols that evoke his central issue, Rabbi Salkin provides a map of Judaic meaning. By comparing and contrasting Abraham’s breaking of his father’s idols with the breaking of the first set of tablets by Moses, he opens up a investigative mode that has far-reaching consequences for the world Jewish community, both present and future."—Phillip K. Jason, Jewish Book Council
Review
"Salkin's work—combining biblical texts, archaeology, rabbinic insights, Hasidic texts (some never before translated), philosophy, history, poetry, contemporary Jewish thought, sociology, and popular culture—is nothing less than a journey through two thousand years of Jewish life and intellectual endeavor."—Dov Peretz Elkins, Jewish Media Review
Review
"The text is filled with quotations from throughout Jewish history; Talmud and Midrash, medieval sages and modern scholars have all had important things to say about this small vignette. Salkin has skillfully woven them into a useful and comprehensible tapestry."—Fred Issac, Association of Jewish Libraries Review
Review
and#8220;With imaginative insight, Jerry Rabow has placed a human face and heart onto the persona of this biblical drama of love, loyalty, and intrigue. The author endows this ancient romance with empathic contemporary relevance.and#8221;and#8212;Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis, author of Conscience: The Duty to Obey and the Duty to Disobey and founder of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous andand#160;Jewish World Watch
Review
and#8220;A personal and accessible narrative that tells a remarkable story yet is grounded in solid scholarship.and#8221;and#8212;Rabbi Daniel Bouskila, Sephardic Educational Center
Review
and#8220;With a broad scope that will appeal to a wide readership, this work will be useful as a comprehensive resource on the history of the Spanish Jews.and#8221;and#8212;Gregory B. Kaplan, author of Marginal Voices: Studies in Converso Literature of Medieval and Golden Age Spain
Review
and#8220;A lucid, readable summary . . . that brings the key personalities to life and explores the intricate relationship between religious hatred, politics, and economics.and#8221;and#8212;Rabbi Hayyim Angel, National Scholar at the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals and professor of Bible at Yeshiva University
Review
“Micah Goodmans inspiring book is an important and profound contribution to the comprehension of the greatest, most complex work in the history of Jewish philosophy.”—Moshe Halbertal, Gruss Professor of Law at New York University School of Law and John and Golda Cohen Professor of Jewish Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Review
“Maimonides and the Book That Changed Judaism presents an exciting and relevant possibility: freeing the mind from the habits of religious discourse and returning the concept of God to the intellectuals thoughts.”—Ruth Calderon, author of A Bride for One Night, member of the Israeli Knesset, and founder of Alma: Home for Hebrew Culture
Review
“One of Israels brilliant next generation thinkers, Dr. Micah Goodman is an intellectual powerhouse. From academic settings to popular television lectures he makes lofty ideas accessible and relevant to contemporary life. While others discuss pluralism, Micah lives it, bringing secular and observant young Israelis together through the Ein Prat Midrasha in studying texts and living Jewish commitments such as Tikkun Olam. At the Shalom Hartman Institute I have been nourished by his electrifying lectures illuminating modern dilemmas through the minds of rabbinic sages and contemporary philosophers.” —Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism
Review
andquot;The Lost Matriarch is a thorough examination of the story of Leah.andquot;andmdash;Fred Reiss, San Diego Jewish World
Review
“With his characteristic skill and insight, Micah Goodman guides us through the beauty of Jewish philosophy, uplifting us from perplexity to enlightenment.”—Shimon Peres, former president of the State of Israel
Review
“After more than eight centuries Maimonides’s Guide for the Perplexed remains the Everest of Jewish thought, majestic and challenging at the same time. Micah Goodman, one of the brightest of contemporary Jewish thinkers, has provided a superlative introduction to this work. It is engaging, lucid, and a delight to read, enabling Maimonides’s masterpiece to speak compellingly to our perplexities. An outstanding achievement.”—Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, emeritus chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth
Review
andquot;This new treatment of the Biblical matriarch Leah is a well researched and a refreshing new look at an old story.andquot;andmdash;Barbara Andrews, Jewish Book Council
Review
“One of Israel’s brilliant next generation thinkers, Dr. Micah Goodman is an intellectual powerhouse. . . . I have been nourished by his electrifying lectures illuminating modern dilemmas through the minds of rabbinic sages and contemporary philosophers.” —Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism
Review
“The characteristic diversity within Reform Judaism is underscored on virtually every page of Plaut’s volumes.”—Rabbi Howard A. Berman, executive director of the Society for Classical Reform Judaism
Review
“The work of Rabbi Plaut is not only crucial for an understanding of Reform Judaism; it is also indispensable for grasping the development and history of Judaism in the modern world.”—Rabbi David Ellenson, chancellor and past president of Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion
Review
“This valuable collection of source materials is designed to acquaint the reader with the primary forces in the development of Reform Judaism in Europe. From a wide range of essays, articles, speeches, and other writings, Dr. Plaut judiciously selects those that best represent the thinking of the leaders as well as of the lesser, more obscure figures of the Reform movement.”—Commentary magazine
Review
“Here is a personal journey whose signposts are biblical tales and spiritual insights of the masters. Niles Goldstein asks ever-deepening questions, leaving the reader both uplifted and enlightened.”—Rabbi David Wolpe, Sinai Temple, Los Angeles, and author of Why Faith Matters
Review
“Weaving insights from personal experience with philosophical perspective and religious wisdom, Goldstein has provided a thoughtful, provocative, and accessible context in which readers can find their own way toward inner growth.”—Reverend Dirk Ficca, former executive director of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions
Review
andquot;[Exiles in Sepharad is] a nuanced work that acknowledges both the heights and depths of the Jewish experience in Spain, where Jews enjoyed a level of prosperity, acclaim and power not matched anywhere else in Europe.andquot;andmdash;Sheldon Kirshner, Times of Israel
Review
"As Americans show increased interest in Jewish religion and culture in Israel, this English edition is likely to have great appeal."—Publishers Weekly
Review
"Goodman’s book, a guide to The Guide, is an astonishing achievement. There can be no Maimonides for Dummies, and thus Goodman’s presentation will challenge his readers mightily. It is a challenge very much worth taking."—Philip K. Jason, Jewish Book Council
Synopsis
The story of Abraham smashing his fathers idols might be the most important Jewish story ever told and the key to how Jews define themselves. In a work at once deeply erudite and wonderfully accessible, Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin conducts readers through the life and legacy of this powerful story and explains how it has shaped Jewish consciousness.
Offering a radical view of Jewish existence, The Gods Are Broken! views the story of the young Abraham as the “primal trauma” of Jewish history, one critical to the development of a certain Jewish comfort with rebelliousness and one that, happening in every generation, has helped Jews develop a unique identity. Salkin shows how the story continues to reverberate through the ages, even in its connection to the phenomenon of anti-Semitism.
Salkins work—combining biblical texts, archaeology, rabbinic insights, Hasidic texts (some never before translated), philosophy, history, poetry, contemporary Jewish thought, sociology, and popular culture—is nothing less than a journey through two thousand years of Jewish life and intellectual endeavor.
Synopsis
The Lost Matriarch offers a unique response to the sparse and puzzling biblical treatment of the matriarch Leah. Although Leah is a major figure in the book of Genesis, the biblical text allows her only a single word of physical description and two lines of direct dialogue. The Bible tells us little about the effects of her lifelong struggles in an apparently loveless marriage to Jacob, the husband she shares with three other wives, including her beautiful younger sister, Rachel. Fortunately, two thousand years of traditional and modern commentators have produced many fascinating interpretations (midrash) that reveal the far richer story of Leah hidden within the text.
Through Jerry Rabowand#8217;s weaving of biblical text and midrash, readers learn the lessons of the remarkable Leah, who triumphed over adversity and hardship by living a life of moral heroism. The Lost Matriarch reveals Leahand#8217;s full story and invites readers into the delightful, provocative world of creative rabbinic and literary commentary. By experiencing these midrashic insights and techniques for reading and#8220;between the lines,and#8221; readers are introduced to what for many will be an exciting new method of personal Bible interpretation.
Synopsis
The dramatic one-thousand-year history of Jews in Spain comes to life in
Exiles in Sepharad. Jeffrey Gorsky vividly relates this colorful period of Jewish history, from the era when Jewish culture was at its height in Muslim Spain to the horrors of the Inquisition and the Expulsion.
Twenty percent of Jews today are descended from Sephardic Jews, who created significant works in religion, literature, science, and philosophy. They flourished under both Muslim and Christian rule, enjoying prosperity and power unsurpassed in Europe. Their cultural contributions include important poets; the great Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides; and Moses de Leon, author of the Zohar, the core text of the Kabbalah.
But these Jews also endured considerable hardship. Fundamentalist Islamic tribes drove them from Muslim to Christian Spain. In 1391 thousands were killed and more than a third were forced to convert by anti-Jewish rioters. A century later the Spanish Inquisition began, accusing thousands of these converts of heresy. By the end of the fifteenth century Jews had been expelled from Spain and forcibly converted in Portugal and Navarre. After almost a millennium of harmonious existence, what had been the most populous and prosperous Jewish community in Europe ceased to exist on the Iberian Peninsula.
Synopsis
This fiftieth anniversary edition of W. Gunther Plauts classic volume on the beginnings of the Jewish Reform Movement is updated with a new introduction by Howard A. Berman. The Rise of Reform Judaism covers the first one hundred years of the movement, from the time of the eighteenth-century Jewish Enlightenment leader Moses Mendelssohn to the conclusion of the Augsburg synod in 1871.
In these pages the founders who established liberal Judaism speak for themselves through their journals and pamphlets, books and sermons, petitions and resolutions, and public arguments and disputations. Each selection includes Plauts brief introduction and sketch of the reformer. Important topics within Judaism are addressed in these writings: philosophy and theology, religious practice, synagogue services, and personal life, as well as controversies on the permissibility of organ music, the introduction of the sermon, the nature of circumcision, the observance of the Sabbath, the rights of women, and the authenticity of the Bible.
Synopsis
Eight Questions of Faith is a spiritual exploration of some of life’s biggest questions—questions that have been asked by prophets and kings, mystics and sinners, and that continue to be asked by every one of us today. Niles Elliot Goldstein uses eight questions found in the Bible to explore the human journey from cradle to grave, confronting such important existential experiences and themes as mortality, responsibility, forbidden knowledge, sin, and the afterlife. By interweaving texts from the Bible, commentaries, philosophy, psychology, and literature with his own experiences, Goldstein also meditates on midlife. This book will appeal to believers and nonbelievers alike and is aimed at anyone who has ever faced a challenge or wondered what life is all about.
About the Author
Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut (1912-2012) was a longtime rabbi of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. The author of more than twenty books on Jewish theology, history, and culture, he is best known for The Torah: A Modern Commentary. Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof (1892-1990) was a leader of the Reform Jewish Movement and a world-renowned interpreter of Jewish law. Rabbi Howard A. Berman is the executive director of the Society for Classical Reform Judaism. He lectures at congregations throughout the country on behalf of the society and teaches regularly at Hebrew Union College.