Books

In a little over 100 pages, Friedman does a good job detailing the myriad tensions in the Israel secular and religious divide.

What motivated the Zlotnicks to write this book? We need only to look at its title, Brick by Brick: Building an Ahavas Yisrael Mindset One Story at a Time, to answer this question. It suggests that no effort, big or small, to reach out to our fellow Jews is insignificant.

With seven previous books to his credit, this is not the first time Rabbi Bernstein has covered the holiday of Sukkos.

Thousands of pages have been written explaining why Maimonides didn't include dwelling in Israel in his list of 613 mitzvot. Notwithstanding that, the book shows that irrespective of whether it is a mitzvah, the land of Israel and the Torah are one.

Among the delights of this book is the joy he takes in his family – his wife Sharon, their son Yosef and his wife Hillary, their grandchildren – and in observant Jewish life.

Dee shows us that the very foundation of our lives and the precepts we live by, our ethics, morals, and culture, our education, the worlds of physics, and science all emanate from the foundations of the Torah...

A well-chosen book can bring a kid hours of pleasure and also instills a love of reading, an activity that will serve them well in the years ahead.

Each section of the book begins with a map and some history, followed by a walk that features unique sites, conversations with people on the street, and a wonderful array of quirky facts that only someone who gets into granular local history would discover.

Rav Chaim was not bound by the dictates of this world; he was heard to recite Torah passages in his sleep.

A Brief and Visual History of Antisemitism is thoughtfully written and designed to appeal to young readers, the smart phone-obsessed, and anyone else with a short attention span, all while being researched and thorough enough to keep the methodical reader clinging to every page.

Rabbi David writes how he was completely taken aback by how this giant of a Torah scholar would treat a very young boy with such respect and friendship as if he were talking to one of his peers.

One particularly fascinating recurring question described in the book is that of a symbolic re-conversion as an apostate returns from Christian ideals to Jewish ones.

Interwoven in this biography are the political, religious, historical, and cultural background events marking Wiesel’s extraordinary life trajectory, which the author expertly and entertainingly describes with his reporter’s eye.

Short stories are developed one by one… Each story reflects something I was responding to in the world. It’s deeply immersed in frum culture, and our unique challenges and approaches.

Aside from lessons related to chronological structure, the overview concludes with a summary of themes. It is here that Rabbi Arenias urges the reader to engage with the Chumash as a complete text and not just a pasuk to study for a dvar Torah for the Shabbos table.

One particular incident that stood out was when the protagonist casually partook in a meal consisting of potatoes and lard... The protagonist seemed to disregard fundamental principles of Jewish dietary observance without hesitation.

Miller makes his readers work hard, but he rewards them with startling insights, such as the idea that Ruth’s relationship with Boaz was a double yibum – for Ruth’s deceased husband Machlon but also for Elimelech and Naomi, who is too old to bear a child in her dead husband’s name.

A quick survey of these essays reveals how the overriding medical and halachic concern of certain pikuach nefesh for the individual patient is weighed so very carefully against potential or probable pikuach nefesh and the general health and welfare of the community at large.

Full disclosure: I’m a geek. By that I mean that I read math theory books for fun. And, having a long career in kiruv, I have used metaphors from quantum mechanics in my presentations, to varying degrees of success.

The Maharal is classically celebrated for taking deep Kabbalistic and mystical ideas and bringing them down to Earth, writing in a deep and beautiful style.

My only criticism is that it isn’t longer. Maybe there’ll be a sequel.

Resnick’s book brings to light much nuance that has been lost in discussions about the Holocaust and who acted nobly. Indeed, the whole topic is a bit murky, but Resnick provides the reader with enough information to make his own informed decision.

To analyze the entire book in such a short review is to attempt the impossible, so I will instead focus on a particular question that arises throughout: What, exactly, is teshuva?

It turns out that this book is so remarkable it works for all levels of learning.

Ungar’s book makes the Torah Giant relatable to young children so that they can imagine themselves imitating his ways.

Those who abstain from using newer methods will often cite the much quoted, and much misunderstood quip from the Chasam Sofer that chadash assur min haTorah – new is forbidden by the Torah. Yet the danger of using that approach is that they do miss out on the new approaches that do work.

The medium is the message is an expression, coined in the last century, that argues that the way in which a message is conveyed communicates as much as the message itself.

He begins with a general overview of Teshuvah discussing topics such as Teshuvah rooted in fear vs. that rooted in love, how we establish our true identity through the process of Teshuvah, the need to maintain a positive attitude through the process, and creating a real connection with Hashem.

The winners write the history books

Oren asks rhetorically why is it that Israeli leaders “rarely articulate a vision of Israel’s future?”