Recommended Reading

[stillwood]

RabbiO is correct, I am indeed in exploration mode. I have some knowledge of Judaism, but its pretty minimal.

But thank you all for your replies. I think starting with an introductry text on the Talmud would probably be the better way to go for me. Thank you all for your informative replies. Feel free to offer anymore advice; Id love to hear it! Take care.

 

[Rhiamom]

Some books I have liked that focus more on the development of Rabbinic Judaism:

Must a Jew Believe Anything? By Menachem Kellner
From Politics to Piety by Jacob Neusner
Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls by Lawrence Schiffman

And the classic A Lesson a Day from the work of the Chofetz Chaim by Finkelman and Berkowitz.

 

[metis]

Some books I have liked that focus more on the development of Rabbinic Judaism:

Must a Jew Believe Anything? By Menachem Kellner
From Politics to Piety by Jacob Neusner
Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls by Lawrence Schiffman

And the classic A Lesson a Day from the work of the Chofetz Chaim by Finkelman and Berkowitz.

Thanks for this list, but I'm very worried that someday I'm gonna get crushed by my mountain of unread books.

 

[Tarheeler]

Thanks for this list, but I'm very worried that someday I'm gonna get crushed by my mountain of unread books.

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

 

[Rhiamom]

The list of Jewish books I want to read is so long I started a separate Amazon wishlist for it. And that is just the ones I have not bought or borrowed from Interlibrary loan yet.

 

[metis]

Not the same thing, but I bought a music cd about 6 months ago that is amazingly beautiful, and it's Dudu Fisher's "In Concert From Israel". There are several songs that literally fill my eyes with tears, including a couple from Les Miserables, one from Phantom of the Opera, Jerusalem of Gold, and an absolutely beautiful and unusual version of the theme from Exodus. About half the songs are religious (Dudu is Orthodox) and are also terrific.

Since my wife and I love music, we have literally hundreds of cd's we've accumulated over the years, but this is by far our favorite. Trouble is, it's so emotional for both of us, by the time we get to the end it feels like we've been beat up.

Shabbat shalom

 

[Jedster]

Over the last couple of years, we've had several threads with book recommendations, and I thought it would be nice to a single thread to put them in. It seems that most of us are fairly active readers, and I know that I've bought several books based on recommendations made here. I figured that we have a variety of people who have a similarly wide rage of beliefs and traditions. I think we can put together a great list of works that we like or have found useful.

I'm thinking of just a simple listing with author, title, subject, and a brief statement about why you recommend it.

Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew by Haim Shore
An interesting look at the Hebrew language by a secular professor of statistics.
I should add that this is not about gematria or Bible-codes.

Edited to add: If interested look at the comments on Amazn.co

 

[dantech]

:yes:

​

Hey Jay,

Would you suggest this to someone who reads the Torah mostly in the original language anyway?

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Would you suggest this to someone who reads the Torah mostly in the original language anyway?

Sure, but it is supplemental and no substitute for reading the JPS and Plaut commentaries.

 

[Jedster]

Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew by Haim Shore
An interesting look at the Hebrew language by a secular(?) professor of statistics.
I should add that this is not about gematria or Bible-codes.

I have just noticed that this book(updated) is online for free
https://haimshore.files.wordpress.c...the-bible-and-in-biblical-hebrew_feb-2014.pdf