What is your favorite Jewish book (other than the Torah and the Talmud)?
Chabad
Words from the heart may be lofty and inspiring, but they are emotions (regesh). Then there is soul, hergesh. Hergesh describes Tova Mordechai’s book Playing with Fire, which chronicles her life in the evangelical church of her father, the minister, and her improbable return to the faith of her mother, the Jewish woman from Egypt. Such a story is usually fraught with emotional tension and filled with information about the inner workings of an evangelical mind. Mordechai doesn’t go there. Her book is words from the soul.
She cuts through the tangle of thoughts, opinions, feelings and needs to effortlessly speak "soul"—without a false note. She doesn’t gush. She doesn’t sell. She doesn’t rationalize.
In one scene she describes her prayer: lying on the stone floor of the chapel for six hours, crying and pleading with G-d to let her know the truth of her soul and find her way back to the faith of her people. My reaction was not regesh—it was hergesh. The Rebbe hated the expression kiruv r’chokin, used by outreach professionals, who bring Jews that are “far” closer to G-d. “For how do you know where is close and where is far? Sometimes the student is closer to G-d than the teacher.” Tova was close when she came to my seminar in Minnesota. I was her “teacher.”
Rabbi Manis Friedman, Dean, Bais Chana Institute of Jewish Studies, St. Paul, MN
Modern Orthodox
Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s Halakhic Man makes the rabbinic classics (Talmud and halacha) meaningful to modern readers in brilliant and fresh ways. He articulates the Jewish tradition as a way of living modern life vitally and humanly and the rabbinic system as inspiring us to confront anxieties and integrate the dilemmas of existence in a positive way. Myriads of halachic details move from legal requirements to meaningful expression of psychological and moral states.
In this book, Soloveitchik opened my eyes to the way Judaism is, above all, on the side of life. He interprets the halacha as the affirmation of embodied existence (eating, drinking, creating, loving, etc.), the locus of experiencing true holiness, and he celebrates the central role of autonomous human judgment. Halakhic Man articulates the partnership of God and humanity and the love affair of the people of Israel and God as the key to the Jewish dream of perfecting the world.
Since I want to live a life that reconciles modernity at its best with the Jewish tradition at its best, I have loved the book ever since I first read it.
Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, New York, NY
Sephardi
To identify my favorite Jewish book, I must first clarify: my favorite book for what?
I devote much of my time to educating others about Judaism. My most formidable challenge is to reveal to Jews (and non-Jews) that the Torah and its commandments, as complex, detailed and overwhelming as they may seem, reflect a clear, integrated and coherent philosophy.
In this respect, I find that the classic works of Maimonides are peerless. Maimonides, in his grand law code and his philosophical treatises, constantly emphasizes that a profound unity of thought, purpose and spirit lies beneath Judaism’s daunting intricacy.
However, because Maimonides’ style often seems alien to moderns, I find myself instead recommending Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch’s masterpiece Horeb. Hirsch demonstrates how all our detailed and apparently cumbersome laws, practices and traditions actually derive from and reinforce inspiring Jewish principles in the “real world.”
Although, as a Maimonidean, I differ with some of Hirsch’s specific formulations, I find that Horeb is the best available modern synthesis of Judaism’s intellectual vision, religious practice and ethical consciousness.
Rabbi Joshua Maroof, Magen David Sephardic Congregation, Rockville, MD
Conservative
The Pesikta de-Rav Kahana is a collection of midrashim, of homilies, composed for special occasions of the Jewish year (that feature dedicated prophetic readings). Written in Hebrew/Aramaic, it is available in an English translation by William Braude and Israel Kapstein.
Why is it a favorite? The following four factors: First, the Midrash is the way in which Jews have linked contemporary theological thought with ancient scripture, and this anthology offers masterful examples; second, the Pesikta, compiled in the 5th century C.E., gives us insight into the late Talmudic period in Israel; third, it is organized by the actual rhythms of Jewish life; each time a practicing Jew “reads ahead” in the Pesikta, (s)he is anticipating not Moses’ or Aaron’s next experience, but rather his/her personal next experience; and fourth, the text’s history is a stirring example of tehiyat ha-metim (resurrection of the dead); the Pesikta was lost for several centuries until Leopold Zunz and others in the 19th century rediscovered it.
For historical insight, provocative theology, classic learning and a wonderfully inspirational story of revival, my advice to my students has always been to use a variation of the classic Karl Malden line on the old American Express commercials: “Don’t leave home without it.”
Rabbi Gordon Tucker, Temple Israel Center, White Plains, NY
Reform
The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, edited by Dr. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Dr. Andrea Weiss, brings the women of the Torah from the shadows into the limelight.
A Women’s Commentary resembles the 1780 work of Moses Mendelssohn, known to historians as “the first modern Jew,” who appended a commentary to the German translation of the Bible that came to be known as the Biur (explanation). Besides relying on time-honored Jewish interpretations, particularly those of the 13th-century exegete Nahmanides.
Mendelssohn dedicated himself to the moral and intellectual improvement of his people. Mendelssohn recognized that Jewish biblical exegesis, from Rashi onward, had been pliant enough to encompass any number of new ideas.
Like the Biur, A Women’s Commentary is a didactic and collaborative effort, seeking to make the Hebrew scriptures accessible, relevant and thereby meaningful to a new generation. While Mendelssohn and four others worked more than a decade on the Biur, A Women’s Commentary was crafted over 14 years and contains the exhaustive research, thought and discussion of more than 100 theologians, historians, sociologists, scholars, anthropologists, poets, rabbis and cantors from the United States, Canada, Israel and South America—all of them women.
The book’s interpretations of biblical text derive from the actual experiences of women and men and women with men.
Rabbi Carole Balin, Professor of Jewish History, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, OH
Reconstructionist
Jewish civilization unfolds from one era to the next. The Biblical and Rabbinic periods are easy: Tanakh (Torah, Prophets and Writings) and Talmud are tops. Later eras are trickier; here are my picks:
Medieval: Maimonides’ Moreh Nevukhim/ Guide for the Perplexed. This philosophical masterwork synthesizes classical Jewish values with prevailing Greek and Muslim ideas. In 1190, Rambam—a Spanish-Egyptian rabbi-physician—took Biblical language figuratively (i.e., about God’s body) and questioned many old assumptions. Now embraced by all, the Guide was burned by more insular Jews of the time.
Modern: Martin Buber’s I and Thou. Since 1923 we’ve seen that relationships—with people, animals, trees, rocks and God—are central to every aspect of our lives. Buber, a progressive neo-Hassidic Zionist, timelessly asks us to treat all “others” as holy creations with intrinsic value, not tools for our personal use.
Contemporary: Judith Plaskow’s Standing Again at Sinai. As Rambam reconciled tradition with the sensibilities of his day, so this 1990 Jewish feminist classic reconciles Judaism and equality. This book vastly broadened my horizons.
Great Jewish books span all cultures; the selections above were originally written in Arabic, German, and English, respectively. And one final pick: Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath. Heschel’s poetic reflections on rest are worth rereading at every turn.
Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation, Bethesda, MD
Renewal
My most dog-eared and valued Jewish book is Cheshbon HaNefesh written in 1812 by Reb Mendel of Satanov. It was given to me by a college professor in 1973. Reb Mendel’s concern with the human capacity to develop morally is detailed in an 18-step program comprising journaling, self-reflection and planned personal change based on these specific characteristics: equanimity, respect born of curiosity, orderliness, decisiveness, cleanliness, humility, righteousness, economic stability, gusto, silence, calmness, truth, pacing, temperance, deliberation, modesty, trust and generosity.
In my opinion, the intent of Judaism is to shape the holiest possible human through practices that enable us to align with healthy intentions. In my first book, Reclaiming Judaism as a Spiritual Practice, I teach how to apply Dr. Gene Gendlin’s focusing technique as applied to these principles; I find that in Hashpa’ah, sessions of Jewish spiritual guidance, my students and I grow in menschlichkeit and the joy of living through a commitment to this powerful practice.
Rabbi Goldie Milgram, Founder, ReclaimingJudaism.org, Philadelphia, PA
Humanist
My favorite Jewish book is Judaism Beyond God by Rabbi Sherwin Wine, the founder of Humanistic Judaism. This work is of exceptional importance for secular and cultural Jews. Rather than opt out because of alienation from observances and beliefs that don’t speak to them, Rabbi Wine offers a way back in.
Rabbi Wine understood that culturally affiliated Jews, who account for half the Jewish population, need a way to form communities and celebrate their Jewish identity with language and practices that are consistent with secular values. He validates that one can be Jewish without holding a belief in a providential deity.
Last summer, tragically, Rabbi Wine, my teacher and friend, was killed in a terrible car accident. In the face of this tragedy, we can turn to another of his works, Staying Sane in a Crazy World, for guidance. It addresses realistically and honestly the unfairness and injustice of life. Even in death, Rabbi Wine continues to teach and comfort us.
Rabbi Peter H. Schweitzer, The City Congregation for Humanist Judaism, New York, NY
Independent
Henry Roth’s Call It Sleep concerns the life of a young Jewish immigrant whose family settles on New York’s Lower East Side in 1911. The book enabled me to experience vicariously the terrors of poverty, the violence of street gangs and the conflict between Americanization and the Eastern European cultural values of his family.
The novel also helped me understand my background. My parents emigrated as children from that part of Austria which is now Ukraine and Belarus. They had never shared any of the anti-Semitic experiences that Roth relates in Call It Sleep, and therefore I had never shared mine. Then after discussing the book with my parents, they confessed that they had had similar experiences but chose not to tarnish the American dream for their children.
The novel, published in 1934, was received with critical acclaim; but Roth dropped out of the literary world and moved to Maine, where he was a toolmaker, sold maple syrup and cultivated blueberries. The novel’s autobiographical nature was held responsible for this retreat.
The novel remains a contemporary tour de force, and Roth’s brilliant literary style has not been diminished by the passage of time.
Rabbi Harold S. White, Senior Jewish Chaplain, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
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