Spring has officially sprung here in Israel and the hills are alive with wildflowers. We’re beginning to venture out in public again after a long and strange year! So to ease back into what passes for normal, here are some literary recommendations from around the Jewish blogosphere.
Book Musings: Devorah Steinmetz, Punishment & Freedom
In the course of my research for Havruta with a One-Eyed Cat, I’ll be reading a variety of books on topics ranging from Talmud to mathematical logic. Here are some musings on this week’s book: Devora Steinmetz’s Freedom & Punishment, a veritable treasure of Halakhic insight.
The August Jewish Book Carnival
The Jewish Book Carnival: Some reading recommendations from around the Jewish blogosphere.
Eliezer Berkovits on Halakhic truth in a world of uncertainty
As I make my way through the stack of books that will go into the writing of my next book, probably the one that I return to most is Eliezer Berkovits’ classic Not in Heaven. Rabbi Berkovits argues for the application of human reason in deciding Halakhah, but not for the reasons commonly believed!
Book Review: Letters to Josep
Letters to Josep is a delightfully fresh overview of what it means to be Jewish in Israel today. Written as a series of letters from a young woman in Israel to a Catholic penpal in Spain, the book covers just about every aspect of Judaism, from Shabbat observance and kashrut to dealing with childbirth and life-cycle events.
August Jewish Book Blog Carnival
The Jewish Book Blog Carnival is a monthly event where bloggers who blog about Jewish books can meet, read and comment on each others’ posts. This month’s round-up includes memoirs, spy stories, and memoirs that are also spy stories, in addition to some old favorites and new discoveries.
God and Politics in Esther: A political parable for our time
In God and Politics in Esther, Yoram Hazony draws political lesson from the Book of Esther, some of which are harrowingly relevant to the increasingly polarized American political landscape, and to other nations facing the politics of pessimism.
Book Review: The Moon Taker by Libi Astaire
The Moon Taker takes us out of the sitting room and into the lives of some of Libi Astaire’s more colorful characters. The book’s narrator is a young pickpocket known to his friends and accomplices as General Well’ngone, the right-hand man of the self-styled Earl of Gravel Lane. When a Jewish con man is murdered in their neighborhood, the Earl sees it as a personal mission to solve the mystery.
Book Review: The Disappearance of God by Richard Elliot Friedman
The Disappearance of God details the gradual decrease of the divine presence in the Biblical writings—from the unquestioned companion and teacher of the Patriarchs, to the distant but still present redeemer in Exodus, to the absent Deity of Esther. Each stage of the withdrawal of the perceived Divine presence is another stage of human development. But how is it, asks Friedman, that the numerous biblical authors, in the complete absence of any coordination between them, managed to tell the same story of gradual Divine withdrawal from human history?
Jewish Book Blog Carnival
As we enter the month of Elul, A Damaged Mirror Blog hosts the Jewish Book Blog Carnival, a monthly event where bloggers who write about Jewish books can meet, read, and comment on each others’ posts.
