Interview with Rabbi Ilan Segal about ‘Aruch Hashulchan in English’
Read MoreI love Jewish books and have reviewed over 100 books of Jewish interest in recent years. Below are some of my favourite book reviews which I hope you find of interest. If you are interested in me reviewing your book, please contact me at ravjsolomon@gmail.com
Studies in Spirituality
STUDIES IN SPIRITUALITY by Rabbi Jonathan SacksBefore reading Studies in Spirituality, a collection of essays on the parsha on themes relating to spirituality written by Rabbi Sacks the year before he died, I was not sure what to expect. Iβve read every one of Rabbi Sacksβs previous books, but beyond the strange feeling experienced when…
Read MoreLayers
ππππππ: ππππππππ ππππππππππ ππ ππππππππ, ππππππππππ ππ ππππππ π πππ ππππππ πππππ ππ² ππ‘π’π«π πππ§π€π’π§ ππ‘ππ©π¬ (ππ‘π ππ¨ππ² ππ«ππ¬π¬, ππππ) Many life journeys and personal stories are recorded in βLayers: Personal Narratives of Struggle, Resilience and Growth from Jewish Womenβ, but in order to explain what this book represents, I want to begin with the last…
Read MoreThe Magerman Edition of the Koren Tanakh
βThe changing nature of human society demands a fresh Tanakh translation which speaks to each and every one of us while remaining rooted in the eternal essence of the Torah. The Tanakh is a living script, the screenplay of the history of humanity from Creation to the present. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks ztβl was the…
Read MoreHaftorah Unrolled
Interview with Kira Sirote about ‘Haftorah Unrolled’
Read MoreThe Crowns on the Letters
Interview with Rabbi Ari Kahn about ‘The Crowns on the Letters’
Read MoreThe Soul of the Mishna
Interview with Rav Yaakov Nagen about ‘The Soul of the Mishna’
Read MoreWhat do you really want? by Rabbanit Shayna Goldberg
βWHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT?β BY RABBANIT SHAYNA GOLDBERGA universal experience of human nature is that we feel a deep sense of connection when we see people like us on TV and in movies, or encounter people like us in magazines or in the books that we read. Moreover, when those people not only look…
Read MoreLiving in the Presence: A Jewish Mindfulness Guide for Everyday Life
Today I had the wonderful opportunity to talk with Rabbi Dr. Benjy Epstein about his wonderful book βLiving in the Presence: A Jewish Mindfulness Guide for Everyday Lifeβ. In our wide-ranging conversation we explored the concept of βYishuv Hadaβatβ (Jewish Mindfulness), the importance of living a life that reflects the totality of who we are,…
Read MoreThe Narrow Halakhic Bridge: A vision of Jewish Law in the Post-Modern Age
Today I had the privilege of interviewing Rav Ronen Neuwirth about his fascinating new book βThe Narrow Halakhic Bridge: A vision of Jewish Law in the Post-Modern Ageβ (which also exists in hebrew as ΧΧ©Χ¨ ΧΧΧΧΧ: Χ€Χ‘ΧΧ§Χͺ ΧΧΧΧ ΧΧΧΧ¨ Χ€ΧΧ‘ΧΧΧΧΧ¨Χ Χ). In βThe Narrow Halakhic Bridgeβ, Rav Ronen provides an easy-to-read yet nuanced presentation about the…
Read MoreSichot al Ahava v’pachad
βConversations on Love and Fearβ by Sharon Shalom. (Yediot Acharonot, 2018) Imagine a book, written by a wise, insightful and emotionally intelligent Jewish philosopher with a flair for poetic language, that explores the richness and complexity of Jewish identity, heritage and observance in the modern state of Israel. Imagine that instead of avoiding some of…
Read MoreReview Essay: And Beit Hillel Says (UβBeit Hillel Omrim)
And Beit Hillel Says (UβBeit Hillel Omrim): Halakhic Rulings of the Rabbis and Rabbaniot of Beit Hillel (Yedioth Ahronoth/Chemed Books, 2018) Introduction December 2018 saw the launch of UβBeit Hillel Omrim (literally βAnd Beit Hillel Saysβ), which is a collection of halakhic rulings generated by members of the Beit Hillel organisation. Beit Hillel is an…
Read MoreMinchat Asher: Klalei Hamitzvot
MINCHAT ASHER: KLALEI HAMITZVOT by Rabbi Asher Weiss Machon Minchat Asher, Ellul 5778 The study of the Talmud is a magnetizing process that draws a learner into debates of the past while urging them to consider how the laws and values emerging from those debates can be applied in the present and the future. This…
Read MoreJewish guide to practical medical decision making
JEWISH GUIDE TO PRACTICAL MEDICAL DECISION-MAKING by Rabbi Jason Weiner (Urim, 2017) It takes considerable skill to write a book about modern medicine, and even greater skill to explain how halakha (Jewish law) responds to the dilemmas generated by modern medicine. Still, even those with the requisite knowledge of medicine and Jewish law may struggle to…
Read MoreSefer Nishmat habayit
I. Introduction Over many years I have developed a great passion towards the study of contemporary halakhah – and specifically – towards contemporary Sheβelot UβTeshuvot (responsa literature). This is due to the fact that while codified halakhah is often recorded by the author βafter examining the halakhic materials from a theoretical point of viewβ[1], responsa…
Read MoreSh’ut Yishrei lev
SH’UT YISHREI LEV by HaRav Yonatan (Yoni) Rosensweig Introduction Responsa β or in hebrew, Sheβelot UβTeshuvot – are unique texts whose questions, no less than their answers, shine a light on halakhic trends and challenges in the Jewish world. As David Ellenson observes, they are βthe crossroads where text and context meet in the ongoing…
Read MoreFaith without fear
FAITH WITHOUT FEAR: UNRESOLVED ISSUES IN MODERN ORTHODOXY by Michael J. Harris (Vallentine Mitchell, 2016) Rabbi Dr Michael Harris, whom I have the privilege of knowing, is a Modern Orthodox βacademically-informed rabbiβ who has recently written a compelling, scholarly, yet lucid presentation exploring some of the most important issues facing Modern Orthodoxy today.In Faith without…
Read MoreFALSE FACTS AND TRUE RUMORS
FALSE FACTS AND TRUE RUMORS: LASHON HARA IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE by Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman Maggid Books/Michael Scharf Publication Trust of Yeshiva University Press, 2015 Very rarely is a book published that addresses an already familiar subject and revolutionises the way we understand it. Yet this is precisely what Rabbi Daniel Feldman has done in…
Read MoreAggadah: Sages, stories & secrets
AGGADAH: SAGES, STORIES & SECRETS There are very few books that I wish to re-read the moment I finish them, but Rabbi Immanuel Bernsteinβs βAggadah: Sages, Stories & Secretsβ, published by Mosaica Press, is one of them. Like Aggadah itself, this beautifully designed book is multileveled; yet in contrast to the cryptic style of Aggadah,…
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