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. Iโve read every one of Rabbi Sacksโs previous books, but beyond the strange feeling experienced when…
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๐๐๐๐๐๐: ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ก๐ข๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ค๐ข๐ง ๐๐ก๐๐ฉ๐ฌ (๐๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐ฌ, ๐๐๐๐) Many life journeys and personal stories are recorded in โLayers: Personal Narratives of Struggle, Resilience and Growth from Jewish Womenโ, but in order to explain what this book represents, I want to begin with the last…
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โThe 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 ztโl was the…
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โWHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT?โ 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…
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Today I had the wonderful opportunity to talk with Rabbi Dr. Benjy Epstein about his wonderful book โLiving in the Presence: A Jewish Mindfulness Guide for Everyday Lifeโ. In our wide-ranging conversation we explored the concept of โYishuv Hadaโatโ (Jewish Mindfulness), the importance of living a life that reflects the totality of who we are,…
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Today I had the privilege of interviewing Rav Ronen Neuwirth about his fascinating new book โThe Narrow Halakhic Bridge: A vision of Jewish Law in the Post-Modern Ageโ (which also exists in hebrew as ืืฉืจ ืืืืื: ืคืกืืงืช ืืืื ืืืืจ ืคืืกืืืืืจื ื). In โThe Narrow Halakhic Bridgeโ, Rav Ronen provides an easy-to-read yet nuanced presentation about the…
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โConversations on Love and Fearโ 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…
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And Beit Hillel Says (UโBeit Hillel Omrim):ย Halakhic Rulings of the Rabbis and Rabbaniot of Beit Hillel (Yedioth Ahronoth/Chemed Books, 2018) Introduction December 2018 saw the launch of UโBeit Hillel Omrim (literally โAnd Beit Hillel Saysโ), which is a collection of halakhic rulings generated by members of the Beit Hillel organisation. Beit Hillel is an…
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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…
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JEWISH GUIDE TO PRACTICAL MEDICAL DECISION-MAKINGย by Rabbi Jason Weinerย (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…
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I. Introduction Over many years I have developed a great passion towards the study of contemporary halakhah – and specifically – towards contemporary Sheโelot UโTeshuvot (responsa literature). This is due to the fact that while codified halakhah is often recorded by the author โafter examining the halakhic materials from a theoretical point of viewโ[1], responsa…
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SH’UT YISHREI LEV by HaRav Yonatan (Yoni) Rosensweig Introduction Responsa โ or in hebrew, Sheโelot UโTeshuvot – 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 โthe crossroads where text and context meet in the ongoing…
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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 โacademically-informed rabbiโ who has recently written a compelling, scholarly, yet lucid presentation exploring some of the most important issues facing Modern Orthodoxy today.In Faith without…
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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, 2015ย 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…
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AGGADAH: SAGES, STORIES & SECRETS There are very few books that I wish to re-read the moment I finish them, but Rabbi Immanuel Bernsteinโs โAggadah: Sages, Stories & Secretsโ, published by Mosaica Press, ย 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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