is keenly aware of the challenges of loneliness, the temptations of cynicism, the subtle yet insidious subversion of Torah values we face every day.
Author: Gil Student
Reviews in Brief: Spring 2019
Reviews in Brief
Has Rabbi Abramowitz undermined Maimonides’ literary concealment? Can a soldier pray in his uniform? Is the Torah pro or anti wealth? Is prayer futile for a terminally ill patient? These questions and more in Rabbi Student's latest Reviews in Brief.
Shabbat Table Torah
How do you convey values? How do you start those important conversations in a way that is not awkward or alienating? The traditional method is the devar Torah, an insight into the weekly Torah portion.
Reviews in Brief
Rabbi Gamliel Shmalo’s Learning To Grow is billed as “a spiritual guide to your year in Israel” but do not be fooled. This book is a guide to a meaningful life regardless of your circumstances.
Reviews in Brief
Finance, as an industry, has gained a reputation as a ruthless, amoral field where the only rule is to make money and the only law is to not get caught breaking the law. Every generalization like that has some truth to it, but paints with an exceedingly broad brush.
Reviews in Brief
We pray and recite blessings in Hebrew, study sacred Hebrew texts and speak Hebrew in Israel. But what is this language? Where did it come from and how did it become the de facto Jewish language after centuries of Yiddish, Ladino and other Jewish languages?
Reviews in Brief
We often associate the reflourishing study of Tanach in the Orthodox community with the impressive analytics of the “New School” that effectively began with Nehama Leibowitz and continues to this day. Yet with all the brilliant lectures, journals and books, are the average laypeople neglecting the basics?
Top Ten Online Torah Resources
I used to be a regular visitor to the New York Public Library’s Dorot Division, consulting its vast collection of rabbinic texts with the assistance of its expert librarians. While I treasure the memories of the many hours I spent there, I have not actually stepped foot into a...
New Science, Same Torah
New Heavens and a New Earth: The Jewish Reception of Copernican Thought By Jeremy Brown Oxford University Press New York, 2013 416 pages Torah, Chazal and Science By Moshe Meiselman Israel Bookshop Publications New Jersey, 2013 928 pages Reviewed by Gil Student You might have thought,1 based on the...
Journey of Faith: A Comprehensive Commentary on Sefer Bamidbar
Journey of Faith: A Comprehensive Commentary on Sefer Bamidbar By Yonasan David Arenias Shaarei Torah Publications, 2013 640 pages Mikraot Gedolot, the classic set of Chumashim containing a plethora of rabbinic commentaries, was not designed by a classroom teacher. Approaching the page can be intimidating. Setting aside the difficulties...