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The Souls of the World of Chaos" is a most famous essay of Rav Kook, a modern mystic. First published in 1913, it continues to intrigue and inspire spiritual seekers in our day. Not content with inspirational reading, Bezalel Naor has undertaken the formidable task of unpacking the Kabbalistic structures that inform the essay. Cognoscenti will appreciate the copious endnotes. In the Introduction, we are provided with the historical backdrop to...

Timely Words offers insights into many of the religious and secular occasions throughout the year that mark the modern American Jewish calendar, starting with the fall (incorporating Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur) and moving, consecutively, through the winter (Thanksgiving, Chanukah, and Tu BiShevat), spring (Purim, Pesach, Yom HaAtzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim), and summer (Shavuot and Tish`a BeAv). The insights are drawn from a wide variety of c...

Torah Song seeks to grasp the seemingly impenetrable mechanism of biblical poetry and to access the essential theological function that it plays in the Torah. Mining the poetry of the Torah for its theological gems necessitates that we acknowledge Torah poetry and prose to be fundamentally distinctive literary forms. Poetry, unlike prose, precludes the possibility of pinning it down in an absolute sense. Its allure derives from a certain indef...

The Book of Psalms is filled with resplendent God-intoxication, authenticity, staggering courage and honesty, and fiery religious passion that capture the full range of religious expression and emotion. The Psalms have exercised a profound influence on Jewish prayer. Unlike the narrative books of the Bible, the Book of Psalms is a collection of poems and songs based on different experiences and emotions that the biblical poets wish to memori...

Praise for Previous Works "Mitchell First has produced a groundbreaking study of Jewish intellectual history." - Professor Sid Z. Leiman "Mitchell First... combines extensive research into primary sources, the contributions of other contemporary scholars, and his own original ideas to build stronger structures in the pursuit of truth." - Rabbi Hayyim Angel "Mitchell First's scholarship is like detective work. It picks up on clues somet...

Words for the Wise contains sixty-two short articles on Hebrew, Holidays, History and Liturgy. On Liturgy, 8 articles, including the origin of and insights into Shalom Aleikhem, Anim Zemirot, and Maoz Tzur. On Holidays, 9 articles, including the origin of the recital of Le-David Hashem Ori, the underlying meanings of the words lulav, atzeret, and Pesä, and the background to the Fast of Gedaliah. On History, 18 articles, including a history of ...

The return to the study of peshat in Tanakh in recent generations has brought to the forefront a renewed interest in methods of literary analysis and in uncovering layers of conceptual depth embedded within the text. This peshat-based approach enriches Talmud Torah, strengthens our faith and draws us closer to the world of Torah.Starting Point presents hundreds of short studies in the peshat of parashat hashavua. Each parasha has about seven u...

The return to the study of peshat in Tanakh in recent generations has brought to the forefront a renewed interest in methods of literary analysis and in uncovering layers of conceptual depth embedded within the text. This peshat-based approach enriches Talmud Torah, strengthens our faith and draws us closer to the world of Torah.Starting Point presents hundreds of short studies in the peshat of parashat hashavua. Each parasha has about seven u...

Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra is one of the most important Jewish personalities of all time. Aside from being a Bible commentator of great consequence, his works in Jewish philosophy - though less famous - impacted many of his successors, including Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed, Nahmanides, and Rabbi Joseph Albo, as well as the Jewish mystics and Kabbalists. The Yesod Mora is one of the first books of Jewish philosophy written in Hebrew, which ...

Tsimtsum (contraction) and hitpashtut (expansion). These two kabbalistic terms aptly describe the thought of Bezalel Naor. Though diametrically opposed, they come together in this unique moment. The author is at once a "hedgehog" and a "fox, " in the usage of Isaiah Berlin. Naor brings to the table both the intense focus, the razor-sharp analysis of Rav Soloveitchik of Boston, and the synthetic, unitive perception of reality, of Rav Kook (whos...

Samuel David Luzzatto (1800-1865), known by his Hebrew acronym Shadal, was the leading Italian Jewish scholar of the 19th century. A linguist, educator, and religious thinker, he devoted his talents above all to the interpretation of the Bible. As a master of Hebrew grammar and usage, he focused on the plain meaning of the text. Although he was a devout believer in the divinity, unity, and antiquity of the Torah, Shadal approached the text in ...

Enter the world of the Tzadikim of Izhbitz/Radzyn with Rabbi Reuven Boshnack. It is a world brimming with psychological meaning and philosophical depth. Unfortunately, their sefarim are written in a language of their own, making it difficult for a beginner to access them. Rabbi Boshnack's Pathways to the Heart has done a great service to those seeking their words by translating them, making them accessible and also including them in their orig...

From the outset of his presidency, Donald Trump sought to narrow differences between Israel and the six monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-as part of his strategy to isolate Iran.With that objective in mind, Trump's first visit abroad as president was to Riyadh in May 2017-where he addressed the U.S.-Arab-Islamic Summit-immediately followed by a visit t...

The Ethics of Genesis raises ethical questions that emerge from the stories of the first Biblical book. Many people learn these stories when they are too young to ask about their ethical implications. When we revisit these questions in adulthood, we often find the conventional answers are insufficient or require elaboration. Rabbi Dr. Abba Engelberg presents original answers, based on traditional and modern sources, to some of the troubling et...

The Bible is filled with characters, even heroic ones, who seem to fall short of the mark. David, Joshua, and Elijah are some of the characters that appear to blatantly break Torah law. In some cases their apparent sins are not even recorded as violations. However even in cases where the biblical text withholds criticism, the Rabbis were acutely aware of these apparent failings. In some cases, the Rabbis were courageously open about criticizin...

Although peshat often is translated as the plain or simple sense of the text, there is nothing plain or simple about it when we take it seriously. Sifting through many centuries of scholarship and methodology coupled with pursuing contemporary approaches and research is a life-long endeavor, as we continue our attempts to refine truth and approach God's word through our eternal sacred texts. In his fourth collection of essays on Tanakh, Rabbi ...

Mitchell First's 62 short articles address interesting questions about the Hebrew language, liturgy, Jewish history, and the calendar and holidays. For example:On Jewish Liturgy: the origin of the Haftarah, the origin of the blessing "Who Has Not Made Me A Woman, " and the origin of our prayer for the government.On Jewish Holidays and Calendar: the origin of the count from creation, the meaning of Yom Teruah, the meaning of "Maccabee, " identi...

In this latest collection of essays, Rabbi Hayyim Angel continues to demonstrate the intellectual and spiritual benefits of the interaction between religious Jewish Tanakh learning and academic Bible scholarship. Throughout these twenty studies, Rabbi Angel introduces learning tools and implements them. The first seven essays explore significant areas of learning methodology and religious outlook, and the thirteen text studies put this methodo...

Rabbi Moses son of Maimon, known in Hebrew as Rambam and English as Maimonides (1135-1204), is one of the great luminaries of Judaism whose contributions can hardly be overstated. Though he never authored a linear commentary, he freely quotes biblical verses throughout all of his writings.Maimonides on the Book of Exodus is the culmination of an exhaustive endeavor to identify where Maimonides quotes or alludes to a biblical passage. This work...

Explore Sefer Bereishit and discover breathtaking layers of originality and profundity. Gain new insights into the stories you thought you knew so well in this new-old compilation of creative yet scholarly essays. Distinguished scholar and educator Rabbi Ari Kahn presents a series of strikingly original interpretive essays on the weekly parsha. Drawing upon the vast reservoir of rabbinic literature-from Talmud to Midrash, from Zohar to the Cha...