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'Book' Tag
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Read this Book
February 1, 2012I could probably just about build a raft and sail around the world with all the books advocating for Jewish Social Justice that have come out in the last couple of years. Several of them are very good. I particularly like Rabbi Jill Jacobs’ first book, which is both thorough and excellent. But I want [...]
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The Israeli incitement problem: A personal look at a children’s book
April 1, 2011Israeli leaders and advocacy groups love to complain about Palestinian incitement, but militaristic and nationalistic indoctrination is all too common in Israel itself. Some personal reflection, following a mail from an outraged parent When I was a kid, I loved Danni Din stories. Their hero was wonder-kid Danni Din, which became the worlds’ only invisible [...]
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A.J. Jacobs Year of Living Biblically
February 16, 2011When A.J. Jacobs’ The Year of Living Biblically first came out, I ignored it. Pretty resolutely. It sounded gimmicky to me: seriously, this guy was going to spend a whole year trying to live according to what’s in the Bible? Did he not know, or not care, that his chosen enterprise was not actually how [...]
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Jeremiahs Tragic Relevance
February 12, 2011Daniel Gordis on reading Rabbi Benny Lau’s Jeremiah: Fate of a Prophet:Jeremiah’s was a world of national Jewish folly. Successive kings of Judah all imagined themselves infinitely more powerful and much less vulnerable than they actually were. With massive powers surrounding them, Egypt to the south and Assyrian and Babylon to the north, they consistently [...]
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Write intentions, wrong approach
February 4, 2011Picture from hereAfter playing around with the the idea in my head forever, I was ready to start writing a book based on the unposted entries in this dusty blog. I even had a slick title for the book, ABSENCE OF MEDIORCRITY. Alas, after a real “snow day” consisting of mostly shovel-based existance, I realized [...]
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70 Faces reviews
January 13, 2011Thank you all so much for the kind words and good wishes on my ordination and in response to the publication of 70 Faces! My cup truly runneth over. I wanted to give a shout-out and special thanks to those who have written or posted about 70 Faces so far: Daily Faith and Poetry in [...]
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Are Jewish Mothers Losing to The Chinese*?
January 11, 2011The Wall Street Journal published an essay, titled “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” this past Shabbat. It was written by Amy Chua, a professor at Yale Law School and the author of a new book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” which will be published on the fortuitous day of 1/11/11. The essay generated 1,200 [...]
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Announcing 70 Faces
January 10, 2011I have awesome news! As of yesterday, I became a rabbi — and Seventy Faces, my collection of Torah poems, has been published by Phoenicia Publishing, an independent press based in Montreal. Here’s what the back of the book has to say: Each of the poems in 70 Faces arose in conversation with the Five [...]
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Happy book news
December 17, 2010Some of you may remember that in the years before I wrote and posted a mother poem each week, I used to write and post a Torah poem each week. It was a wonderful discipline for me. It kept me engaged with Torah, reading and pondering and then responding to the assigned weekly reading with [...]
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(Re) Reading Radicalism
December 10, 2010Shaul Magid has an interesting discussion of Art Green’s new book Radical Judaism together with the reviews of the book, asking the question: “What does it all mean?” Here’s the punch-line: These three reviews illustrate three levels of anxiety Jews feel about their theological future. The anxiety is not really about Green’
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Hereville and Cairo
December 9, 2010I’ve read two awesome graphic novels lately. They are very different, and yet both completely wonderful. They are Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch and Cairo by G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker (words and art respectively.) A while back I read the Hereville webcomic, which is about an 11-year-old troll-fighting Orthodox [...]
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Should Israel go public about its nuclear capacities?
October 30, 2010On Dr. Avner Cohen’s new book, “The Worst-Kept Secret: Israel’s Bargain with the Bomb” My featured story about Dr. Avner Cohen’s new book on Israel’s nuclear policy was published today in Haaretz. In his book, Dr. Cohen discusses the opacity policy ‘
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A review of Eishes Chayils “Hush”
October 23, 2010I have just read a remarkable book. It is powerful and funny and sad and it made me weep by the time I reached its end. It’s a young adult novel written by the pseudonymous Eishes Chayil (the name, which comes from Proverbs 31, means “A Woman of Valor.”) It is called Hush, and it [...]
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Book Review: EVERY DAY, HOLY DAY
October 13, 2010Every Day, Holy Day: 365 Days of Teachings and Practices from the Jewish Tradition of Mussar