Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

11/29/16

My Collected Wisdom - Talmudic Advice - updated with my 2016 Jewish Standard columns

Hi - I think you should check out my book,
"Talmudic Advice" by Tzvee Zahavy.
Start reading it for free: http://a.co/hF1D57X

Read on the go for free – download
Kindle for Android, iOS, PC, Mac and more
https://www.amazon.com/gp/kindle/kcpApp.html

11/27/16

My Jewish Standard Dear Rabbi Zahavy column for November 2016: Deceased friends, Zipper traffic merges and Biased Jewish historians

My Jewish Standard Dear Rabbi Zahavy column for November 2016: Deceased friends, Zipper traffic merges and Biased Jewish historians

Dear Rabbi Zahavy,

Recently a friend and mentor of mine passed away after a long illness. We had been close for many years, but in recent times we were estranged after we had a falling out, precipitated several years ago by my friend’s unethical actions.

I had ample time to make plans to attend his funeral, but it would have meant that I would miss work for a full day. I decided not to go, and then I was not able to go to the shiva. I did send an email and left a voicemail and sent a card expressing my condolences to his wife and children.

Did I act properly?

Chilly Consoler in Cresskill

Dear Consoler,

The conduct in which a person engages related to mourners always is based on complex personal and social issues. It is made more complicated by the specific conditions that you describe. Rest assured that there cannot be absolute requirements about which relative or friend’s funeral you ought to attend, and under what circumstances you should do so. There always are extenuating factors that you have to respect when you make your decision to go or not to go. In this case there are additional items to mull over.

My Collaboration co-authored books with Jack Neusner: How the Halakhah Unfolds: Hullin in the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Bavli, Parts One and Two: Mishnah, Tosefta, and Bavli

My collaboration co-authored books with Jack Neusner...How the Halakhah Unfolds: Hullin in the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Bavli, Parts One and Two: Mishnah, Tosefta, and Bavli

6/28/16

Amazon Turbocharges the Previews for Our Kindle Talmud Volumes - Cool!

Try clicking and see how you like the Kindle previews!

Talmud Berakoth

Mishnah Seder Zera‘im

Talmud Bezah

Talmud Megillah and Shekalim

Kindle Talmud Baba Bathra

Talmud Sanhedrin

Talmud Abodah Zarah

Horayoth and Shebuoth

Talmud Makkoth, Eduyyoth and Aboth

Talmud Zebahim

Talmud Menahot

Talmud Hullin

Talmud Bekoroth and Arakin

Talmud Temurah

Talmud Kerithoth

Talmud Meilah, Tamid, Middoth and Kinnim

Talmud Niddah

Mishnah Seder Tohoroth

5/16/16

How a Jewish Soul Becomes Immortal Vertically and Horizontally - Remarks for my Father's Yahrzeit

The fourth yahrzeit of my father, Rabbi Dr. Zev Zahavy, is tonight and tomorrow.

At the breakfast at the Park East Synagogue in honor of my dad's first yahrzeit in 2013 I spoke briefly about the dimensions of the immortality of his soul. I explained that by observing the mourning customs and reciting Kaddish for the soul of the departed, we seek immortality on its behalf in heaven above and on earth as part of the eternal Jewish people. I summarized my thoughts on this process as follows below.

Is the Jewish soul immortal? Yes, tradition teaches us that if the proper procedures are followed, the Jewish soul is immortal. And the immortality is redundant. The soul of a departed loved one lives on in a vertical immortality in heaven and in a horizontal immortality as part of the collective of the Jewish people.

To guarantee the duplex immortality of a soul, a mourner must say the Kaddish prayer for eleven months in the synagogue. As an agent on behalf of my father's soul, I completed that process in 2013 for the recitation of the Kaddish for my dad, who passed away in 2012.

Hamilton on Broadway for $24

Of course tickets to the Broadway show "Hamilton" start at $500 for the foreseeable future.

But for $24 you can get an official libretto of the show, richly supplemented with numerous chapters on how the show came to be.

The libretto has explanatory footnotes, arranged on the margins, reminding me of the talmud, and lovely photos.

I recommend this book. It captures the utter genius of the play and gives you a window to the creative processes behind the play,

Free Passover Books

This one is $.99 the rest are free for Passover from Talmudic Books - Babylonian Talmud Pesahim

Babylonian Talmud Pesahim deals with regulations for the Passover holiday, prohibitions of leavened food and prescriptions for the Paschal lamb. It is the third treatise of the order Mo'ed. It is divided into ten chapters.

Chapter ten deals with the Seder meal eaten on the evening of Passover; the four cups of wine, and the benedictions pronounced over them; the questions of the son and the father's answers and instructions; other benedictions and the Hallel.

From Talmudic Books special free for Passover by Reuven Brauner:

In preparation for Pesach- Laws of the Red Cow

For Pesach and particularly Seder Night- Laws of Korban Pesach

And for the days of Sefiras Ha’Omer - Pirkei Avos Synthesized

Not to mention the entire Reformatted Soncino Talmud and lots more goodies, at: Halakhah.com

and our Kindle books at Amazon: Talmudic Books for Kindle on the Talmud, Bible, Kabbalah and Prayer and The Kindle Edition of the Classic Soncino Talmud in English

Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah - a Star of the Seder

Passover is here once again. We will soon open our Haggadahs and find the familiar prologue stories to the Maggid section of the Seder. And soon we all will wonder, Who was Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah?

Maggid is literally the "telling" of the story of the Exodus from Egypt, the event that we celebrate in our evening of dramatic activity. My teacher Rabbi Soloveitchik always underscored that this is not a mere retelling of a story. The Maggid is an archetypal session of rabbinic Torah study. The major section that we read is a classic rabbinic midrash that expounds upon a few condensed biblical verses. This is the exodus story as told by the rabbis, not by the Torah of Moses. To make the point unmistakably clear, the rabbis go so far as to omit the mention of Moses altogether in the Haggadah.

The rabbis do mention several of their own rabbis by name and top among them is my favorite, Eleazar ben Azariah. He was a second century rabbi in Israel who also held the highest political position in his community.

My Kindle Book Edition: From the Talmud: Yerushalmi Berakhot

I thought you might be interested in this book from Amazon.

From the Talmud: Yerushalmi Berakhot -

Texts about prayer from the first five chapters

by Tzvee Zahavy

Learn more

More Items to Consider:

God's Favorite Prayers

The Origins of Jewish Prayers and Blessings

Rashi: The Greatest Exegete

12/28/15

The $9.3 million Talmud - Daniel Bomberg's 16th-century printing sold at Sotheby's New York

The video shows the Bomberg Talmud sold for a bid of $8.1 million. All reports list it as sold at $9.3 million. I suppose there was a 15% commission added on.

The Examiner has a detailed report on the auction.

Art Daily has a version of the story:

NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby's set a new world auction record for any piece of Judaica today in New York, when one of the finest copies of Daniel Bomberg's Babylonian Talmud sold for $9.3 million (estimate $5/7 million).* The extraordinary volume was purchased by Stephan Loewentheil for the 19th Century Rare Book & Photograph Shop. The Bomberg Talmud led the sale of a selection of extraordinary items from The Valmadonna Trust, which totaled $14.9 million and became the most valuable auction of Judaica ever held.** Together with the auctions of Important Judaica and Israeli & International Art, Sotheby's annual December sales of Judaica and Israeli Art totaled $22.6 million.

The Talmud, or "Oral Law," is a compendium of hundreds of years of rabbinical discussion and debate which expound upon the laws of the Bible. Daniel Bomberg is responsible for the first complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud (1519-1523), universally recognized not simply as one of the most significant books in the history of Hebrew printing, but as one of the great books of the Western world. The record setting Talmud sold today is one of the finest copies of Bomberg's edition – of which only 14 complete 16th century sets survive.

Attention: Rabbi Sacks has a New Book & Rabbi Steinsalz has a New Book

Lessons in Leadership: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible
by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

In this companion volume to his celebrated series Covenant & Conversation, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks mines the weekly Torah portions for insights into the nature of power, authority, and leadership. Based on the understanding that no man is born a leader, the book explores the principles and perils of becoming one. In a world divided by struggles of power and authority, often under the guise of religious fervor, Lessons in Leadership shows not just how to learn from the past, but to build from it towards a better future.

View introduction and sample chapter here.

Talks on the Parasha
by Rabbi Adin (Even-Israel) Steinsaltz

Talks on the Parasha recreates the warm, intimate atmosphere of a personal encounter with Rabbi Steinsaltz. While providing insights that are meaningful for the Jewish collective, it speaks to every individual as well.

To Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, the Torah contains within it many worlds. The themes, the language, the myriad ways in which to understand and interpret it - all of these are worlds that both exist independently and are connected to one another, inextricably linked from within and from without.
What emerges from the totality of the Torah's manifold shades of meaning is that the Torah is essentially "the book of the chronicles of man." The Torah - addressing, in particular, the Jewish people and the individual - helps the reader understand not only what happened in the past and what ought to happen in the future, but also the meaning of his or her own life.

View introduction and sample chapter here.

8/17/15

Maimonides and Pictures of Topless Women

Mitchel First (author of Esther Unmasked) alerted me to the fact that a Marc Shapiro found topless women adorning holy books - and indeed he had in his new book, Changing the Immutable, "a whole chapter there about the printing of Rambam's and other halakhic works that had illustrations of topless women on their title pages and ... this was normal at some point!"

That snip above is from the title page (TP) of Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Amsterdam 1702. Here is the whole title page.

The work was printed by the Athias printing house:

In the middle of the seventeenth century, Joseph Athias established a combined Hebrew-Dutch printing house in Amsterdam, which turned into a success. His son, Immanuel Athias took over the management of the Hebrew printing in 1685. In 1702, he published Maimonides' Mishneh Torah in four volumes. The edition was dedicated to Moses Machado, army purveyor of King William III of England, who gave financial support to the printing house for buying new printing equipment.

I do not think that Artscroll Mesorah publishers or any Orthodox publisher would approve today of such a depiction in any of their books.

And honestly, I don't know why. I cannot explain when and how some Orthodox Jews became Puritans.

7/27/15

Recommended Book: The Book of Jewish Prayers in English by Tzvee Zahavy

This is an exceptional book by Tzvee Zahavy from Amazon Kindle. I recommend that you buy a copy today. This outstanding volume presents the Jewish prayers in English with accompanying essays about the basis of prayer, prayer as visualization and the piety and devotion of Jewish life.

The Book of Jewish Prayers in English
by Tzvee Zahavy

Learn more

7/21/15

Is master of sex Actor Lizzy Caplan who plays famed sexologist Virginia Johnson in Showtime’s "Masters of Sex" Jewish?

Is master of sex Actor Lizzy Caplan who plays famed sexologist Virginia Johnson in Showtime’s "Masters of Sex" Jewish?

Yes Lizzy Caplan is a Jew. TOI reports:

Although she has fond memories of her Reform upbringing, bat mitzvah and Jewish summer camp, back in 2005, Caplan told American Jewish Life magazine that she had “kind of strayed away” from Jewish involvement.

“I think once I have a family I’ll be back into it,” she said. “I love being a Jew, but I’m not Super Jew.”

But last year, the Emmy-nominee blamed her lack of confidence in winning an award for outstanding lead actress on her cultural outlook.

“I don’t think it’s fair to assume that at all. I’m Jewish, so I’m predisposed to assume there’s no chance in hell that’s going to happen,” she told The New York Times.

TOI continues, "The series opens with the depiction of the pair’s release of their groundbreaking 1966 book, “Human Sexual Response.”

Indeed if you have published a book, you will love this episode.

It captures the sacred moment when the doctor receives the galley proofs from his publisher and depicts the reverence with which they are treated. Most authors know these feelings.

And in a wonderful interleaved scene that pops in and out of the episode, it portrays the fear and the fantasy that each of us authors has after we cast our books out to the public - that they will be criticized mercilessly or that they will be received as brilliant and revolutionary.

[Hat tip to ISW.]

6/29/15

Yitzhak Zahavy's fantastic book, "Archaeology, Stamps and Coins of the State of Israel"

Preview

A brilliant book. Available in Teaneck and worldwide on Amazon!

Archaeology, Stamps and Coins of the State of Israel

by Yitzhak Zahavy

This book explains how archaeology is used in the politics and nationalism of the State of Israel through its stamps, coins and currency. Taking the reader from the pre-state years to the modern day, Archaeology, Stamps and Coins of the State of Israel catalogs and analyzes the Israeli government issued materials that employ archaeological motifs.

Purchase this excellent book online or pick yours up today at the Judaica House on Cedar Lane in Teaneck, NJ.

6/24/15

Summer Promotion: Free Tzvee Kindle e-Books - Enjoy! June 25 - 29.

Many of my Kindle e-books are free for five days as a promotion!

Tzvee's Books at Amazon

Do all Korean Children Study the Talmud?

The Talmud is a Best-Seller in South Korea according to the The New Yorker.

Is it a bestseller? Yes. Is it the Talmud? No! It is a long story and quite convoluted.

On 4/1/11 we posted this:

There are stories circulating that all South Korean children study the Talmud. Do they?

We'll go out on a limb here and say, no, Korean children do not study the Talmud.

We'll go further out on a sturdy limb and say that this whole story is akin to an urban legend.

One blogger, Mostly Kosher, has tried to verify the news items claiming child Talmud study in Korea and he came away mostly "debunking" the story.

He found that at best Korean children have heard of some Talmud stories and maybe even read them in an abbreviated comic book form and that they have a positive opinion about the wisdom that can be found in the Talmud.

Another blogger, Raising Wings, has more details on the origins and content of the so-called Korean Talmud.

That's a good thing, but it does not at all mean that Korean children engage in the serious and demanding enterprise of Talmud study.

5/10/15

Try out these New Talmud Internet domain links

I recommend that you click and try out these new Talmud Internet domain links:

www.talmud.website = Halakhah.com
www.talmud.link = Kindle Talmud
www.talmud.space = Talmud @ Blogger

5/1/15

Get the Complete Babylonian Talmud in English on your Kindle

Featured for Kindle
Talmud Tractate Hullin, translated by Tzvee Zahavy (=me)

Kindle Babylonian Talmud Hullin

To know what food is kosher, that is, fit to eat according to rabbinic Judaism, you must study the principles set forth in this volume, the Babylonian Talmud Tractate Hullin. This translation, adheres closely to the text so that the reader has a sense of the structure and balance of the original. Yet at the same time it conveys the flow of the legal arguments and debates, the dramatic unfolding of events in stories, and the sensitivities to words and language in the exegetical texts. Its aim is to facilitate a smooth conversation between readers and the text so that, without consulting the original Hebrew and Aramaic version, they can appreciate the substantive meaning and recognize some major aspects of the style of the Talmudic text.

Kindle from Amazon: the complete Babylonian Talmud in English (published by me)

1. Kindle Babylonian Talmud Berakoth

2. Kindle Mishnah Seder Zera‘im

3. Kindle Babylonian Talmud Shabbath

4. Kindle Babylonian Talmud ‘Erubin

5. Kindle Babylonian Talmud Pesahim

6. Kindle Babylonian Talmud Yoma

7. Kindle Babylonian Talmud Sukkah

8. Kindle Babylonian Talmud Bezah

9. Kindle Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashanah

10. Kindle Babylonian Talmud Taanith

11. Kindle Babylonian Talmud Megillah and Shekalim

12. Kindle Babylonian Talmud Moed Katan