Customer Reviews

Jewish Literacy

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found the book to be very interesting. It certainly gave one Gentile a footstep into a world previously unknown. The book is an easy read and the Rabbi's wit and honesty is refreshing. I almost rated the bood a 3 because the views on Jesus and Christianity were just so far off-base.Then I realized that this view reflected the Rabbi's and probably most Jewish people. How could I criticize him for his own view. I was truly amazed and saddened by just how much two people groups who both love the God of the Hebrew Bible could know so little about each other.

This is a good book, with several small flaws. First off this is the perfect book for any return Jew, secular Jew or anyone interested in the many facets of Judaism. For instance: How did Reform Judaism start? What was the Sanhedrin? Who was the Baal Shem Tov? Probably many Jews would stumble over the answers or be left speechless and this is where this book shines. This book details almost every facet of Judaism anyone could ever want or need to know. What is the difference between the Mishnah and Midrash? Once again this book gives short concise answers to this. From Ertez Israel to the Oral law this book outshines many like it in the sheer breadth of knowledge contained.

The major flaw in this book is that it is almost useless if you are already versed in Judaism. If one wants something deeper and wants a more thorough explanation of the items contained here they will not get it. This book is written in a folksy manner, like someone lecturing a small group of interested students. Jokes protrude from the page for instance "many Europeans believed Jews had to kill every tenth patient...I wouldn't want to be the 10th guy in line at the doctor". While funny these passages detract from the text and sometimes makes the book feel more like '1000 things you didn't know about Judaism'. Nevertheless this book is an essential text for any Jewish household and an essential read for anyone exploring Judaism, thinking of conversion, in a relationship with a Jew or simply wanting to learn more about this worlds first monotheists.

Seth J. Frantzman

As a Christian, I found that reading this book gave me a rare and honest footstep into a world pretty much been closed to Gentiles. I loved Rabbi Telushkin's wit and ability to get to the point without a lot of rhetoric. Initially, I wanted to lower my rating from 5 to 3 because I could not agree less with anything he said about Christianity or Jesus. I changed the rating to a 5 because the Rabbi wrote what he and probably most Jewish people really do believe about Jesus and Christianity. It's both amazing and sad that we know so little about each other.

"Jewish Literacy" is one of the best books available for learning about Judaism. I'd recommend it to anyone, no matter their religion or level of knowledge; everyone is bound to learn something from this book.

"Jewish Literacy" covers a vast (and I mean vast) range of topics relating not just to Jewish religious beliefs but also culture, customs, scripture and history. Despite the massive amount of topics, the book is still in-depth enough on each topic to give the reader a decent understanding.

The "readability" of this text is excellent. "Jewish Literacy" is flexible in purpose; one can read straight-through or can consult it like a reference encyclopedia. It is well organised, flows well and is consequently ideal for either situation. In addition, the book uses language the average reader can understand and explains even the most basic of Jewish terminology for those very unfamiliar with Judaism.

If you are going to own one book on Judaism, this should be it!

A Rabbi once joked to me about learning about Judaism. He noted that some folks promote their religions by giving out pamphlets from fold-up tables. He noted, "If someone asked a Jew about Judaism, he'd have to do this," and he plunked down a stack of about 10 books on his desk with a loud whack.

That's how it gets after 3500 years, I'm afraid.

Well, here it is for your perusal; Judaism between two covers. It's not complete, but it's pretty much the best damn overview of Judaism that I have ever seen. It's well-written, concise, informative, and thorough. There is very little authorial agenda in the book, and he clearly tries to treat potentially hot "political" issues (such as the divisive "Who is a Jew" issue) as even-handedly as possible (Telushkin is an Orthodox Rabbi). Further, the book is laid out in such a way, like encyclopedia entries, that a person looking for information on a particular topic--such as the Jewish take on Jesus, say--can find it quickly and easily.

If you are interested in learning about Judaism at all, or if you are a Jew yourself who wants a good starting point for educating yourself, I highly recommend this book.

This book is like a comprehensive encyclopedia about Judaism. It can be read from cover to cover or you can also look up information by subject. It's a great find!

This is an excellent idea for a book (probably stimulated by the discussions of "cultural literacy" in the late 1980s.) The author is a friend of and co-authored another book with Dennis Prager.

There are a large number of essays in here (346 - evidentally a few more in the revised edition) with a good index and a very clear and detailed Table of Contents. But one important point to remember is that this is one man's take on things as well as one man's selection of things to include. It is possible to disagree, in smaller or lesser degree, with what is written here and anyone truly knowledgeable would have all sorts of comments to make.

You might even find a few things half wrong and even all wrong especially if you get down to the paragraph level. And on the other hand, you might run across a few things you might agree with a lot. The more you know, the more you would probably find in here to disagree with. You could write little essays on this.

However, this is not all bad. Magazine type opinion is easier to read and sometimes more informative than a newspaper article, and the freer someone probazbly fells to say this is the way HE sees things, the better. So it is true this could educate people. The book could almost certainly probably limit the degree to which somebody could be wrong - HOW wrong somebody could be. Just remember that the whole thing is to some degree,opinion.

The big problem is it may not be clear from here where you have something that is more universally held and where it's more really his (or sometimes some other people's too) take on things. You wouldn't know what sorts of things he might even revise his opinion on in time.

The more you know, the more you could benefit from this book - you can pick up facts and know they are probably facts and ignore the opinion while maybe somehow learning something from that too. The more ignorant you are, the more it would seem to be useful - or perhaps be useful in another way. Even to someone who knows a lot it's certainly a reasonably good collection of topics.

Again, this is not the final word! It would be useful on any of these things to read and think and ask further.

This book has been translated into Russian (copyrighted in year 2000) evidentally because it was considered a good, true, reference book.

I purchased this book both because I've been interested in Judaism for as long as I can remember, and I recently took and Intro to Judasim course at college. I found it to be an invauable resource, especially on topics presented and discussed in class that I felt I needed or wanted to learn more about. It also helped put me ahead of the game at times, when I would just flip through the pages, stopping on topics that interested me. If you're taking a college Judaism course, you may want to consider this book, even if it's not a set book for class. It's comprehensive while still remaining concise and interesting. I spent many hours reading this book and came away far more knowledgeable (and with an A in the class!).

Really informative. And you can read it in sections. Great judaism reference, indispensible!

This book explained everything and anything you wanted to know abou Jewish faith, history, culture, politics, holidays. It started me on a spiritual quest and journey!