The Book of Jewish Knowledge, Rabbi Yanki Tauber, ed., The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, Brooklyn, NY, ©2022, ISBN 978-1-63668-012-5 p. 432, plus Appendices, $69.75.
By Fred Reiss, Ed.D.
WINCHESTER, California – Is it feasible to adequately convey the skills, information, and wisdom acquired by the Jewish people who, after nearly 4,000 years of living in numerous lands, enduring many strange cultures, and conducting their lives under the influence of foreign governments as slaves, aliens, and self-rulers, still maintain their unique identity when so many other nations, empires, and religions reside in the graveyard of history?
In five comprehensive chapters, The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute’s latest volume The Book of Jewish Knowledge, surveying the full range of Jewish life: history, literature, practices, holidays, and life-cycle milestones, allows the uniquely Jewish know-how, struggles, and lessons learned over the millennia to emerge. More than a thousand Jewish voices recount the “Jewish experience” through parables and discourses, historical documents, clear and colorful diagrams and graphical representations, paintings, photographs, recipes, responsa, and travelogues.
For clarity, each section and subsection opens with a brief overview of the material. “Beyond that,” the editor writes, “we have preferred to allow the quotes, citations, artworks, and infographics to tell their story.” The content follows traditional Judaism—Torah, Talmud, and words of recognized sages; yet, The Book of Jewish Knowledge successfully melds the thoughts of the traditional with the contemporary. The subchapter on the Sabbath, for example, juxtaposes a table of the Talmud’s thirty-nine prohibited types of work on the Sabbath, the “Sphere of Time” proposed by 16th century kabbalist Joseph Gikatilla, the writings of Elie Wiesel, and modern Ashkenazic and Sephardic Sabbath-fish recipes.
Additionally, The Book of Jewish Knowledge exhibits many notable timelines and graphical displays, such as a detailed table individually naming and numbering the 613 mitzvot side-by-side with their chapter and Torah verse; “Aliyahs of Jewish History,” a timeline from Abraham to the Ethiopian Aliyah in the late 20th century; “The Chain of Tradition,” displaying the forty generations of priests, prophets and rabbis from Aaron to the redaction of the Talmud by Rabbi Ashi and Ravina in the fifth century; and “The Annual Cycle,” showing the cyclic nature of the Jewish year.
Mark Twain, in the late 19th century, musing about the survival of the Jewish people asked, what is the secret of their immortality? Using stunning pictures and graphics, eloquent words of rabbis, Jewish scholars and writers from all segments of Judaism, this table-top-sized Book of Jewish Knowledge superbly conveys possible answers: the Jewish people’s eternal commitment to Abraham’s covenant with God and their unwavering ethos through the turbulence of history. This book, once picked up, will be in the hands of readers much more than lying flat on the tops of tables.
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Fred Reiss, Ed.D. is a retired public and Hebrew school teacher and administrator, and author of a number of books, including The Jewish Calendar: History and Inner Workings and The Comprehensive Jewish and Civil Calendars, 2001 to 2240. His forthcoming book is 102 Jewish-Themed Word Searches. He may be contacted via fred.reiss@sdjewishworld.com and info@fredreissbooks.com.