The Heart of Torah, Volume 2
Essays on the Weekly Torah Portion: Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy
The Jewish Publication Society · Print & ebook · September 1, 2017
In The Heart of Torah, Rabbi Shai Held’s Torah essays—two for each weekly portion—open new horizons in Jewish biblical commentary.
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- Who it’s for
- Shai Held reads Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy through questions of God, ethics, and religious life.
- Themes
- Empathy in Jewish ethics, Divine love in Jewish theology, Covenantal relationship with God
- Pacing
- Reflective
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Start with this bookAbout this book
In The Heart of Torah, Rabbi Shai Held’s Torah essays—two for each weekly portion—open new horizons in Jewish biblical commentary. Held probes the portions in bold, original, and provocative ways. He mines Talmud and midrashim, great writers of world literature, and astute commentators of other religious backgrounds to ponder fundamental questions about God, human nature, and what it means to be a religious person in the modern world.
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Along the way he illuminates the centrality of empathy in Jewish ethics, the predominance of divine love in Jewish theology, the primacy of gratitude and generosity, and God’s summoning of each of us—with all our limitations—into the dignity of a covenantal relationship.
Weekly Torah Essays
Shai Held reads Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy through questions of God, ethics, and religious life.
Come here for
- Two essays for each weekly portion in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy
- Connections to Talmud, midrash, world literature, and other religious commentators
Expect
- Essays on empathy, divine love, gratitude, and generosity
- Reflections on human limitations and covenantal relationship
Where it sits
| Pentateuch Commentary | 76% |
|---|---|
| Pentateuch Studies | 32% |
| Jewish Theology | 28% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Jewish Scriptures
- Jewish Theology
- Authors
- Shai Held
- Publisher
- The Jewish Publication Society
- Published
- September 1, 2017
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Empathy in Jewish ethics · Divine love in Jewish theology · Covenantal relationship with God
- Reading lane
- Jewish Scriptures