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| Title: | BAGELS and other things of Jewish interest |
| Notice: | 1.0 policy, 280.0 directory, 32.0 registration |
| Moderator: | SMURF::FENSTER |
|
| Created: | Mon Feb 03 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Thu Jun 05 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1524 |
| Total number of notes: | 18709 |
286.0. "Herman Wouk's "This Is My God"" by EAGLE1::LEONARD (VAX Architecture Management) Thu Mar 26 1987 16:03
I want to read something of the Jewish religion, history, and culture,
but don't want to spend a month doing it. I've had little luck finding
anything between very short books (typically about one aspect) and
scholarly works (typically hundreds of pages and $60 or more).
Yesterday, I saw an abstract of Herman Wouk's book, "This Is My God":
"Many Jews do not observe their religion, yet they would like to
know more about it. Many non-Jews, too, are from time to time curious
about the Jewish religion. Herman Wouk felt that the literature
and traditions of Judaism are so vast and scholarly that such readers
are at a loss, not knowing where to begin their quest for knowledge.
He therefore wrote this highly readable description of Jewish life
and practice: the meaning of its festivals and holy days, its
attitudes towards diet, marriage, maturation, death, education,
Israel, and the institutions of Jewish life."
Sounds pretty close to what I want, but I'd still rather borrow
a copy than buy it sight unseen. Can anyone loan me a copy?
| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 286.1 | | EAGLE1::LEONARD | VAX Architecture Management | Fri Mar 27 1987 11:25 | 2 |
| All set, thanks. Don's sending me two books, including the one
I asked for.
|
| 286.2 | Hillel and Shammay | TAVMTS::JUAN | | Sun Apr 05 1987 11:24 | 26 |
| Re: .0
1. I did enjoy H. Wouk's book very much. He goes sometimes into
the "how to" and not into the "why"; however is a nice compendium
or handbook at a very basic level on jewish traditions.
2. The request .0 made me recall one of the stories about Hillel
and Shammay:
"A gentile came to Shammay and told him: ''I would like to convert
to Judaism, but I don't want to spend my life studying - so please
explain me the escence of Judaism while I am standing on one foot...''
"Shammay, one of the two leading Jewish scholers of his time - around
100 B.C.E. if I'm not mistaken - had a very short temper and throw
the gentile away.
"The gentile went to see the other leading Jewish scholar, Hillel
and presented him with the same strange request. Hillel answered:
''Don't do to your neighbor anything you don't want to be done to
you. That is the Law, the rest is Commentary. Now, go and study...''
Regards,
Juan-Carlos
|