Shai Held - The Heart of Torah, Volume 2: Essays on the Weekly Torah Portion: Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy

Praise for Rabbi Shai Helds The Heart of Torah

Shai Held is an extraordinary figure in the world of Torah. Combining deep knowledge of classical Judaica, wide and insightful reading from the religiously diverse world of biblical and theological scholarship, and a keen sense of the human heart, he has produced a set of essays that people from a wide range of affiliations will find well worth reading and pondering.

Jon D. Levenson, Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard Divinity School and author of the National Jewish Book Awardwinner Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life

Whatever your level of Torah proficiency or your religious outlook, The Heart of Torah will make you think, ask questions, revisit familiar understandings, and gain a new appreciation for the ability of our written and oral tradition to surprise, elevate, and challenge us all. Rabbi Held consistently sheds new light on seemingly familiar textshis interpretation of an eye for an eye alone is worth the price of the volumesand insistently prods us to become better Jews and better human beings. If you want solid scholarship, you will find it here; if you want religious inspiration, you will find it here, too. That all-too-rare combination makes The Heart of Torah precious indeed.

Rabbi Asher Lopatin, president of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School

The greatest Jewish books arise from authors who combine deep learning in traditional sources with a keen awareness of the intellectual, moral, and spiritual currents of their time and place. Such is Rabbi Shai Helds breathtaking new commentary on the Torah. Expertly weaving together a tapestry of core stories from the Hebrew Bible with their interpretive trajectories over the ages, he has created a masterful compendium brimming with immediate relevance to the contemporary reader. Wherever you place yourself on the Jewish spectrumor beyondyou will rise from reading this extraordinary work renewed, challenged, and deepened.

Rabbi Aaron Panken, president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

Shai Helds commentary on the weekly Torah portion sets a new standard for our time. He deftly distills a richness of traditional rabbinic commentary, biblical scholarship, modern theology, moral sensitivity, and psycho-spiritual acumen to illuminate a vital core idea or problem at the heart of the parashah that is truly relevant to modern readers. The result is a synthetic tour de force.

Rabbi Nancy Flam, co-director of programs at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality

This deeply integrative volume provides a beautiful gateway into Torah study for any serious reader, Jewish or Christian. Drawing widely on rabbinic commentary, ancient to modern, as well as contemporary biblical and pastoral studies, Rabbi Shai Held makes his own creative contribution in demonstrating that the ultimate goal of scriptural interpretation is human transformation in community.

Ellen F. Davis, Amos Ragan Kearns Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at the Divinity School, Duke University

Rabbi Shai Helds superbly crafted reflections on Torah texts from Genesis to Deuteronomy dazzle with insight, practical wisdom, and scholarly erudition. These essays are a model for both Jews and Christians on how to read the Bible with intellectual integrity, religious significance, a mind open to an array of dialogue partners, and a generous spirit that celebrates the love of God and the repair of human dignity in our world today. Highly recommended!

Dennis Olson, Charles T. Haley Professor of Old Testament Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary

Through Shai Helds original, honest, astute, and humane interpretations, we experience the strong moral voice of the biblical text. He makes it possible to reread our tradition, and thus stand again at Sinai.

Tova Hartman, author of the National Jewish Book Awardwinner Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation

Shai Held is a remarkable and unique resource for the religious and the secular alike. A serious scholar and a dedicated man of faith, he submits the weekly parashah to piercing scrutiny and polymathic learning as he also simultaneously reaffirms the eternal religious truths he locates inside the text. Any reader with even the slightest interest in Torah or even the life of the religious mind will find not only moral and intellectual challenge but wisdom and wonder in these pages for years to come.

Eric Alterman, City University of New York Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism at Brooklyn College

Through its rare combination of literary nuance, historical depth, and ethical concern, The Heart of Torah has the potential to contribute to the renewal of faith communitiesboth Jewish and Christianthat care about the theological and ethical claims of this ancient and sacred text.

J. Richard Middleton, professor of biblical worldview and exegesis at Northeastern Seminary

Helds deep immersion in the Jewish commentary tradition and his appreciative grasp of contemporary Christian biblical scholarship provide a model for how members of both religious traditions can explore the richness of Scripture together to mutual enrichment.

J. Gerald Janzen, author of At the Scent of Water: The Ground of Hope in the Book of Job

This book is gold. You hold a treasure in your hand. Shai Helds brilliant thought and passionate writing open the door to transformation of character and society, which truly is the heart of Torah.

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, Roslyn and Abner Goldstine Deans Chair at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, American Jewish University

The Bible has much wisdom to impart, but it is not easily accessible, clothed as it is in its ancient garments. A lover of Torah, Rabbi Held shows us how close attention to the text yields interpretive jewels. He opens the Bibles witness in surprising and compelling ways, revealing to us its profound truths about Gods concern for the whole world, and our responsibilities in it.

Jacqueline Lapsley, associate professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary

The Heart of Torah is a stunning achievement: textually learned, theologically profound, ethically challenging, spiritually uplifting, and psychologically astute. If you want to know what it can mean to read the Torah today with your whole heart and your whole mind, read this book. And then when youre done, read it again.

Rabbi Sharon Brous, founder and senior rabbi at Ikar, Los Angeles

Shai Held deftly brings the wisdom of Torah to bear upon the contemporary human condition. Christians who read this book can discover fresh dimensions within the biblical text, see more clearly where there is common ground between Jews and Christians, and better grasp what it means to understand and live in this world as Gods world.

Walter Moberly, professor of theology and biblical interpretation at Durham University

Shai Held is one of the most important teachers of Torah in his generation.

Rabbi David Wolpe, author of David: The Divided Heart