Ronald L. Eisenberg - 850 Intriguing Questions about Judaism: True, False, or In Between

850 Intriguing Questions about Judaism

True, False, or In Between

Ronald L. Eisenberg

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Eisenberg, Ronald L., author.

850 intriguing questions about Judaism : true, false, or in between / Ronald L. Eisenberg.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4422-3946-3 (hardback : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4422-3947-0 (ebook) 1. JudaismMiscellanea. I. Title. II. Title: Eight hundred fifty intriguing questions about Judaism.

BM51.E37 2015

296dc23

2015006592

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

To Zina, Avlana, and Cherina

Both Jews and non-Jews have misconceptions about Judaism. Some seemingly unusual ideas about Jewish history, teachings, and practices are actually true, whereas some ostensibly reasonable and popularly believed concepts are patently false. In many cases, notions regarding Judaism are neither true nor false and actually require a nuanced explanation.

850 Intriguing Questions about Judaism: True, False, or In Between explores a wide range of aspects of Judaism, framed as a series of questions, a substantial number of which do not have a clear-cut yes or no answer. This work contains more than 850 questions, organized into 13 chapters, or categories, that cover a broad range of topics in Jewish life, history, and practice. Each chapter opens with a list of questions, so that readers can ponder the answers before delving into the text. Afterward, the reader will find each question and its answer, with a small designation indicating whether the question is true (T), false (F), or neither (N), meaning a nuanced answer.

Many of the questions deal with subtopics and could be placed in more than one category. For example, the question Is there significance to the four cups of wine at the Tu bShevat seder? appears in Sabbath and Festivals, but also could have been listed in the chapter on Food. 850 Intriguing Questions about Judaism: True, False, or In Between features a question index organized by key words and arranged in alphabetical order, listing all pages on which the relevant questions appear. For example, a reader interested in questions related to Passover could choose to look at all the questions for the entire chapter on Sabbath and festivals, or quickly search the index to find Passover-related questions dealing with such topics as Haggadah, seder, matzah, chametz, afikoman, and various Passover songs.

In addition to a bibliography of major sources, this work includes a list of abbreviations for books of the Bible and Talmud, and a glossary. As in many texts, a distinction is made between the term Rabbi (capitalized for those of the Talmudic era) and rabbi (lowercase for those of subsequent eras).

850 Intriguing Questions about Judaism: True, False, or In Between is designed to appeal to all Jews interested in broadening their Jewish horizons, and to anyone who wants to learn more about the many facets and diversity of Jewish thought and practice.