Books from Jewish Lights at Jewish Book Mall

You know, if you ever thought that Jewish books were old and stuffy and musty - and let us humbly point out that you would have been wrong in any case - have a look at some of the great books coming from Jewish Lights Publishing. Where else, but at the Jewish Book Mall page devoted to books from Jewish Lights?

This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared, by Rabbi Alan Lew

While it may seem that the Jewish holidays are "late" this year - actually, Rosh Hashanah is always right on time, on the first of Tishrei (though sometimes September can come early or late) - there is more to preparing for the new year than showing up to shul at the appointed time. Rabbi Alan Lew guides you on a spiritual journey starting with the month of Elul, going through the days of awe as part of the penitential season in Judaism.

Rabbi Lew is a gifted and sensitive thinker and writer. This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared is a gem of a book! Official Jewish Book Mall rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Jewish and Israeli Music - CDs and tapes

Have you seen the Jewish Book Mall Jewish Music page? See Jewish Book Mall - Jewish and Israeli Music - CDs, tapes for albums by close to 300 different musicians, and almost 900 different Jewish CDs, from klezmer to Israeli to Yiddish to cantorial to Yemenite, with a little kosher reggae and other interesting concoctions thrown in to boot.

Jewish music makes a great holiday gift, too.

Jewish News Archive - new format

We've changed the format of the Jewish News Archive to make it a bit easier to read. Each weekday, the top Jewish and Israeli news stories of the day from JTA go into our archive. You can use it to stay current or to look up old news.

Rashi's Daughters, Book 1: Joheved - A Jewish Book Mall Review

Well, with our busy duties tending the Jewish Book Mall, we don't often have time to write reviews of individual books ourselves. Of course, we include reviews from readers like you on all products where they're available, but that's a different story.

This book grabbed our attention, though. Rashi's Daughters, Book 1: Joheved by Maggie Anton is a lovely book, and of course it's only the first of a series. You become very quickly transported to medieval France, where you join the family of Rashi, the most famous exegete of the Hebrew Bible and Talmud to this day, 1000 years later. You can see the family around the dinner - or disner - table.

If you want to get a sense of what the life of Rashi and his daughters was like, this is the book. The author says she spent a decade researching it, and we believe it. Certainly with regard to the details of French life then, and also with regard to Jewish life in France, Anton has done her job. She also does a very creditable job with regard to some of Rashi's work, quoting from his known responsa on kosher meat and, of course, wine.

No book is without its imperfections. The small ones we noted were misspelling of the Hebrew word for marriage, which should be nisuin, not niusin(which appears that way at least twice). And while we don't know if Rashi's daughters attended synagogue with him on weekdays, it would be a very different synagogue than what we know if the family would eat breakfast before going and then eat lunch upon returning - Saturday services, being the Sabbath, can last several hours, but weekday services are generally brief so as to allow congregants to arrive at work in a timely fashion.

Other books have been written about Rashi. This one is about his daughters, and of course this is clearly indicated by the title. So do not be surprised that the perspective is decidedly focused not on Rashi or his scholarship, but on Joheved, her sisters, and other female characters. There is sex, and childbirth, and midwifing, and love. True, there is also women engaging in business, agriculture, and Talmud study, alongside the male characters in the story. But this is definitely the book form of what you'd call a chick flick in the film business.

Official Jewish Book Mall rating: 4.5 out of 5.0.

Enjoy!

New Tools blog

There's a new Tool of the Day blog that offers a daily explanation of what various tools are.

More on Artscroll Sale

Not to be repetitive and redundant, or to say the same thing twice and then say it again, our fiduciary responsibilities as your Jewish book mavens would be unfulfilled if we didn't emphasize that, if you're thinking of buying anything from Artscroll, now is the time.

So, click here to see Artscroll Talmuds, and here to see other Artscroll seforim, or here to go straight to Artscroll. Nu, do it today.

There, we feel much better.

Jewish Book Mall - Artscroll sale!

Artscroll books - all of them! are now on sale, through June 27, for 20% off! See Jewish Book Mall - Artscroll.

Did we mention that Artscroll's seforim are on sale for 20% off? Well, so is all their software and their audio collection, too!

Kosher Foods - jewishbookmall.com

Almost forgot: for Shavuot, you may need a kosher cookbook so you can whip up those light dairy dishes that are the culinary trademark of the holiday. See Kosher Foods - jewishbookmall.com.

Toolsandreviews.com

Here's another favorite site of ours: Tools and Reviews.

Shavuot books at jewishbookmall.com

Here are some kids' and adults' Shavuot books: Shavuot books. Of course, Shavuos is zman matan Torah, the time when we commemorate the Giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai to Moses...so you may also want to check out our Torah, Bible, Chumash, Tanach, etc. collection as well.

Jewish Posters

Our Jewish Posters page has what we think may be one of the largest collections of Jewish and Israeli posters in one place. (We've gathered them from several different sources, each of which has some unique items.) You can find anything from Marc Chagall to old Zionist posters to one called Yiddish Cowboy and a Yiddish Eye Chart. Nope, we're not making this up...

Many are available not only as posters, but also as art prints and photos.

Artscroll Talmud / Schottenstein Gemara

Our Artscroll Talmud / Schottenstein Gemara page has just been redone. It now includes the entire set and lists both the full-size and daf yomi editions for each tractate.

We also added more explanation of the Artscroll Talmud page layout, and how the facing English and Hebrew pages work together.

Rashi's Daughters, Book 1: Joheved - on the Jewish Book Mall "to review" list...

We're reading Rashi's Daughters, Book 1: Joheved with the hope of posting an official Jewish Book Mall review soon.

Jewish Book Mall - Seforim/Sifrei Kodesh, Torah, Talmud, Artscroll, CDs, Hebrew, Bible, Mishnah, Steinsaltz, & more books

The Jewish Book Mall - main page now includes the top Jewish bestsellers from Amazon. So you can not only see what other people are reading...but also what others think counts as a Jewish book! :)

Jewish Book Mall - A Source for Good Jewish Books - Seforim/Sifrei Kodesh, Torah, Talmud, Artscroll, CDs, Hebrew, Bible, Mishnah, Steinsaltz, more

We've updated the main page to reflect a bit better what's there: Jewish Book Mall - Good Jewish Books.

Jewish News Archive goes RSS!

You can now get the Jewish Book Mall Jewish News Archive via RSS.

Jewish News Archive

The Jewish Book Mall, in cooperation with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, proudly presents the Jewish News Archive. Jewish news headlines are updated daily, Monday through Friday, and each day's news is archived here as well.

Jewish News Archive

The Jewish Book Mall, in cooperation with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, now offers the JTA daily news summary. You can see the Jewish News Archive here.

Artscroll Talmud

Especially now that the new daf yomi cycle of daily Talmud study has begun, there's a lot of interest in the Artscroll Talmud, aka the Schottenstein edition. It has a running translation and commentary similar to Steinsaltz, but with each Hebrew/Aramaic phrase also included before the translation. Nice for daf yomi, where you want to cover ground quickly but also want to feel like you're still doing the sugya not entirely in English.