Channukah, the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, celebrates the power of light to banish darkness and tells the story of a vulnerable people's dedication. This collection of dynamic American Jewish leaders adds contemporary meaning to the messages and symbols of an ancient ritual.

To Banish Darkness: Modern Reflections on Hanukkah

Religion & Spirituality

Creditor, Menachem

Ruttenberg, Danya

Paskin, David

Messinger, Ruth

Shargel, Dina

Berkowitz, Miriam

Spodek, Brent Chaim

Erlichman, Karen

Noily, Dev

Weisblatt, Jeremy

Judaism

Independently published

"Who is wise? The person who learns from everyone, as it is said, 'From all of my teachers I have gained wisdom' (Psalm 119:99)" (Pirkei Avot 4:3).
This quotation of Shimon Ben Zoma can be extended to mean that everyone has something to teach and something to learn. If this is true on an individual level, it also is sound for Jewish students of different denominations and backgrounds and people of different faith traditions learning from one another as well.
This guide invites you to take advantage of the embarrassment of riches presented to the learner of Torah (the Five Books of Moses) in the 21st century. Orthodox Jews can learn from Reform and Feminist Torah commentaries, and Progressive Jews can grow in consciousness from studying Hasidic texts and Rashi. Today, there are many kinds of Torah commentaries available in English, and the most open-minded and open-hearted way to approach Torah learning is an "all of the above" approach.This guide will help the person who wants to engage in the study of the Torah portion of the week and use multiple Torah commentaries from different backgrounds. This approach has been tested in a Jewish Day School setting as well as synagogue and has been found to be deeply rewarding.
In this guide are selections in Hebrew and English of a section of each week's Torah portion and guide questions, directing you to the Jewish denominations' main Torah commentaries you will commonly see in the pews. It also directs you to other mainstream Torah commentaries (even one written specifically for teens), and it includes page numbers to make looking up answers efficient. The idea is that you will sit with a friend, this guide, and the volumes referenced here and look up different the guide questions in the various books. You will then have your own questions and probably become distracted by other topics as they come up. Next thing you know, an hour will have gone by as you have been lost in Torah study. You will then hopefully gain new appreciation that people of different Jewish religious backgrounds all have something to to teach each other, and we can increase ahavat yisrael - love of the people Israel - in the world. And we can all be united by Torah study. We can follow Hillel's direction: "Love your neighbor as yourself. That is the whole Torah, now go and study!" (Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 21a)
All translations are from Sefaria.org and are in the public domain.

Go and Study: A Pluralistic Guide To Using Different Torah Commentaries

Meszler, Joseph B

Christian Books & Bibles

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Paskin, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Paskin, David