Joseph Telushkin

Presents the first major code of Jewish ethics to be written in English, offering examples from the Torah, the Talmud, rabbinic commentaries, and modern stories to show how ethical teachings can influence daily behavior.

"Jim Gudsen is just a regular guy, newly returned from the killing fields of Vietnam - cynical about life in general and religion in particular. His older brother Herkimer is different - always has been. Jim is about to find out just how different. A Lutheran minister, Herkimer is defrocked by his Church for his refusal to expel a gay couple from his conservative congregation. In the process of reevaluating his beliefs, Gudsen claims that God has spoken directly to him, and told him he must "Gather the Twelve" - and do so before his wife Megan succumbs to the ravages of cancer. Jim is cynical at first, but he is willing to try anything to save his beloved sister-in-law, and as events proceed, Jim's understanding of the world is radically changed." "The brothers are aided in their search by a college professor who is convinced that the key to unraveling the mystery of the Twelve is the ancient Greek myth of the Labors of Hercules. In an astonishing process of discovery, the brothers find their lost father, a sister immersed in the seedy underworld of porn, a former pro football player turned drug addict, and others who will help them build a church of lost souls - an ecumenical church like no other."--BOOK JACKET.

Encyclopedic in scope, but dynamic and original in its observations and organization, Biblical Literacy makes available in one volume the Bible's timeless stories of love, deceit, and the human condition; its most important laws and ideas; and an annotated listing of all 613 laws of the Torah. For both layman and professional, there is no other reference work or interpretation of the Bible quite like this stunning volume.

Stories from the Bible and the Talmud, and the insights of Jewish commentators and writers from Maimonides, Rashi, and Hillel to Einstein, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Elie Wiesel.

"Sigmund Freud once wrote of Jewish jokes: "I do not know whether there are many other instances of a people making fun to such a degree of its own character." Why this should be so is the subject of Jewish Humor, an erudite, opinionated, and hilarious examination of comedy as the mirror of culture, woven around more than a hundred of the best Jewish jokes - some classic, some newly minted - ever compiled." "The jokes are analyzed by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, a well-known authority on Jewish life who is as celebrated for his wit as for his scholarship. Through humor, Telushkin identifies the keystones of Jewish character: family love and torments; relations with God; the push of antisemitic oppression and the pull of assimilation; chutzpah and its flip side, self-denigration; the love of learning, the passion for arguing, the commitment to justice - and others. The specific issues Telushkin addresses include how Jews cope with persecution and discrimination (read how the most common antisemitic canard is punctured on page 107); how Jews view money and financial success (for the funny, shorthand version, see page 34); what Jews think about sex (there's a complex of jokes on pages 86-97); how Jews see rabbis and other religious leaders (the truth is bared on pages 149-159); what Jews think about violence (the one kind they like appears on pages 97-104); what Jews think about assimilation and intermarriage with non-Jews (take a guess or take a look at pages 125-145); and how Jews see other Jews (judge by the joke on page 82)." "Insightful, sometimes stinging, and always funny, Jewish Humor offers no less than a portrait of the Jewish collective unconscious. It is destined to become the classic work on the subject."--Jacket.

"What is hateful unto you, do not do unto your neighbor. That is the whole Torah, all the rest is commentary. Now, go and study." This is the most famous teaching of Hillel, one of the greatest rabbis of the Talmudic era. Hillel's teachings, stories, and legal rulings can be found throughout the Talmud; many of them share his emphasis on ethical and moral living as an essential element in Jewish religious practice. Perhaps the most prominent rabbi and teacher in the Land of Israel during the reign of Herod, Hillel may well have influenced Jesus, his junior by several decades. In a provocative analysis of both Judaism and Christianity, Telushkin reveals why Hillel's teachings about ethics as God's central demand, and his willingness to encourage converts to Judaism, began to be ignored in favor of the stricter and less inclusive teachings of his adversary, Shammai.--From publisher description.