Hi everyone,

in the old forum, someone recommended "A Code of Jewish Ethics" by Joseph Telushkin to me. I am currently reading it and find it very worthwhile and insightful. However, you can never have too many books, so I was wondering which other books you might recommend. What are your favourites?
It might be anything from learning ressources over biographies to children's books, only prerequisite is that is has to do anything (topic, author, relevance) with Judaism or Jewish culture.

If you like, we can also use this thread to talk about or discuss books that are not necessarily recommendations, but that fit the "generally related to Judaism"-feature, that you are reading currently.

I hope for this to become a thread where anyone in search for a good read might find some new ireading inspiration. 

This lady has her YouTube Channel. All videos are about 2 minutes. Always something good !

Tracey R. Rich is the curator of a website called Judaism 101. It is from a more Orthodox point of view. It comes with a searchable database. It is not the work of any particular organization. It is strictly the work, and interpretation of Tracey Rich.

Enjoy - http://www.jewfaq.org/index.shtml

I'm currently watching the Netflix/BBC series Watership Down.  I loved the book and the original movie, of course.  In fact, I still get chills when I hear Art Garfunkel sing "Bright Eyes" (which he did at a recent concert at NYC's City Winery).  I can't say I was overly thrilled with the Netflix/BBC series when I first started watching it, but it has now grown on me.  It certainly has the dark elements of the novel and the original movie, and I especially like the way that the rabbits have more individualized personalities than they had in the movie, and how the female rabbits are also represented more.
 
While searching online for a Hebrew translation of Watership Down (I wanted to see whether Hebrew names of herbs and wildflowers might have been used for the rabbits' names by some translator), I came across this article from The Forward:
 
https://forward.com/culture/film-tv/4029...ship-down/
 
I found it interesting, and I hadn't known this fact, which was mentioned by the author:  "The book of Exodus provides the greatest parallel between Jews and rabbits, which have cropped up in many older haggadot. Typically, Jews are represented as hares fleeing from hunters and dogs."
 
The author mentioned a few other parallels between Watership Down and the Jewish experience, but what he didn't mention was the "all the world will be your enemy" quote from the novel, which Frith (God) proclaims to the legendary first rabbit.
 
Anyway, are there any others here who have enjoyed Watership Down?  Do you see anything in the novels or film productions that remind you of things Jewish?
 

Do any of you here believe Aaron was punished for making the golden calf?

Thanks.

I am reading another one of Rabbi Sacks books titled "Ceremony and Celebration"

On page 191 in the chapter where he writes about Pesah he says -

One of the most striking facts about biblical Hebrew is that, despite the Torah containing 613 commandments, it contains no word that means "to obey". Modern Hebrew had to adopt the Aramaic word letzayet. The word the Torah uses instead of "to obey" is shema, a word that means "to listen, to hear, to understand, to internalize, and to respond."

That is amazing as I never knew that!!

If you read most English translations, it uses the word obey quite often. Many times we are told by Christians, we cannot obey the law perfectly. Of course we know we cannot and never were told to or meant to. But this carries a whole new meaning to me. Now I can respond by saying the Torah never says to obey the law! Okay, the meaning "respond" may be close, but it isn't obey.

I was brought up to believe my family was Ashkenazic. I didn’t know my grandmother at all, but recently I came across old papers that seem to show she had a Sephardi background and considered herself Sephardi. I now sense a certain ambiguity around my ancestry. Also I wonder why my parents ignored her altogether in calling themselves pure Ashkenazi. They’re dead so I can’t ask them, but it all feels strange and disconcerting... Has anyone experienced anything similar..?

Sarit Hadad sings ' I'm Wishing You ' Lyrics here: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/%D7%9E%D7...g-you.html

I have all of her music !

Great 2 minute video of what can happen when we are not considering all the possibilities.

The Complete Jewish Bible
https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo...-Rashi.htm

Please do notice the show-hide button within the page. The show button is commentary by Rashi
==============================================================

Sefaria: a Living Library of Jewish Texts Online can be found at the link below

https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Tanakh