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After studying the fundamentals of Judaism, Judd Lewis, a graduate scholar in literature, felt he needed to study extra. He dropped out of graduate tuition and enrolled full-time in an Israeli yeshiva.
Now 4 years have handed and Judd is dissatisfied. He confronts his former instructor and mentor, a Syrian Jew an expert in Judaism, with a barrage of questions: Why accomplish that many stuff within the Talmud appear to be simply shrewdpermanent arguments? Doesn’t somebody care approximately what's quite actual? Did Moses quite write the Torah? Why doesn’t yeshiva examine ever stand up to the demanding situations of technology, of biblical feedback, and different facets of the fashionable international? so much of all, the place is “the truth of ha-Shem” in all this—shouldn’t that be the total aspect of studying?
Their discussion, occasionally indignant, occasionally funny, finally touches at the most elementary matters in Judaism, as Judd and his mentor every one attempt to persuade the opposite in their very varied perspectives. it is a booklet for individuals of all types: yeshiva scholars and yeshiva dropouts, the pious and the not-so-pious, and any traditional reader desirous to sit down in on a seminar in complicated Judaism.

Praise for James Kugel:
“Kugel has an excellent ear for narrative, a lifelong scholar’s self-discipline, and a ask yourself and self belief fed through his ideals. His accumulating up of a life’s paintings supplies readers an opportunity to comb up opposed to genius, and maybe study these ideals we declare for ourselves.” The Seattle Times
“[Kugel,] excess of only a pupil, is certainly a reader and understands that, much more than wisdom, style, and discrimination, crucial factor to convey to a textual content is oneself: now not part of oneself, however the entire, fullyyt centred and fully open, learn to provide and take all. so that it will learn during this approach is an extraordinary reward, and Mr. Kugel, who may also write, has it.” Hillel Halkin, The Forward
“Mr. Kugel’s huge, immense project [The Bible because it Was], may be obvious as a milestone within the lengthy serious background of Bible reviews. . . yet whereas Mr. Kugel’s booklet is deeply grounded in scholarship, it really is written with a straightforwardness or even an occasional wryness that makes it largely obtainable, a excitement to read.” Richard Bernstein, the hot York Times
“Perhaps the main well-known residing arguable Apikores [heretic] on this planet is professor James Kugel, previously of Harvard college, and now instructing at an Israeli University.” Voz Is Neias (Yiddish: What’s News?), a web blog.

James Kugel: Starr Professor of Hebrew Literature at Harvard college from 1982 to 2003, Kugel retired from Harvard to develop into Professor of Bible at Bar Ilan collage in Israel, the place he additionally served as chairman of the dept of Bible. a expert within the Hebrew Bible and the lifeless Sea Scrolls, Kugel is the writer of greater than seventy examine articles and 13 books, together with the belief of Biblical Poetry, On Being a Jew, The Bible because it was once (winner of the Grawemeyer Prize in Religion), find out how to learn the Bible (awarded the nationwide Jewish e-book Award for the simplest booklet of 2007), and within the Valley of the Shadow. he's a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and Editor in leader of Jewish reports: an online magazine.