March 15, 2025

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Ben Rothke

Ben Rothke lives in New Jersey and works in the information security field. He reviews books on religion, technology and science. @benrothke

Articles by Ben Rothke

Evolution and the Torah

Reviewing: “Six Days of Cosmology and Evolution: A Scientific Commentary on the Genesis Text with Rabbinic Sources,” by Daniel Langer. KTAV Publishing House. 2018. English.

Stories From the Margins

Reviewing: “Mavericks, Mystics & False Messiahs: Episodes From the Margins of Jewish History,” by Rabbi Pini Dunner. Toby Press; 2018. Hardover. 231 pages. English. ISBN-13:

Understanding Yosef

Reviewing: “Was Yosef on the Spectrum? Understanding Joseph Through Torah, Midrash and Classical Jewish Sources” by Samuel J. Levine. Urim Publications. 2018. English. Hardcover. 141

Not Bound By Time

Reviewing: “Time in the Babylonian Talmud: Natural and Imagined Times in Jewish Law and Narrative,” by Lynn Kaye. Cambridge University Press. Hardcover. 2018. English. ISBN-13:

In Defense of Halacha

Reviewing: “Halakhah: The Rabbinic Idea of Law” by Chaim N. Saiman. Princeton University Press. 2018. Harcover. ISBN-13: 978-0691152110. The subtitle of the classic medieval work “The

Blaming Zionism

Reviewing: “The Empty Wagon: Zionism’s Journey From Identity Crisis to Identity Theft,” By Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro. 2018. Hardcover. Primedia eLaunch LLC. ISBN-13: 978-1642555547. Imagine it’s

Keeping the Faith

Reviewing: “Torah From the Years of Wrath 1939-1943: The Historical Context of the Aish Kodesh” by Henry Abramson. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Paperback. 2017. English.

Examining the History of Hasidism

Reviewing: “Hasidism: A New History,” by David Biale, David Assaf, Benjamin Brown, Uriel Gellman, Samuel Heilman, Moshe Rosman, Gadi Sagiv, Marcin Wodzinski, Arthur Green, Princeton

The Struggle of Faith

Reviewing: “Illuminating Jewish Thought:­ Explorations of Free Will, the Afterlife, and the Messianic Era.” By Rabbi Netanel Wiederblank. Maggid; Koren Publishers Jerusalem. Hardcover. 2018. Hebrew/English.

Elevate Your Prayer Experience

Reviewing: “Koren Rav Kook Siddur” by Avraham Yitzchak haKohen Kook. Koren Publishers Jerusalem. Hebrew/English edition. 2017. Hardcover. ISBN-10: 9653017543. $34.93. There’s a story where a