“Rays of Wisdom: Torah Insights that Light Up Our Understanding of the World” (Eshel Publications Inc., 2022) by Rabbi Mattisyahu Rosenblum
This book offers a sophisticated, modern way of looking at some very decidedly Orthodox ideas and notions. The late author, Rabbi Mattisyahu Rosenblum, was a graduate of Yale University and long-time rebbe at Machon Yaakov in Jerusalem. (He was also the younger brother of the world-renowned chareidi author and journalist Jonathan Rosenblum.) Unfortunately, Rabbi Rosenblum passed away at a young age and was unable to see the actual publication of this book into which he had poured his last energies.
About half the essays are presented as Rabbi Rosenblum’s correspondence with a former student (“Jordan”), and the rest are well-written stand-alone compositions (mostly related to the weekly parsha and yearly events). In almost every essay, the author translates deep, almost-Kabbalistic ideas into an easily accessible English. Many of these ideas are drawn from the teachings of the late Rabbi Moshe Shapiro, plus יבלחט”א Rabbis Aharon Lopiansky and Beryl Gershenfeld, although the author often adds his own spin to the discussion.
This book grapples with questions such as how to care about the environment from a traditional perspective, and how a nuanced ultra-Orthodox take on such ideologies as relativism, Zionism and feminism might look. The essays are both illuminating and inspiring, showing a level of sophistication and erudition that befits an intellectual Torah scholar of the author’s caliber.
“The Shofar: Halachos, Minhagim, and Mesorah” (Mosaica Press, 2022), by Benzion Ettlinger
This book is a fascinating collection of everything you ever wanted to know about the laws/customs of blowing the shofar and its associated rituals. The author, Benzion Ettlinger—a descendant of the great Rabbi Yaakov Ettlinger, author of the “Aruch L’Ner”—is a seasoned baal tokea from the KAJ community in Washington Heights. He collected many halachic rulings and customs related to the shofar and the various ways of fulfilling the commandments of Rosh Hashanah from many different sources. These sources include a wide variety of seforim and mimetic traditions. The author was very close with Rabbi Shimon Schwab and cites him along with other important figures from his community.
One of the things that makes this book unique is that the author talks about customs practiced by many different types of Jewish communities (including Yekkes, Sephardim, Temanim, Briskers, and more). In doing so, he discusses how to blow the shofar, how many blasts each community is accustomed to blowing, what to look out for when buying a shofar, and whether it is permitted to have a kiddush on Rosh Hashanah morning before fulfilling the commandment of shofar. Ettlinger’s work also features inspirational insights related to the shofar, mostly drawn, of course, from the theological works of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, but also from such Chasidic thinkers as the Sefas Emes and the Novominsker Rebbe.
Unfortunately, the bilingual presentation of the book makes following the footnotes somewhat confusing, and in the publisher’s great haste to release the volume before Rosh Hashanah, there were multiple typographical/editorial oversights which should be fixed before the next edition. But these issues should not detract from a very interesting and easy-to-read compendium on all matters related to the shofar.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein is an author and lecturer living in Beitar Illit, Israel. He has written many scholarly works, including two books—”Lashon HaKodesh: History, Holiness and Hebrew” (Mosaica Press) and “God versus Gods: Judaism in the Age of Idolatry” (Mosaica Press).
