reviews - Jewish Book Council

BOOKS OF NOTE
RELIGION OR ETHNICITY? JEWISH
IDENTITIES IN EVOLUTION
Zvi Gitelman, ed.
Rutgers University Press, 2009. $29.95
ISBN: 978-0-8135-4451-9
Examines Judaism from the Greco-
Roman age, through medieval times, modern
Western and Eastern Europe, to today. Jewish
identity has been defined as an ethnicity, a
nation, a culture, and even a race, but what
does it really mean to be Jewish?
REVEALED TEXTS, HIDDEN MEANINGS:
FINDING THE RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE
IN TANAKH
Hayyim J. Angel
KTAV Publishing, 2009. $25.00
ISBN: 978-1-60280-128-8
In this second collection of his essays on
Tanakh, Angel continues to present his learning
methodology and in-depth text studies to
a wider readership.
SHABBAT THE RIGHT WAY: RESOLVING
HALACHIC DILEMMAS
Rabbi J. Simcha Cohen
Urim Publications, 2009. $19.95
ISBN: 978-965-524-021-4
74 Jewish Book World Spring 5770/2010
Provides both the answers to questions on
Shabbat observance and a look at the process
by which the answers are derived. Cohen also
analyzes contemporary, controversial, Shabbat
issues.
SCHOLARSHIP
BEYOND THE QUMRAN COMMUNITY:
THE SECTARIAN MOVEMENT OF THE
DEAD SEA SCROLLS
John J. Collins
Wm. B. Eerdmans Co., 2009. $25.00
ISBN: 978-0-8028-2887-3
With the full publication of the Dead Sea
Scrolls, fresh analysis of the evidence presented
can be—and indeed, should be—made.
Beyond the Qumran Community does just that,
reaching a surprising conclusion: the sect
described in the Dead Sea Scrolls developed
later than has usually been supposed and was
never confined to the site of Qumran.
ENOCH AND THE MOSAIC TORAH:
THE EVIDENCE OF JUBILEES
Gabriele Boccaccini & Giovanni Ibba, eds.
Wm. B. Eerdmans Co., 2009. $55.00
ISBN: 978-0-8028-6409-3
The early Enoch literature does not refer
to the Mosaic Torah or emphasize the distinctively
Mosaic laws designed for Israel. But the
book of Jubilees gives room to both Mosaic
and Enochic traditions within the Sinaitic
revelatory framework. Readers will find a
lively debate among the most distinguished
international specialists, striving for a better
understanding of this document.
SEPHARDIC STUDIES
MAQAM AND LITURGY: RITUAL,
MUSIC, AND AESTHETICS OF SYRIAN
JEWS IN BROOKLYN
Mark L. Kligman
Wayne State University Press, 2009. $34.95
ISBN: 978-0-8143-3216-0
Syrian Jews in Brooklyn, NY, number
more than 40,000 and constitute the largest
single group of immigrant Jews from Syria in
the world. Kligman investigates the multidimensional
interaction of music and text in
Sabbath prayers of the Syrian Jews to trace
how Arab and Jewish traditions have merged
in this culture.
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