The last two weeks were extremely rich in terms of reading and although the time was extremely busy given various home and spiritual activities - equally important - and various preparations, there were an impressive amount of books I enjoyed and will fully recommend for further consideration and lecture(s).
I refreshed and add more information to my historical background through the lecture of this "Concise History of the Rabbinate". Among others, it was interesting to find more about French and Germany's official positions from the 19th century on, regarding the Jewish communities.
In preparation for Rosh Hashanah, I've found several inspiring books:
Judaism as a Religion, by Rabbi Leon Stitskin, published in 1937 in America, consisting of a series of holiday sermons delivered between 1932 and 1936. In a time of terrible tragedy for the Jewish people - a situation mentioned in several interventions - R' Leon Stitskin was explaining to the American Jews about the symbols of the holidays, the importance of resisting assimilation and the importance of good deeds.
An older book, from 1915, The Orthodox Position, by HMJ Loewe, clarifies main points of Orthodox Judaism and the justification for the belief in Orhodoxy.
I've read many stories about people imprisoned in Russia, but rarely I had the occasion to see so much beauty and forgiveness as in A Prince in Prison. The Previous Lubavither Rebbe's Account of His Incarceration in Stalinist Russia in 1927. Humanly speaking you can't stop being angry against those who accepted to be the instruments of the enemy against fellow Jews, but after reading these accounts I started to understand more about teshuva and the power of inner change.
I prepared my spiritual journey though the New Year with the help of R' Dovid D. Meisels' book The Radiance of Rosh Hashanah, where I found this quote: "How does a person know that the gates of Heaven have opened to allow his prayers to enter? When he feels his heart opening up and a fountain of faith surging up from below, it is a sign that, in the same way, the gates of Heaven above have opened up".
This year, I dedicated a fair amount of time at the book of Yonah and Rabbi Ilan Ginian's book, The Navi Journey. Sefer Yonah opened my eyes to a better and halachic understanding of this story that we traditionally read on Yom Kippur.
For all those interested in Talmudic studies and lecture, two basic books opening the gates to understanding the various interpretations and explanations: Tools for Tosafos, by Haim Perlmutter, and Understanding the Talmud. A Systematic Guide to Talmudic Structure and Methodology. It is how I realized how much I should learn and learn to improve my time management, including by avoiding to waste my time procrastinating. More learning is part of my resolution package for the New Year.
One of the books I longed for from the first moment I found out about the publication was Jerusalem, by Simon Sebag Montefiore, whose historical writings I was familiar with for a long time. For one day and a half I stayed glued reading this wonderful biography, an impressive and extermely diplomatic account of the history of a city with a terrible and overwhelming history.
History is addressed again in another difficult book: Judenrat, by Isaiah Trunk, dissecting the Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation. A painful episode shedding a different light on the history of Jews from Poland, the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) and the occupied areas of USSR (Byelorussia and Ukraine) when "for the first time in Jewish history, a Jewish organ was forced to help a foreign, criminal regime to destroy coreligionists".
Last on the latest list, a book I read together with kids, simple and offering food for thought for the little ones: Yom Kippur with Bina, Benny and Chaggai Hayonah.
That's all by now, but new books are already waiting for me. Happy reading!
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