Best Talmud

**2018 Natan Book Award Finalist**. **Finalist for the 2017 National Jewish Book Award in Women's Studies ** The Wall Street Journal: "There is humor and heartbreak in these pages...Ms. Kurshan immerses herself in the demands of daily Talmud study and allows the words of ancient scholars to transform the patterns of her own life." At the age of 27, alone in Jerusalem in the wake of a painful divorce, Ilana Kurshan joined the world’s largest book club, learning daf yomi, Hebrew for “daily page" of the Talmud, a book of rabbinic teachings spanning about 600 years and the basis for all codes of Jewish law. Both religious and secular readers will find themselves immensely moved by her personal story and the raw courage of the journey she has undertaken.” – Elaine Margolin, The Jerusalem Post. "From the moment I picked up If All the Seas Were Ink , I was not able to put it down...Highly recommended...No background in Talmud is needed to appreciate Kurshan’s intriguing story. "There is humor and heartbreak in these pages...Ms. Kurshan immerses herself in the demands of daily Talmud study and allows the words of ancient scholars to transform the patterns of her own life." … Kurshan’s memoir gives us insightful contemporary readings of talmudic passages while demonstrating how life can accrue added richness when set against the backdrop of the Talmud.” ―Sarah Rindner, Jewish Review of Books. “Clever and witty… Kurshan is a fabulous writer; her clarity and simplicity propel you along almost unaware that you’re reading…So engrossing I hardly could put it down.” ―Neal Gendler, American Jewish World. "Delightful...The most enjoyable feature of the book is the brilliant and creative integration of the daily Talmudic folio Kurshan studies with experiences of her life." ― Kirkus Reviews "The splendidly written book is made all the more compelling by Kurshan’s willingness to share her vulnerabilities. " Kurshan committed herself to the Daf Yomi...she reports on how this daily discipline brought humor and wisdom and insight into her life." ―Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away"If All the Seas Were Ink is such a moving memoir. Kurshan's portrait of everyday life in Jerusalem enriches her recounting of connecting to centuries of intellectual curiosity and conversing with bygone generations. ―Susan Isaacs, author of Long Time No See" In this deeply personal and often hilarious story, Kurshan shows us how the Talmud’s thousands of strange and demanding pages become a conversation about how best to live one's life in an imperfect world. "When a woman as incredibly well-read as Ilana Kurshan commits herself to studying the Talmud daily for seven-and-a-half years, the results are mind-expanding, both for her and for readers of If All the Seas Were Ink. "An intimate and eloquent portrait of a young woman’s passionate loves and fears… Kurshan writes as a woman of (as she puts it) ‘Dickensonian sensibilities:’ clinging to her privacy while exposing her vulnerability, seeking the resonances between her mind, soul and body, and revealing an acutely sensitive intelligence, a wry self-awareness, and an active sense of the absurd. ". She has worked in literary publishing both in New York and in Jerusalem, as a translator and foreign rights agent and as the books editor of Lilith magazine.

; 'The Babylonian Talmud Represents God in the Flesh'; Judaism's Hermeneutic of Concealment in Theory and Practice; The Tarnish on Hillel's Golden Rule; A Gigantic Heap of Self-Perpetuating Legal and Textual Arcana; Falsifying Scripture with Gezera Shava; 'A Hedge Around the Law'; Loopholes And Escape Clauses; 'The Pious of the Nations' Loophole; Four Exegetical Categories: PaRDeS, Outright Lies and Deception; Permissible Categories of Lying; The Deceiver's Gloss on Exodus 23:7; Why Women Have Not Been Allowed to Study the Talmud; Bribery; Defrauding Workers; The Authority of the Talmud; The Inferiority of Gentiles; Gentile is not a Brother or a Neighbor; Jews May Kill Non-Jews; Torat Hamelech: Warrant For The Murder Of Gentiles; The Status of the Gentile in Jewish Law; Non-Jews are 'Supernal Refuse'; The Maimonidean Halachos of Manslaughter: 'Lifting and Lowering, Judaism Teaches: Abraham and Isaac were Tainted with Lust; Rabbinic Texts are a Virulent Source of Anti-Black Racism; Every Gentile's Mother, Daughter and Sister is NShGZ'; New World Order: U.S. Government Lays The Groundwork For Talmudic Courts; Christians in the Talmud; Escape Clauses and Loopholes Concerning the Rabbinic Ban on Churches; Talmud Citations Concerning Christianity; Balaam: The Talmud's Code Name for Jesus; Christianity Alleged to be a Form of Prostitution; Mary the Mother of Jesus as Sedata' (a promiscuous woman); Establishing a Legal Principle for Courtroom Entrapment of Christ and Christians; Pandera and Balaam: Jesus as a Bastard in the Talmud; Origen Contra the Antichrist Rabbinic Calumnies of Celsus; Anti-Goyimitic and Anti-Christian Hatred; Divine Mandate to Kill Jesus Christ and Christians; Judaism's Reincarnation Dogma;Star of Bohemia, Not David; Kaparot: The Sin Chicken; The X-Rated Talmud; Judaism and Menstruation; Judaism and Abortion; Converts and Conversions to Judaism; Yom Kippur and the Kol Nidrei Nullification of Vows; Judaism's Holy Days; Birkat HaMinim: The Curse on Christians; Child Molestation and Homosexuality; Glossary of terms; Index. “If you don’t read any other book besides the Bible this year, be sure to read Judaism’s Strange Gods.” — Chuck Baldwin. Source: Facebook, March 12, 2017.

Discover the ancient wisdom and historical influence of a cornerstone of Judaism The Wisdom of the Talmud presents a thorough history and overview of the Talmud, the rabbinical commentary on the Torah that was developed in the Jewish academies of Palestine and Babylonia. “As the All-present is called compassionate and gracious so be you also compassionate and gracious and offering thy gifts freely to all.” —The Talmud.

The Zohar and Kabbalah have traditionally been known as the world’s most esoteric sources of spiritual knowledge, but Rav Berg has dedicated his life to making this concentrated distillation of infinite wisdom available to people of all faiths so that we may use its principles to live each day in harmony with the divine. The Zohar's biblical commentaries and rabbinical stories of apparently "surprise happenings, sudden insights, and full-blown epiphanies" are intended to help readers open themselves to similar revelations. --Michael Joseph Gross Berg, the dean and director of the Kabbalah Centre, writes accessibly about the Zohar, a free-flowing mystical commentary on the Bible, as a way people can tap into cosmic energies that are available for personal and universal salvation. Berg admits that people may be uncomfortable with the notion that we can use "whatever means... necessary to create the spiritual circuitry of our universe," especially if that explains such misdeeds as King David murdering Uriah so he could take Batsheva as his wife.

In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day is inspired by one of the most obscure yet courageous acts recorded in Scripture, a blessed and audacious act that left no regrets: “Benaiah chased a lion down into a pit. What if the life you really want, and the future God wants for you, is hiding right now in your biggest problem, your worst failure…your greatest fear? Look in the rearview mirror long enough and you’ll see that God has purposely positioned you everywhere you’ve been—even when it seemed you’d taken a wrong turn.”. —Mark Batterson. Praise for In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: “A thoughtful and energetic leader, Mark Batterson presses us to consider how we live out our faith in the world around us. Mark’s genuine warmth and sincerity spill over into his communication, combining an intense love for his community with a passionate desire to see them living the life God dreams for them. In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day helps us make sense of this beautiful mess we call life.” -Lindy Lowry, Editor, Outreach magazine “Mark Batterson is down-to-earth and humble—yet constantly pushes me to grow.