An Alphabet for the Jewish People – Tel Aviv Review

Rabbi Dr Michael Marmur, Professor of Jewish Theology at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, discusses his book Living the Letters: An Alphabet of Emerging Jewish Thought.

The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

I am happy to declare I have no connection with the author or the reviewers in any shape or form.

I think this book (published in April) has been a bit overlooked because its free on Kindle, and sometimes people assume that free stuff is going to be subpar. Sometimes that’s true, but there’s always exceptions – those diamonds you find in the rough at times – and this book is certainly that. I think the review does a good job of bringing the quality of this work to the fore.

“I have to tell our audience that it is an incredible deep profound work – a major work of Jewish thought – vastly learned – beautifully written – and relevant to Jewish life today.”
— says Prof David N. Myers, cohost with the Tel Aviv Review.

I’ve seconded that with my review in which I say:

“I appreciate the depth of research and the original thought and reflection that went into the creation of this book. Its the sort of masterpiece that makes you want to ponder each chapter deeply and re-read it several times. Its the sort of book that you want to keep close to you and hurry back to.

‘Living the Letters’ is steeped in Jewish thought, culture, philosophy, psychology and mysticism. Marmur engages unapologetically and with uncommon skill with all the major key questions and narrative strands that challenge Jews in Israel and the diaspora in todays world. […] There’s aren’t many like this gem.”

What do you think of the review, the author and his book? Are you a fan? Did you think it was “crunchy“? 🙂