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The Heart of Torah, Volume 2: Essays on the Weekly Torah Portion: Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy
In The Heart of Torah , Rabbi Shai Held’s Torah essays—two for each weekly portion—open new horizons in Jewish biblical commentary.
Held probes the portions in bold, original, and provocative ways. He mines Talmud and midrashim, great writers of world literature, and astute commentators of other religious backgrounds to ponder fundamental questions about God, human nature, and what it means to be a religious person in the modern world. Along the way he illuminates the centrality of empathy in Jewish ethics, the predominance of divine love in Jewish theology, the primacy of gratitude and generosity, and God’s summoning of each of us—with all our limitations—into the dignity of a covenantal relationship.
Held probes the portions in bold, original, and provocative ways. He mines Talmud and midrashim, great writers of world literature, and astute commentators of other religious backgrounds to ponder fundamental questions about God, human nature, and what it means to be a religious person in the modern world. Along the way he illuminates the centrality of empathy in Jewish ethics, the predominance of divine love in Jewish theology, the primacy of gratitude and generosity, and God’s summoning of each of us—with all our limitations—into the dignity of a covenantal relationship.
496 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 28, 2025
I started reading Rabbi Shai Held's short essays on the weekly Torah portion one year ago on the Hebrew calendar. I really ought to give myself a siyyum, a celebratory feast for when one finishes studying an important work. Much as I admire his systematic work of theology Judaism Is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life, these divrei torah speak to me more. In 3-5 pages, he captures insights from the Torah portion that make me muse all week and, if I take them to heart, focus me on paying attention to my relationships with God and humanity all year long.
I hope to read through them again, this time paying a lot of attention to the endnotes. He is unusual because he can both write clearly for a popular audience and synthesize centuries of rabbinic, secular, and even Christian scholarship about the Torah.
It is wonderful to have lived long enough to learn from people much younger than me, including Held but also rabbis Danya Ruttenberg, Ruti Regan, Tali Adler, Micah Streiffer, and more.
I hope to read through them again, this time paying a lot of attention to the endnotes. He is unusual because he can both write clearly for a popular audience and synthesize centuries of rabbinic, secular, and even Christian scholarship about the Torah.
It is wonderful to have lived long enough to learn from people much younger than me, including Held but also rabbis Danya Ruttenberg, Ruti Regan, Tali Adler, Micah Streiffer, and more.
October 20, 2017
A very in depth study.
October 28, 2017
Very interesting - Learned a lot from it!
December 5, 2017
Wonderful and comprehensive work. Very thorough.
June 23, 2018
As with the first volume: I'm immensely honored to have assisted with the publicity efforts for Rabbi Held's important work.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews