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It Takes Two to Torah

An Orthodox Rabbi and Reform Journalist Discuss and Debate Their Way Through the Five Books of Moses

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available

It Takes Two to Torah is not just an education, it's an invitation – to join the oldest Book Club in the world.

This book is a Torah conversation-starter for families on Shabbat, for religious school instructors with students of all ages, for individuals who have never found a way to read the entire Torah in bite-size, relatable nuggets, and for young clergy looking for some sermon ideas if they're stuck! Most of all, it is a snapshot of what Torah study is meant to be: a real-time, candid, instructive, challenging exchange of responses to ancient text.For the first time, in a single volume, readers can take a tour of the entire Torah through the medium of one challenging, instructive, irreverent, animated conversation. Rabbi Dov Linzer, an Orthodox rabbi, and Abigail Pogrebin, a Reform journalist talk their way through the Five Books of Moses with candor, humor, emotion, personal revelation, and scholarship.

This book is the product of two people literally meeting in the middle to bring us their most honest intellectual and relevant understanding of the Torah. Pogrebin and Linzer engaged in short dialogues on a podcast forTablet Magazine, and they have now been collected and edited so that the full, fascinating exploration can be found in one place.

Rabbi Linzer is President and Rabbinic Head of YCT Rabbinical School (a Modern Orthodox seminary,) and Abigail Pogrebin is a veteran journalist, author of My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew and former producer for 60 Minutes.

Dov is a renowned expert in Torah and Talmud, whose personal values run liberal and egalitarian, but who also has clear parameters about what is halachically correct and comfortable when it comes to Jewish law and tradition. Abby is our relatable every-Jew in America, deeply engaged in Jewish life, but less through strict observance and prayer as through study, reporting, synagogue, and community.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 17, 2024
      Rabbi Linzer and journalist Pogrebin (My Jewish Year) discuss 52 weekly readings of the Torah in this intellectually lively adaptation of their Parsha in Progress podcast. Aiming to step outside their “echo chambers,” the authors draw fresh insights from such familiar stories as Abraham’s binding of Isaac. Contemplating God’s silence after Abraham followed his directives, Linzer muses that “some people spend their whole lives believing God isn’t talking to them.... Your religion might talk to you but you never feel that’s the same as God.” Elsewhere, they interrogate the gap between intent and outcome by considering whether Jacob’s son Reuben was courageous for preventing his brothers from killing Joseph but failing to follow through before they sold him into slavery (Pogrebin credits Reuben with empathy but not courage, while Linzer insists that Reuben’s bravery was essential to Joseph’s survival). No one in the Torah is above scrutiny, with both authors interrogating why God might have hardened Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus, and thereby prolonging the Israelites’ suffering. Such openness gives the book its spark and propels the authors’ broad-minded consideration of such questions as the value of ritual versus belief and what the Bible might have to say about gender identity. Rigorous and readable, it’s a stimulating addition to modern-day Torah scholarship.

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  • English

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