On July 4th, warm summer book suggestions

Once again we come upon a new summer season of downtime from work. However, there is no downtime in reading for the devoted bookworm. Once again I am taking this opportunity to briefly suggest to you some of my upcoming favorites for this year’s summer reading. Not in any particular order, here are just some of them for your considerations.

Rabbi Zvi Grumet’s “Moses and the Path to Leadership” [Urim Publications, 2014] is an excellent profile of the great lawgiver which will provide you with a rigorous, close analysis of his biography and leadership talents. This documents how he withstood the test of his leadership as a teacher and master of G-d’s law and teachings. The book’s topics are most timely to this season’s Torah readings of the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy. Moses’ talent and gift of resilience, trust, and wisdom, are given their timely due within the context of his leadership talents as a teacher of the holy writ. This book forces you to recast your previous regard to Moses’ place in the history of our people. Read this work with caution as well as respect; both the subject and the author richly deserve it.

Rabbi Grumet is a musmach (recipient of rabbinic ordination) of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and is a graduate of Yeshiva University. He is a senior staff member of The Lookstein Center for Jewish Education, coordinator of the Bible Department at Yeshivat Eretz HaTzvi, and a distinguished faculty member at the Pardes Institute.

The theme of Moses’ leadership is further dealt with in expanded form in Rabbi Hayyim Angel’s latest work, “Peshat Isn’t So Simple” [Kodesh Press, 2014] In the chapter entitled, “A Modern Midrash Moshe: Methodological Considerations” he goes into detailed analysis of the work on Moses’ leadership career by Rabbi Mosheh Lichtenstein. While Rabbi Angel does go into some critical detail of his writing, he is both very informed and most respectful. The reader will gain much from both his analysis and scholarship.

This anthology warrants your attention, too, because of the many other intelligent and learned analysis to be found therein.