JewsByChoice.Org

I have been looking over some books in my library lately, and I thought that it might be helpful for some readers to hear about the work of one of my favorite authors, Dr. Raymond Scheindlin. A professor of Medieval Hebrew Literature at JTS, Dr. Scheindlin is especially gifted at conveying a richly-detailed description of his subject - which can range from general Jewish history to the Jewish poets of Muslim Spain to translations of Judeo-Arabic literature - in a way that is easy to follow, even for those who often have trouble reading history. I wrote about his work in my personal blog, which is now out of use, so I thought I would share here as well. I have never been bored by a book written by him, and several of them remain some of the most prized volumes in my collection. My favorites are below.

The Gazelle and Wine, Women, and Death

These two books are companion volumes of Scheindlin’s translations of the works of the rabbi-poets of Muslim Spain. The first book considers religious-themed pieces, and the second features more secular subjects. The poets translated include Judah HaLevi, Solomon ibn Gabirol, Moses ibn Ezra, Abraham ibn Ezra, Levi ibn al-Tabban, among others. Scheindlin’s translations are beautiful, but what I enjoyed the most about these books was his description of the historical circumstances which give meaning to the words of the poems. He also does an excellent job in both books of explaining the technical aspects of the Hebrew and Arabic languages and meters, particularly how the poets used Arabic poetic forms in their Hebrew work. I taught a class at my synagogue using these two books as texts, and it was one of the most enjoyable classes I’ve done as an adult educator.

A Short History of the Jewish People and The Chronicles of the Jewish People

This book was number two or three on the reading list I got from one of the rabbis with whom I studied for conversion, and with good reason. As good as Scheindlin is at putting the complexities of medieval poetry in a way that can be understood by the non-expert, he is phenomenal at conveying history in a way that makes it come alive. These books read like novels, and if you are looking for good introductions to the broad swath of Jewish history, I highly recommend either or both of them. Chronicles is the larger book, and it has lots of color photos and illustrations, while the Short History is a text-only book.

Because becoming a Jew is joining a people as much as it is converting to a new religion, it is important for prospective converts to really learn Jewish history. You can’t possibly know if you want to become part of Am Yisrael without knowing what you are joining, and our history is really an important part of what makes us who we are. Dr. Scheindlin makes this learning easy, and if you have any interest in Jewish history at all, his books will be tough for you to put down.

Happy reading!

kol tuv,

Yair