Just in time for Chanukah – 4 interesting new books

With Chanukah under a week away, it’s not always easy to find the right Chanukah gift for people. For those looking to buy a book for someone, here are a few new titles that will certainly light up their Chanukah.

He’s An Anti-Zionist Too!: Cartoons by Elder of Ziyon

The Elder of Ziyon (EoZ) is one of the most important pro-Israel bloggers. You can read my interview with him here and my review of his amazing book here.

The thousands of posts on his blog detail the bias and lies spread about Israel. For example, he made it eminently clear how Hamas had infiltrated UNRWA a decade before mass media started to report on it. His many posts about that malevolent UN agency led me to write my post about them here.

EoZ is back with a great new book He’s An Anti-Zionist Too!: Cartoons by Elder of Ziyon. In 2018, he started adding his own captions to New Yorker-style cartoons. This was meant to satirize people who think they are sophisticated, yet are clueless about Israel and the Middle East.

EoZ writes that a problem with satire, especially when discussing “anti-Zionists,” is that often their reality overtakes the satirical versions. Cartoons are one way to expose the insanity, hypocrisy, and hate that animate these people. And that is something he does exceptionally well in the nearly 150 cartoons in this amazing book.

This book brilliantly details the utter hypocrisy and absurdities of those who mindlessly criticize Israel—from Amnesty International to CNN and more. EoZ’s sharp wit and insight make this a most entertaining and enlightening read.

The Pulitzer Prize in Illustrated Reporting and Commentary is given for a distinguished portfolio of editorial cartoons or other illustrated work characterized by political insight, editorial effectiveness, or public service value. These cartoons by EoZ are certainly worthy of that prize.

Chutzpah Girls

Creating Top 10 or Best Of lists always leads to endless debates. Questions with these lists include whether this person is really the GOAT, or even if they deserve to be on the list.

In Chutzpah Girls (Toby Press), authors Julie Silverstein and Tami Schlossberg aren’t necessarily trying to create a best-of list. But they have gathered a list of 100 Jewish women in the span of roughly 3,500 years of Jewish history who exemplified chutzpah.

Wikipedia defines chutzpah as the quality of audacity, for good or for bad. A close English equivalent is hubris. The word derives from the Hebrew ḥuṣpāh, meaning insolence. The original Yiddish word has a strongly negative connotation, but the form that entered English as a Yiddishism in American English has taken on a broader meaning.

While parents don’t want to hear that their son is chutzpah in class, the authors here use the term to showcase 100 women who used the positive powers of chutzpah to make the world a much better place.

The list includes Biblical figures such as the Daughters of Zelophehad, Devorah, and Yael, up to modern times with marathon mom Beatie Deutsch, deputy national security advisor for cyber Anne Neuberger, and many more.

While many of the times are familiar to us, the authors list many others who are more obscure, such as codebreaker Anne Ross, computer scientist Kira Radinsky, and biomedical engineer Shulamit Levenberg.

The authors admit that their list is incomplete and will add to it in the future. Two current chutzpah girls that come to mind are activists Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll and Adina Sash, AKA Flatbush Girl.

Every one of these 100 women has added to Jewish history in this enjoyable read.

The Science Behind the Mishnah

The Vilna Gaon stated that one’s Torah is deficient without a deep understanding of science and math. He urged his students to study these subjects. In recent years, I have spoken with one rabbi who thinks the world is flat, and another who denies heliocentrism, and brings scriptural proofs for a geocentric model.

These rabbis might want to peruse The Science Behind the Mishnah (Mosaica Press) by Rabbi Joel Padowitz and Rabbi Jonathan Sassen. In this engaging read, the authors detail the science detailed within the mishniot in Masechet Berachot.

The authors write that science is pervasive in Masechet Berachot. The first Mishna opens with a discussion of the recitation of Shema. This can only be fully understood after discerning what part of the day it is. But doing that requires understanding atmospheric conditions, how light refracts, and more.

Comprehending all of Masechet Berachot requires an understanding of physics, chemistry, general and human biology, and earth sciences. At under 300 pages, this book is far from a comprehensive discussion. However, the authors effectively provide a high-level overview of the science behind the Mishna.

The next volume in this series is on Masechet Shabbat, which also includes a significant amount of science. In fact, one is hard pressed to find a single masechet that does not require scientific knowledge.

Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Both authors have a deep background in science and remarkable talents in explaining many scientific ideas clearly and lucidly. The many illustrations add to this book’s immense value.

Sacred Time

If you ask someone off the street what time sunset is or the date for the new moon, they likely have to call a friend. Who might not be able to answer without the help of Google.

Ask an observant Jew those questions, and you’ll likely get an accurate answer. The reason is that time and the calendar are essential parts of Jewish observance. As written in  Exodus 12:1-2, the Rosh Chodesh was the first commandment given to the Jewish people.

In Sacred Time (Maggid Books), Rabbi Meir Soloveichik opens with the idea that the Jewish calendar is a key that unlocks the very essence of Judaism.

As to time, he writes that the Vilna Gaon asks why God stopped creation after six days. The answer is to show us that what we create becomes meaningful only once we stop creating it and start remembering why it was worth creating in the first place.

The book details all of the major and minor Jewish Holidays, in addition to Yom Ha’atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim. A man of deep intellectual and spiritual understanding, Soloveichik uncovers a deeper meaning and interpretation in these holidays.

For example, he writes that more than just a military victory, Hanukkah was, first and foremost, a commemoration of the triumph of monotheism over paganism. For in 164 BCE, monotheism was known only in Judea. Had the Hasmoneans not succeeded at this crucial moment, there would have been no monotheism at all.

Time is a mystery in physics. It’s not known when it started or even if it did, nor do we know the source of the difference between the past and future. But when it comes to Jewish time, sacred time, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik makes it eminently clear in this very engaging book.