The Rabbi’s Recommended Reading List
Books that any Jew interested in gaining a solid education in Jewish history, law, philosophy, and religion, should read.
- This list is far from complete, and was compiled entirely from emails received. Please email JoeTabush@gmail.com to add books you may have known the Rabbi to have suggested or lent out.
- Please click the title for each book to find it on Amazon. A portion of each book sold via these links goes towards maintaining this site.
- Panorama of the Rabbi’s Office & Entire Library [over 4,000 books]
Basic Jewish Literacy [top]
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism |
Dennis Prager & Rabbi Joseph Telushkin | Basic Jewish Literacy | Joey Tabush | |
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Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion Its People and Its History |
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin | Basic Jewish Literacy | Dr. David Ezon | |
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Jewish Wisdom: Ethical Spiritual and Historical Lessons from the Great Works and Thinkers |
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin | Basic Jewish Literacy | Dr. David Ezon |
Jewish History [top]
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
A History of the Jews |
Paul Johnson | Jewish History | Dr. David Ezon | |
  |
A History of Israel |
John Bright | Jewish History | Dr. David Ezon | |
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The Jewish World in the Middle Ages |
Jon Irving Bloomberg | Jewish History | Dr. David Ezon | |
  |
Great Ages and Ideas of the Jewish People (Modern Library) |
Leo W. Schwartz | Jewish History | Dr. David Ezon | |
  |
Great Schisms in Jewish History |
Raphael Jospe | Jewish History | Dr. David Ezon | |
  |
American Judaism: A History |
Dr. Jonathon D. Sarna | Jewish History | Dr. David Ezon | |
  |
The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels |
Thomas Cahill | Jewish History | (mentioned in class) | Please see 'Modern Writers' series for a discussion on this book |
  |
A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ (5 volume set) |
Emil Schurer | Jewish History | Charles Mizrahi | |
  |
Judaism in the First Three Centuries of the Christian Era |
George Foot Moore | Jewish History | Charles Mizrahi | |
  |
The Will to Live On: This is Our Heritage |
Herman Wouk | Jewish History | JoJo Tawil | |
  |
Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls: The History of Judaism; the Background of Christianity; the Lost Library of Qumran |
Lawrence Schiffman | Jewish History | JoJo Tawil |
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament |
Dr. Norman H. Snaith | Bible/Tanach | Dr. David Ezon | |
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Understanding Genesis: The Heritage of Biblical Israel |
Dr. Nahum M. Sarna | Bible/Tanach | Dr. David Ezon | |
  |
Exploring Exodus: The Origins of Biblical Israel |
Dr. Nahum M. Sarna | Bible/Tanach | Dr. David Ezon |
Midrash & Aggadda [top]
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
Legends of Bible (introduction by Shalom Spiegel) |
Louis Ginzberg | Midrash | Dr. David Ezon | the recommendation from the Rabbi was specifically to the introduction by Shalom Spiegel. |
Prayer [top]
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
Man's Quest For God |
Rabbi Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel | Prayer | Richard Dweck |
Modern Jewish Philosophy [top]
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
Encounters Between Judaism and Modern Philosophy |
Emil Fackenheim | Philosophy | Joey Tabush | Details of science & empiricism; issues of Biblical Philosophy and Modern Truth |
  |
In His Image: The Jewish Philosophy of Man as Expressed in Rabbinic Tradition |
Samuel Belkin | Philosophy | (mentioned in class) | |
  |
God in Search of Man : A Philosophy of Judaism |
Rabbi Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel | Philosophy | Dr. David Ezon | |
  |
Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion |
Rabbi Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel | Philosophy | JoJo Tawil | |
  |
The Lonely Man of Faith |
Rabbi Joseph B Soloveitchik | Philosophy | ||
  |
Halakhic Man |
Rabbi Joseph B Soloveitchik | Philosophy | ||
  |
God Man and History |
Dr. Eliezer Berkovits | Philosophy | ||
  |
Not in Heaven: The Nature and Function of Jewish Law |
Dr. Eliezer Berkovits | Philosophy | Dr. David Ezon | |
  |
Paths to Jewish Belief |
Emil Fackenheim | Philosophy | (mentioned in class) | Recommended for 'intro level' basics of philsophy |
Modern Orthodoxy [top]
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
Torah Umadda |
Rabbi Norman Lamm | Modern Orthodoxy | ||
  |
Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer and the Creation of a Modern Jewish Orthodoxy |
Rabbi David Ellenson | Modern Orthodoxy |
Holocaust & Anti-Semitism [top]
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
Faith after the Holocaust |
Dr. Eliezer Berkovits | Holocaust | Dr. David Ezon | |
  |
Why the Jews?: the Reason for anti-Semitism |
Dennis Prager & Rabbi Joseph Telushkin | anti-Semitism | ||
  |
Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate |
Jean-Paul Sartre | anti-Semitism | ||
  |
The Pity of It All: A Portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch 1743-1933 |
Amos Elon | anti-Semitism | Charles Mizrahi | |
  |
The Trial of God |
Elie Weisel | Holocaust | (mentioned in class) |
Science [top]
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
God & the Big Bang: Discovering Harmony between Science & Spirituality |
Daniel C. Matt | Science | Sam Haddad | |
  |
The Symbiotic Universe: Life and Mind in the Cosmos |
George Greenstein | Science | Charles Mizrahi |
Zionism [top]
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
Kol Dodi Dofek: Listen My Beloved Knocks |
Joseph B. Soloveitchik; Jeffrey R. Woolf; David Z. Gordon | Zionism |
Rambam/Maimonides [top]
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
Interpreting Maimonides: Studies in Methodology Metaphysics and Moral Philosophy |
Dr. Marvin Fox | Rambam/Maimonides | ||
  |
A Maimonides Reader |
Rabbi Isadore Twersky | Rambam/Maimonides | ||
  |
A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy |
Dr. Isaac Husik | Rambam/Maimonides | ||
  |
Rambam La'Am (set of 20 volumes) (Hebrew Edition) |
Rambam | Rambam/Maimonides | ||
  |
Persecution and the Art of Writing |
Leo Strauss | Rambam/Maimonides | Sam Haddad | |
  |
Maimonides: A Biography |
Abraham Joshua Heschel | Maimonides | Charles Mizrahi | |
  |
The Cambridge Companion to Maimonides (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) |
Kenneth Seeskin | Maimonides | Charles Mizrahi | |
  |
Maimonides: A Guide for Today's Perplexed |
Kenneth Seeskin | Maimonides | Charles Mizrahi | |
  |
Introduction to the Code of Maimonides |
Rabbi Isadore Twersky | Maimonides | Eli Benun | One of the Rabbi's 'Top 10' Books |
Jewish Scholars [top]
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
The Encyclopedia of Talmudic Sages |
Gershon Bader | Jewish Scholars | Ezra Sutton |
-‘A history of every posek of substane’
Jewish Legal System [top]
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
A Tree of Life: Diversity Flexibility and Creativity in Jewish Law |
Rabbi Louis Jacobs | Jewish Legal System | ||
  |
Principles of the Jewish Faith |
Rabbi Louis Jacobs | Jewish Legal System | Joey Tabush |
-‘Law & theology regarding contemporary halacha’-‘‘Grey matters’ on contemporary halachic issues’- I do not have further details on this book–‘A history of sheelot u teshuvot, what kind of questions people ask the rabbis’- In R’ Labaton’s personal library, I do not have further details on the citation
Kabbalah / Mysticism [top]
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
Origins of the Kabbalah |
Gerhsom Gerhard Scholem | Kabbalah | Sam Haddad |
Historical Fiction / Fiction [top]Related: In 2003, Rabbi Labaton gave an 11-part lecture series at Merkaz titled Modern Writers on the Jewish Nation, in which many of these books were discussed. The entire series is available in the Lectures section, and via iTunes.
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
The Source: A Novel |
James A. Michener | Historical Fiction | Dr. David Ezon | Please see 'Modern Writers' series for a 7-class discussion on this book |
  |
As a Driven Leaf |
Milton Steinberg | Historical Fiction | Joey Tabush | |
  |
The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz Spinoza and the Fate of God in the Modern World |
Matthew Stewart | Historical Fiction | Joey Tabush | |
  |
The Unorthodox Murder Of Rabbi Wahl (Rabbi Daniel Winter Mysteries) |
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin | Fiction | Alan Tabush | |
  |
The Final Analysis of Dr Stark (Rabbi Daniel Winter Mysteries) |
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin | Fiction | Alan Tabush | |
  |
An Eye for an Eye (Rabbi Daniel Winter Mystery) |
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin | Fiction | Alan Tabush |
Other [top]
| Image | Title | Author | Category | Added By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
Why Johnny Can't Tell Right from Wrong: And What We Can Do About It |
William Kilpatrick | Education/Parenting | admin | Mentioned often in classes |
  |
How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk |
Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish | Parenting | Joey Tabush | Parenting book which the Rabbi mentioned often and suggested to every parent. |
  |
Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball |
George F. Will | Other | Emily Labaton | |
  |
About Mourning: Support and Guidance for the Bereaved |
Savine Gross Weizman & Phyllis Kamm | Mourning | ||
  |
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion |
Robert Cialdini | Social Psychology | Charles Mizrahi | |
  |
Poor Charlie's Almanack The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger |
Charles T. Munger | Other | Charles Mizrahi | |
  |
The Sorrows of Young Werther |
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | Literature | (mentioned in Tehilim class) | Understanding the background of an author |
When I was a senior in Rabbi Labaton z”l’s Talmud class in Maimonides (’80-’81) he pressed upon me a copy of David Feldman z”l’s Birth Control in Jewish Law, following an argument about the permissibility of various forms of birth control, if one can call trying to talk sense to an idiot 17 year old who thinks he’s smarter than his teacher an argument.
I recently pressed my copy upon one of my seniors.
He also lent me his LP of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue after I had mentioned my interest in the piece.
The way I give freely of my library to my students and then tell them “Read this and we’ll talk” is a direct result of Rabbi Labaton doing that to me over and over when I was their age.