Books 2010

[tiffrobyn]

I will update this post throughout the year to track my book progress on my goal to reach 100 books read in 2010.

January:
1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Fiction.(Re-read) 1/2/2010
2. This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper. Fiction. 1/6/2010
3. Alex Cross's Trial by James Patterson. Fiction. 1/7/2010
4. The Mercy Papers by Robin Romm. Non

Comments

[teacup9]

My husband is like such a librarian I wish he could make a living just organizing books and yet I still get stumped with your book requests. I mean obviously the origins of everything are in the Torah (written) but every letter, every mark, the gematria (letters and thus words and thus phrases have numerical value), and the root of each word all have meaning. Eventually this, known as the oral Torah, was written down, but it has like 63 volumes in Aramaic....and Jews just aren't good at summerizing.

I imagine if you've never read a translation of the old testament by a Jewish publisher that it would read quite differently than a Christian one (which I believe usually comes from translating the Hebrew to Greek to Latin to English, but I could be wrong) and the footnotes would show some origins. I'd recommend anything by Art Scroll or Feldman. I think most copies show some lesser known origins in the footnotes. For instance I don't know if you are familiar with shatnez, but we don't wear garments that mix wool and linen fibers (commonly found in wool suits sewn with linen thread) because when Cain and Able both gave their offerings to Hashem Able's was the best of his flock of sheep and Cain's was a not so nice part of his flax crop. So sheep make wool and flax makes linen and Hashem didn't want those two to ever have anything to do with each other again.

I don't know if they are available in libraries, but The Midrash Says series reads as easy as a novel and gives a sort of behind the scenes look at the Torah with actual dialogue.

Were there specific practices you were curious about the origins to? What have you already read that you liked? When I first wanted to become religious I turned to books and was so disappointed.

[tiffrobyn]

No specific practices. I just like to learn about the origins of everything and I think that's why I'm fascinated with Mormonism as well. Most of my reading thus far has been on the internet. When my first husband and I were breaking up I had a lot of alone time that I spent reading.