Taking Hold of Torah: Jewish Commitment and Community in America (The Helen and Martin Schwartz Lectures in Jewish Studies)

Arnold Eisen is like Michael Lerner with an intellectual twist. Both men seek to help American Jews figure out how to live authentically as Jews without dropping out of mainstream culture. But where Lerner froths poetic with his "politics of meaning," Eisen gives specifics about how Torah can help contemporary Jews learn to live. Taking Hold of Torah comprises five brilliant meditations that follow the structure of the Torah, considering questions about how Jews can relate to their families, synagogues, neighbors, and nation. "No Jewish community has ever existed except on the basis of a live, engaged relation to the Torah," Eisen writes. His tough, forgiving, dense, delightful essays are a good starting place for those seeking such engagement.