How the Talmud Can Change Your Life: Surprisingly Modern Advice from a Very Old Book

In this stellar outing, journalist Leibovitz (Stan Lee) elucidates how ancient rabbinic debates remain relevant to modern meaning-seekers. While the adjective “talmudic” is often synonymous with “abstruse” or “hair-splitting,” Leibovitz argues that the Talmud itself interrogates “larger questions of what, if anything, this life is about,” tackling such evergreen topics as “how to love, how to grieve, how to fight, how to be a better spouse, [and] how to fix the government,” without moralizing or leaning on cut-and-dried answers. According to the author, this embrace of complexity helps to explain the text’s enduring relevance (and even its current cachet among some non-Jews): its inclusion of vigorous dissents and willingness to leave certain questions unresolved illustrates that no one has a monopoly on wisdom and that tolerance of different opinions is essential. Leibovitz adroitly brings in contemporary anecdotes to broach big-picture talmudic themes; a discussion of Weight Watchers founder Jean Slutsky, who struggled with overeating until she discovered the importance of “bring[ing] the body and mind into alignment,” for example, ties into fascinating rabbinic explorations of how to “live with and live in the human body.” Meticulously analyzed and surprisingly accessible, this is a worthy complement to Jonathan Rosen’s The Talmud and the Internet. (Oct.)