Dov Peretz Elkins

Not quite up to the Chicken Soup standard, but nice. I was disappointed in the bellicose tone of the last group of stories which were very Israeli nationalistic. I expected a number of holocaust stories and was happy to see that not everything came from this period. Some lovely stories. I enjoyed reading one or two in the evening before bed. With the exception of the last few they made for pleasant bedtime reading. I would have appreciated a glossary at the back to explain some of the religious terms that were unfamiliar. Luckily Google was there for me.… (mer)

From the virtually endless text of the Talmud, Elkins has selected a handful of aphorisms to elaborate upon. Each very brief segment begins with a one or two line Talmudic quotation, and is followed with a few pages of observations on the wisdom of the passage. The material is excellent, his selections are good ones, and his writing style effective - simple and easy to read quickly. Jewish values are not the same as Jewish rituals or customs. The reader will find that Jewish values are, in nearly all cases, the same as Christian or Muslim values. (At least is we dismiss the right wing extremists in any of the three religions.)

The only drawback was that for a good many of these quotes, Elkin's little essay or mediation, did little to elaborate beyond what the quote said in the first place. "Teach your tongue to say 'I don't know'" (Berakhot 4a) is not followed by anything that you haven't gathered intuitively from this Talmudic statement. The majority of the chapters are enlightening, I was just disappointed that all were not.… (mer)