Torah Lights: Exodus Defines the Birth of a Nation
''I am convinced,'' writes Rabbi Riskin, ''that the family ritual is a far more authentic and significant expression of Judaism than is any synagogue service.'' Yet today, as we know, the family is under stress from many directions, and family members are hardpressed to eat a meal as a unit, much less be engaged in ''table talk'' (hence the Hebrew title, si'ah shulhan). The purpose of the book is thus to strengthen family by, firstly, reminding us of the importance of home life interaction (especially for those with young children), and additionally to provide a family with an educational tool to use during family gatherings -- both Jewish holidays and notable life cycle events. --Douglas Wertheimer, Chicago Jewish Star MagazineThe book begins with the most universal themes of creation, sin and punishment, then proceeds to tell the saga of the Jewish nation's Patriarchs, from Abraham's liberating journey to the Promised Land to his descendants' enslaving departure to Egypt. In the interim, the tales of friction between Sarah and Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, and Joseph and his brothers, all read to Jews in general, and Israelis in particular, as if written here, now and about us.And if this is so even for those who were not raised on these stories, it is obviously even more so for that majority of Israelis who indeed were told as infants about the snake, the flood and the Tower of Babel, the binding of Isaac, the rape of Dina and the selling of Joseph. Indeed, the stories of Genesis have for millennia been a dominant presence in Jewish childhoods, and as such played a constant role in shaping adult Jews' outlooks, metaphors and associations, as well as their interpretations of daily events, whether personal, communal, national or universal. --Amotz Asa-El, Jerusalem Post