Books are not just for idiots

CYNTHIA RAMSAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

While they might have the word "idiot" in their titles, the authors of The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Talmud and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish History and Culture, 2nd Edition actually treat their readers with respect. While a limited knowledge base is assumed, obviously, the information – much of which is fascinating – is presented matter-of-factly with few attempts to be cute, and the parts that are meant to be funny actually do evoke laughter most times (rather than a cringe). These are books that any but the most observant Jew and professional historian will appreciate.

Following the style of the other Complete Idiot's Guide books, Rabbi Aaron Parry does an excellent job of providing a grand overview of the Talmud, its origin, tractates and applicability to living, and Rabbi Benjamin Blech ably covers Jewish history from Abraham to the prospects for future peace in the Middle East.

Parry is the education director of the West Coast branch of the international organization Jews for Judaism. He breaks his book into five parts: setting the stage for what the Talmud is all about and how it came to be; the actual structure of the Talmud and its contents; the "spirit" of the Talmud – the specific qualities and themes that are expressed throughout; talmudic wisdom on important subjects such as science and medicine, the environment, and death and afterlife; and insight into how the Talmud's precepts can be applied to modern living. Boxes throughout the text provide brief historical facts, trivia, definitions and excerpts related to the Talmud that add to the book's appeal.

Blech, an author and professor at Yeshivah University, has an equally daunting task as Parry, in that he has to compress centuries of history into hundreds of pages – and make it interesting. He doesn't provide a dry account of time from Creation to the present day, rather he tries to cover such broad topics as what makes someone Jewish, the special relationship Jews have with Israel, how Arabs and Jews have lived together in peace, how initially Germany was the place that broke down the ghetto walls, the impact Jews have had on Western culture and civilization, etc. As with Talmud, boxes throughout this book contribute little-known facts or stories, and quotes from famous people.

While appreciating the fact that these books are not intended to, and could not possibly, cover every aspect of Jewish thought and circumstance, there are some parts that are unsatisfying in their brevity and one-sidedness. For example, Parry attempts to apply the teachings of the Talmud to some contemporary issues, such as cloning and abortion. He also tries to provide a religious context for the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, as originating with Abraham and his sons Isaac and Ishmael. Citing a couple of cases in the time of Alexander the Great, in which "the children of Ishmael and Egypt mak[e] a claim on the land of the Jews," Parry states that the Talmud records no Ishmaelite response to the argument that the Torah says Abraham gave "all that was his to Isaac." Therefore, concludes Parry, "Evidently, Ishmael's descendants are silent, which is a form of tacit admittance to the limitation of their claim." Parry would have been better to have been silent on interpreting the Ishmaelites' lack of response.

Blech also tends to provide a narrow view of issues. As an example, in his discussion of Chanukah, he writes that "Some Jews became so enamored of Hellenic culture that, as new converts to any cause invariably tend to do, they became more Greek than the Greeks." Blech doesn't follow this situation any further and the Maccabee rebellion is described as a battle against the Syrian Greeks, with no mention of the Jew versus Jew aspect.

Such minor criticisms aside, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Talmud and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish History and Culture are invaluable resources for Jews, and non-Jews, who want to learn more about a truly amazing and enduring religion and culture.

Other Jewish-related books from The Complete Idiot's Guide series are on the topics of Understanding Judaism, Jewish Spirituality and Mysticism, Learning Yiddish, Jerusalem, and, simply, Judaism.

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