Hot answers tagged books-generally
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I will summarize three positions I have read on this.
1. Artscroll
Artscroll has ruled (in Limud Yomi: A Daily Dose of Torah ed. 1 vol. 7) that it is forbidden to read business texts, including advertisements and billboards (p. 91) and newspapers (p. 108); but permitted reading books of secular knowledge (p. 99). They cited no sources except Shulchan Aruch ...
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Actually, there's a great deal more to copyright than just protecting the author's creative contributions or additions. This article by Rabbi Israel Schneider, this article by Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff and this PDF by Rabbi Chaim Jachter all provide a nice overview of the different means by which rabbis have traditionally framed the problem. To give a brief ...
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In Ketzos HaShulchan volume 4, R' Avraham Chaim Na'ah (Badai HaShulchan 107:43) brings the ruling of R' Yaakov Emden [Responsa 306 of She'elat Ya'avetz] that reading publications that have in them discussions of business is forbidden on Shabbat.
R' Avraham Chaim Na'ah explains that this refers to even intending to read just the news (which is technically ...
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Rabbi Breitowitz's book: Between Civil & Religious Law: The Plight of the Agunah in American Society
And later, Rabbi Broyde's: Marriage, Divorce, and the Abandoned Wife in Jewish Law
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According to Vermes, every book of the Tanach was represented by fragments except Esther, probably because it involved a Jewish woman intermarrying with a gentile king. The reason the already-written Maccabees book would definitely NOT be found there is that the Dead Sea sect was absolutely opposed to the Maccabean/Hasmonean High priests. The background of ...
2
Yaakov Rosanes at Virtual Geula has a list of all active Israeli publishers of seforim as well as a lits of inactive publishers linked at the bottom of that page. If you are searching for rare or hard to find books that is the place to go.
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It's been censored from many recent history books, but there were definitely personalities within the Mussar movement who believed in studying literature as a way of understanding (and thus improving) the human condition.
You'll also find the intersection of Judaism and the humanities discussed at length by Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein (who holds a PhD in ...
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The best translation (most readable, thus following the Rambam's advice on sacrificing literalness for the sake of comprehensibility) is Michael Schwarz's translation, although R. Kapach's is also useful. I would also recommend the sefer מנופת צוף by R. Yonatan Blass, as well as R. Yitzchak Shilat's בין הרמב"ם לכוזרי.
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