16
My sister made this chart. It is kind of a condensed version of the hebrew one:
And here's a version with the titles transliterated, instead of translated:
12
The term "pharisaical" is offensive to many Jews (me included) because it denigrates some of our most respected rabbis.
When Jews think of Pharisees, they think of the sect at the end of the Second Temple period (circa 0 CE) that became the basis for rabbinic Judaism. This group could be contrasted with other parties of the day such as Zealots (who wanted a ...
11
Like many Anglicized versions of biblical names, the name Balaam comes through the Greek language of the Septuagint, which renders בלעם as βαλααμ.
The reason the Septuagint spells it so differently from the Hebrew MT may either be due to limitations of the Greek language to accurately represent Hebrew, changes in the way Greek and/or Hebrew vowels were ...
11
Usually if English-speaking Jews want a translation of the Jewish Bible they'll use a Jewish translation.
As for exposure to the other part of "the Bible", i.e. the New Testament, my guess is some Jews who believe in extra exposure will have read bits of it in a survey course or the like.
There's a huge range of degrees to which Jews are exposed to general ...
11
Wikipedia. As described there, Neusner has been criticized by the following scholars in his field of study:
[Shaye J. D. Cohen, "Jacob Neusner, Mishnah and Counter-Rabbinics,"
Conservative Judaism, Vol.37(1) Fall 1983 p. 48-63]
[Craig A. Evans, "Mishna and Messiah 'In Context'," Journal of
Biblical Literature, (JBL), 112/2 1993, p. 267-289]
[...
11
It is inexact to say that the Pharisees were a "small sect". Most common Jews followed the teachings of the rabbinic Pharisees, as opposed to those of other sects like Sadducees (see Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews 8:10:5,6). Modern talmudic/rabbinic Jews (including most frequent users of this site) consider themselves as following in the tradition of the ...
10
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. The term refers to both the building and the institution. You'll also hear the Yiddish word shul, which is actually derived from "school" but has come to mean "synagogue".
Some liberal Jews also use the word "temple" to refer to a synagogue. Usually it's used as a semi-proper noun, e.g. "are you going to temple ...
9
Since you said Tanach, I'm going to only include full Tanach translations here and ignore the various translations which only include the Torah.
These are all the complete Tanach translations I know about, and I have reason to believe this is a fairly comprehensive list.
The Jerusalem Bible, by Professor Harold Fisch, Koren. 1950s-ish
The living Torah/The ...
8
Do English-speaking Jews read the Bible in English, or is that too Christian for them?
First, English is not a Christian language. If anything, it's a pagan language, but really it's just a language. There are many translations of the Bible into English. Most are explicitly Christian. A handful are scholarly works (e.g., Everett Fox's translation). ...
8
In the Mishpacha magazine, issue 455, 7 Iyar 5773, (April 17, 2013), Mrs. Blima Silverman of Toronto, Ontario, writes (in a letter to the editor), "In your February 20 edition the song, 'Big Gedalia Goomber' was attributed to yet another person who did not write it." She writes further, "The song (both music and lyrics) was composed by my husband, Rabbi ...
8
The challenge is that there are different ways to pronounce Hebrew. Ashkenazim, Sefaradim, Teimanim, etc. all pronounce words differently.
There is a very interesting project called OpenSiddur which developed an open source tool to build your own siddur. As part of this they have incorporated eight(!) different transliteration schemes
Rules of ...
7
Master Daf is an unusually clear 20 minute daf yomi shiur in english, with every word read and translated, available on all of Shas. Maggid Shiur is a R`m in Slabodka Yeshiva of Bnai Brak.....available for purchase at RabbiKosman.com
7
The names of Hashem which may not be erased are listed in Shulchan Oruch Yoreh Daioh 276 (9).
Hashem is not one of them and so the hyphenated ("Hash-m") seems unnecessary.
7
I think Legends of the Jews by Prof. Louis Ginzberg is the classic work of aggadah. It follows the order of the Torah, and appears in 7 volumes. The first 4 volumes are the actual aggadot, the next two volumes are the notes, and the last volume is the index. There are many different editions available to buy including one that has the four volumes of content ...
7
Here's Me'Am Lo'ez on Amazon. It was written a long time ago by a Rabbi Culi, but translated into English by the late Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan (whose Torah translation I reference all the time). Kaplan taught himself Ladino to do this translation.
There's also The Midrash Says. (Not the "Little" Midrash Says, which is for kids.) Again, you have to know how to ...
7
My suggestions are:
Planting & Building in Education: Raising a Jewish Child Hardcover
by Shlomo Wolbe
extract from the Amazon blurb,
“The author is one of the foremost spiritual leaders of our time. This
book presents basic guidelines for parenting and education. The wisdom
fills a great need for our generation and Rabbi Wolbe's vital
...
7
I have learned with both the Koren and the Artscroll. I actually switched to the Koren Steinsaltz. I have been using it everyday to learn daf yomi for 2 years. It really depends what your looking for if one is better than the other. As far as explanation, I would not label Koren a review Gemorah. While Artscroll is known for it's explanation, Koren has a lot ...
7
If you're interested in buying meforshim individually (in which case they will come with many more editorial and elucidation notes), here's a few:
Artscroll Rashi
Metsudah Sifsei Chachamim
Artscroll Ramban
Artscroll Seforno
Artscroll Baal HaTurim
Menucha Publishers Kli Yakar on Bereishis and Shemos
Urim Ohr HaChaim
I didn't shop around for which ...
7
It took several years from the OP but I am pleased to announce that Sefaria has posted most of the original-by-Señor-Yosef-Karo Shulchan Aruch in English: https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Halakhah/Shulchan%20Arukh?lang=bi
7
Berachot 13a
ת"ר ק"ש ככתבה דברי רבי וחכ"א בכל לשון מ"ט דרבי אמר קרא והיו בהוייתן
יהו ורבנן מאי טעמייהו אמר קרא שמע בכל לשון שאתה שומע ולרבי נמי הא כתיב
שמע ההוא מבעי ליה השמע לאזניך מה שאתה מוציא מפיך
Our Rabbis taught: The Shema’ must be recited as it is written. So
Rabbi. The Sages, however, say that it may be recited in any language.
What ...
6
Look at the introduction of the מאירי to each masechta, where he breaks down the topics of the masechta in general as well as perek by perek.
(He also does that in a more perek-specific manner at the beginning of each perek.)
While not usually online, the Hebrewbooks website has the בית הבחירה -- just search for "בית הבחירה."
Here is an example of an ...
6
The Soncino has an introduction to a) The Talmud, b) Each Order, c) Each Tractate.
You can see most of them here: http://halakhah.com/
6
As Noach mi Frankfurt said in a comment, there are four English translations: Soncino, Neusner, Artscroll, and Koren/Steinsaltz, and Kfir Shlomo noted a fifth edited by A. Zvi Ehrman. I've worked with three of them; I don't know Neusner or Ehrman. Based on my experience, for a beginner I recommend the Koren/Steinsaltz, accompanied by a study partner or, ...
6
The English translation I've seen most for Ruach HaKodesh is "Divine inspiration." This translation is consistent with its usage in Jewish texts, as described concisely in this Everything2 entry, to refer to a kind of sub-prophecy or Divinely-provided intuitive sense. This sense is consistent with the various uses of this concept in the Talmud, cataloged in ...
6
In addition to your references, here are some others. Feel free to add to this list.
Rashi
Five Megillot
Tehillim
Ibn Ezra
Tehillim (1-41)
Isaiah
Proverbs
Saadia Gaon
Iyov
Ramban
Discourse on Kohelet
Midrash Rabbah
Soncino's Five Megillot
Artscroll's Five Megillot
Targum
Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings
Isaiah
Ezekiel
Song of Songs
Iyov, ...
6
Siddur Besamim Rosh Nusach Ashkenaz & Nusach Sefard is an interlinear Siddur. They can be purchased brand new at Jewish Used Books.
6
Sefaria.org has the complete Ramban on the Torah online for free in Hebrew, with a small minority of sections so far community-translated into English:
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
They have a channel for submitting requests for translation of specific sections, and the requests are put on a queue for community translation.
6
There are many series of such books, a few I like are
R Daniel Mann from Eretz Hemda has a very nice series called Living the halachic process (also available one of them also available on Kindle) - you can sample some online as part of the OU Vebbe Rebbe series (I cannot find the table of contents, try varying the number in the URL)
R Ari Enkin has another ...
6
Here's a more colloquial translation of what they're trying to accomplish:
Some rely on their chariots, and some on their horses, but as for us? We call out in the name of God!
(There is no double-we in the Hebrew, though the word nazkir is already conjugated as "we will call out", so the preceding word va-anachnu, "and we", gives it similar stress and ...
6
At lease according to some rishonim, any language other than Ancient Hebrew is not truly a language but rather an agreed upon method of communication (see the Ran in his commentary in the beginning of Masecta Nedarim, as well as the Raavad on the Rambam's hilchot kriyat shema 2, 10).
According to the aforementioned opinion, using English letters (or any ...
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