A Concise Guide to Halakha
A Concise Guide to Halakha Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz Maggid / 640 pages I was very excited to receive the new, “A Concise Guide to Halakha” by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. This one volume encyclopedia is essentially divided into five sections: Life Cycle, Holidays, Shabbat, Daily Routine, and “Other”. An example of the entries include birth, bar mitzva, weddings, death, all the holidays, kashrut, family purity, and charity. Each chapter deals with its topic by giving background information, basic requirements, common customs and the prominent prayers that are recited on the occasion. All the prayers are transliterated, which could come in handy, say, if someone would like to recite the Shabbat Kiddush in the original but doesn’t have the Hebrew reading skills to do so. The book is crisp and clear and is esthetically appealing. While this volume is truly lovely and worthwhile, I have to admit that by the sound of the title, I thought that it would be more of an immersion and focus o