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 on halachic principles and concepts than it is. I was also under the impression that it would be slightly more advanced than it is. Rather, it seems to me that “A Concise Guide to Halacha” reads and feels more like the famous and timeless “To Be a Jew.” The difference between the two is that “To Be a Jew” is intended for the convert while “A Concise Guide to Halakha” seems to be designed and intended for the more traditional, ba'alei teshuva, or modern students of Judaism.

A Concise Guide to Halakha is a great reference book to have on the shelf, and it has what to offer those with a more basic background. However, if it would have gone a notch or two deeper in its “Halachic Guide[ance]”, perhaps with some footnotes for advanced study, it would have really made this volume something special with a wider appeal.

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