Ruth Calderon captivated Israel and the Jewish world with her maiden Knesset speech in which she taught a piece of Talmud, and offered a plea that Gemara take a greater role in Israeli civic life. Her book of aggadic analyses furthers this goal by encouraging secular Israelis to look more into texts which animated their ancestors; religious readers who are already familiar with many of these texts will be similarly rewarded for their openness by encountering Calderon’s sensitive and often insightful readings. Yitzchak Blau reviews “Alfa Beta Talmudi” in this week’s Alt+SHIFT.

In reviewing Malka Puterkovsky’s “Mehalekhet be-Darka,” Yitzchak Blau profiles a work of halakhic literature remarkable for its author, genre, and sensitivities. That a volume of “teshuvot” (even if not adhering to the classical form) penned by a woman garnered critique from the  right-wing is not surprising, and sheds some light on the path breaking accomplishment.  

Michal Tikochinsky’s book on the important 19th-century rabbinic work Minhat Hinukh fills in a gap in academic Jewish scholarship, and offers a sweeping portrait of a work much treasured in the beit midrash. Yitzchak Blau returns with Alt+Shift, helping the Anglo sphere to gain insight into worthwhile material available only in Hebrew.

In reviewing R. Yoel Bin-Nun’s “Zakhor veShamor,” Yitzchak Blau demonstrates how the book’s topic plays to the author’s strengths and interests, as it explores the Jewish calendar and holiday cycle through the prism of the agricultural reality in the Land of Israel. In its pages we encounter one of our era’s greatest teachers of Tanakh apply his fertile mind to scripture, Jewish history, and our current situation.