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Searching For Meaning
in Midrash

Conservative rabbis' book provide lessons for everyday living.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN

StaffWriter

T

wo friends and
former classmates
turned a weekly
Talmud class into
their second written collabora-
tion, Searching for Meaning in

Midrash: Lessons for Everyday
Living (Jewish Publication
Society; $24.95).
Also the co-authors of
Swimming in the Sea of Talmud:
Lessons for Everyday Learning,
Conservative Rabbis Michael Katz
and Gershon Schwartz, unofficially
began work on the new book 10
years ago, while Talmud study part-
ners.

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tations of the Bible are designed to
reveal hidden or deeper meaning in
Scripture.
Fifty Bible texts and corre-
sponding Midrash texts are fea-
tured in the book, with each
chapter including commentaries
on the times and insights of the
rabbis who wrote them.
Rabbis Katz and Schwartz
guide the reader to an answer to this
question, "What does this text mean to
me?" [1]

Rabbis Michael Katz and Gershon
Schwartz speak 1 p.m. Sunday,
Nov. 10, at the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield.

From Fear To Eternity

• Accommodations
for up to 250 Guests

• Complete Catering
Packages Available

The two congregational rabbis were
ordained in the same
class at Jewish
Theological
efo
Seminary of
America in New
York City.
Rabbi Katz is
affiliated with
Temple Beth
Torah in Westbury,
N.Y., while Rabbi
Schwartz is senior
rabbi at Beth
Sholorn
Congregation in
Elkins Park, Pa.
Searching for Meaning serves as a
guide to the study of midrash (biblical
parables). The book's creative interpre-

Book offers steps to achieving the benefits of being Jewish.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN

answers to questions any Jew may ask of
someone who has decided to become
more observant," Lefkowitz writes.
he title doesn't exactly say it
Avi answers Andy's questions, which
all, but it certainly is a great
include queries like,
lead-in to the
"How can the
book's expectations.
3,000-year-old
From Fear to Eterni ty: 10
Torah be relevant
Steps to Achieving the Benefits of
today in terms of
Being Jewish by A. Lefkowitz
prohibitions to
(Heights Press; $18.95) is a
eating pork or
humorous, informative study in
driving on Shabbat?"
raising Jewish awareness. A
Although the
unique first-person narrative, the
book relays the
story actually reads as a conversa-
author's experiences
tion between Andy, the English
[1)S 1, 1,'":
with the Torah as
liert,:111‘....
the
rsti
name of the author used to depict
maximizing his
"any Jew raised to call himself
Jewish existence, it
Reform, Conservative or Secular,"
is aimed toward
and Avi, short for the author's
all Jews, from those
Hebrew name of Avraham.
born into observant homes to those
"As I have become more and more
curious about living according to the
observant I have tried to evolve into
Torah.
being Avi, providing easy to understand
Including definitions of Hebrew

Staff Writer

T

terms, the book also acts as a guide for
those who know someone who has
begun Torah study or a more observant
life style, explaining what.the person is
going through and what to expect next.
A former Detroit rabbi has
written an endorsement on the
book jacket. Rabbi Steven Weil
of Beth Jacob Congregation in
Beverly Hills, Calif, formerly of •
Young Israel of Oak Park, offers
this insight into From Fear to Eterni ty :
"The clear question-and-answer format
and the colorful analogies make the
book easy to read, but the content is
profound and the reader is compelled to
be introspective."

❑

A. Lefkowitz speaks 2 p.m. Sunday,
Nov. 10, at the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield.