R

eading Rabbi Boruch 
Cohen’s recently 
released book Think 
Outside the Lox is like enjoy-
ing small licks of ice cream. 
There’s a taste of nostalgia 
with a crunch of wit, and best 
of all, no calories. The take-
away is purely spiritual — and 
the laughs are the cherries on 
top. 
“I wanted to show that 
Orthodox Judaism can be 
fun. There’s nothing watered 
down; it’s just unique packag-
ing,” said the author, a father 

of six from Oak Park. 
Published by Mosaica Press, 
the book is a collection of 
Torah thoughts and reflec-
tions that this out-of-the-box 
Orthodox rabbi had penned 
over the course of approx-
imately 25 years in blogs, 
emails, letters and articles. 
Rabbi Cohen was not 
always Orthodox. He attend-
ed public schools, a small 
liberal arts university where 
he earned a bachelor’s degree 
in philosophy and pursued 
a career in writing, first as a 

journalist and later as a fiction 
writer. 
“My head is a 1970s tele-
vision set with a beard,” he 
describes himself.
In his late 20s, Rabbi Cohen 
said, “God formally decided 
to introduce Himself.” 
It was a gradual transforma-
tion instigated by his brother, 
Leibel, who “brought the 
Torah down from the moun-
tain and shared it with me 
without pushing or preach-
ing.” 
Soon after that, Rabbi 

48 | FEBRUARY 8 • 2024 J
N

ARTS&LIFE
BOOKS

Local rabbi’s new book shows how Orthodox Judaism can be fun.
‘Think Outside the Lox’

ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Rabbi 
Boruch 
Cohen

