Jewish Studies books on Amazon Kindle: A Discussion and Recommended Titles

With a curated list of recommended titles

These days, I find myself reading books almost entirely on Kindle, via the Kindle app on my smartphone. In the introduction to my Guide (at my Academia.edu page, requires registration: “Guide to Online Resources for Scholarly Jewish Study and Research - 2023”) I discuss the pros and cons of Electronic vs. physical text (p. 4):

“Electronic material has a lot of advantages, though there are some disadvantages. For the intellectually curious, the relative ease of access is honestly astonishing, and it's truly a wonderful time to be a book lover (not to mention the higher level of book typesetting).

Of course, physical books have certain advantages, tangible and intangible, that people get roused up about, especially traditionalists. And of course Orthodox Jews don't use electronic sources on Shabbat and holidays. But electronic sources have their own massive advantages:

1.       Instantly accessible

2.       Searchable

3.       Easily shared and saved via copy-paste and screenshots

4.       Easily highlighted and annotated

5.       Text size can be customized

6.       Takes up far less physical space

7.       Last but not least, allows for new forms of scholarship^[1]

I personally have switched over to electronic texts wherever possible.

Of course, traditional physical books and internet-based resources aren’t mutually exclusive. One can have the best of both worlds. In Modern Orthodox yeshivot it’s been a common sight already for many years for people to have a laptop before them. Admittedly, the main use of the laptop is for notetaking, but it can also act as a portal to a world of supplemental books.”

In my Guide there, I highlighted the fact that many high-quality Jewish Studies academic books are available on Kindle. I write there (pp. 31-32):

1.       Kindle e-books.

a.       Requires purchase for full books. Samples of the first 10% of books are often available for free.

b.       Great for scholarly books in English. Recommend, in my opinion underrated as a resource for scholarly English books. Great advantages of Kindle e-books:

                                                                                 i.            Can highlight and annotate, with a special section with your highlights and annotations, which is great for later skimming and refreshing memory.

                                                                               ii.            Can hover for dictionary definitions and Wikipedia entry header paragraphs.

                                                                             iii.            As well as many of the other advantages mentioned above for electronic resources: instant availability; takes up minimal space, searchable, easily screenshotted, etc.

                                                                             iv.            For most books, you can download a free sample of the beginning of a book, usually containing front matter, Table of Contents, intro, and the first chapter or two.

c.       However, it should be pointed out that Kindle editions are not necessarily cheap, though they’re generally cheaper than the physical copies. For example, Halivni’s book mentioned below is currently being sold on Amazon for $104, and the Kindle version is $67.^[2]

d.       Some of the many scholarly books available on Kindle:

1.       Secunda, The Iranian Talmud (2013)

2.       Halivni, The Formation of the Babylonian Talmud (2013)

3.       Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah (2014)

4.       Feiner, The Jewish Enlightenment (2011)

5.        Fonrobert & Jaffee (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature (2007)

The ensuing compilation includes books that have earned my recommendation based on personal experience - whether through reading entire books, skimming select portions, or assessing Kindle samples. In other instances, the author's overall body of work has persuaded me of the book's merit.

Some of these authors have been interviewed on their work, on the excellent Seforim Chatter podcast. I've taken the liberty of creating an index of these scholarly interviews organized by the historical periods they discuss. This index is at my Academia.edu page: “Index, by century discussed, of interviews of historians on Seforim Chatter podcast” - Up to and including episode # 177 (January 1, 2023) (registration required).

List of books available on Kindle

I’ve split the books into the following sections: 

1. Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha

2. Talmud

3. Magic, Mysticism, and Kabbalah

4. Medieval Jewish History

5. Modern

The number of titles in each section reveals my major interests: Talmud, Medieval Kabbalah, and Medieval Jewish History.

Where available, I've included links to the author’s entry in English Wikipedia, or alternatively, the Hebrew Wikipedia. I’ve also added links to the Amazon listing page for some of these books.

Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha

Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Isreal and the Origin of Sacred Texts (2001)

Jonathan Klawans and Lawrence M. Wills, The Jewish Annotated Apocrypha (2020)

James L. Kugel, How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now (2007)

Yonatan Adler, The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal (2022)

Malka Z. Simkovich, Discovering Second Temple Literature: The Scriptures and Stories That Shaped Early Judaism (2018)

Talmud

Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert and Martin S. Jaffee, The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature (2007) 

David Weiss Halivni, The Formation of the Babylonian Talmud (2013)

Catherine Hezser, Jewish Slavery in Antiquity (2005)

Richard Hidary, Rabbis and Classical Rhetoric: Sophistic Education and Oratory in the Talmud and Midrash (2019)

Richard Kalmin, Jewish Babylonia between Persia and Roman Palestine: Decoding the Literary Record (2006)

Richard Kalmin, Migrating Tales: The Talmud's Narratives and Their Historical Context (2014)

Ishay Rosen-Zvi, The Evil Inclination in Early Judaism and Christianity

Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud (2003)

Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, Stories of the Babylonian Talmud (2010)

Amram Tropper, Wisdom, Politics, and Historiography: Tractate Avot in the Context of the Graeco-Roman Near East

Amram Tropper, Rewriting Ancient Jewish History: The History of the Jews in Roman Times and the New Historical Method

Moulie Vidas, Tradition and the Formation of the Talmud (2014)

Katell Berthelot, Jews and Their Roman Rivals: Pagan Rome's Challenge to Israel

Bart D. Ehrman, Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife (2020)

Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Goy: Israel's Multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile (2018)

Shai Secunda, The Talmud's Red Fence: Menstrual Impurity And Difference In Babylonian Judaism And Its Sasanian Context (2020)

Shai Secunda, The Iranian Talmud: Reading the Bavli in Its Sasanian Context (2014)

Sacha Stern, Calendar and Community: A History of the Jewish Calendar, 2nd Century BCE to 10th Century CE (2001)

David M. Goldenberg, The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (2005)

Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews (1909)

Reuven Firestone, Holy War in Judaism: The Fall and Rise of a Controversial Idea (2012)

Moshe Halbertal, People of the Book: Canon, Meaning, and Authority: Canon, Meaning and Authority (1997)

Moshe Halbertal, On Sacrifice (2012)

Magic, Mysticism, and Kabbalah

Gideon Bohak, Ancient Jewish Magic: A History (2008)

Daniel C. Matt, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume One (2004)

Eitan P. Fishbane, The Art of Mystical Narrative: A Poetics of the Zohar (2018)

Eitan P. Fishbane, As Light Before Dawn: The Inner World of a Medieval Kabbalist

Yuval Harari, Jewish Magic before the Rise of Kabbalah (2017)

Melila Hellner-Eshed, A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar (2009)

Melila Hellner-Eshed, Seekers of the Face: Secrets of the Idra Rabba

Arthur Green, A Guide to the Zohar (2004)

Peter Schäfer, Mirror of His Beauty: Feminine Images of God from the Bible to the Early Kabbalah (2002)

Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941)

Gershom Scholem, Alchemy and Kabbalah (1960)

Gershom Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah (1987)

Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion (1939)

Elliot R. Wolfson, Through a Speculum That Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism (1994)

Oded Yisraeli, Temple Portals: Studies in Aggadah and Midrash in the Zohar

Medieval Jewish History

Moshe Halbertal, Nahmanides: Law and Mysticism (2020)

Avraham Grossman, Pious and Rebellious: Jewish Women in Medieval Europe (2004)

Eric Lawee, Rashi's Commentary on the Torah: Canonization and Resistance in the Reception of a Jewish Classic (2019)

Daniel J. Lasker, Karaism: An Introduction to the Oldest Surviving Alternative Judaism (2012)

Elisheva Baumgarten, Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz: Men, Women, and Everyday Religious Observance (2004)

Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, On the Margins of a Minority: Leprosy, Madness, and Disability among the Jews of Medieval Europe (2020)

Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, Jews and Crime in Medieval Europe (2021)

Michael Toch, Peasants and Jews in Medieval Germany: Studies in Cultural, Social and Economic History (2003)

Raphael Patai, The Jewish Alchemists: A History and Source Book (1994)

Arnold E. Franklin, This Noble House: Jewish Descendants of King David in the Medieval Islamic East

Modern

Pawel Maciejko, Sabbatian Heresy: Writings on Mysticism, Messianism, and the Origins of Jewish Modernity (2017)

Shmuel Feiner, The Jewish Enlightenment (2003)

David Biale, Cultures of the Jews: A New History (2002)

Eishes Chayil, Hush (2010)

Elliott Horowitz, Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence (2006)

---

^[1]  See at length Moshe Koppel and Avi Shmidman, “Torah Study and the Digital Revolution: A Glimpse of the Future”, The Lehrhaus (2020).

^[2] As of 20-Jan-2022.