How the Talmud Can Change Your Life

For numerous centuries, the Talmudan extraordinary work of Jewish ethics, law and traditionhas compelled readers to grapple with how to live a good life. Full of folk legends, bawdy tales, and rabbinical repartee, it is inspiring, demanding, confounding and thousands of pages long. As Liel Leibovitz enthusiastically explores the Talmud, what has sometimes been misunderstood as a dusty and arcane volume becomes humanitys first self-help book. How the Talmud Can Change Your Life contains sage advice on an unparalleled scope of topics, which includes communicating with your partner, dealing with grief and being a friend. Leibovitz guides readers through the sprawling text with all its humour, rich insights, compulsively readable stories and multilayered conversations. Contemporary discussions framed by Talmudic philosophy and psychology draw on subjects ranging from Weight Watchers and the Dewey decimal system to the lives of Billie Holiday and C. S. Lewis. Chapters focus on fundamental human experiencesthe mind-body problem, the power of community, the challenges of loveto illuminate how the Talmud speaks to our daily existence. As Leibovitz explores some of lifes greatest questions, he also delivers a concise history of the Talmud itself, explaining the process of its lengthy compilation and organisation. With infectious passion and candour, Leibovitz brilliantly displays how the Talmuds wisdom reverberates for the modern age and how it can, indeed, change your life.