Writing under the pen name "ben Uziel," Hirsch presents his original view of Judaism in the form of a fictional correspondence between a young rabbi and philosopher, and a youthful intellectual. With extensive commentary by Rabbi Joseph Elias.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
an explanation of mitzvos:
The basic structure of the book is as follows: at the beginning, a character invented by Hirsch expresses his disenchantment with Judaism, and Hirsch responds. At this point, one might think that Hirsch argues in favor of the Torah being a Divine invention that Jews should therefore obey. Instead, Hirsch assumes this to be the case (thus immediately winning the argument by his criteria) and goes off in an entirely different direction. Hirsch focuses on the reasons for the ritual mitzvos (that is,... more info
The nineteen letters:
Rabbi Elias' commentary and footnotes shed much light and give in depth analysis of this damed work of Hirsch.As a reknowned Hirschian, He is certainly qualified for his work. The nineteen letters themselves are indubidibly one of the greatest treasures judaism possesses, as this landmark book makes abundantly clear the fallacies of attempting to contort religion to one's whims and clarifies and thereby brings out the beauty in true judaism.A masterpiece, with a tremendous and much needed commentary to... more info
Wonderful book:
First of all, people looking for this book should know that there is another translation out by Joseph Elias, published by Feldheim Publishers. This came out recently so it should be easier to find. In any case, Rabbi Hirsch's great writing skills come out through any translation of his works I have ever read. Not only is this a fabulous introduction to his theory of Judaism, it is so well-done that you'll keep going back to read certain phrases or statements of ideas. I recommend this book to anyone who... more info
