Reviews for The Way of Torah: An Introduction to Judaism

The average rating for The Way of Torah: An Introduction to Judaism based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-03-10 00:00:00 Ronald Phillips Jr Heavy, text-book style writing. It wasn't as accessible as I would have hoped. As a Christian I read this book looking for Old Testament perspective, and insight on how the paths of Judaism and Christianity have played out in their parallel times. Of particular interest to me was the Jewish perspective on life after death. It's a big part of the Christian though. Chapter 14 on "Birth, Maturity, Death" barely covers the front and back of one page. One page! This man take two full pages to work up an introduction to a topic and covers all three major areas of life in half a breath. Was he afraid to loosen the self-tied academic binds, and venture into the realm of faith? My take away: The Jewish people moved from a contained society, governed by the law in their every action, to the diaspora. The final few chapters were a good summary of the transformation of the Jewish people over the last 200 years- rise of Zionism and his description of the "assimilation"- a separation of the ethnic nature of the people from their religious traditions.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-10-02 00:00:00 Cheryl Grue Not only does Neusner seem unacquainted with the term parsimonious, he also appears to be intent of resolving none of the issues he raises while tracing Judaism through its history. More than that, one would need to have a fair amount of familiarity with Judaism (I think I fall just shy of the audience Neusner expected), which should never be the case in any book purporting to be an introduction to said subject. Mostly I am upset that Neusner took no time to examine the actual text of the Torah in The Way of the Torah. For those of us expecting some examination of the books (and the teachings that lay within) at the foundation of the faith, there is no way to be happy with the structure or material covered by Neusner. There is some information here, but it screams for an already decent understanding to put it in meaningful context. More than that, it needs an more observant editorial eye that can keep the author on track within individual sentences (at times) and within chapters (at all times).