Broken Tablets: Restoring the Ten Commandments and Ourselves
Let the Ten Commandments command your imagination … and enrich your life.
When the Holy One gave the Torah, no bird chirped, no fowl flew, no ox lowed, not one angel stirred its wing or sang its song. The sea did not roar, creatures did not speak—the whole world was hushed into breathless silence; it was then that the voice went forth: "I am the Lord your God…."
—Exodus Rabba 29:9
Even people who claim not to be "religious" will generally maintain that they do observe the Ten Commandments. Why is it that these ten statements, thousands of years old, continue to have such a special hold on us?
Here, twelve outstanding spiritual leaders from across the spectrum of Jewish thought bring us to the life and soul of the Ten Commandments' unusual power. In voices that are personal and diverse, they help us take a closer look at the ten utterances that not only touch every aspect of our lives, but also present each of us with a profound challenge.
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Book details
- Author
- Rachel Mikvah
- Imprint
- Jewish Lights, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Formats
- Paperback, Hardcover
- Subjects
- Religion › Judaism
Religion › Biblical Criticism & Interpretation › Old Testament - Topics
- Jewish spirituality · Torah · biblical interpretation · Jewish thought · religion and ethics · scripture commentary
- ISBN-13
- 9781580231589 (Paperback)9781681629995 (Hardcover)
About the author
RABBI DR. RACHEL S. MIKVA holds the Rabbi Herman E. Schaalman Chair in Jewish Studies at Chicago Theological Seminary, where she also serves as Senior Faculty Fellow of the InterReligiary Institute. Her recent books include Dangerous Religious Ideas, Midrash vaYosha and Broken Tablets: Restoring the Ten Commandments and Ourselves.
Mikva was ordained at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in 1990 and earned her PhD at Jewish Theological Seminary. In 2009 she received a grant from the American Academy for Jewish Research.
When she’s not writing, Mikva draws on 13 years as a congregational rabbi, including her tenure at Community Synagogue in Rye, New York. Her scholarship centers on rabbinic literature and the history of biblical interpretation.
Rachel lives in Illinois.