The following books are among those I feel are crucial for any English language Jewish library. These are the cherished authors whose texts and lectures inform my writing and my life. As a start, I recommend purchasing a quality Chumash (Torah with commentary) to peruse each morning, and for bedtime reading, pick book below, read the description on Amazon and splurge. As my rabbi says, “You’re always safer with a sefer (Jewish book).”
Don’t have the time to read? Well, as an experiment for one short month, cut off Netflix, avoid the Internet, cancel the newspaper and forego Stephen King. New vistas for stimulating Torah study will materialize! For those interested in procuring an instant Jewish library, simply present this list to the local Jewish bookstore and bring plenty of money. In the meantime, most of these authors have lectures and texts online. Ideally, you can find a chevrusa (learning partner) who will help choose the reading material and nudge you to keep the date with your heritage.
Please note that the majority of these authors are rabbis. Essential references from Artscroll Publications include the Stone Chumash, Chumash with Rashi, Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, The Prophets and various holiday guides. Chabad has two excellent Chumashim I enjoy: The Gutnick Edition and the expanded Wisnefsky version. Let me also plug the indispensable Artscroll siddur and machzor (High Holiday prayer book) which includes modern translations, commentary, excellent typography and full instructions for the neophyte, and is available in an interlinear or transliterated version. I use the Ashkenaz Interlinear everyday and love it. Two of my mentors aren’t yet authors. Check out David Sacks at livingwithgod.org and Yom Tov Glaser at torahanytime.com.
Pick up a sefer and open your mind. Talmud Torah k’neged kulam (The study of Torah is equivalent to all the other mitzvot). Keep me posted on your favorites!
David Aaron — Endless Light, Seeing God, Secret Life of God, Living a Joyous Life
Yitzchok Adlerstein — Be’er Hag’dolah, Nesivos Shalom
Nachum Amsel — Encyclopedia of Jewish Values
Shimon Apisdorf — The Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur Survival Kit, The Passover Survival Kit, Chanukah: Eight Nights of Light, Judaism in a Nutshell Series
Shalom Arush — The Garden of Emunah, The Garden of Peace, In Forest Fields
David Baum — Non-Orthodox Jew’s Guide to Orthodox Jews
Benjamin Blech — Understanding Judaism, Idiot’s Guides to Judaism, If God is Good, Secrets of Hebrew Words, Taking Stock
Nachum Braverman — The Death of Cupid, The Bible for the Curious and Clueless
Moshe A. Braun — The Sfas Emes
Nathan Lopes Cardozo — Between Silence and Speech, The Written and the Oral Torah, 376 Judaism On Trial, Thoughts to Ponder, For the Love of Israel, Jewish Law as Rebellion
Shlomo Carlebach — Holy Brother, Shlomo’s Stories, Torah Commentary, Life, Mission and Legacy
Baruch Chait — 39 Avot Melacha of Shabbat, Haggadah, Incredible Voyage to Middos
Avraham Chill — The Minhagim, The Mitzvot
Eric Coopersmith — The Eye of the Needle
Nechemia Coopersmith and Shraga Simmons — Rabbi Noah Weinberg’s 48 Ways to Wisdom, Wisdom for Living, Heaven and Earth, Like Water on a Rock
Eliyahu Dessler — Strive for Truth, On the Parsha
Hayim Donin — To Be a Jew, To Pray as a Jew
Aharon Feldman — The River, the Kettle and the Bird, The Juggler and the King
Yissoscher Frand — In Print, On the Parsha, Too Little Too Late
Tzvi Freeman — Bringing Heaven Down to Earth, Heaven Exposed, Haggadah
Avraham Greenbaum/Rabbi Nachman — Advice, Under the Table, The Universal Torah
Ari Kahn — Explorations, Emanations, Echoes of Eden
Aryeh Kaplan — Anthology I & II, Reader, The Living Torah, The Living Nach, The Infinite Light, Jewish Meditation
Lawrence Kelemen — Permission to Believe, Permission to Receive, To Kindle a Soul
Yitzchok Kirzner — The Art of Jewish Prayer
Eliyahu Kitov — Book of Our Heritage, The Jewish Home
Avraham Isaak Kook — The Lights of Penitence
Moshe Chaim Luzatto — The Way of God, The Path of the Just, The Way of Reason
Gila Manolson — The Magic Touch
Tom Meyer — Five Levels of the Soul
Michael Munk — The Wisdom of the Hebrew Alphabet
Zelig Pliskin — Growth Through Torah, My Father, My King, Anger
Simcha Raz — The Sayings of Menachem Mendel of Kotsk
YY Rubinstein — Refuas Halev, Jewish Life and Jewish Laughter
Kalonymus Kalman Shapira — The Holy Fire, To Heal the Soul, A Student’s Obligation
Matisyahu Soloman — With Hearts Full of Faith
Menachem Mendel Shneerson — Torah Studies, Toward a Meaningful Life, Daily Wisdom
Akiva Tatz — Living Inspired, Letters to a Buddhist Jew, Worldmask, Will, Freedom and Destiny, Thinking Jewish Teenager’s Guide, As Dawn Ends the Night
Ezriel Tauber — Choose Life, I Shall Not Want, Darkness Before Dawn, As in Heaven, So on Earth
Avraham Twerski — Living Each Day, On Spirituality, Happiness and the Human Spirit
Berel Wein — Echoes of Glory, Herald of Destiny, Triumph of Survival, Faith and Fate
Matis Weinberg — Frameworks, Patterns in Time
Noah Weinberg — What the Angel Taught You
Herman Wouk — This is My God