Description
The Crowns on the Letters
Essays on the Aggada and the Lives of the Sages
by Rabbi Ari Kahn
List Price $39.95 / Was $33.95 / NOW $29.95
Hardcover, ISBN 978-1602804098
Rabbi Ari Kahn’s The Crowns on the Letters represents a major achievement in the study of the lives of our Sages, as well as in the study of rabbinic Aggada. This work is an immensely learned and deeply creative interpretation of many fundamental aggadot relating to the intellectual biographies of the Tannaim and Amoraim, including Hillel and Shammai, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Resh Lakish and Rabbi Yochanan, and many others. Additionally, it covers aggadot dealing with major themes in Jewish thought, including the nature of the Oral Law, mysticism and its perils, the messianic era, teshuvah and Eretz Yisrael.
Rabbi Kahn presents close readings of Talmudic and Midrashic sources about events in the lives of the Sages, together with the gamut of interpretations, especially those of Kabbalistic and Hasidic commentators, to arrive at original and compelling conclusions. His insights shed light on the Talmudic narrative as well as on broader philosophical questions. Full Hebrew sources are included to enable readers to study the source material on their own. For all those interested in rabbinic lives and rabbinic Aggada, The Crowns on the Letters is essential reading.
About the Author
Ari D. Kahn is a rabbi, author and educator living in Givat Ze’ev, Israel. He received his rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary where he studied with Rabbi Yosef D. Soloveitchik and Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein. He graduated Yeshiva University with a BA in Psychology and an MS in Talmud. Rabbi Kahn is Director of the Overseas Student Program at Bar-Ilan University, where he is a senior lecturer in Jewish studies. He also serves as rabbi of the Mishkan Etrog community in Givat Ze’ev. Rabbi Kahn has authored more than ten books on Jewish thought, including the highly acclaimed Echoes of Eden series, and has published hundreds of articles on Torah and Jewish thought.
