Customer Reviews

Traditions: Complete Book of Prayers, Rituals, and Blessings for Every Jewish Home

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I don't like to judge anything by its front cover, but that is how I picked this book. Making a judgement like that won't always be a winner to the reader. But in this case it surely was!

Upon reading "Traditions" I found myself not being able to put it back down. I have been raised Jewish my whole life, but the background and history it provided for each of the rituals and customs are facinating.

I let a friend borrow the book, she isn't Jewish - but she wanted to learn more, she loved the book for its ease of reading style. "Traditions" doesn't read like it assumes you know everything about Judaism.

Now, all my friends are calling and wanting to borrow the book. I've told them all that it is available at Amazon.Com, and it will be the best dollars they every spend on a book again.

I was very disappointed by this book. From the title "Complete Book of..." I expected there to be a wealth of information in it. Instead it is a breezy, slick, highly illustrated, briefest of introductions to some major Jewish rituals and festivals. The illustrations are nice and the text is pleasant. I am surprised it is not in a larger format -- the content is more along the lines of a coffee-table picture book. If you are looking for a pleasant overview survey in an attractive format, this is the book for you. If you are looking for anything "complete", look elsewhere.

This book disappointed me. As a non-Jew, I bought it looking for the text of the Kol Nidre, the prayer chanted during Yom Kippur in avoidance of unwisely made vows, which the book itself acknowledges as "one of the best-known prayers in the liturgy." From the book's subtitle, "The Complete Book of Prayers . . . ," I expected that it would be a ready source for this "best-known prayer." Not only does the book totally omit the prayer's text (other than to mention that "Kol Nidre"--the prayer's first two words, although the book does not tell you so--means "all vows"), it barely mentions the prayer. I gather from the other half-dozen books that I bought in order to learn about the prayer that this book's thumbnail description, while technically accurate, omits material information about the prayer's significance, in whose absence the technically accurate information is somewhat misleading; and repeats a popular misconception about the prayer's origin that is widely discredited. What the book does contain is two pages of Yom Kippur recipes and a three-page Yom Kippur story.

On the positive side, this book does offer a richly textured trip through the Jewish year, and paints a vivid portrait of each event in that cycle that blends contemporary custom with ancient tradition. The information about some prayers and holidays is better than the information that I found about Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur. If you are unfamiliar with Jewish culture, this book is a good introduction and overview to the outward signs of that culture, but it does not go too deeply into the inward meaning of the traditions that it describes.

This book was purchased for a friend. She received it and was very enthusiastic about the book.