What Others Have to Say About Lippman Bodoff's Book,
The Binding of Isaac, Jewish Murders and Kabbalah:
Seeds of Jewish Extremism and Alienation?
"Lippman Bodoff's well-deserved study of timely and eternal themes of Jewish literature and religion will surely appeal to the curiosity of readers for it is both absorbing and enriching."
Professor Eli Wiesel, Boston University
"Your book is a complete education. Please know that with every page I turn, I am learning more, and feel more and more enriched.
Cynthia Ozick, Author
"In this volume, an impressive number of his published essays some thirty articles over the past fifteen years demonstrate the author's mastery of the diverse sources of Jewish learning, from the most ancient through the most contemporary...while not necessarily agreeing with everything the author says, I found all of his writings to be intelligent, thoughtful, and challenging. Would that there [were] many more like him!"
Norman Lamm, President, Yeshiva University
"Mr. Lippman Bodoff is a writer on Jewish themes who consistently raises interesting questions and thought provoking answers. I have no doubt that a collection of his essays would be of great interest to those wishing to learn and think more about Judaism, its spirituality and sacred texts."
Dr. Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of England and the Commonwealth
"Your essay [on the Akedah] is a masterpiece. It was when I first saw it and now it is more convincing than ever A one page synopsis of your argument should be circulated among all teachers of Bible in elementary and secondary Jewish schools."
Emanuel Rackman, Chancellor, Bar-Ilan University
"Thank you very much for sending me your recent work. I have enjoyed it and have learned a lot. I support your idea of publishing your 30 articles as a book."
Professor Avi Ravitzky, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
"[Bodoff's] essays are instructive and thought-provoking, and have a contemporary relevance they will satisfy and interest a broad and varied readership."
Professor Daniel Sperber, Bar-Ilan University
"I find it hard to write this thank you note because as I hold the book my attention is attracted to one page after another. The book fairly asks to be read by those who hope to find traditional Judaism in modern thought and practice. Suffice to say that I enjoy the opportunity for continuing study of these materials."
Director of the Fund for Psychoanalytic Research and Education
"Dear Mr. Bodoff: Thank you for your wonderful book, 'The Binding of Isaac ' which I am quoting favorably in my own book. It's a gem! And Kol ha-Kavod!"
Professor Jose Faur, Netanya Academic College
"I consider your work stimulating and very much worth publishing."
Professor David Berger, Brooklyn College
"You are remarkable So constantly, deeply and consistently involved in Jewish Studies."
Professor Jacob J. Schacter, Senior Scholar for the Jewish Future
"your articles [are] the products of your fertile mind and facile pen. I always read them and enjoy them."
Professor Shaye Cohen, Harvard University
"your collected essays, address issues in the interpretation of classical Jewish texts and contemporary Jewish questions in a manner that always does justice to the sources, on the one hand, and contemporary questions, on the other."
Professor Ed Greenstein, Tel Aviv University
"I find your work insightful and your arguments cogent. Congratulations on this achievement."
Professor Alan L. Berger, Florida Atlantic University
"I have always found your essays enlightening The ethical problems that constantly arise in the Biblical narratives cry out for voices like yours."
Professor Edward Alexander, Washington University
"I have been reading your articles with great interest and admiration, so I am not surprised to see your important book in its beautiful format I am planning to use the book in my courses."
Professor Shmuel Shepkaru, The University of Oklahoma
"Thank you for your volume of collected essays. It has always been a pleasure to read them, and now they are conveniently available to students as well."
Professor Steven Bowman, University of Cincinnati
"Thank you very much for sending me an offprint of your article on Kafka's Letters to Felice. I found the article persuasive and thought-provoking, and shall certainly return to it and refer to it in future."
Professor Ritchie Robertson, St. John's College, Oxford University
"Your sense of The Letters to Felice is consistent with my own, and you develop your ideas with nuance and conviction. It was a pleasure to read."
Professor Esther Schor, Princeton University
"Your essay on Letters to Felice is an important contribution to the understanding of a major figure."
Professor Steven G. Kellman, The University of Texas at San Antonio
"I read your published essay on [Yehudah] Halevi with surprise and considerable gratification. Congratulations! I hope you will continue to study and to publish."
Professor Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Center for Israel and Jewish Studies,
Columbia University
"we enjoyed your book, THE BINDING OF ISAAC."
Josh Bakon, Editor, Jewish Bible Quarterly
"This engaging collection of essays revolves around themes of violence and mysticism, both in the Bible and in modern [Jewish] life and literature this volume should be welcome in any collection."
Review by Professor Daniel Scheide, Florida Atlantic University, in the Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter, May/June 2006
"This book is a compelling, captivating and riveting read on subjects as diverse as [Jewish] literature, music [from] the Akeda to religious murders, to Jewish mysticism Bodoff is to be commended for his footnotes, which are exhaustive and a wellspring of information and knowledge."
Review by Rabbi Bernard M. Zlotowitz, in the New York Board of Rabbis Review, Spring 2006
What really happened at the binding of Isaac? How was the traditional interpretation of this pivotal moment in Jewish history misapplied in Christian theology and Jewish martyrology? Is there even a case for religious murders in Jewish thought and in the growing appeal of Jewish mysticism? The author focuses on a number of pertinent questions that help explain how to create a Jewish ethical and moral society.
Anonymous Review in Shofar (Fall 2006)
Midstream's reigning contemporary commentator on Scripture, Lippman Bodoff, has published quite a few articles in these pages on the Akedah and has even collected all his work on that very subject in a brilliant book published in 2005 (The Binding of Isaac, Religious Murder, and Kabbalah, Devora Publishing).
Yehudit Freund (pen name), Midstream (March/April 2007): 46.
the author's reading of akedat Yizhak is one informed by contemporary twenty first century life-affirming sensibilities provocative, methodical and lucidly presented a great deal of food for thought in this well-researched and extensively footnoted volume [w]hether one agrees or disagrees with Bodoff's analyses and conclusions, there is much here to contemplate and much that will enrich one's thinking and understanding regarding central issues in Biblical interpretation and our religious history.
Review-Essay by Rabbi Jack Bieler in The Torah U'Madda Journal (2006-2007)
I have recently received your wonderful book "The Binding of Isaac, Religious Murders, and Kabbalah." I read it immediately and I loved it completely and totally! I will definitely use it in my lectures in the future period and I'm sure that my students will enjoy the lectures helped out by this magnificent work of yours!
Professor Lidija Levi, University of Novi sad, Serbia
"truly groundbreaking "
Dr. Gerard P. O'Sullivan, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Neumann College
"I am also indebted to Mr. Lippman Bodoff for sharing with me his views on Ashkenazic martyrdom and Kabbalah. They are particularly valuable, not only because they are the result of vast research and scholarship, but also because Mr. Bodoff had examined the material with the sharp eye of a consummate lawyer, which he is. "
Professor José Faur, The Horizontal Society Acknowledgements