Baruch Hashem this is an exciting week. Two new books coming out which I was involved with.

Just in time for Yom Kippur – a new translation from TorahLab of Eleh Ezkera: The Midrash of the Ten Martyrs. It is three different versions of the midrash which describes the story of the Ten Martyrs which we read on Yom Kippur as part of the Mussaf prayer. This is the original midrash which the prayer is based upon.

Translated and annotated by me, with a foreword by Rabbi Yaacov Haber, it is published by torahlab and is available directly from them by clicking on this link

We had lots of problems with the spelling of the name of the midrash. Who would have thought that there are so many ways of spelling Eleh Ezkera? We ended up with proofs which had Eleh Ezkerah, Eleh Ezkara, Eilah Ezkera just on the cover (not to mention many other spellings inside the book). Hopefully we have corrected them all now.

A very different project (my afternoon ‘gig’) is the hashkafa circle – a kollel which focusses on learning Jewish philosophy and history. We have just published the second edition of our journal Reshimu, which has articles from all the kollel members, and which I wrote for, but also did the editing, typesetting and layout. It is available through Lulu. It is also available as a free pdf download from our website www.hashkafacircle.com. Also on the website are video and audio shiurim from Rabbi Triebitz on ‘The History and Development of the Talmud’ and ‘Moreh Nevuchim on Negative Theology’.