1/ Last year I read Moment magazine& #39;s Five Books Project ( https://momentmag.com/five-books-project/)">https://momentmag.com/five-book... - which asks prominent Tribespeople which 5 books are essential to be an educated Jew.

To put it mildly, this topic is right in my wheelhouse (book maven, rabbi, PhD in Jewish Studies)
2/ The basic question is: "which books I should read to be an & #39;educated Jew& #39;" & it& #39;s variously interpreted. Initially, I was being cute: Bible, Babylonian Talmud, Jerusalem Talmud, Mishnah Torah, Shulchan Arukh.

But that& #39;s actually a poor answer.
3/ Ya see, I& #39;m a book guy, but 80% of my vast library are reference books. I& #39;ve read, cover-to-cover, 20% of my library (& 5%+ of my books I haven& #39;t even opened, oy)

The Moment shyla is abt reading, not owning. So for my 5 Books I needed to set real rules if I want to be useful
4/ I need to propose 5 books that are: (a) ones I& #39;ve actually read & usually read often; (b) books I can expect everyone to be able to read before they& #39;re 30 yrs old; (c) and key: the basis for being educated no matter what stream of Judaism, from Reconstructionist to Chasidic
5/ Ya see, I can& #39;t expect everyone to read my original 5 (Talmud, Bible etc) because I personally had to force myself to read all of the Bible & did so only once. I took over 7 years to finish the Babylonian Talmud. And I don& #39;t ever expect to read all of the Shulchan Arukh.
6/ Those 5 books are basically reference; only the super-elite has read all 5 "books" (which is really over a 100 actual books) & in my own life, that& #39;s not what I re-read to make me educated and prepared to be the best servant of God I can be
7/ So I came up with my list last year & so far it& #39;s unchanged. These are 5 books (2 actual single books, 3 series) that I& #39;ve read, that I can assign to ppl (& have done so for my conversion students) & I believe will be needed for every Jew from every form of secular & religious
8/ The Five:
(1) Rashi on Chumash
(2) Rabbi Menachem Leibtag& #39;s Chumash commentary
(3) Rambam& #39;s Laws of Repentance
(4) Kitov& #39;s "The Book of Our Heritage"
(5) Rav Soloveitchik& #39;s "Fate and Destiny"

See below for why.
9/ #1 Rashi on Chumash ( https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/8165/showrashi/true)">https://www.chabad.org/library/b...

This is the largest series, but most schools start this at the youngest age. While it looks cheap to basically add a 6th book (the Torah), it& #39;s also pretty much a given to know the Chumash.
10/ #1 cont: But my point is that knowing the parsha/Chumash isn& #39;t as needed as knowing Rashi& #39;s interpretation. Rashi& #39;s project is to choose one or two the paramount rabbinic comments on the verse out of the *hundreds* in the Gemara & many books of Midrash.
11/ It& #39;s usually wrong to claim & #39;Rashi says& #39; b/c what we& #39;re quoting is a Gemara or Mechilta or Sifrei. Rashi& #39;s genius is choosing what he prefers. That& #39;s why other rabbis & #39;disagree& #39; with Rashi - b/c they disagree w/ his choice or w/ his interpretation of the Chazal.
12/ This is also why choosing Rashi isn& #39;t being Ashkenaz-centric, b/c his commentary is just a collection of earlier sources. E.g., when Saadia Gaon sounds like Rashi, it& #39;s b/c Saadia is quoting the same Chazal.

Yet this popular misconception about Rashi shows his importance.
13/ I& #39;m putting Rashi on the list, and as #1, b/c Rashi& #39;s comment on a verse is how the majority of Jews over our history have understood that verse. Rashi has become the baseline for how our people have primarily understood the Torah & as such knowing Rashi = knowing Chumash
14/ Knowing Rashi doesn& #39;t mean accepting the Midrash as the pure definition of the verse (for oh so many reasons) but IMO it& #39;s crucial for everyone to have a shared starting point, which has been Rashi (aka the rabbinic statements quoted by Rashi) for over a millennium
15/ It& #39;s also crucial to recognize that Jewish tradition rejects a literal translation of the Bible, and that also comes through when we read Rashi.

True, many people then take Rashi literally... but that& #39;s an easier theological/epistemological problem to deal with.
16/ That& #39;s the first of the 5:
*(1) Rashi on Chumash*
(2) Rabbi Menachem Leibtag& #39;s Chumash commentary
(3) Rambam& #39;s Laws of Repentance
(4) Kitov& #39;s "The Book of Our Heritage"
(5) Rav Soloveitchik& #39;s "Fate and Destiny"

In a moment, I& #39;ll add the next 2-5
17/ #2 Rabbi Leibtag on Chumash ( https://tanach.org/ )">https://tanach.org/">... feels like a cop-out b/c it& #39;s not even in a book yet (I& #39;m trying! Send him an email to ask him to do it!) but it& #39;s 2020 & even suggesting & #39;books& #39; feels outdated. Remember when we needed to say & #39;cordless& #39; phone? & #39;Color& #39; TV?
18/ Rabbi Menachem Leibtag (RML) has distilled the 20/21st Century work in & #39;pshat& #39; commentary (esp. from Gush) & processes it through his own high quality pedagogy & clarity. While Rashi is needed as the baseline (even RML references it), every Jew needs to know the pshat.
19/ I taught Bible in Stern College for 3 years & I defined Pshat as the *necessary* interpretation of the Biblical text (as op. to "drash" which is a didactic interp., or at least a *possible* interp.)

Nobody has collected & taught the pshat on Chumash better than Rabbi Leibtag
20/ So since I believe an educated Jew needs to know the Chumash, my first 2 choices are #1 Rashi - to know what Jews over millennia, from the time of the Gemara until now, say about Chumash & #2 Leibtag - to know what the Chumash really means.
21/ #3 on the Five Books list is Sefer Toda& #39;ah by Rav Eliyahu Kitov, translated into English as a 3 book series "The Book of Our Heritage"

When I taught conversion classes, I used this basically as a textbook. https://www.feldheim.com/book-of-our-heritage.html">https://www.feldheim.com/book-of-o...
22/ Every student needed to spend at least one year living a Jewish life in a community, practicing the customs of the year, and I had them read Kitov to prepare for each season

Kitov is like Rashi for Jewish life & the holidays. In that, he teaches what traditional Jews "know"
23/ Kitov describes & explains the customs of the holidays, the laws, & the prominent midrashim.

He writes at a level for everyone to understand (see https://www.chabad.org/search/keyword_cdo/kid/11363/jewish/Kitov-Eliyahu.htm)">https://www.chabad.org/search/ke... as op. to Zevin& #39;s "Festivals in Halacha" which I love, but is more for elites
24/ These 3 books #1 Rashi on Chumash, #2 R& #39;Menachem Leibtag on Chumash, #3 Kitov on the holidays are basically enough for every Jew to know how to understand God& #39;s covenant (the Chumash) as common custom (Rashi) & meaning (RML) & to understand Jewish life & the holidays (Kitov)
25/ The next two books are about philosophy, morality & life& #39;s mission:
#4 Rambam& #39;s Laws of Repentance
#5 Rav Soloveitchik& #39;s "Fate and Destiny"

Both are single books; but b/c they can be seen as specific to Orthodoxy, I need to substantiate the choices.
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