Reddit mentions: The best jewish movements books

This is a tough one. I have to admit, I didn't think you would be so seriously interested (and it's a good thing) :) I don't know much about you, and because it's an important thing, I would hate to point you in a wrong direction (that could put you off or set you along an incorrect path). Of course, at the end of the day, you will have to decide for yourself what suits you.

I don't even live in the US, so a lot of this is guesswork and extrapolation, but you can take it as a framework and build around it.

First prize is finding someone both learned and understanding of you, who can guide you along the path that will be best for you. This combination is extremely difficult to find, and unless someone here knows of someone in your area, it's a quest you'll have to undertake yourself.

But it's somewhat easier to find less personalised programs. Many synagogues have free or nominal educational programs on a regular basis. If you can find a Chabad House, they probably have it (and in fact, they might well have introductory Kabbalah courses as well which I do not endorse at all, especially if they're not accompanied by other programs).

Other synagogues and organisations have similar programs. To be blunt, because the stakes are high, but I would limit this to Orthodox programs, because I believe that it's important to at least start with a traditional understanding, even if you want to move away from it later on. Also, it is best to start with earlier sources to begin with.

I think I have heard good things about both TorahMates and Partners In Torah, both of which will help you learn long-distance if you can not find an in-person teacher at a convenient time.

The simplest place to start is with /r/Judaism's Pirkei Avot learning session on Sunday evenings.

Hopefully people here can give other advice, and if you can tell us a bit about yourself, there might be some more specific advice.

While learning from books is not ideal, it is valuable if you also have a more personal learning time, and there are some resources in the sidebar to that end (I highly recommend Pirkei Avot/Ethics of the Fathers, for example). I would also recommend The Nineteen Letters for a really solid foundation in Jewish worldview and thought.

I hope we're not overwhelming you with information, cautions, or sources to look at. One very important piece of advice that must underlie all of this is that you need to pace yourself. Spiritual growth is like climbing a ladder, and sometimes there is a temptation (or an external pressure) to skip rungs and jump up, but that inevitably results in a painful slip.

So you have to take everything everyone here says, break it down into small parts, see what you can manage and what suits your personality, and start as quickly and completely with that as possible. But don't try to do it all if you aren't ready. Start with small, easy, enjoyable steps, and I assure you, you will feel much more in touch with your spiritual self (and ready for further steps) before you know it.

> I tried to reach out to a local Rabbi, and she simply turned me to a
> website. (I understand she is busy.)

Not to defend a particular Rabbi, but it’s worth remembering that Judaism isn’t an evangelising religious tradition.

Judaism is a tribal religion (perhaps best thought of as an ethnos in the Greek sense: a ‘people’) and it rather shies away from universal claims.

So the tradition of conversion is utterly unlike that of an evangelical religions like Christianity or Islam. Lots of ‘are you sure?’. Absolutely no ‘you have to join us or everything is just awful’.

The standard story is that Rabbis will turn you away three times if you come to them seeking to convert. It’s not strictly true but it is true that Rabbis will generally start by asking why you want to join rather than rolling out the welcome mat and crying ‘sister!’.

The Rabbi you encountered may well have used ‘take some time to read [website address here]’ as her version of the ‘are you sure?’ question.

Once you’ve studied the site in question (and I recommend doing the study, BTW), go back to the Rabbi and say you’ve done the required reading and now you want to talk some more.

A serious-minded approach is probably best here, because conversion to Judaism is a serious commitment.

The figure to keep in mind is Ruth, often called the Mother of all Converts:

For whither thou goes, I will go;
And where thou lodges, I will lodge;
Your people are my people, and your G‑d, my G‑d.
Where thou dies, will I die, and there be buried;
— Ruth 1:16–17

Becoming Jewish is as much about joining a new tribe — ‘Your people are my people’ — as it is about taking on the tenets and practices of a new (to you) religious tradition.

> Resources

A few resources off the top of my head (including several web-sites; so sorry to go down the same path as your local rabbi):

Choosing a Jewish life: a handbook for people converting to Judaism and for their family and friends, by Anita Diamant.

Perhaps the classic book on ‘how to convert’, especially if you are in the United States. A little old now (it may be ‘revised and updated’ but this most recent edition was published almost twenty years ago) but still very useful.

Orthodox conversion to Judaism

The web-site run by the Rabbinical Council of America (the organising rabbinical structure for Orthodox Jews in the US) to ‘establish an improved and more dependable conversion process that would Be fully in accordance with Halachah (Jewish law)’.

Reform conversion to Judaism

The Reform Judaism sub-site on conversion. Include links to personal stories, articles on the process and an on-line study course.

Links returned by searching on ‘conversion’ at ReformJudaism.org

More than you probably want to read about converting in the Reform tradition, plus lots of personal stories of conversion.

Conversion to Judaism

An online study course for prospective converts, created and maintained by Rabbi Celso Cukierkorn of the Adat Achim synagogue in Florida. The aside from the study materials the site includes a page of Personal conversion experiences.

The Washington Institute for conversion and the study of Judaism

Another online resource and study course for people considering converting, this one run by Rabbi Bernice Weiss from Maryland. Weiss is also co-author of a book — [Converting to Judaism: choosing to be Chosen](http://converttojudaism.org/converting.htm) — which consists of personal stories of conversion.

Becoming Jewish

A web-site run by and for Jews By Choice (ie, people who’ve converted to Judaism). Aside from resources and places to look for more info, the site includes a collection of stories by others who’ve made the conversion journey

> personal stories

[Life with Ruth: your people, my people*](https://amazon.com/Life-Ruth-Your-People-My-ebook/dp/B00HFFAT3G), by Ruth Hanna Sachs.

A memoir focusing on the author’s journey to Judaism, haltingly started in the late-1960s and early-1970s but only properly taken in the late-1990s.

‘10 things nobody told me about converting to Judaism’, by Anna Thomson.

A 2014 article (or ‘listicle’ if you will) about converting to Modern Orthodox Judaism after meeting and falling in love with a Modern Orthodox Jew.

‘Conversion: a Black Jewish can-do story’, by Stephanie Ambroise.

A 2016 article about ‘[h]ow one woman went from having no idea what Shabbat was to celebrating it every week.’

‘From looking Jewish to being Jewish’, by Esther Hugenholtz.

A 2016 article by a cultural anthropologist about ‘going native’ (to such an extent she became a Rabbi and now serves a congregation).

‘A global conversion’, by Rachael Bregman.

A 2016 article about the formal conversion of a woman in her 80s who’d been living a Jewish life since she was a teenager but had not formally converted ‘because it would have hurt her mother deeply’.

The woman converting was in New South Wales. The Em Beit Din overseeing her conversion were in Tennessee, New York, and New Mexico.

The Becoming Jewish (see above) blog, Into the Jewish pool, includes multiple personal stories about, you guessed it, becoming Jewish.

Finally, Rabbi Mark Kaiserman has an Amazon listmania page dedicated to Books about converting to Judaism. More than enough personal stories here to last a year’s worth of reading time.

> guidance

Joining a tribe isn’t easy. There are obstacles and challenges, some of them internal and some of them put in place by the tribe you seek to join.

My partner made the journey from Dutch Catholicism to Reconstructionist Judaism more than thirty years ago.

And they’ve been asked about this more than a few times over the years.

When asked by someone contemplating the journey their short answer these days is ‘it won’t always be easy, but it should always feel right.’.

Hope this is at least diverting, if not helpful.

The following is a list of basic books that will help you get a good handle on traditional Judaism. All the books listed are broadly recognized as being reliable, and many are considered classics in their own right:

• A Maimonides Reader by Isadore Twersky. An excellent compilation of the writings of Maimonides covering almost all of the most basic concepts in Judaism.
  
  
• With Perfect Faith by Rabbi J. David Bleich. This is an excellent introduction to medieval Jewish philosophy, based on Maimonides' thirteen foundations. Includes extensive lengthy quotations from many major Jewish philosophers.
  
  
• Path of the Just by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. Classic description of the ideal spiritual Jewish life. The opening chapter is particularly important for understanding almost all of modern traditional Jewish thought.
  
  
• The Nineteen Letters by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch. An classic overview of Jewish thought presented in the form of a correspondence between a young rabbi and a childhood companion who is questioning the purpose and validity of traditional Judaism.
  
  
• The Stone Chumash - A good one-volume translation of the Torah, with an extensive commentary based on traditional sources.
  
  
• Ethics from Sinai by Irving Bunim. An excellent, three-volume commentary on Pirkei Avos, the Talmudic tractate that deals with ethics.
  
  
• The World of Prayer by Rabbi Elie Munk. An excellent two-volume commentary on the Jewish prayers.

While it is not reform, one book I really enjoyed was Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Approach by Rebecca T. Alpert. I think it might be good to take a broad look at different approaches to Judaism to find one of best fit before conversion process. Rabbi Kaplan's teachings were a radical departure from Orthodox in his day, while often conflated with Reform its lineage is actually quite different.

The Egyptian community would have particular customs to them. To be totally authentic, you would do best to not rely on modern sefardic siddurs which will either be a mishmash of different traditions or one of the more dominant strains, but you can probably use them. Transliterated in Latin letters is fairly unlikely and you would need hebrew capability for this level of research. I would contact The Association Of Jews From Egypt which is a UK based organization (though maybe it looks like they're now Nebe Daniel in France, which reminds me that Egyptian Jews always pronounce ב as a B).

Apparently, there's also Siddur Farḥi which is the Egyptian specific siddur (Hebrew-Arabic from 1917) and here's a Hebrew book that discusses the Egyptian customs so that might help as well.

I don't like this answer. Seems like a bit of a cop-out.

I highly recommend The Essential Writings of Abraham Isaac Kook. It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever read.

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Writings-Abraham-Isaac-Kook/dp/097698623X/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1420221639&sr=8-6&keywords=rav+kook

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

I think converts should read works from all across the Jewish perspective. Especially the "very different sort."

How else is anyone supposed to know what they believe if they don't know or understand what they don't? It's not an informed decision if you're not informed.

On that note...

Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Persepctive.

Choosing a Jewish Life (liberal, leaning Reform)

To Pray as a Jew (Orthodox)

OP: Go wild. Read across the spectrum. Read things you agree with and things you don't. Read stuff you don't understand yet. Ask questions about what you read. Read, read, read!

I mean, the main books on Kabbalah are the Tanya, and the Zohar, but one isn't supposed to learn the Zohar until they are 40, and know the entire Torah. Tanya on the other hand is open for Everyone.
https://smile.amazon.com/Tanya-Likutei-Amarim-Revised-English/dp/0826604005/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473773017&sr=8-1&keywords=tanya

Nothing wrong with their approach, except that it's not Orthodox. As I'm sure you know, there's a whole book about it (the book does go a little overboard in its criticisms, but it makes enough convincing points).

Modern orthodoxy is mostly based on Tum

Torah U'madda- founded by R' Nochum Lamm read his book describing it.


You might also like Torah Im Derech Eretz- founded Rav Shampson Rafael Hirsch, I recommend his Nineteen letters.

This is a decent intro. I also suggest Judaism as a Civilization. It lays out Kaplan's understanding of Judaism pretty thoroughly, and what he thinks the other denominations get wrong.

As for their services, I've heard everything from indistinguishable from Conservative to hippies completely disconnected from tradition. From what I read in the book I just suggested, a large amount of their membership is observant, just not in an Orthodox way. (For example, something like 30% say they keep kosher, but their understanding of kosher may be more lenient (don't need two sets of dishes), disregard certain Rabbinic restrictions (like poultry and dairy mixtures), or include environmental or animal rights provisions that would make Orthodox kosher food treif to them.) I think if you wanted to be traditional in your observance in a Recon setting, you'd be able to, assuming you found a congregation on the more traditional side liturgically.

Also free on the AU store (for a change hah): https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B079WVYPNH/ref=pe_1007802_166382312_TEM1DP

Here's another that just came out, and is free right now on Kindle:

Stoicism - Maya Bennet

I haven't read this one yet, so can't comment on the content.

Ehhhh.... (waggles hand back and forth).

Open Orthodoxy is an organized denomination with an official head board and all that. The vast majority of frum organizations do not recognize them as being frum. Their conversions are not accepted, their shechita is not accepted, and their psak halachas are ignored.

Books worth of material (literally) have been written about the subject. Pretty much the only people who consider them comparable to MO are the OO heads themselves and people who don't know any better. I mean, a recent spat of controversy arouse when an OO Rabbi defended intermarriage a position that, by it's very definition, is against Orthodox Judaism. And it's hardly the most controversial thing to come out of OO.

https://www.amazon.com/Everything-God-Radical-Nondual-Judaism/dp/1590306716 is a great book purely about Judaism practiced with a non-dual understanding of G!d

https://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Judaism-Reconstructionist-Rebecca-Alpert/dp/093545750X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1499893449&sr=1-1&keywords=a+reconstructionist+approach
is about reconstructionism in general but goes over the reconstructionist view on G!d which is largely non-dual, and a lot more exploratory on how G!d exists than the more rigid sects.

Orthodox Jews usually don't actually believe in tikkum olam in the humanitarian/social justice sense so he'd probably just seize on that...I googled and found Shapiro has actually written a blurb for a book that seems to be entirely devoted to the author's hatred of how the "Jewish left" uses the term

You might take a look at the Holy Apostles Convent Orthodox New Testament in two volumes: Volume I is an Evangelistarion (Gospels); Volume II is a Praxapostolos (Acts/Epistles/Revelation). Admittedly, it is a little off the beaten path, but well worth the $85 or so it costs from the publisher (it's more expensive on Amazon). It's packed with footnotes from the commentaries of the Church Fathers along with a lot of clarifications of the Greek that seem to be missed by non-Orthodox commentaries. Read some of the reviews on Amazon

I feel like the sermon ended with a question that Reconstructionist Judaism attempts to answer, but I've never actually been to a Reconstructionist shul before (too far), soo I'm saying this based off the book I'm reading, Exploring Judaism.

> Open orthodoxy doesn't fall under the incredibly wide tent of orthodoxy for some unknown reason.
> And yes, the reason is unknown.

See here: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Open-Orthodoxy-Not-Orthodox/dp/0692727043

Here: https://cross-currents.com/2015/11/17/rav-aharon-feldman-on-open-orthodoxy/

Just about every other article here: https://cross-currents.com/

Here: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/open-orthodoxy-is-openly-unorthodox/2016/11/03/

Its really not hard to find the reasons. I have no idea why you say the reasons are unknown.

I have the Mishkan T'Filah (Reform Siddur) on kindle:https://www.amazon.com/Mishkan-Tfilah-Shabbat-Reform-Siddur-ebook/dp/B016R0HSLU

While I read a bunch of the books listed here as well, such as Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy and Becoming Orthodox, one of the books that really stuck out to me that I try to re-read every now and then is Philokalia: The Bible of Orthodox Spirituality!

>Open Orthodoxy is an organized denomination with an official head board and all that. The vast majority of frum organizations do not recognize them as being frum. Their conversions are not accepted, their shechita is not accepted, and their psak halachas are ignored.
>

Not quite, my friend. There is an Open Orthodox yeshiva, and that's about it. There's nothing like the RCA or the URJ. The non-acceptance you speak of generally falls under personal discrimination, as in: "Yes, this posek is very well done and it makes perfect sense. What? He learned from so-and-so? This poskim is not orthodox."


>Books worth of material (literally) have been written about the subject.

I can find plenty of material on plenty of untrue things. OO is the new bogeyman of orthodoxy. It was Rambam, it was chasidism, it's OO now. Everyone is trying to get to the front of the line and say who can disavow them the loudest. Therefore, the positions against them tend not to hold much substance.



>Pretty much the only people who consider them comparable to MO are the OO heads themselves and people who don't know any better.


You could not use a bigger fallacy in your argument. "People who disagree don't know any better."


>I mean, a recent spat of controversy arouse when an OO Rabbi defended intermarriage a position that, by it's very definition, is against Orthodox Judaism.


I know that rabbi, and he didn't defend intermarriage. He simply said we need to look at the culture around it and not shun those who have already done it. "A jew has intermarried? Ok, that's terrible, but will we still count him for a minyan?" That's what the rabbi was talking about, and he later even clarified the point in the same publication.



>And it's hardly the most controversial thing to come out of OO.


Do tell.