Open Search form

Ben Rothke

Apply for a Blog

Jun 21, 2018, 3:26 PM

Book review – Hasidism: A New History

The Major League Baseball All-Star Game gets the best players in the game onto two teams every year. But what one see from this is that getting the best players together doesn’t always mean they are integrated team that...

May 13, 2018, 8:15 AM

Book review: Why Open Orthodoxy is not Orthodox

'Why Open Orthodoxy is not Orthodox,' inflates the challenges posed to Jewish law (Book Review)

Mar 29, 2018, 6:49 AM

Book review – Illuminating Jewish Thought: Explorations of Free Will, the Afterlife, and the Messianic Era

The dictionary definition of blind faith is “belief without true understanding, perception, or discrimination”. While perfect faith is a level that might not be attainable by all, blind faith has always been an anathema in Judaism. In Illuminating Jewish...

Mar 9, 2018, 6:40 AM

Book review – Koren Rav Kook Siddur

There’s a story where a man comes to a Hasidic Rebbe and pours out his problems to him. The Rebbe replies that his problems are in truth not so insurmountable, as all he has to do is pray for...

Feb 2, 2018, 8:34 AM

Book review — Harpoon: Inside the Covert War Against Terrorism’s Money Masters

For those that want to know about the cloak and dagger exploits of the Mossad, books such as Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad and Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service are fascinating reads....

Jan 3, 2018, 4:12 AM

Book review – Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: Prophecy in an Age of Uncertainty

Sadly, many people are not familiar with the books of the Prophets. In Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: Prophecy in an Age of Uncertainty (Maggid Books 978-1592644131), Rabbi Hayyim Angel, National Scholar of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals,...

Nov 30, 2017, 5:08 PM

Book review: The Story of Hebrew

Many people have likely heard the claim that Hebrew is the only ancient language to be in active use today. While speakers of Farsi and Chinese may disagree,Hebrew’s resurgence and resurrection may be the linguistic equivalent of a miracle....

Oct 9, 2017, 7:15 AM

Book review — Genesis: From Creation to Covenant

While he was no theologian, Groucho Marx was onto something when he said, “If you're not having fun, you're doing something wrong”. With some license to the man born as Julius Henry Marx, if you don’t find deep meaning...

Sep 25, 2017, 6:03 AM

Book review – Who Will Lead Us?: The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America

In The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel, Moshe Halbertal and Stephen Holmes write how politics and power shaped the destinies of Kings Saul and David, and set the stage for politics of the future....

Sep 7, 2017, 9:21 AM

Book review: Jewish Guide to Practical Medical Decision-Making

It may be a stretch, but I’d propose that Ludwig Wittgenstein would really like Rabbi Jason Weiner. Wittgenstein explored the relationship between language and reality. While not a book on language and reality per se; in Jewish Guide to...

Load more

About Me

Senior information security and risk management professional. I speak at industry conferences, and write on information security, social media, privacy and technology. My book reviews are on information security, privacy, technology, and risk management. Here for Times of Israel, book reviews on religion and philosophy.