A River Flowed from Eden

A River Flowed from Eden

Rabbi Ari D. Kahn
Kodesh Press / 210 pages

In his "A River Flowed from Eden," Rabbi Ari Kahn presents a delightful and easy to read collection of short essays on the weekly Torah portion. Focusing on a specific central question or thought from the weekly reading, the essay expands to offer interesting food for thought and discussion on the matter, making it great “Torah for the Shabbat Table.”

Examples of such questions include:

What are we doing in this world? What is the goal of our hard work? (Bereishit)
Why was the Tower of Babel built in a valley? (Noach)
Why does Avraham seem to contradict his traditional trait of chessed in so many instances? (Lech Lecha)
What events are being referred to in the “…after these events” of the Akeida? (Vayeira)
Why is there seemingly no concern for Rivka’s religious beliefs? (Chayei Sara)

My only complaint with this worthwhile contribution to parsha discourse is that there is only one entry per parsha. I would have loved to see the typically brilliant Kahn style approach dealing with the Flood, the purchase of Chevron/Machpela cave, the Revelation at Sinai, and so much more, but other episodes in the relevant parshiot are dealt with instead. Guess you can’t have it all!

To order: http://kodeshpress.com/product/a-river-flowed-from-eden


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