Sage Tales: Wisdom and Wonder from the Rabbis of the Talmud

by Burton L. Visotzky

These ancient stories whisper truth to your soul. Great stories have the power to draw the heart. But certain stories have the power to draw the heart to God and awaken the better angels of our nature. Such are the tales of the rabbis of the Talmud, colorful, quirky yarns that tug at our heartstrings and test our values, ethics, morality―and our imaginations. In this collection for people of all faiths and backgrounds, Rabbi Burton Visotzky draws on four decades of telling and teaching these legends in order to unlock their wisdom for the contemporary heart. He introduces you to the cast of characters, explains their motivations, and provides the historical background needed to penetrate the wise lessons often hidden within these unusual narratives. In learning how and why these oft-told tales were spun, you discover how they continue to hold value for our lives.

Genres: Judaism, Judaica

252 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2011

About the author

RABBI BURTON L. VISOTZKY serves as Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he joined the faculty upon his ordination as rabbi in 1977. Visotzky was a dean of the Graduate School and founding Rabbi of the egalitarian worship service of the Seminary Synagogue. He now serves as the Louis Stein Director of the Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies at JTS, charged with programs on public policy. Visotzky also directs the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue at JTS.
Prof. Visotzky has been visiting faculty at Oxford; Cambridge; and Princeton Universities; the Russian State University of the Humanities in Moscow; and served as the Master Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (where he met Pope Benedict in 2007). He recently served as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, where he met Pope Francis.
Prof. Visotzky's writing is published in America, Europe, and Israel. He is the author of ten books and over one-hundred-twenty articles and reviews. His eleventh book, APHRODITE AND THE RABBIS: How the Jews adapted Roman Culture to create Judaism as we know it, will be published in September, 2016.
Rabbi Visotzky participates in interreligious engagement internationally, in capitals as diverse as Washington; Warsaw; Rome; Cairo; Doha, Qatar; Madrid; Muskat, Oman and most recently Marrakech, Morocco. He was the winner of the 2012 Goldziher Prize, awarded biennially by Merrimack College for work in Jewish-Muslim relations. Visotzky is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Professor Visotzky is active as a lecturer and scholar-in-residence throughout North America, Europe, and Israel. He has been featured on radio, television, and in print. Rabbi Burt Visotzky has been named to "The Forward 50" and repeatedly to the Newsweek/Daily Beast list of "The 50 Most Influential Jews in America."

Reviews

[Deborah Letow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. A lot of stories and humor to explain the Talmud tales. If you are studying the daf yomi, this is a must read.

[Jim Talbott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this book four stars because of the content. I found Visotzky's veering off into pop cultural asides to be a bit jarring, and it wasn't as though they really moved the book forward at all. It was as though his editor said, "This needs to be more accessible," and Visotzky would just add a reference to "The Matrix."

For the good, however, the book contains a very good introduction to critical readings of the midrashim featuring Rabbi Yochanan and his disciples. Though I was already familiar with most of the midrashim featured in the book, Visotzky's putting similar accounts next to each other and contrasting the different historical contexts that produced them was extremely helpful. It gave me a layer of understanding I didn't previously have, and it made the interconnections between the rabbis much clearer.

[Peter Pactor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciated this book. I found the tales interesting and enjoyable. I thought Rabbi Visotzky did a great job connecting the individual tales as a unit and in explaining rabbinic thought. I found his narration extraordinarily well done; it was almost as if he was in the room talking to me colloquially with an interest that I understood what he was telling me.

For me I found it a useful book, since I have been studying Mishnah on my own and with a rabbi. It explained some things that I missed.

However, as I was approaching the end, I felt that I was getting much more information than I needed. I wanted to shout, "All right, already! I get it."

I must add also that there are many thoughts here that are valuable regardless of one's religion. One of my favorites, while directed to rabbis, is universally true for all people, and perhaps especially for me.

"Sometimes it's better for a rabbi to keep his mouth shut than it is to drive away his congregation."