Books for beginners

Question

[A friend involved in kiruv asked me the following question which I thought I would post here for further reference and to get additional suggestions]

I am in contact with lots of Jews who want to get closer to their Judaism but are starting from scratch. What are good English books to recommend to these baalei tshuva in addition to classes, getting a rav, etc.

I now saw this related question: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/10739/11501 — mbloch, Sep 20 '18 at 11:30
seems like a duplicate, no? Maybe we should merge all that here? — Double AA, Sep 20 '18 at 12:53
@DoubleAA I keep struggling with the search system. I searched for books/beginners and variations thereof but didn't find anything. Afterwards I came across that other question (resources/learning/foundations ???) by searching for Donin as I remembered seeing that book mentioned somewhere. This being said, it is a duplicate. Are you suggesting closing? I would be OK with this of course — mbloch, Sep 20 '18 at 12:56
Possible duplicate of Good books for non-Jews who are interested in understanding Judaism, especially branches of Orthodox judaism — ezra, Sep 20 '18 at 14:48
@ezra but here they are Jews, so their interests are different, e.g., halacha is much more relevant — mbloch, Sep 20 '18 at 14:49
@ezra well, thanks to you, I edited the question to make it clearer — mbloch, Sep 20 '18 at 14:52

mbloch · Answer 1 · 2021-03-31T14:07:03.573

Here are a few books I really like in this context

Torah: the brand new Koren Steinsaltz Humash has a simple commentary inserted in the English translation as well as additional explanations which make it highly readable. For a deeper dive on the weekly portion, I recommend R Yissocher Frand's series (vol 1, vol 2, vol 3)
Overall introduction: R Yaakov Menken's the everything Torah Book, in the format of "XXX for dummies" written by one of the pioneers of the Torah Internet (and moderator of the torah.org site)
Lifecycle events, mitzvot, shabbat and holidays: R Berel Wein's Living Jewish,
Overall description of Jewish practices: R Mordechai Katz's Understanding Judaism and on Apple iBooks
Jewish History: R Ken Spiro (Aish HaTorah)'s Crash course in Jewish history and WorldPerfect: The Jewish Impact on Civilization
Halacha: R Zeev Greenwald's Laws of Daily Living (Shaarei Halachah)
Life as baal tshuva (beginner): R Adin Steinsaltz's Teshuvah: A Guide for the Newly Observant Jew which describes the challenges a baal tshuva faces and how to overcome them, with practical advice (hardcover or Kindle)
Jewish philosophy: R Akiva Tatz's Anatomy of a Search: Personal Drama in the Teshuva Revolution and Thinking Jewish Teenager's Guide to Life. R Ben Tzion Shafier's Stop Surviving, Start Living: The Shmuz on Life

I believe Yalkut Me'am Loez/The Torah Anthology is often recommended? — Derdeer, Mar 23 '21 at 19:07
It used to be at a time when it was one of the few anthologies translated into English. I believe it is much less popular these days, partly because of Artscroll and Koren's work, but this is a personal opinion. I know I found it more difficult to get hooked to it and gave up quite quickly. But everyone's mileage will vary — mbloch, Mar 23 '21 at 19:18

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 20 '18 at 14:56

I highly recommend The Non-Orthodox Jew's Guide to Orthodox Jews by David Baum. This book goes more into the philosophy behind traditional Judaism and gives (one) Jewish opinion on various modern topics, such as the superiority of Judaism versus other religions (like Christianity and Islam), science, politics, and social life.

I mention that it's "one Jewish opinion" because there's no way to reflect the view of every Orthodox Jew in one book. The author presents his view based on his understanding of Judaism. Just as a warning, the author is somewhat Zionist.

There is a haredi version of this book by a different author with the same intent: One above and seven below, also recommended — mbloch, Mar 18 '19 at 06:30

Books for beginners

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