Rabbi Shai Held is president, dean, and chair in Jewish Thought at Mechon Hadar and directs its Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas in New York City. He is the author of Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence and a recipient of the Covenant Award for excellence in Jewish education. Rabbi Yitz Greenberg is one of the preeminent Jewish thinkers of our time.

“The Heart of Torah is a stunning achievement: textually learned, theologically profound, ethically challenging, spiritually uplifting, and psychologically astute. If you want to know what it can mean to read the Torah today with your whole heart and your whole mind, read this book.”-Rabbi Sharon Brous, founder and senior rabbi at Ikar, Los Angeles “Shai Held deftly brings the wisdom of Torah to bear upon the contemporary human condition. Christians who read this book can discover fresh dimensions within the biblical text, see more clearly where there is common ground between Jews and Christians, and better grasp what it means to understand and live in this world as God’s world.”-Walter Moberly, professor of theology and biblical interpretation at Durham University “Shai Held is one of the most important teachers of Torah in his generation.”-Rabbi David Wolpe, author of David: The Divided Heart

• ForewordAcknowledgmentsA Note on TranslationsIntroductionLeviticusVa-yikra’ No. 1. Order amid Chaos: Connecting to LeviticusVa-yikra’ No. 2. The Fall and Rise of Great Leaders: Or, What Kind of Leaders Do We Need?Tsav No. 1. No Leftovers: The Meaning of the Thanksgiving OfferingTsav No. 2. Buying God Off: Jeremiah and the Problem of Religious HypocrisyShemini No. 1. Is Vegetarianism a Biblical Ideal?Shemini No. 2. Of Grief Public and Private: Moses and Aaron Face the UnimaginableTazria’ No. 1. Living on the Boundary: The Complexity and Anxiety of ChildbirthTazria’ No. 2, Metsora’ No. 1. Struggling with Stigma: Making Sense of the MetzoraMetsora’ No. 2. Life-Giving, Death-Dealing Words‘Aḥarei Mot No. 1. Yom Kippur: Purifying the Tabernacle and Ourselves‘Aḥarei Mot No. 2, Kedoshim No. 1. The Holiness of Israel and the Dignity of the DisabledKedoshim No. 2. Loving Our Neighbor: A Call to Emotion and Action‘Emor No. 1. Covenantal Joy: What Sukkot Can Teach Us‘Emor No. 2. Between Grief and Anticipation: Counting the OmerBe-har No. 1. Another World to Live In: The Meaning of ShabbatBe-har No. 2, Be-ḥukkotai No. 1. God’s Unfathomable LoveBe-ḥukkotai No. 2. Standing Tall: Serving God with DignityNumbersBe-midbar No. 1. Divine Love and Human UniquenessBe-midbar No. 2. A Torah for All? Universalism and Its DangersNaso’ No. 1. On Channeling and Receiving BlessingNaso’ No. 2. The Risk of Relationality: Or, Why Confession MattersBe-ha’alotekha No. 1. It’s Not about You: Or, What Moses KnewBe-ha’alotekha No. 2. After Pain, Prayer: What Moses (and Job) Can Teach UsShelaḥ No. 1. The Tragedy (and Hope) of the Book of NumbersShelaḥ No. 2. (Don’t) Follow Your Heart and Your Eyes: Between Numbers and EcclesiastesKoraḥ No. 1. Every Jew a High Priest? The Meaning of Tzitzit and the Sin of KorahKoraḥ No. 2. Giving, Taking, and the Temptations of LeadershipḤukkat No. 1. When Everything Starts to Look the Same: Moses’s FailureḤukkat No. 2. Putting Down Ancient Grudges (and Learning Kindness): Between Israel and EdomBalak No. 1. The Lampooned Prophet: On Learning From (and With) BalaamBalak No. 2. Not There YetPinḥas No. 1. When Zealotry Metastasizes: The Passionate Self-Regard of PinhasPinḥas No. 2. Between Zealotry and Self-Righteousness: Or, Was Elijah the Prophet Fired?Mattot No. 1. Cattle, Cattle Everywhere: The Failure of Reuben and GadMattot No. 2, Mase’ei No. 1. Serving God in All We Do: Israel’s Journeys and Resting PlacesMase’ei No. 2. Do Not Murder! Shedding Innocent Blood and Polluting the LandDeuteronomyDevarim No. 1. “Do Not Be Afraid of Anyone”: On Courage and LeadershipDevarim No. 2. A Bolt from the Blue: Or, When God Falls in LoveVa-etḥannan No. 1. Coveting, Craving . . . and Being FreeVa-etḥannan No. 2. A God So Close, and Laws So Righteous: Moses’s Challenge (and Promise)‘Ekev No. 1. Will and Grace: Or, Who Will Circumcise Our Hearts?‘Ekev No. 2. Always Looking Heavenward: Learning DependenceRe’eh No. 1. Opening Our Hearts and Our Hands: Deuteronomy and the PoorRe’eh No. 2. Women in Deuteronomy-and BeyondShofetim No. 1. The Future Is Wide Open: Or, What Prophets Can and Cannot DoShofetim No. 2. Give the People (Only Some of) What They Want: Deuteronomy and the KingKi Tetse’ No. 1. Let Him Live Wherever He Chooses: Or, Why Runaway Slaves Are Like GodKi Tetse’ No. 2. Combating Cruelty: Amalek Within and WithoutKi Tavo’ No. 1. Against Entitlement: Why Blessings Can Be DangerousKi Tavo’ No. 2. Between Fear and Awe: Forgetting the SelfNitsavim No. 1. Going in Deep: What It Takes to Really ChangeNitsavim No. 2, Va-yelekh No. 1. Returning to Sinai Every Seventh Year: Equality, Vulnerability, and the Making of CommunityVa-yelekh No. 2. Why Joshua? Or, In (Ambivalent) Praise of HesitancyHa’azinu No. 1. “I May Not Get There with You”: The Death of Moses and the Meaning of Covenantal LivingHa’azinu No. 2. Hearing the Whisper: God and the Limits of LanguageVe-zo’t ha-berakhah No. 1. The Beginning and End of TorahNotes on LeviticusNotes on NumbersNotes on DeuteronomyA Note on Bible CommentariesBibliographySubject IndexClassical Sources Index