In what has become an annual tradition, at the end of every year, I review all the books I read over the previous year. This is not a comprehensive list of all the books I read, nor is this a ranking of these books as the “best” of anything. Instead, I prefer to share the books I enjoyed reading the most in the hopes that maybe someone will find and enjoy something they otherwise might not have encountered. Enjoyment does not imply agreement with or an endorsement of their arguments, only that I found their content stimulating and engaging.

This year’s Goodreads tally is 79 books, which includes more fiction than usual. Aside from starting the year off with Brandon Sanderson’s Four Secret Novels, I also caught up on the Golden Compass trilogy (the first one, anyway) and Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. These were all fine, but nothing I’d put on my favorites list for 2025.
So, what did make the cut?

🎵 It’s the most…wonderful time…of the year… 🎵

Once again, it’s time to review the books I’ve read over the past year and share my favorites with fellow readers. Plus with my memory in gradual decline,¹ it’s a nice opportunity to revisit ideas that may have slipped my mind over the course of life.

This year the tally is 58 books, keeping up with my average of about 50 a year. In terms of content, I found myself reading more memoirs than usual and I caught up on some “classics” that everyone seems to recognize and reference but few have bothered to read.

This is not a comprehensive list of all the books I read, nor is this a ranking of these books as the “best” of anything; they’re roughly listed in chronological order of reading. Instead, I prefer to share the books I enjoyed reading in hopes that someone will find and enjoy something they otherwise might not have encountered. Enjoyment does not imply agreement with or an endorsement of their arguments, only that I found their content stimulating and engaging.

In what has become an annual tradition, every December I review the books I read in the past year and pick out my favorites to share with other avid readers. 

This is not a comprehensive list of all the books I read, nor is this a ranking of these books as the “best” of anything. Instead, I prefer to share the books I enjoyed reading the most in the hopes that maybe someone will find and enjoy something they otherwise might not have encountered. Enjoyment does not imply agreement with or an endorsement of their arguments, only that I found their content stimulating and engaging.

I’ve said the above before, but I’d like to stress a point for clarification. Last year I received a comment that my list didn’t include enough representation. What I read on an annual basis depends on a variety of factors and can include a range of authors. However, just because I read these books doesn’t mean I enjoyed them, or at least not to the extent I feel like spreading the word about them. 

I should also mention that this past April, my wife and I welcome the birth of our first child which unsurprisingly affected my reading (along with everything else in my life). The 59 books I read in 2022 include several books related to children that I most likely would never have encountered including a wider range of authors. That’s just how it goes some years.

With all that said, on with the list!

For almost as long as there have been rabbis, there have been rabbinic insults. Whether sages were calling each other children, referring to one’s younger brother as “the firstborn of Satan,” or exchanging, “God save us from your opinion” with each other, rabbinic discourse was not always as dignified as we might imagine.

But even if a degree of incivility is justified by rabbinic tradition, some insults are seen as outside the boundaries of acceptable discourse. One such insult is referring to a “Rabbi” with scare quotes. 

Common objections include that rabbinic scare quotes are a uniquely offensive insult because it not only dismisses the personal effort (and sometimes money) invested but it is a complete delegitimization of everything the individual’s professional credentials and religious affiliations.

For their part, those who address rabbis with scare quotes would probably concede to these criticisms because that is entirely the point.

In which we discuss Vayikra Rabbah 35:7 and the importance of Torah being a religion of praxis.

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Vayikra Rabba 34:14 provides lessons about charity from how to treat one’s ex-spouse.

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After a long and unintended hiatus, the podcast returns with a discussion of Vayikra Rabba 24:5 and how Leviticus 19 parallels the 10 Commandments.

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