Louis Ginzberg's great compendium of Jewish legends, myths and ancient lore challenge readers to understand the civilization behind the greatest prophecies and holy writings ever written. Volume One begins with the years of creation, detailing God's creation of the Earth and all the lands and creatures upon it. Man's creation, and the story of Adam and Eve, are duly related, as are the ten generations which separated Adam from Noah. Volume Two, roughly corresponding with the Biblical Books of Exodus and Job, begins with the life and death of Joseph. His life and the lives of Jacob's sons - the founders of the Jewish tribes - are likewise told. Volume Three commences with Moses finally deciding to lead the Jews out of Egypt, the oppression of the Pharaoh having become too much to bear. Volume Four opens with the story of Joshua, who was the servant of Moses and one of the twelve spies who scouted the lands of Canaan at Moses' behest.

According to Raul Gonzalez Salinero, the plurality of religious expressions within Judaism prior to the predominance of the rabbinical current disproves the assumption according to which some Jewish customs and precepts (especially the Sabbath) prevented Jews from joining the Roman army without renouncing their ancestral culture. The military exemption occasionally granted to the Jews by the Roman authorities was compatible with their voluntary enlistment (as it was in the Hellenistic armies) in order to obtain Roman citizenship. As the sources attest, Judaism did not pose any insurmountable obstacle to integration of the Jews into the Roman world. They achieved a noteworthy presence in the Roman army by the fourth century CE, at which time the Church's influence over imperial power led to their exclusion from the militia armata.

In this engaging book of commentary on the Talmud, the author upends the long-held theory of the immutability of halakhah, Jewish law. In her detailed analysis of over 80 short halakhic anecdotes in the Babylonian Talmud, the author shows that the Talmud itself promotes halakhic change. She leads the reader through one sugya (discussion unit) after another, accumulating evidence for her rather radical thesis. Along the way, she teases out details of what life was like 1500 years ago for women in their relationships with men and for students in their relationships with mentors. An eye-opening read by one of today's leading Talmud scholars.

On the 30th of March, 1699, the Sikh Guru Gobind Singh called together a special assembly at the Keshgarh Fort at Anandpur. Following the morning devotions, the Guru asked for a volunteer, saying, "The entire sangat is very dear to me; but is there a devoted Sikh who will give his head to me here and now? A need has arisen at this moment which calls for a head." One man arose and followed the Guru out of the room. When the Guru returned to the assembly with a bloodied sword, he asked for another volunteer. Another man followed. This was repeated three more times, until at last the Guru emerged with a clean sword and all five men alive and well. Those five volunteers would become the first disciples of the Khalsa, the martial community within the Sikh religion, and would come to be known as the Panj Piare, or the Cherished Five. Despite the centrality of this group to modern Sikhism, scholarship on the Panj Piare has remained sparse. Louis Fenech's new book examines the Khalsa and the role that the the Panj Piare have had in the development of the Sikh faith over the past three centuries.