The Talmud and the Internet: A Journey Between Worlds
The Talmud and the Internet, in which Jonathan Rosen examines the contradictions of his inheritance as a modern American and a Jew, is a moving and exhilarating meditation on modern technology and ancient religious impulses. Blending memoir, religious history and literary reflection Rosen explores the remarkable parallels between a page of Talmud and the homepage of a web site, and reflects on the contrasting lives and deaths of his American and European grandmothers.
Readers of any religion should find The Talmud and the Internet fascinating.
— Herbert Mitgang, Chicago Tribune
“The Talmud and the Internet is a lyrical meditation about the quest to illuminate what has come before us in order to live wisely….[It] is a journey not only between worlds but among the great questions and the great souls who have considered life’s purpose amid often horrifying evidence.”
— Los Angeles Times
“Once in a great while you will come upon a little book which signals instant recognition: that it has the quality of permanence, that just as you cherished it in the reading, so will newer generations. Jonathan Rosen’s The Talmud and the Internet is such a book.”
— Cynthia Ozick
“Reading and re-reading Rosen’s little book I found myself thinking, to my own surprise, of E.M. Forster….All through this humane and gentle book one is reminded of the famous epigraph of Forster’s Howard’s End: ‘Only connect.’ Connecting is a practice encouraged by both the Talmud and Internet, and by Jonathan Rosen as well.”
— Frank Kermode, The New York Times Book Review