Back to the Sources is a collection of essays by eminent scholars in their field on the major texts of the Jewish religious tradition. The topics covered include, Bible, Talmud (includes Mishnah and medieval law codes), midrash, medieval biblical commentaries, medieval philosophy, kabbalah (sans pop stars), hasidic tales, and the siddur (the prayerbook). The essay on the Bible covers the literary aspects of modern scholarship. The Talmud and midrash essays help the reader understand the classical rabbinic mindset that give rise to those literatures - that is, every word and every letter means something, and therefore the parallelism (which to a modern literary theorist is an aspect of style) of the biblical text, becomes a phenomenon to be explained. The essay on medieval biblical commentaries is an excellent survey of all the major figures and amounts to an introduction to the Mikra'ot Gedolot (the biblical text printed with a collection of commentaries on the same page to facilitate study). The essay on medieval philosophy traces the development of Jewish philosophical works and presents the main figures. The essay on kabbalah is the weakest of the collection. It presents only a very superficial account of the major figures, the "official" (Gershom Scholem) story of its evolution, and a very limited introduction to the system of sfirot. It mentions not at all the four worlds, a major failing. The essay on Hasidic tales is excellent.

Each essay has a "Where to go from here?" section that points the reader towards translations of the primary sources and other books and articles. The sources cited date primarily to the 1980s and earlier, and that particular section is in need of an update. There are also some glaring omissions in the references. For example, in biblical poetry, James Kugel's The Idea of Biblical Poetry is the gold standard, and not referenced. Nor when discussing Biblical narrative is Julius Wellhausen's Prolegomena to the Study of Israel, which is the foundation text for the Documentary Hypothesis.

This work is a kind of reader's guide to reading traditional sources. One chapter for Torah, another for Tannach as a whole, another for Mishnah, another for Gemara. Then there are chapters on Kabbalah, Hasidut, the Siddur. Each of the chapters can be read individually. There are also helpful illustrations for instance of the text of the Gemara.
The essays are written with intelligence and elegance.
The work is highly recommended especially for those who are interested in learning more about how to read the Jewish literary sources.

Northrop Frye, Harold Bloom, and Robert Alter ALL say something good about this book on the back. Those are three giants, each to be listened to closely.

"Back to the Sources" provides a superb introduction to the classic Jewish texts: the Bible, Talmud, Midrash, medieval Bible commentaries (legal codes are discussed in the chapter on Talmud), medieval philosophical works, Zohar and other kabbalistic works, Hasidic teachings, and the prayer book. Each chapter is written by a different scholar, who is an expert in the text or texts at hand. All of the authors write clearly for non-experts and provide superb guidance, whether you are planning to start reading the texts or simply want to know more about them. Each chapter ends with helpful suggestions for further reading (although these are now somewhat out of date, since the book was published in 1984).

There is an interesting divide half way through the book: the first four chapters (on Bible, Talmud, Midrash and commentaries) focus on the literary characteristics of those texts: how they are organized, how style contributes to meaning, what knowledge they assume, how to read them, and so on. Each chapter does an excellent job of walking you through an extended passage of the text under consideration. Other than these analyses of particular passages, however, there is no systematic attempt to discuss or summarize the content of the work, much less consider its meaning or impact.

The last four chapters, on the other hand (covering philosophy, kabbala, Hasidic teaching and the Siddur), are much more focused on content, on what the texts are saying and what impact that has had in the development of Judaism. These chapters still include close-reading of significant passages of text, but they also provide extraordinarily helpful overviews of what these texts, as a whole, are trying to accomplish. The chapters on medieval philosophy and kabbala are particularly good -- even if I never get around to studying these texts, I now feel like I have a reasonably good grasp of what they are about.

I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in these texts or in Jewish intellectual history, even if you have no plans to study the texts themselves.

This book, of many that I have read, deals most concretely and clearly with the major texts of Judaism. I consider it a must-read for all who are interested in learning more about the often obscure texts and their authors.

What's the difference between "Mishna" and "Midrash"? Is "Talmud" the same as "Gemara"? What's a "Tanach"?

If you're just getting started in Judaism, it's easy to get bogged down with terminology. There are lots of books on each of these subjects, but very few that cover ALL the classic Jewish sources.

This book provides an excellent introduction, not only to WHAT the texts are, but HOW they are used and studied. Holtz takes us on a step by step journey through a sample section of each text, demonstrating, in a beginner-friendly way, the ways that scholars derive modern meaning from ancient wisdom.

Holtz never condescends -- he makes the rare assumption that the reader is highly intelligent, well-read in other areas and has become interested in learning more about Judaism. Very much recommended before delving deeper into any one Jewish text.