Tracts on the Sabbath

A great mental workout! Michael L. Rodkinson’s Tract Sabbath, is a massive compilation of Jewish laws and traditions. The first translator of the Babylonian Talmud into English, Rodkinson raises the mundane subjects dealt with, infusing them with energetic intellectual deliberations, wit and wisdom. This array of information on day-to-day Jewish life includes household activities, cattle, clothing, cuisine, gardening and hunting as well as medical recipes, besides fire-fighting and hygiene and apparently arbitrary Talmudic regulations that arose from political persecution. A prayer to end the study of any tract is appended.