Cross-posted from the Jewish Book Council Blog and MyJewishLearning.

In her last post, Ellen Frankel looked at how to make the Bible PG. She is guest-blogging all week for MJL and JBC.

What is Jewish literature?

What makes a book or its writer Jewish? What’s “in” and what’s “out” of the contemporary Jewish syllabus? Who gets to make such judgment calls? Should they even be made at all?

Some time ago, an Orthodox scholar I know suggested a different way of thinking about this issue. He pointed to a distinction between books that Jews “read” and those that they “study,” i.e., secular vs. sacred texts. In my mind, this distinction largely hinges on the question of the authority we invest in books. Those that we read—for pleasure, for a course, to make ourselves culturally conversant—exercise little authority over us. But those that we study—for moral instruction, for answers to ultimate questions, to inspire us and develop our character—guide our lives and matter profoundly to us. If a particular book is itself in conversation with other Jewish books, we then become part of that conversation as it becomes part of us. If a book is not in dialogue with other Jewish books, then our reading will lead us away into a different conversation. Whether or not we ever find our way back into the Jewish conversation is anyone’s guess.

To read the full post, visit The Jewish Book Council Blog!