Be'er hagolah : the classic defense of rabbinic Judaism through the profundity of the Aggadah (ArtScroll Judaica classics)

The illustrious Maharal of Prague is best known as the creator of the famous Golem, but that was hardly his greatest accomplishment. He composed an enormous body of dazzling literature that forms the essence of much Torah thought to this day. In Maharal's time -- four hundred years ago -- scoffers raised the same objections that their successors do today: They claimed that the Sages denigrate ordinary people! That the Sages invent fanciful tales! That the Sages read their own meanings into the Torah! And the list goes on. Sound familiar? Maharal's Be'er HaGolah responds to all the charges, with brilliance and depth. The world has changed a lot in the last four centuries, but the thought of the Maharal remains fresh and electrifying. In fact, he may well be the most influential figure in modern Torah thought, the seminal foundation influencing many of today's most distinguished thinkers. In this book Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein performs a remarkable feat: He presents the Maharal without dilution and with perfect fidelity to the original, but with the modern reader in mind. It's not a translation. It presents the Maharal's thought in today's terms and with modern examples, but with perfect fidelity to the ideas of the master. Rabbi Adlerstein is a distinguished scholar with an unusual ability to take classic ideas and terminology and present them in understandable, contemporary terms. In Los Angeles, he has had a distinguished career as a skilled and respected teacher and an eloquent and thoughtful spokesman for Torah Judaism. His writings stamp him as a skilled expositor of Jewish ideas. This foray into the world of the Maharal raises Rabbi Adlerstein to a new pedestal.