Morality for Muggles
Ethics in the Bible and
the World of Harry Potter
Rabbi Moshe Rosenberg
Whether you are a student of religious learning, a fan of Harry Potter or just someone who likes to consider the important questions of life"this book is for you! Moshe Rosenberg, a rabbi and educator, uses Jewish tradition and Harry Potter as the twin prisms through which to examine everything from friendship to free choice, prejudice to prophecy and rule-breaking to repentance. Along the way he demonstrates how popular literature like Harry Potter can be used to teach timeless, ethical concerns, from coping with loss to affirming human dignity in ourselves and others.
About the Author
Rabbi Moshe Rosenberg is the spiritual leader of Congregation Etz Chaim of Kew Gardens Hills, New York, and a Judaic Studies educator at SAR Academy in Riverdale, New York, as well as a former high school English teacher. His writings on religion, ethics and Jewish law have appeared in The Forward, The Jewish Week, The Los Angeles Jewish Journal and The Journal of Halakha and Contemporary Society, among other national publications, and his Harry Potter Club at SAR was featured in the New York Times. He lives in Queens with his wife Dina and their seven children.
Praise for Morality for Muggles
Rabbi Moshe Rosenberg has crafted a free-flowing work that seamlessly overlaps popular modern literature with timeless and authentic Jewish values. Hopefully, children and adults alike will be drawn in by their love of Harry Potter, only to be exposed to another Jewish world even more magical in nature.
~ Rabbi Steven Burg, International Director, NCSY
With added input from some of his fifth-to seventh-grade students, a rabbi and private-school teacher reflects on values in the Harry Potter series and finds parallels in the Torah and Talmud. Taking life's eternal questions as his purview (Sorry, not witchcraft and magic wands), Rosenberg begins with personal behaviors ( Breaking the Rules, Manners ) and broadens the perspective as he goes to, ultimately, Death, Good and Evil and Love. He makes comparisons throughout between Harry s breaking rules for need, not fun and Elijah s technically illegal showdown with the prophets of Ba al on Mount Carmel; between the trios of Harry, Ron and Hermione and Moses, Aaron and Miriam; the bittersweet repentances of Snape and of David. They are only sometimes a little stretched and, except when he discounts the racist overtones some readers perceive in Rowling s house elves (but does rebuke her for her treatment of the gnomes), clearly reasoned overall. Closing with 20 pages of generally engaging student essays ( Even though what Harry did was a little braver, what Moses did was a little more sensible ) and a gathering of specific Bible references, the author gently eases even less contemplative readers into considering, as one chapter head puts it, What Really Matters.
Similar elements drawn from distinctly disparate sources, presented with a beguiling blend of good humor and serious intent.
~ Kirkus Review
Ethics in the Bible and
the World of Harry Potter
Rabbi Moshe Rosenberg
Whether you are a student of religious learning, a fan of Harry Potter or just someone who likes to consider the important questions of life"this book is for you! Moshe Rosenberg, a rabbi and educator, uses Jewish tradition and Harry Potter as the twin prisms through which to examine everything from friendship to free choice, prejudice to prophecy and rule-breaking to repentance. Along the way he demonstrates how popular literature like Harry Potter can be used to teach timeless, ethical concerns, from coping with loss to affirming human dignity in ourselves and others.
About the Author
Rabbi Moshe Rosenberg is the spiritual leader of Congregation Etz Chaim of Kew Gardens Hills, New York, and a Judaic Studies educator at SAR Academy in Riverdale, New York, as well as a former high school English teacher. His writings on religion, ethics and Jewish law have appeared in The Forward, The Jewish Week, The Los Angeles Jewish Journal and The Journal of Halakha and Contemporary Society, among other national publications, and his Harry Potter Club at SAR was featured in the New York Times. He lives in Queens with his wife Dina and their seven children.
Praise for Morality for Muggles
Rabbi Moshe Rosenberg has crafted a free-flowing work that seamlessly overlaps popular modern literature with timeless and authentic Jewish values. Hopefully, children and adults alike will be drawn in by their love of Harry Potter, only to be exposed to another Jewish world even more magical in nature.
~ Rabbi Steven Burg, International Director, NCSY
With added input from some of his fifth-to seventh-grade students, a rabbi and private-school teacher reflects on values in the Harry Potter series and finds parallels in the Torah and Talmud. Taking life's eternal questions as his purview (Sorry, not witchcraft and magic wands), Rosenberg begins with personal behaviors ( Breaking the Rules, Manners ) and broadens the perspective as he goes to, ultimately, Death, Good and Evil and Love. He makes comparisons throughout between Harry s breaking rules for need, not fun and Elijah s technically illegal showdown with the prophets of Ba al on Mount Carmel; between the trios of Harry, Ron and Hermione and Moses, Aaron and Miriam; the bittersweet repentances of Snape and of David. They are only sometimes a little stretched and, except when he discounts the racist overtones some readers perceive in Rowling s house elves (but does rebuke her for her treatment of the gnomes), clearly reasoned overall. Closing with 20 pages of generally engaging student essays ( Even though what Harry did was a little braver, what Moses did was a little more sensible ) and a gathering of specific Bible references, the author gently eases even less contemplative readers into considering, as one chapter head puts it, What Really Matters.
Similar elements drawn from distinctly disparate sources, presented with a beguiling blend of good humor and serious intent.
~ Kirkus Review