Avraham Avrum Burg is one of Israel s best-known social critics. Author, politician, businessman, television personality and popular Bible scholar, he has served as speaker of Israel s parliament, chairman of the executive of the World Zionist Organization-Jewish Agency for Israel and one of the early activists of the Peace Now protest movement. Born in Jerusalem to one of Israel s leading Orthodox political families, Burg served as a lieutenant in the paratroop brigade during the 1982 Lebanon War. His speech that September at the mass peace rally following the notorious Beirut massacre electrified Israelis and confirmed him as an essential voice of his nation s conscience. During the mid-1980s he served as Diaspora affairs adviser to Prime Minister Shimon Peres and offered a weekly Friday evening Torah commentary on Israel Television that made him one of his country s most familiar and popular public figures. In 1988 he was elected to the Knesset and went on to serve two terms, emerging as a champion of religious pluralism, women s rights and the environment as well as Israeli-Palestinian peace. He resigned from the legislature in 1995 to run for chairman of the World Zionist Organization-Jewish Agency, traditionally considered a backwater for political has-beens, and returned to the Knesset as speaker in 1999. He retired from politics in 2004 to take up his present role as author and gadfly. Today, from his home in the village of Nataf in the Jerusalem hills, where he live

"Turn the Torah over and over again, the ancient rabbis said, for everything is in it. Avraham Burg shows the way in his unique and valuable Torah commentary, displaying a profound mastery of classical Jewish learning and secular knowledge, informed by the events of our world and sensitive to the psychological intricacies of our lives. All these qualities combine in a truly insightful, original volume. It will reward the reader greatly!" -- Rabbi David Ellenson, President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

"Avraham Burg is a rare and crucial figure. Not only does he use Torah to challenge contemporary values; he uses contemporary values to challenge Torah, calling on us to make Judaism relevant to the democratic experiment. It is a call of desperate importance. I hope that we on this side of the ocean summon the strength to respond." -- Peter Beinart, Associate Professor of Journalism and Political Science, City University of New York; author of "The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris"

"Avraham Burg turns his brilliant mind and incisive pen to the Torah itself, giving us a bold commentary that is erudite, compassionate and revolutionary. This is Torah for the twenty-first century, addressing questions that meeker commentators fear to touch. Read this commentary, struggle, and grow with Avraham Burg, week by sacred week." -- Rabbi Amy Eilberg, leader of interfaith dialogue programs, St Paul Interfaith Network, St Paul, Minnesota; first woman ordained as a Conservative rabbi