Hearts & Minds II

An Original Look at Jewish Festivals and Significant Jewish Dates
Rabbi Pini Dunner

Hardcover |ISBN 978-1-7361890-1-6|411 pp. US $24.95 | CAN $31.95 | UK ₤18.95

Publication Date: 1st August 2023

“Rabbi Dunner has just published Hearts and Minds II which is a compilation of essays on the Jewish holidays throughout the year. Torah knowledge is blended with anecdotes and ideas, in a book which must be described as a “page turner.” Rabbi Dunner skillfully gathers the most unusual off the beaten path stories associated with Jewish life worldwide. He crafts each story in a way that you emerge with a sense of history and inspiration.” Rabbi Heshie Billet, Emeritus Rabbi, Young Israel of Woodmere

 

In this new collection of articles, Rabbi Pini Dunner looks at Jewish holidays and other important dates in the Jewish calendar. In his introduction, Rabbi Dunner writes about his own memories and personal experiences, which underpin, for him, every special date in the Jewish calendar: “Memories turn each festival and each significant Jewish date into a combination of history, tradition, Jewish laws and customs, memories, nostalgia, and new experiences. And the result is so much greater than any one of those individual components. Every wine stain on the pages of the Haggadah we use. Every forgotten High Holidays schedule that we left tucked into the pages of the machzor. The special yomtov-connected drawings that our kids gave us when they were at pre-school, that suddenly reappear at the relevant time of year. The smell of yomtov food cooking in the kitchen. Each one of these and so many more – too many to mention – are the kaleidoscope of our Jewish experience which add color, context, and meaningfulness to the festival experience, augmenting the practical aspects of the festivals and notable Jewish dates that punctuate our lives.”

RABBI PINI DUNNER hails from a prominent German rabbinic dynasty that miraculously survived theHolocaust and reestablished itself in London, England. He is an acknowledged expert on antiquarian Hebrew books and manuscripts and is frequently consulted by libraries, academics, dealers, and private collectors. Rabbi Dunner currently serves as the Senior Rabbi at Beverly Hills Synagogue and resides in Beverly Hills, California, together with his wife and children.