Dust-jacket notes about this book:
 
FRONT FLAP:
 
Here, for the first time in book form, are all the words of the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) listed according to their numerical value. This reference book, invaluable for Rabbis, scholars, and students, is a unique tool for studying the Torah. The use of gematria (the numerical values of Hebrew words) as a means to understand the Torah is not new. Throughout the Talmud, the Midrash, as well as the mystical works of the Kabbalah, the application of gematria is not uncommon. There is an allusion to gematria even in the Torah: "Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day... ki lo davar reik hu mikem, for it is not a vain thing for you" (Deut. 32:46-47). The letters in the words kilo davar reik hu mikem are, in fact, numerically equivalent to the Hebrew letters in the word gematria. Numerical interpretations of the Torah are found not only in an Aggadic-Midrashic sense, but also in a Halachic-legal context. For example, by means of gematria, the Rabbis have found supportive evidence to establish that there are 39 categories of forbidden labor on Sabbath; that the amount of challah to be separated from the dough is 1/43 of the total mass, and that the knife used for ritual slaughter should have the length of 14 fingers. (continued on rear flap)
 
REAR FLAP:
 
(continued from front flap) In whatever way gematria is applied, the motive is always to understand the Torah better. As the renowned 16th-century mystic R. Moshe Cordovero put it, 'Every single letter of the Torah, and its tittle, and its dot, and its note, are filled with supernal meanings!" The Spice of Torah-Gematria is an in­valuable addition to anyone's library.

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front cover and spine
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Front cover
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The Talmud & The Internet

Author: Jonathan Rosen
Format: Hardcover. Size: about 13.6cm W x 20.6cm H. Pages: 133.
Six untitled chapters, no contents page, no index, no bibliography.
Publisher: Continuum Books.
ISBN: 0-8264-5534-4

Regardless of its name, this book has very little to do with science or technology. The Internet is evoked as a metaphor for connectedness and little more than that. I bought it thinking that I might learn something about the intersection of Torah knowledge and the Internet but the book's contents ensured that that would never happen.