Query letter

Although by training a physicist (Phd NYU), for 30 years or so I have been speaking informally on shabbat at various venues, presenting my own (non-science-related) insights - 'vorts' - derived from Chumash narratives.

*** [I published several "Torah & Science" articles over the years [PROVIDE LINKS TO BH; BB lectures at YU/Stern, museum etc], and lectures I gave at various annual conventions of the AOJS (Assoc. of Orthodox Jewish Scientists), in Russian (Odesa), ..Yosef videos, Purim megillah etc

Editing: Although I have not used AI for these postings, I would certainly want to have that aid in preparing a book for publication. During this past year I have used quite extensively - for research purposes and consultations rather than for editing - Claude, Gemini(was Bard), and of course ChatGPT, and so I am very familiar with how it could be used in preparing a book (as you obviously know, if given the total document it can eg suggest chapter titles, themes, create a TOC, provide references for further reading, identify duplication and over-long sentences and suggest modifications etc; it can even make market suggestions and provide other higher-level input).

Potential market considerations: It might interest you to know that many of the members of these groups, and a large proportion of those responding favorably to my posts, are not Jewish, and live in various countries.

Eventually the website can serve as a sort of companion to a book, featuring additional material, not included in the book or which was written after publication, and also can serve as a vehicle for enabling readers of the book to comment, or even a chat where readers of the book can discuss the material with other readers, etc.

A Facebook page can be created to enable readers of the book to comment, and to see the comments of others.

Market: The content - totaling perhaps about 100 book-pages - is geared to an adult, intelligent, thoughtful audience, interested in original commentary which assumes the divine origin of the Torah and involves the 4-levels of meaning (פרד"ס), and so the book will be of interest to anyone is interested in what these stories mean to Orthodox Jews whether  or not they themselves are Orthodox or Jewish. Note that my commentary sometimes involve very non-literal and non-rational 'pardes' levels, assuming an omniscient omni-powerful narrator, however it may be that there is a market of Jewish readers who might not necessarily believe that indeed such exists, but do want to taste some contemporary Traditional (& somewhat spiritual) Jewish commentary. 

Though based mainly my own insights, the analyses/"novelae" ('vorts') are heavily based on Rabbinic sources and are intended to be compatible with Orthodox Judaism (but in many cases the temperament and originality make it not necessarily appropriate for the 'Haredi' audience). 

The proposed book-content can be arranged in various ways, as on the site or very differently:

i) As on the site: according to the weekly portion and holidays;

There can be a separate compendium for the commentaries relevant to the holidays and shabbat, with commentary also on Megilat Esther, and a section being appropriate for the seder as a companion to the haggadah; 

ii) Arranged around the specific themes I point out on one of the pages of my site, themes which run through events recorded at various junctures in the chumash. 

Even in the arrangement according to parsha, for each 'vort' the relevant 'theme' can be pointed out to the reader, so that as they progress through the year they begin to fully appreciate the interconnections between the stories;

iii) The totality can inter alia also constitute an introduction to various philosophical and metaphysical aspects of Jewish thought, both for Orthodox Jews and for non-Jews (eg Christians and B'nai-Noach) interested in Torah-based Judaism, or for potential converts. Indeed the content can be arranged to serve as such, and to be titled for example "An introduction to [some of the] Jewish metaphysical principles & cosmic dynamics underlying Biblical narratives as understood by Traditional (Orthodox) Judiasm"   [Note: Specifically, narratives in the chumash/"Five Books of Moses") .

Also, many of the 'vorts' can be presented as being about personal spiritual and character-development, and a number are about dreams and dream interpretation, with notes about how the protagonists of these Biblical stories may have identified the meaning of the dreams in the stories, and some are presented as a sort of guide how to interpret seemingly random events in one's life etc. I had even thought of combining some of the material into a book titled something like "Quantum kabbalistic dream/reality (self-)actualization" (this topics relate to several of my published science & religion articles).

Note that the style or tone is mostly informal, as appropriate for FB posts, but that can of course be transformed for publication as a book. Also, the inspirational 'message' added at the end of many of the posts - designed for the membership of that FB group - can be modified to fit the intended audience of the book, or deleted.

There is far more material available than was posted to that group, some of it requiring greater background on the part of the reader which were best rendered in Hebrew  - see eg my posts on the website "HIDUSH", presented in two collections: 1,  2 . Any of these can be presented in English as well and some might be appropriate for the book, perhaps in a specially-marked section (e.g. appearing each 'week' after the more introductory-level material for that parsha). Besides thus giving the book an additional audience of more advanced readers, it can also serve as material for the beginning reader's second and third year's reading - converting it to a sort of multi-course textbook - so that the content is learned over a period of several years as the reader obtains a deeper familiarity with the stories. 

Where this material was presented over the years:

1. first via two published articles in JBQ ; i: https://jbqnew.jewishbible.org/assets/Uploads/16/jbq_16.1.pdf p51   ; ii: https://jbqnew.jewishbible.org/jbq-past-issues/1990-1999/202-winter-19911992/ -->  https://jbqnew.jewishbible.org/assets/Uploads/20/jbq_20.2.pdf  p115;  

2. then via an email list (several 'vorts' each week, as text then as a file);

3. later I compiled the material onto the website mentioned above, with a separate page for each week, and instead of sending the material itself I emailed links to the relevant page on the site weekly;

4. A few years later the Hebrew version appeared on Hiddush (see the links given above;  1,  2 )

5. Some years ago I began - as mentioned above - to post a 'vort' weekly on various FB groups, generally selecting from the less technical material and adding a 'message'; 

6. For many years I have been giving short dvar-Torahs on shabbat, in various venues:

      i. weekly at the home of Rabbi Machlis in Jerusalem (geared to the Jewish and many non-Jewish guests there). 

        ii. For a few years more recently, weekly also at the large Shabbat-guest table in the home of the (Russian-speaking) Lerner family nearby (many of the students of Rebbetzin Lerner's seminary in Jerusalem are weekly guests there, as well as other native Russian speakers); 

      iii. Occasionally elsewhere.

Thanks so much,

Dr Avi Rabinowitz  (Phd physics NYU, no present affiliation there)