Starting with Galois and his contribution to the evolving subject of group theory Yaglom gives a beautiful account of the lives and works of the major players in the development of the subject in the nineteenth century: Jordan, who was a teacher of Lie and Klein in Paris and their adventures during the Franco-Prussian War. Monge and Poncelet developing projective geometry as well as Bolyai, Gauss and Lobachevsky and their discovery of hyperbolic geometry. Riemann's contributions and the development of modern linear Algebra by Grassmann, Cayley and Hamilton are described in detail. The last two chapters are devoted to Lie's development of Lie Algebras and his construction of the geometry from a continuous group and Klein's Erlanger Programm unifying the different approaches to geometry by emphasizing automorphism groups. These last pages are definitely the climax of the book.

All of this only occupies the first half of the book, the second half consists of extensive notes to the former, intended to help the reader deepen her understanding of the subject in a second reading.

I think this book is very readable and should be accessible to any interested reader who has a slight understanding of the terms used so far in this review. In particular I enjoyed the details of the lives of the mathematicians involved and how the whole story seemed to culminate in the works of Lie and Klein.

This is a radical breakthrough translation of an earlier work by the Ari -Rabbi Isaac Luria, the founder of the Tree of Life school. Check out, the Kabbalah of Kissing, the Gay tikkun and the thoughtfull readers notes at the end of every chapter.This is first time someone has translated an entire mystical text with an ongoing commentary and comprehensive Lexicon of Kabbalah in the back.Professor Miles Krassen of Oberlin College has written, "Even advanced scholars in Jewish mysticism can learn soemthing new from Klein's insightfull approach."

I have been delving into my Jewishness for the past six years, and have read a lot of books about Jewish holidays, ritual observance, and life cycle events. I had come to the point where a lot of books I picked up were repetitive. I just wasn't getting anything new out of them. This book was recommended to my by a rabbi and has definitely taken my learning to a new level. As a teacher of several Introduction to Judaism classes, this is also a GREAT reference for answering new questions posed by my students. Two notes: This is dense, and is not suited to a cover-to-cover reading. It's a reference. Second, Klein uses Hebrew extensively. I would not recommend it to someone who does not read Hebrew. You don't need to be fluent, but an ability to read and a vocabulary of 250 words or more would be a base requirement, I would say.

This book, by the late Rabbi Isaac Klein, of blessed memory, is the only fairly comprehensive guide to Jewish religious practice issued by the Conservative movement. As such, it is an indispensable reference to the practicing Jew. Readers will find that their is, in fact, very little difference between the modern Orthodox Halachah and that set forth by the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly. The difference is, of course, in the theological approach.

Rabbi Klein's book,which has been updated and supplemented a number of times to reflect changes since its publication in 1979, is a good source for the torah, talmudic and traditional approaches to all areas of Jewish practice. The book includes one of the most comprehensive approaches to the Kosher laws I have ever seen. It also covers synagogue practice in great detail, differentiating between laws (halachah) and customs which have taken on the effect of laws. (minhag) I myself pick up the book for review whenever necessary, for example, reviewing the section on brit milah (the circumcision) after my son's birth. This is not a book for beginners who have no familiarity with Jewish practice. It is a good stepping stone for the beginner who would like to have more comprehensive knowledge and understanding of Jewish practice. I learned more in this book than in six years of Hebrew School. For the beginner or for someone looking for a much easier book of this nature I recommend Rabbi Kotlach's "Jewish Home Advisor". For someone looking for a more comprehensive work and not ready to tackle the Shulchan Aroch, this is a wonderful resource.

Every serious open minded Jew should be familiar with this book. Every Conservative Jew should own it. More importantly, it is a book that every Conservative Rabbi should urge his/her congregants to own. That won't happen- but you should still buy this book and tell your friends to buy it too.