But, I wonder what the stats are among women. Girls aren't taught a Judaism that is as heavily centered around being able to sit still and learn. Sitting still skills are still valued more than in most communities, as is reading, but perhaps the amount of attention given to Chessed allows a wider range of girls to feel this is something they could succeed at.
The book definitely uses girls as case studies also, but it's definitely an interesting question. I'd imagine davening is a big focus for women still so inability to do so "well" could be bad. It could also be that MO values women sitting and learning more and therefore ironically is quicker to make them feel unwelcome if they cannot do so than more right wing variations of Orthodoxy. But I'd love to find more written on it.
I think we are doppelgangers. This review was on point, except I was raised frum. I also enjoyed the book greatly.
My primary criticism with this book is not its content but its publisher. This book desperately needs a mainstream Orthodox Jewish publisher so it can reach the wider chareidi world, who would benefit from this hook greatly. Mosiaca Press may be a good choice. It also needs editing out some illustrations from movies and replacing them with examples more pertinent to the wider Orthodox community. There is no reason that this book needed to be published by a niche modern orthodox press. There's nothing objectionable in it to the Chareidi world (save a few movie related examples) and would desperately fill a need there. By publishing it with Kodesh Press, they have unfortunately doomed this essential work to oblivion among much of the Orthodox Jewish community.
There's a lot that goes into choosing publishers. Kodesh has a lot going for it, particularly when it comes to the affordability and ease of online purchase but they're definitely ideologically niche. Would that really by itself prevent a chareidi audience from purchasing it?
Yes. Generally, the big Lakewood bookstores order every new book published by Artscroll, Feldheim, Mosaica Press, Judaica Press, Hachai, etc. because they know the content conforms to their standards. In contrast, a book published by Koren or Kodesh will rarely get ordered, except by special request, and will generally undergo some vetting before being allowed on bookshelves.
Not every book from Mosaica Press. In fact, I had a number of stores tell me that they are very careful which Mosaica books they run. Some stores feel they don't screen offerings very much, and not every title is worth it. At least, that was the story in 2019 - 2020.
Mosaica outsources distribution to Feldheim. I thought my own book would therefore be everywhere. When my neighborhood store didn't have it, that was their explanation. And so after that, I asked at other stores. (Which is why, I said "2019 - 2020", Widen Your Tent <https://amzn.to/3HcNiZP> came out in 2019, so that's when I did my checking.)
"Why didn't you do more research before choosing publishers?" I didn't have a choice of publisher, though, if I was going to be ethical about it. My writing the book was R Yaakov Haber's idea, and he owns Mosaica.
That has not been my experience in Lakewood. Shmuel Philip's Talmud Reclaimed, which contains many controversial claims, is regularly available in Lakewood due to it being published by Mosaica. Contrast that with Kosher ADHD or any book by Koren, even uncontroversial ones.
Ash, as I wrote in a comment in another thread, "... Although what I wrote wasn't correlated to anyone's frumometer readings."
My bottom line was that not all publishers get your book everywhere. Some mean that your books gets more or less vetting than from other publishers. That doesn't mean that the demand for vetting is because the publisher is strongly identified with a specific hashkafic tribe.
Rabbi Haber is pretty yeshivish, my haskamos were from yeshivish rashei yeshiva (R Lopiansky and R Shimon's great-grandson and RY of the successor to Grodno, R Zelig Epstein). Unless someone learned that I was from YU, but didn't know that my career there was mostly R Nissan Alpert and R Dovid Lifshitz, there is no reason for anyone in Lakewood to assume Widen needed pre-screening.
And I am sorry that my relying on a comment made elsewhere in the discussion kept my intent unclarified for someone just focusing on this thread.
Also, I think it's quite possible that after Mosaica published R Asher Weiss shlit"a's sefer, bookstores no longer have as negative an opinion of their quality control. I didn't check it out, and I kept my claim to the years when I was keeping tabs.
Thanks for this review, I was really curious about the book.
My pleasure!
Dyslexia also correlates with going OTD.
But, I wonder what the stats are among women. Girls aren't taught a Judaism that is as heavily centered around being able to sit still and learn. Sitting still skills are still valued more than in most communities, as is reading, but perhaps the amount of attention given to Chessed allows a wider range of girls to feel this is something they could succeed at.
The book definitely uses girls as case studies also, but it's definitely an interesting question. I'd imagine davening is a big focus for women still so inability to do so "well" could be bad. It could also be that MO values women sitting and learning more and therefore ironically is quicker to make them feel unwelcome if they cannot do so than more right wing variations of Orthodoxy. But I'd love to find more written on it.
I think we are doppelgangers. This review was on point, except I was raised frum. I also enjoyed the book greatly.
My primary criticism with this book is not its content but its publisher. This book desperately needs a mainstream Orthodox Jewish publisher so it can reach the wider chareidi world, who would benefit from this hook greatly. Mosiaca Press may be a good choice. It also needs editing out some illustrations from movies and replacing them with examples more pertinent to the wider Orthodox community. There is no reason that this book needed to be published by a niche modern orthodox press. There's nothing objectionable in it to the Chareidi world (save a few movie related examples) and would desperately fill a need there. By publishing it with Kodesh Press, they have unfortunately doomed this essential work to oblivion among much of the Orthodox Jewish community.
There's a lot that goes into choosing publishers. Kodesh has a lot going for it, particularly when it comes to the affordability and ease of online purchase but they're definitely ideologically niche. Would that really by itself prevent a chareidi audience from purchasing it?
Yes. Generally, the big Lakewood bookstores order every new book published by Artscroll, Feldheim, Mosaica Press, Judaica Press, Hachai, etc. because they know the content conforms to their standards. In contrast, a book published by Koren or Kodesh will rarely get ordered, except by special request, and will generally undergo some vetting before being allowed on bookshelves.
Not every book from Mosaica Press. In fact, I had a number of stores tell me that they are very careful which Mosaica books they run. Some stores feel they don't screen offerings very much, and not every title is worth it. At least, that was the story in 2019 - 2020.
Mosaica outsources distribution to Feldheim. I thought my own book would therefore be everywhere. When my neighborhood store didn't have it, that was their explanation. And so after that, I asked at other stores. (Which is why, I said "2019 - 2020", Widen Your Tent <https://amzn.to/3HcNiZP> came out in 2019, so that's when I did my checking.)
"Why didn't you do more research before choosing publishers?" I didn't have a choice of publisher, though, if I was going to be ethical about it. My writing the book was R Yaakov Haber's idea, and he owns Mosaica.
Furthermore, I have seen your book in many Lakewood stores.
That has not been my experience in Lakewood. Shmuel Philip's Talmud Reclaimed, which contains many controversial claims, is regularly available in Lakewood due to it being published by Mosaica. Contrast that with Kosher ADHD or any book by Koren, even uncontroversial ones.
Ash, as I wrote in a comment in another thread, "... Although what I wrote wasn't correlated to anyone's frumometer readings."
My bottom line was that not all publishers get your book everywhere. Some mean that your books gets more or less vetting than from other publishers. That doesn't mean that the demand for vetting is because the publisher is strongly identified with a specific hashkafic tribe.
Rabbi Haber is pretty yeshivish, my haskamos were from yeshivish rashei yeshiva (R Lopiansky and R Shimon's great-grandson and RY of the successor to Grodno, R Zelig Epstein). Unless someone learned that I was from YU, but didn't know that my career there was mostly R Nissan Alpert and R Dovid Lifshitz, there is no reason for anyone in Lakewood to assume Widen needed pre-screening.
And I am sorry that my relying on a comment made elsewhere in the discussion kept my intent unclarified for someone just focusing on this thread.
Also, I think it's quite possible that after Mosaica published R Asher Weiss shlit"a's sefer, bookstores no longer have as negative an opinion of their quality control. I didn't check it out, and I kept my claim to the years when I was keeping tabs.
Ah, that makes sense. I didn't realize Mosaica was universally accepted (I'm very glad to hear though!).
Note: you posted this reply before I posted my more negative assessment. Although what I wrote wasn't correlated to anyone's frumometer readings.
Just explaining to avoid confusion among future readers.