Hebrew Book List

Here's a list of Hebrew books you might find interesting for further study.

Hebrew Dictionaries

The Oxford English-Hebrew dictionary is a great one because it has a lot more modern expressions than many others, but it's only one way: English to Hebrew. Unfortunately if you want Hebrew to English translation then you need to supplement it with another dictionary.

The Oxford English-Hebrew/Hebrew-English dictionary offers translations in both directions and more modern expressions than older dictionaries. It's still heavier on the English side than the Hebrew but it may be the better option if you want a single dictionary.

Siddurim: Prayer Books

The siddur (סִדוּר)'s name comes from a root meaning order, because an early purpose of the siddur was to define an order for saying prayers in a group. The Artscroll prayer books or siddurim are one of the most popular.

The Torah / Tanakh

The Tanakh or Mikra is the full Jewish Bible, written almost completely in Hebrew with some Aramaic. The name Tanakh (תַּנַ"ךְ) is an acronym where each letter stands for a word. The first word, Torah תּוֹרָה), actually means "teaching" and refers primarily to the Pentateuch or five books of Moses (Mosheh): Breshit (Genesis), Shmot (Exodus), Vayikra (Leviticus) Bəmidbar (Numbers) and Devarim (Deuteronomy). The second word is Neviim (נְבִיאִים, prophets), named for the section that includes prophets such as Joshua and Ezekiel. The third word is Ketuvim (כְּתוּבִים, writings) which includes psalms and books such as Esther.

The 1985 JPS Edition is interesting because it represents 30 years of review of the English translation of the Hebrew text by a body of Jewish scholars, resulting in a very different translation from earlier versions.

The Stone edition Tanakh is another great resource with both English and Hebrew.