Abarbanel (1437-1508, Spanish statesman, philosopher and commentator)

Israel Abrahams (1858-1925)

Achad Ha’Am (Asher Zvi Hirsh Ginsberg, 1856-1927)

AJOP (Association for Jewish Outreach Programs)

Akeidat Yitzchak (R. Isaac Arama, 1402-1494, Spain, philosophical-homiletical commentator)

Rabbi Akiva (Akiva ben Yosef was a leading Jewish scholar and Tannaitic sage of the Mishna, d. 138 CE

Rabbi Joseph Albo (Spanish-Jewish philosopher and theologian, c. 1380-c. 1444)

Alexander the Great (356 B.C.E. – 323 B.C.E.)

Rabbi Nison Alpert (prominent talmudic scholar, 1927-1986, rosh yeshiva of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and first rosh kollel of Kollel L’Horaah)

Alshich (a popular commentary on the bible by R’ Moshe Alshich of Safed, 1508-1593?)

Rabbi Hayyim Angel (1960-, is a popular contemporary Bible scholar and lecturer. He has published many scholarly articles and is the author or editor of sixteen books)

Anshei Knesset Hagdollah (the Men of the Great Assembly – Anshei Knesset Hagdollah, was a synod of 120 scribes, sages and prophets in the period from the end of the Biblical prophets, to the early Hellenistic period, 516 BCE – 332 BCE)

Aruch HaShulchan (Commentary on the Code of Jewish Law by Yechiel Michel Epstein, a leading rabbi and posek in Lithuania, 1829-1908)

Ateret Z’kaynim (a commentary on a section of the Shulchan Aruch by Menahem Mendel Auerbach, ?-1689) cites the Sefer HaRokeach (a guide to Jewish law by Rabbi Eleazer ben Yehudah, c. 1165-c.1230)

Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (1910-1995, renowned Jewish leader, authority on Jewish law, and head of Yeshiva Kol Torah in Jerusalem)

Avnei Azel (work attributed to Rabbi Alexander Zusia Friedman, 1897-1943, rabbi and Torah commentator in pre-war Warsaw, author of the popular anthology, Wellsprings of Torah)


Avot/Ethics of our Fathers-a Mishnaic compilation of the ethical teachings and maxims passed down from the early sages

Avot d’Rabeinu Natan 23 (one of the 14 so-called “Minor Tractates,” a collection of Talmudic statements which forms a commentary to the Mishnah Tractate Avot)

Rav Elazar Azikri, (1533-1600, Halachist and mystic of Safed),

Baal HaTanya (Rabbi Shneur Zalma of Liady, 1745-1812, founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hassidic movement)

Ba’al HaTurim (Jacob ben Asher, c.1275-1340, Germany and Spain, famed halakhist, author of a comprehensive commentary on the Torah)

Baal Shem Tov (R. Israel ben Eliezer, 1700-1760, the founder of the Chassidic movement)

Bahag (Ba’al Halachot G’dolot, Babylonian codifier, 9th Century?)

Bernard J. Bamberberger, (1904–1980, a major American Reform rabbi, leader, scholar, author and translator)

Be’er Mayim Chaim (R. Chaim ben Betzalel, 1515-1588, Chief Rabbi of Worms, older brother of Maharal)

Rabbi Aryeh Ben David (author of Around the Shabbat Table and was a member of the Senior Faculty at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem)

Ben Sirah (200-175 BCE, a work of ethical writings attributed to Shimon ben Yehuda ben Eliezer ben Sira of Jerusalem)

Rabbi Meir Bergman (1930- Leading Israel rabbi, Rosh Yeshiva of Rasbi, author of Shaarei Orah on the Torah)

Eliezer Berkovits (1908-1992, a rabbi, theologian and educator in the tradition of Orthodox Judaism)

*Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (1740-1809, one of the most influential Chassidic leaders in central Poland and the Ukraine)

Rabbi Saul Berman (b. 1939, prominent Modern Orthodox rabbi and scholar)

Bet HaLevi (Commentary on the Pentateuch by Rabbi Yosef Dov HaLevi Soloveitchik, 1820-1892, Rosh Yeshiva in Volozhin and later Rabbi of Slutzk and Brisk)

Philip Birnbaum (1904-1988, American religious author and translator)

Martin Buber (1878–1965, an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue)

Rabbi Simcha Bunam (1765-1827, R’ Bunam Bonhart of Peschischa, one of the main Hasidic leaders in Poland)

Rabbi Isaac Caro (1458-1535, uncle and teacher of Rabbi Joseph Caro, author of the Code of Jewish Law, the Shulchan Aruch)

Rabbi Joseph Caro (1488-1575, compiler of the Code of Jewish Law, the Shulchan Aruch)

Umberto Cassuto (1883–1951, a rabbi and Biblical scholar born in Florence, Italy, also known as Moshe David Cassuto)

Chatam Sofer (1762-1839, Rabbi Moses Schreiber of Pressburg, leader of Hungarian Jewry)

Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, Yosef Hayim (1835 –1909), a leading Sephardic rabbi in Baghdad, was an authority on halakha (Jewish law), and Master Kabbalist)

Rav Chaim of Volozhin (1749-1821, founder of the famous Yeshiva of Volozin)

Chazon Ish (Rav Avraham Yishayahu Karelitz, 1878-1953, acknowledged as a foremost leader of Jewry, the great Jewish sage who led the religious community in Israel in the 1940s and 1950s)

The Chidah (Rabbi Chaim David Joseph Azulai, 1724-1806, great religious scholar in Israel and Europe)

Chidushei HaRim (work authored by Rabbi Yitzchak Meir of Ger, 1799-1866, founder of the Ger Chassidic dynasty)

Rabbi Abraham Chill (1912-2004, a well known American pulpit rabbi, he was the first rabbi at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York)

Chofetz Chaim (R. Yisrael Meir HaKohen of Radin, 1838-1933, a foremost leader of Jewry, famous for his saintly qualities)

Rabbi Chaim of Chernovitz (1760-1817, a Hassidic rabbi, and disciple of both the Maggid of Mezritch and Rabbi Yechiel Michel of Zlotchov. Author of the classic Hassidic Torah commentary, Be’er Mayim Chayim, he lived a good part of his life in Jerusalem, where he died)

Chozeh of Lublin (R. Jacob Issac Horowitz, 1745-1815, the Seer of Lublin, Father of Chassiduth in Poland)

The Code of Jewish Law (Shulchan Aruch, compiled by Rabbi Joseph Caro, 1488-1575)

Chasdai Ibn Crescas (d. 1412? Spanish philosopher, theologian and statesman)

Da’at Sofrim (an extensive compilation of scriptural commentaries, authored by Rabbi Chaim D. Rabinowitz, 1909-2001, Lithuanian born rabbi, later moved to Israel)

Da’at Z’kenim (collection of comments on the Pentateuch by the Tosafists of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries)

“Derech Eretz Zuta,” a non-canonical tractate of the Babylonian Talmud, is a collection of ethical precepts from the Talmud and the Midrashim, reflecting the earliest ethical views of the rabbis during the Talmudic period

Dubno Maggid (R. Yaakov Krantz, 1741-1804, the most famous of the Eastern European maggidim–itinerant preachers)

Dr. Yisrael (Shay) Eldad (1919-1996, noted Israeli independence fighter and Revisionist Zionist philosopher)

Rabbi Yehuda Leib Eiger of Lublin (1816-1888, grandson of Rabbi Akiva Eiger)

Rabbi Elimelech of Lida (Elimelech Kaminetsky, d. 1875, rabbi of Lida, Belorussia)

Rabbi Jacob Emden (1697-1776, a leading German rabbi and Talmudist, who championed Orthodox Judaism in the face of the growing influence of the Sabbatean movement)

Epic of Gilgamesh (perhaps one of the oldest written stories, recorded in ancient Sumaria, somewhere between 2750 and 2100 BCE)

Rabbi Baruch HaLevi Epstein (1860-1941, the famed author of the Torah Temimah)

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (1895-1986, Rosh Yeshiva of Mesivta Tifereth Jerusalem in New York City and leading halachic decisor of his time)

Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Ferber (1879-1966, Lithuanian born rabbi, author and scholar, served as rabbi of the West End Talmud Torah Synagogue in Soho, London for over 40 years

Rabbi Yaakov Filber (contemporary Jerusalem scholar, a leading disciple of Rabbi Kook)

Rabbi Ben-Zion Firer (1914-1988, rabbi of Nir Galim, Israel, renowned for his erudite homilies)

Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried (Hungary, 1804-1886, author of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, the abridged Code of Jewish Law)

Rabbi Mordechai Gifter (1915-2001, Rosh Yeshiva of the Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland, OH)

Rabbi Y.L. Graubart (1861–1937, Polish born scholar and halakhic authority, served as rabbi in Russia, Poland and Toronto, Canada)

Gur Arye (supercommentary on Rashi, authored by Rabbi Judah Lowe, 1526-1609, the Maharal of Prague)

Ha’amek Davar (commentary on the Torah by the Netziv, R. Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin, 1817-1893)

Rabbi Yose Ha’Gelili (Jose the Galilean was a Tannaitic sage of the Mishna, who lived in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE)

Haketav Vehakabbala (comprehensive commentary of the Torah by R. Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg, 1785-1865, Chief Rabbi of Koenigsberg in Germany)

Rabbi Menachem HaKohen (1932-, an Israeli rabbi, writer, thinker and former politician)

Rabbi Judah (Yehuda) HaLevi (c.1080-c.1145, philosopher and most famous Jewish liturgical poet in medieval Spain)

Hammurabi Code of ancient Babylonia (Early Babylonian legal code, 1792-1750 BCE)

Rabbi David Hartman (1931-2013, was an American-Israeli author, leader and philosopher of contemporary Judaism, founder of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, Israel)

Professor Isaak Heinemann (German born scholar who immigrated to Israel where he specialized in general and Jewish philosophy, 1876-1957)

Rabbi Joseph Hertz (Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth, 1872-1946)

King Hezekiah (13th king of Judah, c. 715-686 BC., considered a very righteous and one of the most prominent kings of Judah.)

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888, great Bible commentator and leader of German Jewry)

Hizzekuni (Hezkiah ben Manoah, French exegete of the 13th century)

Rabbi Dovid Tzvi Hoffman (1843–1921, leading German rabbi, Torah scholar and Bible commentator)

Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner (1907-1980, Rosh Yeshiva of Mesivta R. Chaim Berlin in New York and a foremost thinker and leader of Jewry)

R. Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089-c.1164, Spanish Bible commentator)

Benno Jacob (1862-1945, a liberal rabbi and Bible scholar)

Lord Immanuel Jakobovits (1921–1999, was the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1967 to 1991. Prior to this, he had served as Chief Rabbi of Ireland and as rabbi of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue in New York City)

Louis Jacobs (1920-2006) was the founder of Masorti (Conservative) Judaism in the United Kingdom, and a leading writer and theologian.

Flavius Josephus (Jewish historian, 37 CE- circa 100 CE)

Julius Caesar (Roman Emperor, 100 B.C.E. – 44 B.C.E.)

Rabbi Zvi Dov Kanotopsky (d. 1973, popular American synagogue rabbi and scholar)

Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz (1878-1953, brother of the Chazon Ish, acknowledged as a foremost leader of Jewry)

K’tav Sofer (Rabbi Abraham Shmuel Binyamin Sofer of Pressburg, 1815-1879, leader of non-Chassidic Hungarian Jewry)

Eliyahu Kitov (1912-1976, one of Israel’s most acclaimed religious writers)

Kli Yakar (R. Shlomo Ephraim Lunshitz, c.1550-1619, Rosh Yeshiva of Lemberg and Rabbi of Prague, author of a popular bible commentary)

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, 1865-1935)

Rabbi Aharon Kotler (1891-1962, a prominent leader of Orthodox Judaism in Lithuania, and later the United States, where he founded Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood Township, New Jersey)

The Kotzker Rebbe (Rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgensztern of Kotzk, 1787-1859, one of the leading Chassidic Rebbes in the mid-nineteenth century, known for his pithy comments)

Resh Lakish (Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, 3rd Century Amora, talmudic sage)

Rabbi Yechezkel Landau (1730-1793, the chief rabbi of Prague and influential authority in Jewish law, best known for his work Nodah b’Yehuda, a title by which he is also known)

Rabbi Eliyahu Lapian (1876-1970, a prominent leader of the Mussar movement in England and Israel)”

Rabbi Zev Leff (Rabbi of Moshav Matityahu, Israel, an American-born rabbi and popular Torah educator)

Nehama Leibowitz (famed Israeli Bible teacher, 1905-1997)

Rabbi Aryeh Levine (1885-1969, the Tzaddik, righteous man, of Jerusalem, known for his volunteer chaplaincy at hospitals in Israel)

Rabbi Dr. Aharon Lichtenstein, (1933–2015, was a leading (Centrist) Orthodox Jewish rabbi, leader and scholar in the United States, and later in Israel when he moved there in 1971 to become the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion)

Senator Joseph Lieberman (1942- Former Senator from the state of Connecticut, Vice Presidential candidate)

Shadal, Shmuel David Luzzatto, (Italian Jewish scholar and philosopher, 1800-1865)

Magen Avraham (basic commentary on Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim by R. Avraham Gombiner of Kalisch, Poland, 1634-1682)

Maggid of Koznitz (Rabbi Yisrael of Koznitz, 1740-1814, Hassidic master best known for his oratory skills)

Maggid of Mezeritch (R. Dov Ber of Mezeritch, c. 1700-1772, a major disciple of the Baal Shem Tov and an early leader of the Hassidic movement)

Maharik (1420-1480, Joseph Colon Trabotto, considered Italy’s foremost scholar and Talmudist)

Rabbi Meir (Also known as Rabbi Meir Baal Ha’neis, a leading Jewish scholar and Tannaitic sage of the Mishna, of the mid-second century CE, the author of all anonymous Mishnaic statements

Michtav M’Eliyahu – Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (1892-1953) was an Orthodox rabbi, Talmudic scholar, and Jewish philosopher of the 20th century

Midrash Talpiot- A famous collection of midrashim by Rabbi Eliyahu HaKohen of Izmir, arranged by the order of topics according to the alef bet.

The Maharal (Rabbi Judah Loew, 1525-1609, Rabbi of Prague, leading scholar, mystic and philosopher)

Rabbi Yehuda Leib Maimon (1875-1962, prominent rabbi and Religious Zionist leader)

Maimonides (the Rambam, the great Medieval Jewish philosopher, codifier and physician, 1135-1204)

Rabbeinu Gershom of Mainz (c. 960-1040, one of the leading rabbinic authorities of his time)

The Malbim (Rabbi Meir Yehudah Leibish, 1809-1879, leading Torah scholar in Germany, Romania and Russia)

May’am Lo’ez (an extensive Ladino commentary on the entire Hebrew Bible, 17-18th century)

Mechilta (Halachic midrash of Tanaitic origin to the Book of Exodus)

Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Rimanov (1745–1815, an important Hasidic Rebbe and leader in Poland)

Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786, German-Jewish philosopher)

Meshech Chochmah (commentary on the Pentateuch by R. Meir Simcha HaKohen of Dvinsk, 1843-1926, author of the classic work Ohr Sameach)

Rabbi Meyuchas ben Eliyahu (apparently of Greek origin, he was one of the most important Bible commentators and Hebrew grammarians in the Middle Ages)

Midrash (parables and legends that are found in the Talmud itself, often commenting on Biblical verses or anecdotes regarding the lives of the sages, offering moral exhortations, and practical advice in various spheres of life

Midrash HaGadol (an anonymous 14th century compilation of aggadic midrashim on the Pentateuch)

Midrash Lekach Tov (work compiled by Rabbi Toviah HaGadol of Greece and Bulgaria, 1036-1108)

Midrash Or Ha’ah’faylah, (a Yemenite manuscript cited by Nehama Leibowitz

Midrash Pesikta Rabba Kahana –Ancient Midrashic collection on selected portions of the Pentateuch as well as on some Haftarot attributed to Rav Kahana, probably the second century Amora.

Midrash Rabbah (A compendium of rabbinic expositions on many books of the Bible, which incorporates folklore, historical anecdotes, moral exhortations, and practical advice in various spheres of life.)
Rabbi Meir of Premishlan (1783-1850, famed Hasidic leader in the Ukraine)

Midrash Sechel Tov (Midrash on Genesis and Exodus, compiled by Menachem ben Shlomo in the 12th century)

Midrash Tanchumah(homiletic commentary on the Torah, attributed to the school of R. Tanchumah bar Abba, late 4th century, ACE)

Midrash Tannaim (exegetic commentaries on the legal content of Deuteronomy, recovered from fragments of Midrash haGadol)

Mishnah Berurah (Commentary on the first part of The Code of Jewish Law by the Chofetz Chaim-Rabbi Yisrael Meir HaCohen of Radin, 1838-1933)

Mizrachi (R. Eliyahu Mizrachi of Constantinople, 1450-1525, author of the basic supercommentary on Rashi’s Torah commentary)

Sir Moses Montefiore (Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 24 October 1784–28 July 1885, was a British financier and banker, activist, and philanthropist).

Rabbi Elie Munk (1900-1980, Rabbi in Paris, author of Call of Torah, a commentary on the Torah)

Rabbi Yehudah Nachshoni (1915-1982, Leader of Agudath Israel in Israel, Bible scholar, popular editor, writer and thinker)

Reb Naphtali of Rophshitz (1760-1827, one of the leading scholars of his generation and a crucial figure in the development of Galician Hassidism)

The Netziv (R. Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin, 1817-1893, author of Ha’amek Davar, a commentary on the Torah)

Noam Megadim (Eliezer Ish Horowitz of Tarnogrod, d. 1809, a disciple of R’ Elimelech of Lizhensk)

Ohr HaChaim (commentary on the Pentateuch by the famed Kabbalist and Talmudic scholar R. Chaim ben Attar, 1696-1743)

Onkelos (c.35 C.E.-120 C.E., author of the definitive Aramaic translation of the bible, Targum Onkelos)

Rabbi Ephraim Oshry (1914-2003, Rabbi in Kovono, Poland)

Ovadiah of Bartenura (1445-1515, Italian rabbi best known for his popular commentary on the Mishnah)

Oznayim LaTorah (commentary on the Torah by Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin, 1881-1966, who was a leading rabbi in Lithuania and subsequently in Israel)

Panim Yafot (Rabbi Pinchas Halevi Horowitz, 1730-1805, Chassidic leader, Rabbi of Frankfort, Germany)

Peleh Yoetz (Rabbi Eliezer Papo, 1785-1828, Bulgarian Jewish scholar and leader)

Peninim on the Torah (an anthology of insights on the weekly parasha, compiled by Rabbi A. L. Scheinbaum

Pharisees & Sadducees –During the final two centuries of the 2nd Temple until its destruction (70 ACE) a dispute arose between the two dominant groups of Jews who had adopted strongly divergent philosophical views. The Sadducees (Tzidukim) refused to accept that human fate was at all influenced by G-d, and embraced only the Written Code of the Five Books of Moses, rejecting the Oral Code Tradition of the rabbis. The Pharisees (Perushim), strongly embraced the belief in G-d’s direct intervention in human lives and accepted the Written Torah as understood through the Oral Code rabbinic interpretationn

Rabbi Shimshon Dovid Pincus (1944-2001, an American-born rabbinic scholar who served as the Chief Rabbi and head of the Yeshiva of Ofakim, Israel)

Pirkei D’rav Eliezer (an early Midrash composed about 100 CE)

W. Gunther Plaut (1912-2012, rabbi of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto and Bible scholar)

Pri Tzedek (Rabbi Tzadok HaCohen of Lublin, 1823-1900)

Rabbeinu Bachya (1260-1340, Bachya ben Asher, was author of a popular commentary on the Pentateuch)

Rabbi Chaim Dov Rabinowitz (1909-2001, Lithuanian born rabbi, later moved to Israel, author of Da’at Sofrim, an extensive compilation of scriptural commentaries).

The Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, 1160-1235, Provence, leading Bible commentator and grammarian)

Radbaz (David ben Zimra, 1479-1573, spiritual leader of Egypt for over 40 years)

The Ralbag (R’ Levi ben Gershom, Gersonides, 1288-1344, of Provence, biblical exegete and philosopher)

Rama/Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, 1530-1572, Cracow, Poland, author of HaMapah, the Ashkenazic commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, the Code of Jewish Law)

Ramban (Nachmanides, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, 1194-1270, Spanish Torah commentator)

RaMCHaL (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, 1707-1746, great Italian Jewish ethicist and kabbalist)

The Ran (Rabbeinu Nissim ben Gerondi, 1320-1380, physician, Talmudic commentator and philosopher in Spain)

Rashba (Rabbi Shlomo ibn Aderet, 1235-1319, leading Spanish rabbi of his generation)

Rashbam (Rabbi Samuel b. Meir, French exegete, c.1085-1174, grandson of Rashi)

Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, 1040-1105, foremost commentator on the Bible)

Rava (the leading Talmudic authority in 4 th century Babylon)

Recanati (1250-1310, renowned commentator and only Italian rabbi of his time to devote the majority of his writings to Kabbalah)

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin (1940- Founding rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue, Chief Rabbi in Efrat, Israel)

The Rif (Rabbi Issac Al-fasi, 1013-1103, Fez, Morocco and Cordova, Spain)

Ritva (Rabbi Yom Tov ben Avraham al-Asevilli, 1248-1330, leading Spanish rabbi)

Rizhiner Rebbe (Rabbi Israel, Chassidic Rabbi in the Ukrainian village of Rizhin, 1798-1850)

Gaon of Rogatchov (Rabbi Yoseif Rosen, 1858-1936)

Trude Weiss-Rosmarin (1908 – 1989) German-American writer, editor, scholar, and feminist activist. In 1939 she founded the Jewish Spectator, a quarterly magazine, which she edited for 50 years)

Rabbi Zave Rudman (well-known Torah scholar and teacher in Israel)

R. Saadiah Gaon (882-942, Saadiah ben Joseph, great Babylonian leader, scholar and philosopher)

Rabbi Yonason Sacks (Contemporary Rabbi in Passaic, NJ and Rosh Yeshiva at Beis Midrash l’Talmud, a division of Lander College)

Rabbi Yisroel Salanter (1810-1883, founder and spiritual father of the Mussar/Ethics movement)

Rabbi Chaim of Sanz (1793–1876, famous Hasidic rabbi and the founder of the Sanz Hasidic dynasty, known as the Divrei Chaim after his magnum opus on Jewish law)

Saducees see Pharisees

Rabbi Elhanan Samet (1953- popular Israeli Bible scholar, teacher and author)

Nahum M. Sarna (1923-2005, Modern Biblical scholar)

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994, was the seventh and last Rebbe-leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. Born in the former Russian Empire, he came to the US in 1941 and assumed the leadership of Chabad-Lubavitch in 1951)

Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn (1880-1950, served as the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe from 1920-1950. After many years of fighting to keep Orthodox Judaism alive from within the Soviet Union, he was forced to leave. He continued to conduct the struggle from Latvia, and then Poland, and eventually the United States, where he spent the last ten years of his life)

Rabbi Shimon Schwab (1908-1995, communal leader in Germany and the United States. From 1958 until his death, he was the Chief Rabbi of the German Jewish community of Khal Adath Jeshurun in Washington Heights, Manhattan. He wrote several popular works on Jewish thought.)

Seder Olam (Ancient sourcebook of Jewish chronology cited by the Talmud, attributed to the Tanna, Rabbi Yosef b. Chalafta)

Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter of Ger, 1847-1905, Chassidic leader, author of Sefat Emet al HaTorah)

Sefer Ha’Chinuch (the classic work on the 613 commandments, their rationale and their regulations, by an anonymous author in 13th century Spain)

Sforno (Obadiah ben Jacob, 1470-1550, Italian Bible commentator)

Rabbi Elazar Shach (1899-2001, Co-Dean of Ponovezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, Israel and leader of the Lithuanian Haredi Jews of Israel)

Rabbi Yehuda Meir Shapiro (1887-1933, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin and the founder of the Daf Yomi, the monumental project to encourage daily study of the Talmud)

Shelah HaKadosh (R. Yeshayah haLevi Hurwitz, 1560-1630, famed rabbinic leader, scholar and kabbalist of Poland, Frankfurt, Prague, and Jerusalem)

Shem MiShmuel (R. Shmuel of Sochachov, 1856-1920, author of many famous Chassidic discourses on the Pentateuch and other subjects)

Rabbi Shmelke of Nikolsburg (1726-1778, of Nikolsburg, Moravia, one of the great early Chasidic Rebbes)

Sifra (a halachic legal Midrash/commentary on the book of Leviticus)

Sifre (Midrash Halakhah on Numbers and Deuteronomy, composed by the Tanaaim, the rabbis of the Mishnah)

Siftei Chachamim (a popular supercommentary on Rashi’s Torah commentary, written by Rabbi Shabtai Bass, 1641-1718)

Siftei Cohen (Mystical commentary on the Pentateuch by R’ Mordechai HaKohen of Safed, 16th century)

Rabbi Aaron Soloveitchik (1917-2001, a renowned Orthodox Rosh Yeshiva, and scholar of Talmud and halacha),

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903-1993, original Talmudic scholar, thinker and leader)

Rabbi Yosef Ber Soloveitchik (great 20th century scholar of Brisk and Jerusalem, also known as Rav Berel Soloveitchik)

Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin (1881-1966, famed European rabbi, leader of Agudath Israel in Israel)

Benedict Spinoza (1632–1677, considered one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy)

HaRav Moshe Swift (Rabbi Moshe Swift, 1907-1984, head of the Beit Din [Rabbinic Court] of London from 1964)

Tacitus (Roman historian, 56-120 CE)

Tanna D’bai Eliyahu Rabba, 28 (A midrash, consisting of two parts, Rabbah and Zutra, dating back to the 3rd century, whose final redaction took place at the end of the 10th century CE.)

Targum Yerushalmi (a western Aramaic translation of the Torah from the land of Israel),

Targum Yonatan (Aramaic paraphrase of the Pentateuch, attributed by some to Yonatan ben Uziel, the disciple of Hillel)

The Taz (Rabbi David HaLevi Segal, 1586–1667, prominent Polish halachic authority and commentator on the Shulchan Aruch)

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin (born 1948, an American rabbi. He has authored more than 15 books, including volumes about Jewish ethics, Jewish literacy)

Rabbi Nossen Telushkin (1881-1970, Russian-born Chassidic scholar who was a leading expert in Jewish law in Brooklyn, NY)

Tifferet Shlomo (Shlomo Hacohen Rabinowich, 1803-1866, Chassidic leader, Rabbi of Radomsk, Poland)

Tochachat Mussar, (Yehuda Leib Yosselowitz, commentary on Maimonides, published c. 1916)

Torat Cohanim (a legendary commentary on the bible)

Tosafot (Medieval commentators on the Talmud)

Tosafot Yom Tov (commentary on the Mishnah written by Bohemian rabbi and Talmudist, Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller, 1578-1654)

Rabbi Naftali Trop (1871-1930, the Rosh Yeshiva of the Chofetz Chayim’s Yeshiva in Radin)

The Tur (1275-1340, Rabbi Jacob the son of the Rosh, author of an early version of the Code of Jewish Law)

Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski (1930- American Hasidic rabbi and a psychiatrist specializing in substance abuse)

Rebbetzin Feige Twerski (well-known Jewish educator, lecturer and advice columnist from Milwaukee, WI)

Tzror Hamor (Torah Commentary by Rabbi Abraham Sabba, 1440-1510, Spain, Portugal and North Africa)

Reb Yitzchak of Varkeh (1779–1848, the first Chassidic Rebbe of Varkeh)

Vilna Gaon (Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman Kremer, 1720-1797, Talmudist, halachist, kabbalist, and the foremost leader of non-Hassidic Jewry during his lifetime)

Elie Wiesel (1928-2016, Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor)

Rabbi Berel Wein (popular contemporary author and teacher)

 Elimelech Weisblum of Lizhensk (1717–1787), Polish rabbi and one of the great founding Rebbes of the Chasidic movement,

Rav Asher Weiss (American-born scholar, now residing in Israel, and popular Torah lecturer throughout the world)

Ya’avetz (Jacob Emden, 1697-1776, a  leading German rabbi and Talmudist, who championed Orthodox Judaism in the face  of the growing influence of the Sabbatean movement)

Yafei Tohar (Commentary on much of Midrash Rabbah by Rabbi Samuel Yaffeh Ashkenazi, 1525-1595, Turkey

Yalkut Shimoni (best-known and most comprehensive Midrashic anthology, covering all of the Hebrew scriptures, attributed to Rabbi Shimon Hadarshon, 13th century Frankfurt

Yalkut Yehuda (a commentary on the Torah and rabbinic writings by Yehuda Leib Ginsburg, 1885–1946, rabbi in Yaroslav, Russia and Denver, CO)

Rabbeinu Yechiel (Yechiel ben Joseph of Paris, major Talmudic scholar d. 1260 or 1264)

B. Yeushon (1889-1942, popular Polish Jewish author, journalist and publicist the compiler of Meotzarenu Hayashan)

Rabbi Yisrael of Rhizin (one of the foremost Chassidic leaders in Poland, 1797-1851)

Rabbeinu Yona of Gerondi (Jonah b. Abraham, c.1200-1263, Spanish rabbi, author and moralist)

Rabbi Yaakov Yosef (Rabbi Jacob Joseph of Polonne, 1710-1784, a major disciple of the Baal Shem Tov)

Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai (c. 70 CE, prominent sage who established the center of Jewish life in Yavneh following the destruction of the Second Temple)

Rabbi Meshulam Zusha of Hanipol or Meshulum Zusil of Anipoli (1718–1800), Reb Zusha, Reb Zushe, The Rebbe Reb Zusha was an early Hasidic luminary and well-known tzaddik)

Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin (1888-1978, prominent Talmudic scholar, writer and religious Zionist leader of the 20th century)

Rabbi Alexander Ziskind (d. 1793, pietist and kabbalist, Grodna, Belarus)

Zohar (the basic work of Jewish mysticism attributed to the 2nd century sage, R. Simon bar Yochai, and his disciples)

Zohar Chadash (a Kabbalistic Midrash)

Dr. Avivah Zornberg (1944- ,Scottish-born, contemporary Torah scholar and author)