BROOKLYN WRITERS PRESS AUTHOR
RAV SEAN GORMAN
RABBI SEAN GORMAN, known as Rav Sean, received rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1998. He began his rabbinate at Pearl Harbor, serving four and a half years as a chaplain in the United States Navy before entering civilian rabbinic life. He is married to Rabbi Jennifer Gorman, Rav Jen. Together, they have three adult children and two cats. Rav Sean also owns three bicycles and hopes someday to follow the women's Tour de France, ideally ending each day at a café with coffee, a pain au chocolat, and a view of the peloton passing by.
Connect with Rav Sean
"Using neckties to convey a weekly Torah message on the parsha is a unique and fun way of opening up the world of Torah study to those who might not normally be so inclined. You will find his Torah both entertaining and thought-provoking. A great addition to your library, and even more importantly, your Shabbat table."
— RABBI N. DANIEL KOROBKIN
Mara d'Asra, Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation
RABBI SEAN GORMAN'S BOOKS
THE AUTHOR'S BOOKSHELF
At the Brooklyn Writers Press, we invite our authors to share the books
they treasure most. This gives readers a glimpse into each author's personal
bookshelf, along with the inspiration behind the books we publish.
Great Biblical Commentators
by Dr. Avigail Rock
The Rabbi's Necktie makes mention of numerous commentators. They lived at different times and in different places. They were poets and physicians, astronomers and vintners, a royal treasurer and even one prisoner. Dr. Avigail Rock's Great Biblical Commentators explores their lives and commentaries, showing profoundly varied personalities, priorities, and methodologies.
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The Cantillation of Scripture
by Mordechai Breuer
Rav Mordecai Breuer published a thorough study on the development, function, and mechanics of Biblical chant. I worked through the original Hebrew over a couple of years. The book has since been translated into English (I still would have read it in the Hebrew). Chant is vital. It adds aesthetic to our foundational text. It also eases the process of memorization, vital in any oral tradition.
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Correlations between biblical accentuation and traditional jewish exegesis
by Simcha Kogut
As one might guess from the previous two books, my areas of interest include both commentary and the art of Biblical chant. Professor Simcha Kogut's book Correlations Between Biblical Accentuation and Traditional Jewish Exegesis explores the relationship between these two topics. Presently, this book exists only in Hebrew.
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the Haggadah
The most produced book in Jewish history is the Haggadah, the book that the Jewish community uses at Passover to recount the departure from Egypt. There is no one Haggadah. Haggadot are the product of multiple communities throughout the world and throughout the centuries. The compelling story of the Sarajevo Haggadah bears witness to the efforts of all the religious communities of the region, including a Muslim museum director who risked life and limb to prevent it from falling into enemy hands during World War II. The ubiquitous Maxwell House Haggadah was originally product promotion. Rav Jen and I have over 200 Haggadot.
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the US army field Manual
The US Army Field Manual is one of my desert island books. Good literature must share shelf space with practicality. I am a retired US Navy chaplain. My training is in rabbinics and chaplaincy. I have not the faintest clue how to survive in the field. The Sailors and Marines at my side provide vital support.
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Sailing true north
Leadership is difficult to define and quantify. It is nonetheless a fitness report category for military officers. Admiral James Stavridis, USN (Retired) wrote Sailing True North: Ten Admirals and the Voyage of Character. One of the pieces for Necktie focuses on leadership and my military commission. As much as my rabbinical training has influenced me as an officer, my commission has influenced my understanding and interpretation of the Torah.
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Road to valor
I enjoy cycling, enough so that my headshot for this book is while wearing a bicycle necktie. The story of two-time Tour de France winner Gino Bartali is compelling. Bartali was a deeply religious Catholic. Working with his priest, he smuggled documents in the frame of his bicycle to assist in the rescue of the Jews of Italy. Bartali is honored as a Righteous Gentile at Yad VaShem, the memorial to the Holocaust in Israel. His story is in Road to Valor.
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the pun also rises
Puns show up often in Necktie, both in my writing and in the blurbs that friends and colleagues have offered. We assume that puns are only glib remarks, amusing only to the person who uttered them. This is a limited understanding of puns. The wordplay involved in giving names throughout Genesis is classic literary use of the pun. The Pun Also Rises explores the history, neurology, and varied uses of such wordplay. Had I read The Pun Also Rises prior to writing Necktie, there would have been differences in the manuscript.
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To kill a mockingbird
"Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'." 40 years after first reading Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, that line still gives me chills. Whether reading the book or watching Gregory Peck's dignified portrayal of Atticus Finch, I await Reverend Sykes's gentle poignancy with bated breath. I return to Mockingbird often. It is one of my desert island books.
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the raven
Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven is a master class in the use of rhyme and meter. It is also useful for showing the inherent challenges in the art of translation. Let us consider the opening line: "Once upon a midnight dreary..." I can render that as "(i)t was a dark and stormy night." Without leaving the original language of Raven, this translation casts the rhyme and meter out into "the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore." Much of my rabbinic work is in Hebrew. Basic definitions attempt to convey the original meaning of text. Alas, semantic depth cannot transition from an ancient Semitic language to a modern European language.
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zahav
Zahav is a wonderful cookbook. In keeping with current trends in cookbooks, this one is so much more than recipes. Food is not just sustenance. It is about family and identity, about culture and connection. The authors of Zahav explore the eclectic cuisine of Israel, expertly tugging at my soul and making me want to catch a flight to Ben Gurion just to go for a falafel.
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casablanca
I often watch Casablanca. The scene when the orchestra plays La Marseillaise marks Rick's transformation from cynic to patriot. My understanding is that the director had to call Humphrey Bogart back to film the simple act of Rick nodding his head.
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