Why does Hebrew mat­ter? Hebrew Roots, Jew­ish Routes address­es the many ways engage­ment with Hebrew enrich­es Jew­ish­ness cul­tur­al­ly and reli­gious­ly. Whether you know Hebrew or not, Jere­my Ben­stein takes us on an enter­tain­ing jour­ney into the sig­nif­i­cance of Hebrew for Jews and Judaism. Since flu­en­cy is a dis­tant goal for many, Ben­stein shows us anoth­er approach: engag­ing with Hebrew by focus­ing on the three-let­ter Hebrew roots that are the build­ing blocks of the lan­guage, see­ing these ​“nuggets of knowl­edge” as a vehi­cle to enrich­ing our con­nec­tion to Judaism and its val­ues. For instance, tzedakah, usu­al­ly trans­lat­ed as ​“char­i­ty,” comes from jus­tice (tzedek) and respon­si­bil­i­ty, not gen­eros­i­ty, thus encap­su­lat­ing an entire eco­nom­ic world view. With many wit­ty exam­ples, Ben­stein shows us both why and how to con­nect to Hebrew, this under­ap­pre­ci­at­ed trea­sure of ours. Hebrew is both ancient and evolv­ing, holy and dai­ly, trib­al and glob­al. More than just a book about a lan­guage, this is a book about the Jew­ish peo­ple and the chal­lenges we face as seen through our shared lan­guage, Hebrew.