With characteristic boldness, Robert Sacks offers a narrative path through themes, events, and actions in Genesis that repeatedly find their parallels and consequences in later books of the Torah and the Early Prophets. In light of the compelling unity these patterns convey, Sacks proposes to view Genesis not only as the first of the Five Books of Moses (the Torah), but as the opening work of a single composition consisting of Genesis through II Kings: the TANAR, whose name stems from a Hebrew acronym.

Sacks's thorough knowledge of the biblical text in Hebrew is brought to bear in his broad-ranging examination of key words and phrases in light of the way the Hebrew words are used elsewhere in the biblical text. When a lot is riding on a word, Sacks searches for the closest English meaning with full nuances and resonances: a worthwhile search when these may be clues to the biblical author's understanding of larger issues.

The Lion and the Ass are characters in I Kings Chapter 13. Sacks sees the Lion as typifying those towering biblical figures who overturn in order to preserve--figures like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, and Josiah. The Ass, also essential, typifies the many in-between individuals like Isaac, figures who resolutely carry on the burden of tradition.

Sacks argues that if we are to understand God's promise in the context of Israel's fall at the hands of Babylon, we must reinterpret the biblical author's intent. The promise must include Israel's ability to withstand years of captivity under foreign domination in Babylon.

Early versions of The Lion and the Ass first appeared serialized in the journal Interpretation, later under the title A Commentary on the Book of -Genesis (Edwin Mellen Press, 1990). In the intervening years, sadly, pirated versions, at once sloppy and incomplete, have been circulating on the internet. Kafir Yaroq is greatly pleased to make this book, newly and extensively revised by Dr. Sacks, available in a form worthy of its author and its readers.

This slender book opens a path through Maxwell's massive Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism that attains two important objectives: first, in Maxwell's own words and mathematics, it presents an overview of the revolutionary field theory of electricity and magnetism, from the most basic phenomena to the complete theory; and second, it shows, using additional original papers by Maxwell, how the four Maxwellian equations familiar to later physicists emerge from the more discursive general theory. The final part of the path, leading from the Treatise to the equations, passes, surprisingly and delightfully, through Maxwell's presentation of the wave theory of light as a direct consequence of electromagnetic field theory. Maxwell's numerous clear physical examples and illustrations, and Howard Fisher's lucid explanatory notes, allow even those without a knowledge of calculus to understand the general features of electromagnetic theory, as Maxwell himself developed it.

One of the most revolutionary scientific works ever written, and also one of the most accessible, Lavoisier's Elementary Treatise on Chemistry established the constancy of weight in chemical reactions, revealed the composition of water, and set forth a clear concept of the nature of gases. The Treatise cemented a new, rational nomenclature that accurately expressed the nature of materials. Lavoisier presents experimental facts in expressions that are vivid, exact, and often poetical. As a result, the Treatise is still, after more than 200 years, a model of clarity and scientific reasoning. Lavoisier's magnificent work, last translated into English in 1790, is now presented in a rendition that preserves the natural and unadorned liveliness of Lavoisier's narrative prose. Howard Fisher's extensive commentary furnishes a gentle guiding hand through unfamiliar terms and experimental procedures.