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Rating: 
Summary: a book you'll learn from
Review: As another reviewer wrote, this is not just a Holocaust memoir. Halivni writes about his Holocuast experiences, but many others have done the same at greater length. What I got out of this book was:1. His discussion of pre-Holocuast shtetl life: its scholarship, its isolation, its sheer backwardness in many areas (for example, when one relative told the author's grandfather that the boy was "turning modern" because he ate with a fork instead of with his hands, and read secular newspapers). Unless you eat with your hands and avoid newspapers, you will find it much harder after reading this book to believe that Jews should be bound by every custom of their ancestors. 2. His attempt to describe his own ideological position: more respectful of traditional halakhah than modern Conservatives, more critical of traditional interpretations than some Orthodox commentators. You can find plenty of books by commentators to Halivni's right, and plenty by commentators to his left, but I would be surprised if you could find any by people who think exactly what he thinks (assuming there are any). As a result, his book is unique or nearly so - and for this reason alone, his book is worth reading and will probably challenge you whatever your views. Another reviewer said that Halivni is not among the "first rank" of scholars. (I am not enough of a scholar to intelligently agree or disagree). But even if this were the case, I would recommend this book. I've learned quite a bit from people who weren't in the "first rank" of scholars - many of whom, I suspect, are not of Halivni's rank.
Rating:
Summary: a book you'll learn from
Review: As another reviewer wrote, this is not just a Holocaust memoir. Halivni writes about his Holocuast experiences, but many others have done the same at greater length. What I got out of this book was: 1. His discussion of pre-Holocuast shtetl life: its scholarship, its isolation, its sheer backwardness in many areas (for example, when one relative told the author's grandfather that the boy was "turning modern" because he ate with a fork instead of with his hands, and read secular newspapers). Unless you eat with your hands and avoid newspapers, you will find it much harder after reading this book to believe that Jews should be bound by every custom of their ancestors. 2. His attempt to describe his own ideological position: more respectful of traditional halakhah than modern Conservatives, more critical of traditional interpretations than some Orthodox commentators. You can find plenty of books by commentators to Halivni's right, and plenty by commentators to his left, but I would be surprised if you could find any by people who think exactly what he thinks (assuming there are any). As a result, his book is unique or nearly so - and for this reason alone, his book is worth reading and will probably challenge you whatever your views. Another reviewer said that Halivni is not among the "first rank" of scholars. (I am not enough of a scholar to intelligently agree or disagree). But even if this were the case, I would recommend this book. I've learned quite a bit from people who weren't in the "first rank" of scholars - many of whom, I suspect, are not of Halivni's rank.
Rating: 
Summary: Adult Prodigy Manqué
Review: Halivni's book will not satisfy those looking for a Holocaust memoir. He is not a professional Holocaust survivor or bad novelist like Elie Wiesel. Rather he is a scholar. He started out as a child prodigy in Talmud, but never had a chance to attend a real yeshiva. After the war he turned down such opportunities to get a doctorate in philosophy and develop academic textual criticism of the Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He was a very big fish at JTS, but the water turned rancid when they abandoned Jewish law in favor of feminist correctness. He then went to Columbia University, but now every major university offers doctorates in Talmud. He makes a heartbreaking admission to us at one point. He says he cannot transmit the highest level of his methodology to his students. I would like to be charitable to so long-suffering a man, but doesn't it mean he has failed? What use is a method that exists only in his own head? Although he never says so, I'm afraid Halivni realized at some point he was not an adult prodigy. If he went to Lakewood with Rav Kotler or Yeshiva University with Rav Soloveitchik he would never have been among the first rank of scholars. He admits to the sin of envy, and that shortcoming drove him to isolation and failure. That, not Auschwitz, is the true tragedy of his life.
Rating:
Summary: Adult Prodigy Manqué
Review: Halivni's book will not satisfy those looking for a Holocaust memoir. He is not a professional Holocaust survivor or bad novelist like Elie Wiesel. Rather he is a scholar. He started out as a child prodigy in Talmud, but never had a chance to attend a real yeshiva. After the war he turned down such opportunities to get a doctorate in philosophy and develop academic textual criticism of the Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He was a very big fish at JTS, but the water turned rancid when they abandoned Jewish law in favor of feminist correctness. He then went to Columbia University, but now every major university offers doctorates in Talmud. He makes a heartbreaking admission to us at one point. He says he cannot transmit the highest level of his methodology to his students. I would like to be charitable to so long-suffering a man, but doesn't it mean he has failed? What use is a method that exists only in his own head? Although he never says so, I'm afraid Halivni realized at some point he was not an adult prodigy. If he went to Lakewood with Rav Kotler or Yeshiva University with Rav Soloveitchik he would never have been among the first rank of scholars. He admits to the sin of envy, and that shortcoming drove him to isolation and failure. That, not Auschwitz, is the true tragedy of his life.
Rating:
Summary: An unusual memoir by a remarkable Jewish scholar
Review: This small book covers an enormous range of subjects. Chasidic life in a shtetyl, the Holocaust, conflict within the Jewish institutions of higher learning in post war America, the personal psychological impact of being a Holocaust survivor, and the various modes of Talmudic scholarship - Halivin's great accomplishment is to bring meaning to this wide spectrum of topics in few words. This is a book by a serious thinker who is not afraid to risk revealing his innermost feelings and conflicts. A courageous work
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