Torah in Conversation: From Tree of Knowledge to Law, Identity, and Song (Paperback or Softback)

Torah in Conversation explores Jewish understandings of knowledge, law, freedom, and song through the lens of three Jewish festivals. It is written as a series of conversations between a mother and her young daughter. Their conversations unfold in museums, synagogues, historical sites, and around the family table, where everyday encounters become occasions for theological and philosophical reflection. Together they ask timeless questions: Why was the Tree of Knowledge created? What makes a story true? Was Moses a historical figure? How do law, morality, freedom, and faith shape human life?

Drawing on Jewish tradition, philosophy, archaeology, art history, psychology, political theory, and personal experience, Rainbow Chang places the Torah in conversation with the wider human search for meaning, identity, and belonging. From the garden of Eden to Mount Sinai, and from ancient Mesopotamia to modern Britain, the book brings biblical narratives into dialogue with historical evidence, cultural memory, and lived experience, inviting readers to consider both the enduring significance of Jewish tradition and the universal questions it continues to raise.

Blending theological reflection with family narrative, Torah in Conversation offers an intimate and intellectually rich exploration of how Jewish learning is lived, remembered, questioned, and passed from one generation to the next.

Rainbow Chang is the author of The Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ According to the Four Gospels--A Poetic Meditation. She studied theatre in London and studied theology at Oxford University. She lives in Oxford, U.K. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.