In the long history of conversion to Judaism, few figures rival the affection and esteem with which Count Walenty (Valentine) Potocki, the martyred "Vilna Ger Tzedek," is remembered. The story of the young Polish nobleman, burned at the stake in 1749, is that of a principled and sensitive spiritual seeker who abandoned wealth, power, and all but unlimited worldly prospects in order to adopt Judaism, a religious tradition that was anathema to his noble class. Potocki was betrayed by a member of the religious community he embraced, and executed as an apostate by the Church he left behind, and...

What would Genesis be without the letter E?

Initial Instructions is a fresh rendering of the Bible's beginning with an unusual twist: It uses only 25 letters of the English alphabet.

Initial Instructions strikes words like "the," "beginning," "created," "heavens," and "earth" from its lexicon. Instead, Rabbi Joseph Prouser finds original ways to render ancient meanings, revealing The Book of Genesis in a new way.

Why undertake this exercise?

For Rabbi Prouser, a lipogram -- a text that avoids a particular letter -- offers the virtues of...