Free Downloads Torah A Modern Commentary/Hebrew Opening (English And Hebrew Edition)
One of the outstanding works of Reform Judaism.
Hardcover: 1787 pages
Publisher: Union of American Hebrew Congregations (June 1, 1981)
Language: English, Hebrew
ISBN-10: 080740165X
ISBN-13: 978-0807401651
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #504,978 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #84 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Judaism > Sacred Writings > Torah #427 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Judaism > Sacred Writings > Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) #1511 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Bible Study & Reference > Bible Study > Old Testament
The revised edition of The Torah: A Modern Commentary has a much better layout, better translations and better organization than the previous version. The footnotes are more meaningful, and the commentary is improved.There are also corrections to the Hebrew text, and clearer typesetting. This edition uses a modified kamatz for the kamatz katon to distinguish it from the kamatz gadol, thus helping readers pronounce things more easily if they are not used to the Sephardic pronunciations. (Their kamatz katon looks a bit like the Frank Zappa logo, which consists of his mustache and imperial beard.)The translation is revised without being revisionist. Certain words that have been translated a certain way for the past 500 years are now replaced with more accurate translations that make more sense to a modern reader. For example, in modern English, clean and unclean have a different connotation from pure and impure, thus creating a misleading understanding with the less accurate translations.The translation is more gender accurate than gender neutral. References to God are rendered in gender-neutral terms, which is consistent with the Jewish belief that God has no gender, as opposed to a "literal" translation of the grammatically masculine wording of a language that does not use a neuter form. However, other phrases such as "when you take a census of the Israelite people ..." which been replaced with "when you take a census of the Israelite men ..." are less gender neutral but more accurate. In other words, changes to more gender neutral language are done because English does not use a gender for anything but animals and people (and the occasional oddity such as ships if you want to be picky) while languages such as Hebrew have no neuter case. Therefore, it makes more sense to respect the context, just as you would not refer to a table as him or her simply because it's a literal translation of another language.Other reviews of this book written prior to 2005 are for the previous edition, so be careful to determine if any specific point of an old review is still relevant.
The translation is good, based on the latest scholarship. The commentary is extensive, and from a historical point of view, illuminating. But from a religious point of view this book is, in most places, a deep disappointment. While Plaut offers this as a book for religiousReform Jews, it spends most of its time disparaging the laws in the Torah as outdated anachonisims that have no place in the lives of Jews today. Those Jews on the more traditional side of the Reform movement - or anyone at all in Conservative Judaism - will be disappointed to learn that the introduction spends a great deal of time trying to show how God has little or nothing to do with the Bible, nor for that matter does Moses. While I aprreciate the editor's correct impulse in comabtting the extreme claims from religious fundamentalism, I do not understand why the response was go totally in the other direction (religious abandonment), I do not find the Ultra-Orthodox Torah commentaries (The Artscroll Torah, by Mesorah) to be any better. While Plaut's Reform commentary commits the sin of abandoning Judaism by worshipping archaeology, the Artscroll books committ the sin of intellectual dishonesty by abandoning - and denigrating - all archaeology, history and linguistics. If I had to make a choice, I'd say that Plaut's book is better than Artscroll books So where can one go for an authentic Torah commentary that is deeply religious, yet non-fundamentalist; one based on adherence to the latest scholarship, as well as traditional Jewish commentary? I would suggest the five volume JPS Torah Commentray series, published by the Jewish Publication Society. (2 Volumes by Nahum Sarna, 1 by Jeffrey Tigay, 1 by Baruch Levine and 1 by Jacob Milgrom). Used by Modern Orthodox, Reform and Conservative Jews, this is the set for a serious student of Torah to have. If one wanted a one volume Torah /Pentateuch commentary, I would get "The Pentateuch and Haftorahs" by Dr. Joseph H. Hertz or "The Chumash" by A. Cohen. (Also note that an affordabel, one volume edition of the 5 vol. JPS set is due to be published by the Conservative movement in about 2 years)
Torah a Modern Commentary/Hebrew Opening (English and Hebrew Edition) Torah Commentary for Our Times: Genesis (Torah Commentary for Our Times) Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West: Meriwether Lewis Thomas Jefferson and the Opening The Art of Torah Cantillation: A Step-by-Step Guide to Chanting Torah [Book + CD] Introduction to Torah Living: Living the Torah as Disciples of Yeshua Ways of the Tzaddikim: Orchos Tzaddikim (Torah Classics Library) (English and Hebrew Edition) Learn Hebrew The Fun & Easy Way: Hebrew Handwriting - an introduction to cursive Hebrew Rambam Mishna Torah: Sefer Mada Ve Ahava (Hebrew Edition) Koren Talmud Bavli Noe: Vol 25: Bava Metzia Part 1, Hebrew/English, Color Edition (Hebrew Edition) Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis The Torah Commentary of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach: Genesis, Part II The Language of Truth: The Torah Commentary of the Sefat Emet Do It Yourself Hebrew and Greek: Everybody's Guide to the Language Tools (English, Greek and Hebrew Edition) The Jewish Bible: Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures -- The New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text: Torah * Nevi'im * Kethuvim My Face Book (Hebrew/English) (Hebrew Edition) Rabbi Shlomo Goren: Torah Sage and General (Modern Jewish Lives) Spanish-English English-Spanish Medical Dictionary: Diccionario Médico Español-Inglés Inglés-Español (Spanish to English/ English to Spanish Medical Dictionary) (Spanish Edition) Exploring Hebrews (John Phillips Commentary Series) (The John Phillips Commentary Series) The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Peter, Jude (New American Commentary, 37)
