For centuries scholars and rabbis have wrestled with the biblical narrative, attempting to answer the questions that arise from a plain reading of the text. In The Murmuring Deep, Avivah Zornberg pairs literary analysis of the text with classical Freudian concepts to give us a new understanding of the desires and motivations of the men and women whose stories form the basis of the Bible. Zornberg makes a powerful argument for the idea that the creators of the midrashic commentary, the medieval rabbinic commentators, and the Hassidic commentators were themselves on some level aware of the complex interplay between conscious and unconscious levels of experience, and used this knowledge in the creation of their commentaries.

In her analysis of the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, Jonah, Abraham, Rebecca, Isaac, Joseph and his brothers, Ruth, and Esther--how they communicate with the world around them, with God, and with the various parts of their selves--Zornberg offers fascinating insights into the interaction between the conscious and unconscious. From explaining why God has to “seduce” Adam into entering the Garden of Eden to understanding why Jonah thinks he can hide from God by getting on a ship, Zornberg enhances our appreciation of the Bible as the foundational text in our quest to understand what it means to be human.