Synopses & Reviews
Every week in synagogues around the world Jews read a portion from the Torah, the Five Books of Moses, the whole being completed in the course of a year. The reading is usually accompanied by a commentary, a derasha, by the rabbi or a member of the congregation, often drawing on traditional interpretations, but usually finding some point of contact with the realities of today's world. Some passages, especially narratives, lend themselves to immediate associations; others, obscure laws of sacrifice or lists of stages on a journey through the wilderness, represent real challenges to the commentator. Yet others are so familiar to the congregation that the problem is to find something new to say each year!
This book arose out of a different kind of 'pulpit', an occasional slot on a weekly radio programme on Friday evenings called 'Shabbat Shalom'. Though ostensibly for a Jewish audience, it reached a far wider public, so the pieces in the book provide enough information to explain the Jewish background at the same time as offering an exploration of the ideas within the text to a broad range of listeners.
Synopsis
A Rabbi Reads the Torah distils a lifetime of Bible study by a Jewish scholar devoted to popularising the study of the Hebrew Bible in its original language, helped by the wealth of centuries of Jewish interpretation and debate, as well as the best of modern literary approaches. The Jewish tradition of reading a section of the Torah, the Five Books of Moses, on a weekly basis during the course of single year, is a challenge to find something new each time in a familiar text. These short studies, based on a popular radio series, offer unexpected insights into the very different materials to be found in these Biblical books, as well as indicating their relevance to the realities of personal, social and political life today. Rabbi Magoneta (TM)s personal engagement in interfaith dialogue opens the world of Jewish tradition to the widest audience of those within and beyond our different faith communities.
About the Author
Rabbi Jonathan Magonet (born 2 August 1942) is a British Jewish theologian, Vice-President of the World Union of Progressive Judaism, and a biblical scholar