Synopses & Reviews
Thanks to these generous donors for making the publication of this book possible: Kinney Zalesne and Scott Siff.
Every commentator, from the classical rabbi to the modern-day scholar, has brought his or her own worldview, with all of its assumptions, to bear on the reading of holy text. This relationship between the text itself and the reader's interpretation is the subject of Torah Through Time.
Shai Cherry traces the development of Jewish Bible commentary through three pivotal periods in Jewish history: the rabbinic, medieval, and modern periods. The result is a fascinating and accessible guide to how some of the world's leading Jewish commentators read the Bible.
Torah Through Time focuses on specific narrative sections of the Torah: the creation of humanity, the rivalry between Cain and Abel, Korahs rebellion, the claim of the daughters of Zelophechad, and legal matters concerning Hebrew slavery. Cherry closely examines several different commentaries for each of these source texts, and in so doing he analyzes how each commentator resolves questions raised by the texts and asks if and how the commentators own historical frame of reference—his own time and place—contributes to the resolution. A chart at the end of each chapter provides a visual summary that helps the reader understand the many different elements at play.
Review
and#8220;The Aura of Torah is an important and useful contribution to the emergent literature of spiritual companions to the parashah. There is nothing quite like it on the shelf. Tabick assembles mystical teachings for the general reader with insight, creativity, and obvious spiritual depth.and#8221;and#8212;Lawrence Kushner, author of Honey from the Rock
Review
“This book provides a highly readable, engaging introduction to Jewish biblical interpretation.”—Jewish Book World
Review
“Cherry has analyzed the biblical commentary of some of the renowned Jewish scholars of the last 2,000 years. The result is a work of excellent scholarship and imagination.”—Booklist
Review
“Cherry shows how the Torah functions as literature that is fluid, compelling, and persistently generative of new meanings.”—Christian Century
Synopsis
Because a welter of details sometimes conceals the Torahand#8217;s aura of holiness, Jewish mystics and spiritual teachers for centuries have attempted to reveal that aura through creative interpretation.
The Aura ofand#160;Torah explores these attempts in an effort to bridge the gap between the Torah text and the modern Jewish spiritual quest.
This book collects a wide variety of interpretations of Torah passages, commentaries, and midrash rooted in the mystical side of Jewish tradition,includingand#160;original Hebrew and Aramaic texts translated by Rabbi Larry Tabick. The quoted authors span many centuries and speak from many schools of thought: kabbalists writing within the tradition of the Zohar and other gnostic works; Hasidic teachers from the modern movement founded by the Baand#8217;al Shem Tov in eighteenth-century Ukraine; and German pietists, or Hasidei Ashkenaz, of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Tabick examines how these texts build on the underlying principles of the Torahand#8212;the supremacy of God, the interconnectedness of nature and morality, and the unique (though not exclusive) role of the Jewish people in the divine plan for all humanityand#8212;to point to a deep spiritual truth in the world of the divine and the soul.
About the Author
Larry Tabick is a rabbi of Shir Hayim, the Hampstead Reform Jewish Community in London. He is the author of Growing into Your Soul: A Celebration of Jewish Life for Your Coming of Age.
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