Customer Reviews

The Torah: A Modern Commentary/English Opening

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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)

This is an essential book on the shelf of every Jew. It is the most modern rendition, in Hebrew, of the Torah, with a side-by-side English translation. (For the record, the Torah is the first five books of the Bible, or the five books of Moses). It is the definitive text of the Union of Reform Judaism (formerly the Union of American Hebrew Congregations), the umbrella organization of Reform Jewish Congregations. Also included are notes on Hebrew interpetations and 'gleanings' or spiritual comments on the text. Further, detailed commentaries on such topics as geography are included at crucial points in the text.
I cannot emphasize enough how much pleasure you will derive from having this book in your home. No modern person can achieve an understanding of the Bible without having this book with which to refer. Treat yourself and buy this book. You will never regret it.

The original 1981 edition of the Plaut commentary on the Torah marked a dramatic improvement over the fundamentalist Hertz Torah commentary (The Pentateuch and Haftorahs: Hebrew Text English Translation and Commentary by Joseph H. Hertz) which it replaced in Reform Jewish congregations. It attempted to give both a traditional Jewish and a modern historical view of the text. In this connection, the frequent references to the widely recognized sources (J, E, D, P) is particularly welcomed in a Jewish study Pentateuch. However, it did have a number of weaknesses only some of which have been addressed in this new edition. These weaknesses included:

1. It was informed throughout by the Albright-Wright/Biblical Archaeology view that the "essential historicity" of the Patriarchal stories in Genesis and the conquest narratives have been verified by archaeology. This view, which held sway in the USA and Israel roughly 1930-1965 started to be undermined by scholarship in the 1960s and had been totally demolished by 1975. (See, for example, Shifting Sands : The Rise and Fall of Biblical Archaeology by Thomas W. Davis). Since that time, few serious scholars would suggest that there is any retrievable historic information relating to the period before 1000 BCE, or even later, recoverable from the Pentateuch. Thus, much of the historical interpretive information in the commentary was known to be wrong or misleading well before the publication of the commentary.

2. Its occasional egregious errors such as transliteration of the divine name "YHVH" (see new edition p. 36) when the virtual universal scholarly opinion is, and has been for at least a century, that the third letter of the name was pronounced similarly to the English letter "w".

3. No attempt was made to make use of gender-neutral language where possible.

4. Its layout was suitable for study but not for synagogue liturgical use (subdivision of parashot into short chapters, placement of supplementary essays, placement of haftarot together at the end of each book of the Torah);

5. Its lack of commentaries on the haftarot.

6. The complete lack of drawings from Karaite (Jewish but not rabbinic) and Samaritan (Israelite but not Jewish) texts in the otherwise excellent "gleanings" sections which included abundant Christian and occasional Muslim, Babylonian etc. texts.

7. Positioning of the English translation below the Hebrew which made parallel reading of the Hebrew and English difficult.

8. Its very thin paper, small Hebrew type, lack of accent signs (te'amim) in the Hebrew text.

This new edition should have been an opportunity to correct these problems which, to a certain extent, has been done. Taking the above points item by item -

1. The reliance on the invalid Albright-Wright/Biblical Archaeology historic reconstruction is unchanged. In the original edition this reliance showed a lack of awareness of current research. Now, twenty four years later it is hard to understand why a serious revision has not been undertaken. One glance at the bibliography (pp. 1568-1569) pointedly shows the datedness of the materials. Of great importance is the lack of any reference of the great strides over the last decades in understanding the historic nature of early Israelite history and religion (e.g. the work of Smith, Zevit and Dever).

2. Its occasional egregious errors - uncorrected.

3. Gender-neutral language - this is one area where the new edition strikingly excels. The use of the term "Eternal" for the divine name is to be especially commended.

4. Layout - layout by parashah followed by haftarah improve its usability in synagogue while making it less easy to use as a tool for private study.

5. Haftaraot now include very basic commentary although I consider them inferior to that included in Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary.

6. Lack of drawings from Karaite and Samaritan traditions - unchanged.

7. Positioning of the English translation below the Hebrew - now changed to the traditional, and useful, parallel layout

8. Its very thin paper, small Hebrew type, lack of accent signs (te'amim) in the Hebrew text - these problems have all been addressed.

I did notice one additional problem with this new edition. In the first edition the titles of the topical essays were included in the table of contents thus increasing their findability. The new edition does not do this thus effectively burying them in 1,600 pages of text.

The eidtors of THE TORAH: A MODERN COMMENTARY, REVISED EDITION did a credible job in producing this Torah commentary. This reviewer was skeptical due to concerns of "political correctness" vs. accuracy precision. When perusing this book, this reviewer was pleasantly surprised that changes were made in favor of accuracy.

The format of this book is similiar to the previous edition which was well done. There are introductory essays to each book of the Torah and some of the sections. These essays are informative and give the interested reader a better understanding of the books of the Torah as well as the sections.

The footnotes and end notes give explanations of difficult passages. The editors and translators were honest enough to admit when the meaning of the Hebrew is unclear. The serious reader gets the impression that the editors "did their homework" which indeed they did. The editors have a section at the end of the sectons title "Gleanings" which are poignent comments from the rabbis, Christians, and Moslems.

The translation is clear. Rather than pander to politically correct nonsense, the editors demonstrated a meticulous effort to render a more accurate translation of the Hebrew to enhance the understanding of the Torah.

A comprehensive perusal of THE TORAH: A MODERN COMMENTARY, REVISED EDITION will obviously take considerable time. Yet, such an effort is well worth. While this volume was prepared for Reform Judaism, this book would prove interesting and useful to other Jews as well as Christians. The book is that good.

Aside from good notes and commentary, this volume has an outstanding bibliography. The honesty of the editors is shown in the bibliography. The editors obviously included Jewish sources. Yet, they also included non-Jewish sources. A good example of such a sources is THE JEROME BIBLICAL COMMENTARY.

Aside from some minor criticisms of the format of this book, this reivewer highly recommneds this publication. The older edition is also a very good commentary. Again, this book is highly recommended for Jews and non-Jews.

I attend a Reform Synagogue, and therefore I see the Plaut commentary every single week. Every single week I read the weekly parsha, complete with the Plaut commentary, and I can honestly say that this is the best commentary out there.

I also own the Hertz commentary, and it is very good. However, it just does not measure up to the Plaut commentary. The scholarship is impeccable, and it is also strong from a religious viewpoint. The haftarah commentary, which Plaut also wrote, is equally potent. When I was preparing for my Bar Mitzvah, this was the edition that I turned to. I would recommend this version to Jew and Gentile alike.

If you are interested in the Torah then buy this book. There is no other biblical commentary that I can even compare with this one. The language is enlightening but not overpowering. It's scholarship is wonderful and not overdone for the everday folk who don't work in the field of biblical history. I've purchased a couple of other used Plaut books after buying this one - "The Rise of Reform Judaism", for example. All are terrific. Great gift for a bar or bat mitzvah.

This is the best Reform Torah commentary I have seen. Great insights into the history and language of the Torah. Very readable - even for beginners. Contains both Hebrew and English, with notes about the English translation, and insights into the history and meaning of the text. The book is divided into the weekly Torah portions. Plaut does take a liberal viewpoint, which will not appeal those who accept the Torah as the literal word of God passed on to Moses at Sinai.

I bought "the new Plaut" some time ago. The more I use it, the more I love it. It's easy to read with big clear type (both English and Hebrew). Contains TONS of useful information, maps, charts, illustrations, essays.

I have just started to read and study this GREAT book and it has opened up the bible, in ways that I have never thought of. Being raised in a strict pentecostal "HOLLY ROLLER Family" I was taught that the King James Version of the bible was "The Only Word of God." Now as I grow older and wiser, I know the TRUTH. I find the book hard to put down. A must for everyone, regardless of their religious and ethnical background.