The Torah: A Modern Commentary, Revised Edition [Hardcover]

W. Gunther Plaut (Author), David E. S. Stein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 2005

Nearly twenty-five years after the groundbreaking publication of the first-ever English language liberal Torah commentary, we present The Torah: A Modern Commentary, Revised Edition. This volume features updated commentary and translations, including a gender-sensitive version of the JPS translation, with largely gender-neutral God language and a completely fresh translation of Genesis and of the haftarot by the late Rabbi Chaim Stern. In addition, the volume is reorganized by parashah and includes a helpful index and aliyot markers, improving upon the 1981 original. As Rabbi David Ellenson, President of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, states, "This book provide a dazzling compendium of sources both classical and modern, and a variety of voices that will enhance worship and study of everyone."

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Hebrew --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1604 pages
• Publisher: Union for Reform Judaism; Revised edition (February 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807408832
• ISBN-13: 978-0807408834
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Bible & Other Sacred Texts > Jewish Texts > Torah
  • #44 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Bible & Other Sacred Texts > Jewish Texts > Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A vast improvement, December 17, 2005

By 

Wayne (Union City, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Torah: A Modern Commentary, Revised Edition (Hardcover)

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.

150 of 171 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good history, but a religious disappointment, January 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Torah: A Modern Commentary/English Opening (Hardcover)

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)

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Buy It, November 4, 2001

By 

Arthur Gershman (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Torah: A Modern Commentary/English Opening (Hardcover)

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.