Torah

An Essential Resource for Understanding the True Meaning of the Torah 'From time immemorial our experts have striven to show how the Written Torah and the Oral Torah are two sides of the same coin. Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Finkel has utilized his manifold talents of research, elucidation, and presentation to create a noteworthy commentary that fuses the written with the oral. I believe that this will remain a lasting literary achievement.' -Rabbi David Cohen, Congregation Gvul Yaavetz, Brooklyn, New York 'The noted author Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Finkel has offered up yet another indispensable literary offering at the table of the Jewish world. The Torah Revealed is a contribution that will enrich the scholar and layman alike. One is immediately introduced to the related teachings of rabbinic literature gleaned from the vast corpus of the Talmud and Midrash. This wealth of information has been carefully collected and organized from the broad and multifaceted body of rabbinic writings. My beracha is that the author continue to produce works of high quality and scholarship that not only enlighten but give everyone the inspiration to fulfill their own potential and greatness.' -Rabbi Noach Isaac Oelbaum, Congregation Nachlas Yitzchok, Kew Gardens, Hills, New York 'The prolific author in this his newest book has made a contribution to English Judaica literature that is similar to the one made to Hebrew literature by Rabbi Boruch Epstein over one hundred years ago in the highly acclaimed Torah Temima. May Rabbi Finkel have the merit to continue to enrich English-speaking Jewish homes with his faithful rendition of our illustrious heritage.' -Yisroel Rokowsky, Rosh HaYeshiva, Ohr Somayach, Tanenbaum Educational Center, Monsey, New York

Using the Shema as his focus, Lamm explores the relationship between spirituality and law in Judaism.

Reimagining the Bible collects a dozen essays by Howard Schwartz. Together the essays present a coherent theory of the way in which each successive phase of Jewish literature has drawn upon and reimagined the previous ones. The book is organized into four sections: The Ancient Models; The Folk Tradition; Mythic Echoes; Modern Jewish Literature and the Ancient Models. Within these divisions, each of the essays focuses on a specific genre, ranging from Torah and Aggadah to Kabbalah, fairy tales, and the modern Yiddish stories of S.Y. Agnon and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Arguing the important thesis that there is a continuity in Jewish literature which extends from the Biblical era to our own times, over a period of more than 3,000 years, this collection also serves as a guide to the history of that literature, and to the genres it comprises.

A collection of essays and studies on the Bible by one of the foremost Bible experts.

The Hebrew text of the Torah has never been finalized down to the last letter. This is important not least because Jewish law requires that Torah scrolls read publicly in the synagogue be error-free. Jewish scribes, scholars, and legal authorities have sought to overcome or narrow these differences, but to this day have not completely succeeded in doing so. This book offers an in-depth study of how rabbinic leaders of the past two millennia have dealt with questions about the text'saccuracy, presenting numerous authoritative rabbinic sources, many translated here for the first time.

Although primogeniture is commonly assumed to have prevailed throughout the world and firstborns are regarded as most likely to achieve success, many of the most prominent figures in biblical literature are younger offspring, including Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, and Solomon. Adducing evidence from a wide range of disciplines, this study demonstrates that ancient Israelite fathers were free to choose their primary heirs. Rather than being either legally mandated or a protest against the prevailing norm, the Bible's propensity for younger offspring conforms to a widespread folk motif, evoking innocence, vulnerability, and destiny. Within the biblical context, this theme heightens God's role in supporting ostensibly unlikely heroes. Drawing on the resources of law, anthropology, folklore, and linguistics, Greenspahn shows how these tales serve as complex parables of God's relationship to his chosen people, also reflecting Israel's own discomfort with the contradiction between its theology of election and the reality of political weakness.