The Torah: A Modern Commentary, Revised Edition

This was amazing! I couldn't believe how perfect the condition of this book is! It's like new!!! I adore this commentary, highly recommend, especially from this seller!

I have tried to start reading the Torah multiple times. And then I get bored. Or I don't understand what's going on. Or the comments are very outdated. I now look forward to my daily Torah study. What I like the most about this edition is the commentary. The essays are wonderful and reinforce what you have just read. You get commentary by scholars and also are presented with a multitude of different views, particularly on something controversial. The gleanings are really special. There, you get presented with thoughts commenting either on the Torah section you have just read or about topics covered in that section. You will read poetry, philosophy, scholars, people from different faiths, etc. One I go through all the wonderful content for that section, I feel like I have a firm grasp on it. I have shared some of the gleanings with my friends and they have been so surprised that these comments have come from a Torah and not some sociology book. As a scholar and a progressive, it has been an amazing experience to see what Plaut put together. I am very impressed.

This is the Chumash (Jewish Bible 5 Books of Moses)you will find in every Reform synagogue in America. It is a great work of scholarship and is now perhaps a little dated. This current revised addition is more user friendly than the first edition. I do Jewish conversions and use this text with my students. I agree with some critics who find the commentary overly weighted with scientific and historical perspective at the cost of spiritual insights. Nevertheless, I truly believe it's an essential tool for Torah study. Along with the Orthodox Stone Chumash and the Conservative Etz Chayim, it needs to be on your shelf. My friend an Orthodox Rabbi has never read this commentary. I constantly surprise him with insights and challenging commentary gleaned from this work that is obviously considered seditious to the Orthodox Rabbinate.

This Torah commentary edition provides plenty of scholarly exegesis to accompany the actual Torah text. This is an excellent learning tool.

This is a very detailed Torah commentary. Hard to beat the Amazon price on such a scholarly work. While Christians mostly use the King James version, Jews can and do use a variety of translations. This book is heavily footnoted. Verses whose meaning is unclear are pointed out. Multiple meanings are documented. There are extensive amplifications of and commentary on each Torah portion. This volume also contains the associated haftorah verses for each Torah portion.One thing not appreciated by those who enjoin "The bible says..." is that a great many Hebrew words were used only once in the entire Tanach ("old testament"). They can have multiple meanings and there is no context to tell which was meant.Although this commentary is intended for Reform Jews, I feel Christians would find it to be highly educational.

So much is lost in the translation of the Torah from Hebrew to English. Some of this is regained in the commentary. The old testament in Christian bibles lacks clarity and loses the meaning of the message contained in the scriptures. This is due to the translators. It is more than obvious that the translators of the Old Testament were not righteous men and focused on their own agenda. The information in Genesis alone will give you an entirely new outlook and make you wish you could read, write and speak Hebrew.

Excellent resouce. The layout of the origional is very difficult to follow but for the price of a used copy I cant complain to much. The translation into english isn't always the best translation.

As someone who has only been familiar with the Christian Bible, this Torah is an eye-opening book. It contains both the Hebrew (which I cannot read) and an English translation. The study materials are the real treasure here. They include notes on translating the Hebrew, background material to help put the primary text into context, and selected interpretive quotes through history. It definitely is expanding my understanding of the "Books of Moses."

The Plaut commentary is a nice work. Of course, I also think it is the best to use it together with Artscroll's Chumash - Plaut can be used for historical data and Artscroll for rabbinic insights. I think the purpose of their use is different, since their basic thinking is different, and it is fine like that.Even though I must emphasize on certain questions I disagree with the authors of the commentary, I felt that its text was somewhat more thorough if you have questions and want to receive background knowledge than Artscroll. The editors put the important citations to the end of the chapters, and as a result they were able to use more footnotes and comment more problematic issues. Moreover, the "Torah" also contains haftaras, and contrary to Artscroll, the haftaras also contain commentaries - in fact, it is a Chumash and not only a simple Torah commentary.I do not really have problems with the introductory part: they are reform and they wanted to emphasize their fundamental approach - for me this is OK, even though I do not think the difference between their approach and the traditional orthodox approach is as different as they and the orthodoxes think, and I agree this is a useless direction. However, they wanted to show historical analysis has a place in a Torah commentary, and I appreciate this thinking.What I found really nice is that after every chapter you find a small article about the sidrah, which covers the most important issues. These articles are different in quality, but most of them give you nice more information regarding the text and they are quite long to be thorough enough.I must mention I do not know the JPS Tanakh, but am really satisfied with this one as well - it is a high quality work. Of course, I can imagine, it should be a second commentary, because it may be more proper to start with a more traditionalist one first, but this is only my opinion, you do not go wrong if you buy it...

Good quality book and easy descriptions without the archaic language.

Perfect, a great copy of a superb commentary

thanks its in good order better than I was expecting thans

Fascinating commentaries and gleanings, couples with a good modern translation.