Jacob's Journey (Kernel to Canon) (Volume 1) by Tzemah Yoreh

by Tzemah Yoreh

Like beautifully layered rock formations lining the walls of a desert canyon, so is the Biblical text. Story is piled upon story until the foundations are invisible. Those foundations tell a different story—one that only a trained geologist can tease from the rock; one that only a Biblical philologist, trained in the dissection of literature, can find in the text. In this earliest version of events that our literary geology will isolate, it is Jacob, not Abraham, who is the father and founder of the Israelite nation. In this and many other respects, the story of Jacob and his seven sons is very different from what those familiar with the canonical text may recall. Jacob’s Journey traces the development of this uniquely divergent account into the canonical text we have today.

Paperback

About the author

Tzemah Yoreh is one of the intellectual leaders of Jewish humanism and the head of the City Congregation in New York city. He attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he obtained his Ph.D. in biblical criticism in 2004. He earned a second Ph.D. in Ancient Wisdom Literature from the University of Toronto for the joy of studying ancient text. As a community leader on the spectrum, he is a passionate advocate for the inclusion of the neuro-atypical in the Jewish community and beyond.