The Commentators' Bible: Exodus: The Rubin JPS Miqra'ot Gedolot

by Michael Carasik

Thanks to these generous donors for making the publication of this book The Friedman French Foundation. First published 500 years ago as the “Rabbinic Bible,” the biblical commentaries known as the Miqra’ot Gedolot have inspired and educated generations of Hebrew readers. With this edition, the voices of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Nachmanides, Rashbam, and other medieval commentators come alive once more, speaking in a contemporary English translation annotated and explicated for lay readers. Each page of The Commentators’ Bible contains several Hebrew verses from the book of Exodus, surrounded by both the 1917 and 1985 JPS translations and new English translations of the major commentators. This large-format volume is beautifully designed for ease of navigation among the many elements on each page, including explanatory notes and selected additional comments from the works of Bekhor Shor, Hizkuni, Abarbanel, Sforno, Gersonides, and others. JPS is pleased to make available for group study and teaching purposes individual parshiyot (weekly Torah readings) from The Commentators’ Bible .

Genres: Jewish, Judaica, Judaism

368 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[Jaedyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jaedyn Greene
Mrs. Collora
English 1
17th May 2016
The Bible: Exodus
By: Moses
It has been four hundred years since the beginning of the first book; during that time the Israelites are enslaved by the king of the Egyptians.
“Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it comes to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.” Exodus 1: 8-10
On orders of the pharaoh, all of the Israelite’s male children two years old and younger are thrown into the Nile River in order to wipe out the massive Israelite population of Egypt.
In desperation, an Israelite woman places her infant son Moses into the Nile River; she does this safely by putting her son in a reed basket. While the baby is floating down the river, the pharaoh’s daughter finds him and takes him in as her own.
Moses grows up and runs away from Egypt and the pharaohs household. As he is tending his sheep he has an encounter with God who speaks to him through a burning bush. God speaks to him and appoints Moses as the one who will deliver Israel.
Moses returns to Egypt to ask the pharaoh to allow the Israelites to travel for three days into the desert to worship God. After ten plagues the pharaoh tells the Israelites to leave Egypt.
After the Israelites are released from slavery they reach the red sea. How will the million Israelites cross with no boats, if they get across will they still follow Moses?

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several different translations of the text (useful to compare the different ideologies) surrounded by selections of commentary from a variety of authoritative voices, from Rashi to the Tosefot to Nachmanides, so you get the straight dope on the implications and interrelations of every damn word and even how they've been understood by the more mystical medieval strains of Judaism. Good times.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing resource to have available in English. Extremely good translations and fantastic layout work, this is an absolute treasure for anyone interested in Jewish biblical interpretation.