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Exodus: A Parsha Companion
In this second volume of Parsha Companions, Rabbi David Fohrman delves into the biblical text, asking intriguing questions and detecting patterns that, once you see them, seem to leap off the page. He helps the reader really listen to the Torah - carefully, lovingly, and attentively. The reader's reward is the chance to perceive the richness in the Torah many of us had never imagined was there, and to be touched deeply by a close encounter with the words of our Maker.
264 pages, Hardcover
Published December 20, 2020
27 people are currently reading
131 people want to read
About the author
David Fohrman
18 books88 followersRabbi David Fohrman lectures internationally on Biblical themes. He heads the Curriculum Initiative of the Areivim Philanthropic Group, and directs the Hoffberger Institute for Text Study. He currently resides in Woodmere, NY with his wife and children, where he also serves as resident scholar at the Young Israel of Woodmere. Rabbi Fohrman's first book, The Beast that Crouches at the Door, was a finalist for the 2007 National Jewish Book Award. In earlier years, Rabbi Fohrman served as a senior editor and writer for ArtScroll's Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud, and taught Biblical themes at the Johns Hopkins University. His recorded lectures are available at rabbifohrman.com.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 25, 2022
Another book with all the typical goodness that one comes to expect from Rabbi Fohrman. Multiple chapters had literary treasures I had not encountered yet and blew my mind. A great resource for your Parsha reflections in Exodus.
It was my least favorite of all of Fohrman's books, which isnt much of a criticism at all. It was still fantastic. And part of me doubts my own perspective because Fohrman is so consistent in all his other works. Typically, I feel like Fohrman crafts a book with chapters full of fantastic teaching and then, toward the end, he weaves this brilliant thread through them all that ties them together in a staggering arc.
This book seemed to lack that same element, but I may have missed it. It's also possible, assuming that Fohrman will be completing this Parsha series, that this may be a part of an intentional, larger, multi-part arc that I've yet to witness. I will not be surprised if this is the case, but for now, this book lacked that element of threading all the pieces together in a unified tapestry.
But again, still one of the best resources I have in my library for Exodus and the reader will not be disappointed!
It was my least favorite of all of Fohrman's books, which isnt much of a criticism at all. It was still fantastic. And part of me doubts my own perspective because Fohrman is so consistent in all his other works. Typically, I feel like Fohrman crafts a book with chapters full of fantastic teaching and then, toward the end, he weaves this brilliant thread through them all that ties them together in a staggering arc.
This book seemed to lack that same element, but I may have missed it. It's also possible, assuming that Fohrman will be completing this Parsha series, that this may be a part of an intentional, larger, multi-part arc that I've yet to witness. I will not be surprised if this is the case, but for now, this book lacked that element of threading all the pieces together in a unified tapestry.
But again, still one of the best resources I have in my library for Exodus and the reader will not be disappointed!
December 31, 2020
When it comes to medical imaging, a radiologist is vital to understand what is going on in the image. At times, there may be things hiding in plain sight that only an excellent radiologist can see and diagnose.
In Exodus: A Parsha Companion (Maggid Books), author Rabbi David Fohrman plays the role of a Biblical radiologist extraordinaire. His attention to detail, and mastery of the text, enables him to find and extract things from the images of the Torah, which a less-trained scholar is incapable of. This is the next volume in his Chumash series and comes on the heels of his remarkable Genesis: A Parsha Companion. If the Jews are the people of the book, then Fohrman is a man of the text.
For those that know Rabbi Fohrman from his web site Aleph Beta Academy, they are used to his approach of looking at the big picture and asking the big questions. His website's goal is the belief that Torah study should be evidence-based, intellectually stimulating, emotionally gripping, and relevant to one's everyday life. The ideas in the book can in part be found on the website (everything is transcribed so you can print and read on Shabbos), but the material has been expanded and thoroughly referenced.
Fohrman repeatably uses phrases such as listen carefully to the language of the text, I invite you to consider the words, look carefully at the text, and more, that enables him to take the base textual message and turn it into a profoundly deep and more meaningful text.
In chapter after chapter, Fohrman asks questions that can easily be overlooked yet are fundamental to the overall story. Some of these many intriguing questions include:
• Why did Pharaoh decree that the Jewish babies should be killed by being thrown into the Nile? Why pollute the Nile, so precious and crucial to Egypt's economy, with what must have been countless corpses.
• What is the connection between Noah's Ark and the Ark of the Covenant?
• What is the common denominator in all of the different narrative stories of Moshe?
While slavery was practiced extensively in ancient civilization, and sadly still today, the Torah's approach to slavery in general, and female servitude in particular, has been troubling for many.
Exodus 21:7 starts the Torah's discussion of female servitude. At an initial read, the notion that a father would sell his daughter to a strange family, and perhaps have her marry into that family, is a seemingly abhorrent concept.
However, what Fohrman does, and it is worth buying this book just for this explanation alone, is to show that the Torah, with its laws of female servitude, is not attempting a mere Band-Aid solution to the problem of class. He writes that the Torah is trying to attack the issue of wealth inequality in a way that is both just and compassionate, in a way in which everyone wins. Furthermore, with no small measure of irony, he writes that the Torah is trying to use slavery, the most unequal institution on earth, to achieve the rarified goal of equality.
Here, Fohrman looks at the text at both the macro and micro levels. At the micro-level, Fohrman leaves no word left behind. If the same word is used in different books of the Torah, he jumps on that and attempts to extract the reasons why. At the macro level, he focuses on the many chiastic patterns the Torah uses.
A chiastic structure is a cyclical pattern, where an idea or phrase is repeated of the same content. This creates a structure similar to elements A, B, C, Center; followed by elements A1, B1, and C1. While it may not be initially intuitive, the book shows in the graphical form how the Chumash makes extensive use of chiasmus.
Rabbi Fohrman brings to light an original and intellectually stimulating approach to learning Parsha. This has often been called the literary or Yeshivat Har Etzion approach bringing textual analysis and scholarly rigor to the forefront. In Exodus: A Parsha Companion, this is a companion you want to keep quite close to you.
In Exodus: A Parsha Companion (Maggid Books), author Rabbi David Fohrman plays the role of a Biblical radiologist extraordinaire. His attention to detail, and mastery of the text, enables him to find and extract things from the images of the Torah, which a less-trained scholar is incapable of. This is the next volume in his Chumash series and comes on the heels of his remarkable Genesis: A Parsha Companion. If the Jews are the people of the book, then Fohrman is a man of the text.
For those that know Rabbi Fohrman from his web site Aleph Beta Academy, they are used to his approach of looking at the big picture and asking the big questions. His website's goal is the belief that Torah study should be evidence-based, intellectually stimulating, emotionally gripping, and relevant to one's everyday life. The ideas in the book can in part be found on the website (everything is transcribed so you can print and read on Shabbos), but the material has been expanded and thoroughly referenced.
Fohrman repeatably uses phrases such as listen carefully to the language of the text, I invite you to consider the words, look carefully at the text, and more, that enables him to take the base textual message and turn it into a profoundly deep and more meaningful text.
In chapter after chapter, Fohrman asks questions that can easily be overlooked yet are fundamental to the overall story. Some of these many intriguing questions include:
• Why did Pharaoh decree that the Jewish babies should be killed by being thrown into the Nile? Why pollute the Nile, so precious and crucial to Egypt's economy, with what must have been countless corpses.
• What is the connection between Noah's Ark and the Ark of the Covenant?
• What is the common denominator in all of the different narrative stories of Moshe?
While slavery was practiced extensively in ancient civilization, and sadly still today, the Torah's approach to slavery in general, and female servitude in particular, has been troubling for many.
Exodus 21:7 starts the Torah's discussion of female servitude. At an initial read, the notion that a father would sell his daughter to a strange family, and perhaps have her marry into that family, is a seemingly abhorrent concept.
However, what Fohrman does, and it is worth buying this book just for this explanation alone, is to show that the Torah, with its laws of female servitude, is not attempting a mere Band-Aid solution to the problem of class. He writes that the Torah is trying to attack the issue of wealth inequality in a way that is both just and compassionate, in a way in which everyone wins. Furthermore, with no small measure of irony, he writes that the Torah is trying to use slavery, the most unequal institution on earth, to achieve the rarified goal of equality.
Here, Fohrman looks at the text at both the macro and micro levels. At the micro-level, Fohrman leaves no word left behind. If the same word is used in different books of the Torah, he jumps on that and attempts to extract the reasons why. At the macro level, he focuses on the many chiastic patterns the Torah uses.
A chiastic structure is a cyclical pattern, where an idea or phrase is repeated of the same content. This creates a structure similar to elements A, B, C, Center; followed by elements A1, B1, and C1. While it may not be initially intuitive, the book shows in the graphical form how the Chumash makes extensive use of chiasmus.
Rabbi Fohrman brings to light an original and intellectually stimulating approach to learning Parsha. This has often been called the literary or Yeshivat Har Etzion approach bringing textual analysis and scholarly rigor to the forefront. In Exodus: A Parsha Companion, this is a companion you want to keep quite close to you.
March 14, 2021
As the title indicates, this book includes a short essay on each Torah portion of Exodus, plus a second essay on one of the portions. Some of the interesting insights include:
*A midrash on Exodus 2:5 alleges that a Pharoah's daughter extended her long arm into the Nile to rescue Moses. Read literally, this does not make sense; nobody has 10 or 20 foot arms. So what does it really mean? Rabbi Fohrman suggests that rescuing a Hebrew baby was "beyond her reach" in the sense of being difficult and unusual- but somehow she managed to do it.
*Exodus 21 references female servitude - the practice of a family selling their daughters into something like slavery; in return, the buyer was expected to marry the daughter. Rabbi Forhman explains why this practice might have made sense in the ancient world, suggesting that it created social mobility by allowing a girl from a poor household to become part of a richer family.
*Exodus 35:2 mentions Sabbath rest. Under Jewish law, the laws of Sabbath aren't always closely tied to the commonsense definition of "work." For example, you can drag furniture around but you can't light a fire. Rabbi Fohrman explains that melachah (the Hebrew term for work prohibited on the Sabbath) "mimics the kind of creativity God involved Himself in when he created the world." Thus, fire is so creative that it is God-like, and the purpose of the Sabbath is to limit such transformative activity to six days a week. What's the point of resting after melachah, you might ask? One reason is that when creativity doesn't stop, it destroys itself- we spend so much time trying to create something that we never finish it.
*A midrash on Exodus 2:5 alleges that a Pharoah's daughter extended her long arm into the Nile to rescue Moses. Read literally, this does not make sense; nobody has 10 or 20 foot arms. So what does it really mean? Rabbi Fohrman suggests that rescuing a Hebrew baby was "beyond her reach" in the sense of being difficult and unusual- but somehow she managed to do it.
*Exodus 21 references female servitude - the practice of a family selling their daughters into something like slavery; in return, the buyer was expected to marry the daughter. Rabbi Forhman explains why this practice might have made sense in the ancient world, suggesting that it created social mobility by allowing a girl from a poor household to become part of a richer family.
*Exodus 35:2 mentions Sabbath rest. Under Jewish law, the laws of Sabbath aren't always closely tied to the commonsense definition of "work." For example, you can drag furniture around but you can't light a fire. Rabbi Fohrman explains that melachah (the Hebrew term for work prohibited on the Sabbath) "mimics the kind of creativity God involved Himself in when he created the world." Thus, fire is so creative that it is God-like, and the purpose of the Sabbath is to limit such transformative activity to six days a week. What's the point of resting after melachah, you might ask? One reason is that when creativity doesn't stop, it destroys itself- we spend so much time trying to create something that we never finish it.
March 26, 2021
There are many different ways to contemplate and study words of Torah. We can study the intricacies of the Chumash, the first five books, mining them for how best to live our lives. Or we can focus on the prophetic writings, which speak to ethics beyond ritual. Fortunately, we don’t have to choose only one option because there are books for every type of spiritual searcher. Those who prefer to study the parasha shel shavah (the portion of the week) can look to “Exodus: A Parsha Companion” by Rabbi David Fohrman (Aleph Beta Press/Maggid Books), which focuses on individual sections of the Chumash. Anyone looking for inspiration from the prophets in order to create a more just world will appreciate Abraham Joshua Heschel’s “Thunder in the Soul: To Be Known by God” (Plough Publishing House), which is edited by Robert Erlewine.
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/past...
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/past...
July 30, 2025
Chiasms! Chiasms! Bring on the chiasms! OMG I cannot get enough of these things!
And "companion" is too genteel a word. R. Fohrman's books aren't merely "companions." They're brain matter cracker-openers. He penetrates deep into the surface of things and makes you see things that were staring at you in the face since your childhood, and you just didn't see.
Why does it feel like the cosmos waited for R. Fohrman's arrival to finally reveal the hidden? Have I been hiding under a rock, or is his mind truly a special, treasured thing?
What a thrill.
And "companion" is too genteel a word. R. Fohrman's books aren't merely "companions." They're brain matter cracker-openers. He penetrates deep into the surface of things and makes you see things that were staring at you in the face since your childhood, and you just didn't see.
Why does it feel like the cosmos waited for R. Fohrman's arrival to finally reveal the hidden? Have I been hiding under a rock, or is his mind truly a special, treasured thing?
What a thrill.
November 16, 2023
Wonderful!
I’ve learned so much from Rabbi David Fohrman. I have read all of his Parsha Companion books and his other ones, too. Talk about bringing the Old Testament alive! I will wait as patiently as I can for another book.
I’ve learned so much from Rabbi David Fohrman. I have read all of his Parsha Companion books and his other ones, too. Talk about bringing the Old Testament alive! I will wait as patiently as I can for another book.
March 14, 2021
He’s just hands down the best writer of Jewish books!
November 2, 2021
I am not worthy to review this book. This book should review me. I hope I was a 5 star reader.
January 27, 2025
Very similar to videos from alephbeta. The depth of intercontextuality and meaning derived from it is absolutely enlightening. Definitely worth reading!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews