Torah Through Time: Understanding Bible Commentary from the Rabbinic Period to Modern Times

by Shai Cherry, Marc Zvi Brettler (Foreword)

Thanks to these generous donors for making the publication of this book Kinney Zalesne and Scott Siff. Every commentator, from the classical rabbi to the modern-day scholar, has brought his or her own worldview, with all of its assumptions, to bear on the reading of holy text. This relationship between the text itself and the reader's interpretation is the subject of Torah Through Time. Shai Cherry traces the development of Jewish Bible commentary through three pivotal periods in Jewish the rabbinic, medieval, and modern periods. The result is a fascinating and accessible guide to how some of the world's leading Jewish commentators read the Bible. Torah Through Time focuses on specific narrative sections of the the creation of humanity, the rivalry between Cain and Abel, Korah’s rebellion, the claim of the daughters of Zelophechad, and legal matters concerning Hebrew slavery. Cherry closely examines several different commentaries for each of these source texts, and in so doing he analyzes how each commentator resolves questions raised by the texts and asks if and how the commentator’s own historical frame of reference—his own time and place—contributes to the resolution. A chart at the end of each chapter provides a visual summary that helps the reader understand the many different elements at play.

Genres: Judaism

208 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 2007

Reviews

[Daniel Cornwall · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone outside of Judaism, I found this book great. It appears to be a well researched books with extensive notes at the end of each chapter. In addition to this it has a glossary, an extensive bibliography, and index and a "classical source" index.

The author begins with an introduction to different schools of Torah commentary. Then he chooses several biblical themes, including the creation of the universe, the position of slaves and the status of women. He then picks out biblical texts and commentaries on these texts. The commentaries extend from early rabbinic Judaism through the present. He often will make note of different commentators relationship with one another and with history.

The result for me was an appreciate of how flexible the Torah could be and how differently (big surprise) Jews interpret their own scripture. The author is careful to note that he is only showing a tiny, tiny slice of all commentary on the Torah and hopes that readers will explore further on their own.

Well worth it for people interested in either Judaism or what Christians label the Old Testament.

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've made various attempts to find a good introduction to Jewish thought and none have been as enlightening as Cherry's. After providing a broad overview of the different interpretive approaches to scripture, Cherry spends the majority of the work analyzing the history of commentary on five problematic biblical passages. This gave me an understanding of the deep, often contradictory insights the rabbis offer to the particular passages as well as an awareness of the dynamics of biblical interpretation throughout Jewish history.

[Farrah]

A nice philosophical exercise for those interested in Midrashic commentary. Whenever the Medieval commentators suggest that there are hints of monism and/or pantheism in the Torah, the author is careful to remind readers of present-day Judaism's insistence on transcendentalism.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shai Cherry takes just a few interesting questions/incidents from the Torah, & recounts for each one how different commentators have handled that incident over the centuries.