What is the relevance of the weekly Shabbat Torah reading to our every-day 'modern' lives? Using his own true life experiences, the author reveals how we can uncover the miracles that occur to each of us daily, if only we would understand the messages that the Torah readings bring to our lives. Many of these anecdotal stories can be used by rabbis, educators and laymen across the entire Jewish spectrum to highlight the relevance of the Torah to the modern experience.

Winner of the Jewish Book Council Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award in Scholarship This book explores the reception history of the most important Jewish Bible commentary ever composed, the Commentary on the Torah of Rashi (Shlomo Yitzhaki; 1040-1105). Though the Commentary has benefited from enormous scholarly attention, analysis of diverse reactions to it has been surprisingly scant. Viewing its path to preeminence through a diverse array of religious, intellectual, literary, and sociocultural lenses, Eric Lawee focuses on processes of the Commentary's canonization and on a hitherto unexamined--and wholly unexpected--feature of its reception: critical, and at times astonishingly harsh, resistance to it. Lawee shows how and why, despite such resistance, Rashi's interpretation of the Torah became an exegetical classic, a staple in the curriculum, a source of shared religious vocabulary for Jews across time and place, and a foundational text that shaped the Jewish nation's collective identity. The book takes as its larger integrating perspective processes of canonicity as they shape how traditions flourish, disintegrate, or evolve. Rashi's scriptural magnum opus, the foremost work of Franco-German (Ashkenazic) biblical scholarship, faced stiff competition for canonical supremacy in the form of rationalist reconfigurations of Judaism as they developed in Mediterranean seats of learning. It nevertheless emerged triumphant in an intense battle for Judaism's future that unfolded in late medieval and early modern times. Investigation of the reception of the Commentary throws light on issues in Jewish scholarship and spirituality that continue to stir reflection, and even passionate debate, in the Jewish world today.

"A sound piece of work. Its holistic, final-form approach reflects the major trend in biblical criticism. It is perceptive, sensitive, thoughtful and stimulation".---David Gunn Professor of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary

A revised view of the Pentateuch with consequences for the broader literary history of the Bible This collection of thirty-one studies on the Pentateuch represents more than twenty years of Konrad Schmid’s research and publications advocating for a new view of the Pentateuch’s formation. Schmid’s essays present the case for a Persian period Priestly document that provided a basic narrative thread to the Torah, which included separate, pre-Priestly components of narratives in Genesis and the Moses story. Schmid’s open discussion includes evidence from various fields, such as literary history, comparative cultural history, historical linguistics, epigraphy, and archaeology. The essays are divided into eight sections usefully structured around the themes of the Pentateuch in the Enneateuch, the history of scholarship, the formation of the Torah, Genesis, the Moses story, the Priestly document, legal texts, and the Pentateuch in the history of ancient Israel’s religion.

The Torah Unabridged is a detailed examination of legal reasoning in the Hebrew Bible. Focusing on the exegetical operations by which biblical laws related to intermarriage were applied to circumstances and persons that lie outside the sphere of their explicit content, this book reconstructs the ways in which laws regarding intermarriage evolved, were interpreted, and were applied across time and place. William A. Tooman argues that the “exegetical impulse” to expand upon the gaps left by laws relating to marriage in the Torah is expressed in several distinctive ways in later texts in the Hebrew Bible. Adopting a diachronic approach, Tooman examines the techniques biblical writers used in their appropriation, expansion, and manipulation of legal ideas within earlier biblical texts in order to apply the laws to more situations, circumstances, and people. Tooman’s analysis reveals that from Exodus to Ezra-Nehemiah, legal reasoning on intermarriage moved in a singular direction: toward an ever-greater restriction of marriage between Israelites/Jews and gentiles. The final chapter sums up the ways that this was accomplished, summarizing the logical and exegetical operations executed in the process of expanding the relevance of these laws, and describing the hermeneutical assumptions that motivated the process. Grounded in a detailed philological analysis of the Hebrew texts, this tightly argued monograph is an important impetus to further debate in the field. It will be welcomed by biblical scholars and by specialists in the history of law.

The perfect Torah is the medium through which the one, unique God makes himself known. The Judaic statement of monotheism comes to expression in Scripture as perfected by the Oral Torah in its native category-formations, Halakhah, norms of behavior, and Aggadah norms of belief. The Halakhah of the oral Torah conveys monotheism in a philosophical mode, and the Aggadah, monotheism in a mythic mode. What is perfect about the dual Torah, written and oral, is the perfect match between the message and the medium, Halakhah for the philosophical monotheism, Aggadah for the mythic statement of the same monotheism. Chapters One and Two explain the former, Chapters Three and Four the latter. The question answered here concerns how one canonical corpus perfects its companion and produces in consequence perfection: the realization of the initial intent and program of the Written by the Oral Torah. That is addressed by the construction of large exemplary structures of comparison and contrast in the shank of the book. Four principles are established: [1] the perfection through the systematization of the law of the Written Torah by the Oral Torah, in Chapter One; [2] the perfection of the medium of the Halakhah for the message of philosophical monotheism, in Chapter Two; [3] the perfection of Scripture's anomalous writings through the dismantling of one document and the systematic recasting of another, in Chapter Three; [4] the perfection of the medium of Aggadah in its form of narrative for the message of theology concerning God's personality and activity, in Chapter Four.

In recent decades, there has been a growing movement within the body of Messiah/ Christ towards a greater understanding of the Hebraic/Jewish roots of Christianity. Moses Wrote About Me is an integral part of this movement. Moses Wrote About Me is the first of five commentary books written by Yosef Rachamim Danieli, a native Israeli Jew who has followed Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth for almost 40 years. He has traveled and taught the Word of God (both Old and New Testaments) inside and outside God’s Promised Land for many years. The author believes that this book series will not only contribute to the body of Messiah’s appreciation of the Jewish roots of Christianity, but that it is also an integral part of the preparation that all true followers of Messiah should make for the Messiah’s Second Coming. For more information on Yosef, to listen to his teachings, sign up to his newsletters, and, to invite him and his wife Gabriela to share with your people on a diversity of subjects related to Israel and the Word, please visit www.touryourroots.com Moses Wrote About Me follows the traditional Jewish readings that are held in every synagogue around the world on Sabbath/Saturday. The book’s emphasis is on the portraits and foreshadowings of the Jewish Messiah in each and every one of these Sabbath readings. To accomplish the goal of increasing our understanding of God’s masterplan of salvation, the author includes comments of the Jewish sages and provides explanations of the meanings of Hebrew words, Hebrew names, and Hebrew places. In addition, Moses Wrote About Me addresses many known theological controversies from a unique and out-of-the-box perspective. All these things create a rich and stimulating experience in the study of the Word of God. The prospective reader is encouraged to approach Moses Wrote About Me with an open mind. Set aside your pre-conceived ideas and doctrines, sit back, relax, and enjoy this unique perspective and approach to God’s Holy Word.