Source Materials

Some materials

– not exhaustive — added as referenced, more or less

 

TORAH TEXT and TRANSLATION*

English-Hebrew Torah Text with Commentary
The Stone Edition: The Chumash. Nosson Scherman, ed. Mesorah (Art Scroll), 1993. This volume includes notes in English referencing traditional authors across two millenia; commentaries of Onkelos (2nd Century CE) and Rashi (10th Century CE) are provided in Hebrew (not translated). An appendix identifies commentators cited to aid further study. Bibliography and topical index are also useful.

(“Plaut”) The Torah: A Modern Commentary. W. Gunther Plaut, ed. Union of American Hebrew Congregations [now Union for Reform Judaism], 1981. The English translation is from the Jewish Public Society, 1962-1967 version. Notes reference authors from many perspectives over the centuries; endnotes and bibliography aid further study.

(“Plaut/Stein”) The Torah: A Modern Commentary. W. Gunther Plaut, David E. Stein, eds. Union for Reform Judaism [formerly Union of American Hebrew Congregations], 2005. English is a gender-sensitive version of the more recent Jewish Publication Society translation. I don’t own this version, but cite it on occasion, through http://books.google.com. I list it here primarily to clarify the three Reform Torah/Commentaries (see above and below). NOTE: Genesis translation was updated by Chaim Stern before his death in 2001.

(“TWC“) The Torah: A Women’s Commentary. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss, eds. Women of Reform Judaism, 2008. The translation is that of the 2005 URJ volume with some additional modifications. Commentaries are strongly, although not entirely, focused on women and on gender issues in the text. Each portion closes with poetry on related themes, “another view” and a “contemporary reflection” on issues relating to women/gender. (No haftarah — prophetic readings.)

Torah Translation/Commentaries
Fox, Everett. The Five Books of Moses. Schocken Bible, Volume 1. Schocken, 2000 (hardcover); paperback, Random House. Employs unusual English in an attempt to carry sound and sense of Hebrew. More details.

Alter, Robert. The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary. Attempts to “convey the music and meaning” of the text. Hardcover, 2004; paperback, 2008.

* A GENERAL NOTE: The tetragrammaton, the four-letter name of God, appears differently in these volumes. JPS (Plaut) and Alter both use “the LORD,” while Scherman/Stone uses “HASHEM” [the name]. Fox uses the English capitals YHWH. The modified JPS in Plaut/Stein uses “the Eternal,” while The Torah: A Women’s Commentary uses the Hebrew letters yod-heh-vav-heh. (Because I cannot do Hebrew font, I copy that as YHWH, too, I’m afraid.)

TANACH

– Torah, Nevi’im [prophets], and Ketuvim [writings] –

Jewish Publication Society (JPS) in Philadephia, PA, completed a new translation in 1999. In addition to updating the English, the new editions use a two-column layout that aligns Hebrew and English pretty closely for easy reference. The URJ’s Torah/Commentary (above) and several others relay on JPS translations.

The Bible: Psalms with the Jerusalem Commentary, translation and commentary by Amos Hakham. Copyright 2003 by Mosad Harav Kook. Oversize, three-volume work with introductory essays, comments on each psalm and notes on translation, history, etc; only section of this series so far available in English. An amazing resource, but not exactly subway reading.

Talmud

Entirely free, if somewhat dated, English translation of the Babylonian Talmud is available on-line. I confess that I do not know whether this is a violation of copyright, although I do know that it is a great study aid; there is an inconclusive discussion on Wikisource.

The legally published electronic and print Soncino versions are available from Soncino Press.

ArtScroll has published a complete English translation of both the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud.

Background materials on Talmud and women in Talmud

MIDRASH/BIBLICAL COMMENTARY

Midrash Rabbah. Medieval compilation of commentary on the Torah. Some translations are available at sacred-text.com

Alter, Robert. Canon and Creativity: Modern Writing and the Authority of Scripture. Yale Univ. Press, 2000.

Antonelli, Judith. In the Image of God: A Feminist Commentary on the Torah . Jason Aronson, 1995.

Berditchev, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak. Kedushat Levi. Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk. Lambda Publications, 2009. See Breishit: Great Sources for more.

Bialik, H.N and Y.H Ravnitzky. Wm. Braude, trans. Sefer Ha-Aggadah. Originally published in 1908 by Dvir Publishing House; English by Schocken in 1992….A two-volume Hebrew edition is available from Dvir — the publishing enterprise founded by Bialik — (Dvir, Tel Aviv, 2000). The English translation is much more recent (NY: Schocken Books, 1992). A searchable CD-Rom version is available from Davka.

Cassuto, Umberto. A Commentary on the Book of Exodus. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University, 1997 (first Hebrew 1951; first English 1967). Translated from the Hebrew by Israel Abrahams.
–A Commentary on the Book of Genesis, Part Two: From Noah to Abraham, ibid., 1992 (first Hebrew 1949; first English 1964).
–There is also a Genesis, Part One: From Adam to Noah, but I’ve never read it.
–Part Three: Abraham and the Promised Land was unfinished on Cassuto’s death; current editions of Part Two include fragments of this volume. These volumes are very readable, even if dense [not obstuse: rich]. Worth the effort if you like language and near Eastern history; often cited by other authors concerning poetic/linguistic structure of the text.

Elper, Ora Wiskind and Susan Handelman. Torah of the Mothers,. Urim, 2000.

Feigenson, Emily H., Susan Marks and Andrea L. Weiss, eds. Beginning the Journey: A Women’s Commentary on Torah. Women of Reform Judaism, 1998. [Can be obtained new from WRJ or used through ABE or Alibris,etc.]

Frankel, Ellen. The Five Books of Miriam: A Woman’s Commentary on the Torah.. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1996. (paperback: HarperCollins). A variety of “voices” — our daughters, our mothers, our bubbes, Lilith the Rebel, Beruriah the Scholar, Huldah the Preacher, and many others — create a dialogue of traditional and contemporary commentaries across the centuries. Endnotes and a bibliography encourage further study.

Ginzberg, Louis. Legends of the Jews. Early 20th Century anthology of midrash; readable as coherent stories, not as useful for tracking down individual midrashim with citations. Translated from the German by Henrietta Szold. Available on-line at Sacred-Texts.com or Project Guttenberg. A print re-issue (seven volumes) is available from the Jewish Publication Society.

Goldstein, Elyse. The Women’s Torah Commentary: New Insights from Women Rabbis on the 54 Weekly Torah Portions. Jewish Lights, 2000.

Heschel, Abraham Joshua. Heavenly Torah: As Refracted through the Generations. (originally published in Hebrew, 1962-65). English translation by Gordon Tucker and Leonard Lavin, 2005. NY: Continuum (hardcover and paperback). Topically arranged 800+-page resource. Includes translators’ footnotes as well as Heschel’s, source appendix and a glossary.

Lapidus Lerner, Anne. Eternally Eve: Images of Eve in the Hebrew Bible, Midrash and Modern Jewish Poetry. Brandeis University Press, 2007.

Leibowitz, Nehama. Studies in Breishit, Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar, Devarim [7 volume set]. Translated and adapted from the Hebrew by Aryeh Newman. Jerusalem: Elinor Library, Joint Authority for Jewish Zionist Education [various years]. Biographical notes on commentators cited and Newman’s introduction appear in the Breishit [Genesis] volume. Books are sometimes called “New Studies in…,” but “new” means later than 1955-1962, when the studies were shared in mimeograph and other formats. See Shoftim: Great Sources for additional details.

Loeb, Sorel Goldberg and Barbara Binder Kadden. Teaching Torah: A Treasury of Insights. Denver, CO: ARE (Alternatives in Religious Education) Publishing, 1997. Extremely useful source for individual study and for teaching all ages. Now available from Behrman House.

Orenstein, Debra and Jane Litman, eds. Lifecycles Volume 2: Jewish Women on Biblical Themes in Contemporay Life. Jewish Lights, 1998.

Ostriker, Alicia. The Nakedness of the Fathers: Biblical Visions and Revisions Rutgers Univ. Pres, 1994. Presented as a unique weave of essay and poetry, personal reflection and bible commentary — never about (simply) “giving voice to women.” When Ostriker’s women and men speak, they have something to say that profoundly alters the reader’s perspective on the text. A great book to read and re-read with Torah and later books of the bible. See also Noach: Great Sources and Korach: Great Sources.

Pardes, Ilana. The Biography of Ancient Israel: National Narratives in the Bible. Part of the Contraversions series, 2000, it is published by Univ. of California Press and is now available in paperback. Rare combination of readable and scholarly. Can’t recommend enough: read this! (See post “Bamidbar: Great Source“)

Salkin, Jerffrey K., ed. The Modern Men’s Torah Commentary: New Insights from Jewish Men on the 54 Weekly Torah Portions. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights, 2009. An interesting array of commentary which serves both to bring out new perspectives on the weekly portions and to remind us that older commentaries, although written almost exclusively by men, do not necessarily speak to contemporary men… or do so in the same way. See also 54 New Torah Insights.

Schwartz, Howard. Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism. Illustrations by Carol Loebel-Fried. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. (See post Chukat: Great Sources)

Schweid, Eliezer. The philosophy of the Bible as foundation of Jewish culture. Translated by Leonard Levin. Academic Studies Press.

Shunfenthal, Sheri Waas. Judybeth Greene, illustrator. Sacred Voices: Women of Genesis Speak. Pocol Press, 2000. Select pages from this book, including the illustration, “Adam and His Remote,” by Judybeth Greene, are available through Amazon.com; other illustrations are here.

Trible, Phyllis. Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984. This early, oft-cited source in feminist text analysis is easy to read, text-illuminating and historically useful. The author’s training and overall framework are Christian, but her biblical readings remain within the Hebrew text. Available through GoogleBooks See also Lekh Lekha: Great Source(s).

Tucker, Joann, and Susan Freeman. Torah in Motion: Creating Dance Midrash. Denver, CO: ARE Publishing Inc., 1990. Now available as a used trade paperback or as an e-book.

Zornberg, Avivah Gottlieb. (My note on these sources is too long for this file.)
–The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis. NY: Doubleday, 1996.
–The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus. NY: Doubleday, 2001.
–The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious. NY: Schocken, 2009.
–”Cries and Whispers: The Death of Sarah” IN Beginning Anew: A Woman’s Companion to the High Holidays. Gail Twersky Reimer and Judith A. Kates, editors. Simon and Schuster, 1997.

Siddurim/Prayerbooks

Kol Haneshamah: Shabbat v’chagim. Wyncote, PA: The Reconstructionist Press, 1996. Title is an untranslated phrase, meaning “every living thing” or “all with breath” or “all souls,” used in Psalm 150, e.g. The edition labeled “Shabbat v’chagim” is for Sabbath morning and festival prayers. There are additional volumes for Friday nights, songs and daily prayers as well as a high holiday prayerbook.

THEOLOGY, GENDER, MEDITATION and MORE

Adler, Rachel. Engendering Judaism: An Inclusive Theology and Ethics. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1998. (paperback, Beacon Press, 1999). This text is full of remarkable insights on Judaism, Torah, etc. — not exclusively on topics relevant to gender. It’s sometimes a slog to read (it began as a dissertation), and some of her arguments are more detailed than might interest a casual reader. But her discussion of the concept of “story,” and its importance in Judaism, e.g., is very worthwhile. Preview available at Google Books.

Alter, Robert. The Art of Biblical Narrative. NY: Basic Books, 1983. This now classic exploration of narrative and literary style in the Hebrew bible was heralded as a “radical approach” on publication.

Holtz, Barry. Back to the Sources: Reading the Classic Jewish Texts. Simon and Schuster, 1984. Extraordinarily useful book for orienting oneself to the many forms and layers of Jewish text developed over the centuries. Some English sources mentioned in this work are out of print or hard to find now, and many other books have become available, in the 25 years since the first edition; but the basic information is invaluable.

Lew, Alan. Be Still and Get Going: A Jewish Meditation Practice for Real Life. NY: Little Brown and Company, 2005. This is not a “commentary” on the Torah. Meditative practices and introduced through a variety of sacred texts. Many chapters serve to open new readings of Torah.

Umansky, Ellen and Diane Ashton. Four Centuries of Jewish Women’s Spirituality: A Sourcebook. Beacon, 1992.

“Words for God; God Beyond Words” — sources from Kol Isha session, Dec. 2006

MISC REFERENCES

Even-Shoshan, ed. A New Concordance of the Bible: Thesaurus of the Language of the Bible, Hebrew and Aramaic roots, words, proper names phrases and synonyms. “Kiryat Sefer” Publishing House Ltd., Jerusalem [sic. Quotation marks for publishing house and yes, that long thing is the title].

LolCatBible. An interesting project for a fresh perspective on bible text. Offers useful notes, including explanations of spots where Christian and Hebrew chapter/verse numberings differ.

Steinberg, Milton. As a Driven Leaf. Behrman House, 1939 (1996). A fictionalized account of the life of Elisha ben Abuya, the 2nd Century CE rabbi, referenced in much of the Talmud as Acher ["the other one"], to avoid mentioning the apostate by name. Originally published in 1939. Steinberg’s novel is introduced by Chaim Potok in the 1996 edition..

See also Commentators and Passover References