The New Rabbinic Bible: A Quantum Leap

THE NEW RABBINIC BIBLE: A QUANTUM LEAP Mayer I. Gruber Ben-Gurion University of the Negev gruber@bgumail.bgu.ac.il A review of bo-a Myrwmzm :¢a qlj :Mylht rps (The book of Psalms: Part 1, Psalms 1–72) [Hebrew]. Edited by Menachem Cohen. rtkh twlwdg twarqm (Mikra√ot Gedolot “Haketer”). Pp. xliv + 224. Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University, 2003. Cloth, $45.00. nq-go Myrwmzm :¢b qlj :Mylht rps (The book of Psalms: Part 2, Psalms 73–150) [Hebrew]. Edited by Menachem Cohen. rtkh twlwdg twarqm (Mikra√ot Gedolot “Haketer”). Pp. x + 246. Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University, 2003. Cloth, $45.00. The two volumes reviewed here are the latest in the series Mikra√ot Gedolot “Haketer” prepared by Professor Menachem Cohen at the Institute for the History of Jewish Biblical Research at Bar-Ilan University. The previous six volumes covered the biblical books of Joshua and Judges (1992), Kings (1995), Isaiah (1996), Genesis 1–25 with Haftaroth (synagogal prophetic lection) (1997), Genesis 25–51 with Haftaroth (1999), and Ezekiel (2000). The avowed purpose of this series, which, Deo volente, will include all twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible (corresponding to all thirty-nine books of the Lutheran canon of the Old Testament), is to replace the common editions of Mikra√ot Gedolot, commonly called in English “the Rabbinic Bible.” The so-called Rabbinic Bible presents in a few compact volumes the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible, one or more Aramaic versions of the Jewish Bible, the Masorah, and several Hebrew commentaries, mostly from the High Middle Ages. The reason for replacing the common editions of the so-called Rabbinic Bible with new editions is that the common editions present inaccurate versions of the Masoretic Text, the Masoretic notes, the privileged (indeed, canonical, for the Pentateuch and the Prophets) Aramaic translations (Targumim) of the Bible, and selected biblical commentaries composed in Rabbinic Hebrew, primarily in Spain, France, and Italy in the High Middle Ages. Moreover, the older editions, in which most commentaries are printed in so-called Rashi script, rarely identify quotations and sources, and they lack modern punctuation. Cohen’s editions, on the other hand, transcribe insofar as is humanly possible the Hebrew text and the Masoretic notes from the Aleppo Codex. Where (as in Ps 15:1–25:1, the only portion missing from the Book of Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 278 Review Essay Psalms) the text of the Aleppo Codex did not survive the riots that took place in Aleppo following the decision of the United Nations on November 29, 1947 to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state, Cohen has reconstructed the text based upon his elaborate theory expounded in the Joshua-Judges-General Introduction volume (1992), pp. 52–57, 69–71, 74–77 and in the introduction to the Kings volume (1995), pp. 20–24.1 Cohen (see introduction in vol. 1, p. x) transcribes the consonantal text of the Aramaic version (Targum) of the Book of Psalms largely on the basis of the unvocalized Paris Bibliothèque Nationale Heb. Ms. 110. Cohen vocalizes this same text largely on the basis of Paris Bibliothèque Nationale Heb. Ms. 17/1. For most biblical scholars, clergy, students, and educated laypersons, the most obvious contribution of Cohen’s two volumes of the Book of Psalms is to present in compact form reliable user-friendly editions of important Medieval Hebrew biblical commentaries printed in square Hebrew type. The works of five commentators are presented in the two volumes here reviewed. These are 1) Rashi [i.e., Rabbi Solomon son of Isaac of Troyes in northern France] (1040–1105); 2) Rabbi Abraham b. Meir Ibn Ezra (1089–1164) who was born in Tudela in Spain but who composed two Hebrew commentaries on Psalms, one in Rouen, France (republished in Cohen’s Mikra√ot Gedolot “Haketer” in exemplary form) and one in Italy (lost except for fragments, including an introduction republished in the first of the two Psalms volumes of Mikra√ot Gedolot “Haketer” (pp. xxxiii–xxxv); 3) Rabbi David Kimhi of Narbonne in Provence in southern France (1160–1235); 4) R. Menahem haMe √iri (1249–1316) of Perpignan in Provence; and 5...