Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary (review)

For close to sixty years, Joseph Hertz’s The Pentateuch and Haftorahs (London: Soncino Press, 1936) was a fixture in American synagogues, arguably serving as “the Bible” for many, if not most, American Jews. However, “Hertz” has long been considered dated and its polemics against both Christianity and modern biblical scholarship out of touch with contemporary views. It is, therefore, not surprising that replacements have begun to appear. The first came from the Reform movement, which published The Torah, A Modern Commentary in 1981. Although it drew on a wide range of thinkers, Jewish tradition was shortchanged, as symbolized by the omission of the biblical accent marks (trope), which are used for the Bible’s ritual chanting, and the minimization of the traditional Sabbath lections (parashot).

Barely a decade later, the Orthodox community produced an English commentary of its own. However, the ArtScroll H.umash (Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1993) paid even less attention to modernity than the Reform commentary had given to Jewish tradition.

Now the Conservative movement, out of which Hertz, the first graduate of its Jewish Theological Seminary of America, emerged, has produced its own commentary for synagogue use. Drawing the title from Proverbs 3:18, which is recited before the Torah scroll during Jewish worship, its goal is to be “reverential but not apologetic” (p. xix) by embracing both tradition and modernity. It is also proudly Jewish. Although non-Jews are seldom mentioned by name, especially in the commentary, it quotes a remarkable range of Jewish thinkers from almost every century and stream of Jewish history. Jewish practice is also regularly identified, typically as what “we” do, and there are frequent references to the Conservative movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards.

Both the commentary and the short essays which follow are fully conversant with the findings of contemporary biblical scholarship. Biblical statements are not automatically accepted as true, and readings from the ancient versions are pointed out along with instances in which the translation deviates from the Masoretic text it supposedly follows. There are also frequent references to relevant findings from the ancient Near East, although the Der Allah inscription goes strangely unmentioned as does the generally accepted connection between the book of Deuteronomy and Judah’s King Josiah.

Most striking is the book’s openness to diversity. The organizers of this project have gone out of their way to involve a broad range of the movement’s constituents, including important scholars who work outside of its own institutions. Following a format that recalls Daniel Bomberg’s classic Rabbinic Bible (Mikra’ot Gedolot), each page includes both the Hebrew text and the 1985 Jewish Publication Society translation as well as three commentaries—one, based on the recent JPS commentary series, which presents the text’s straightforward meaning (peshat), a second that is more homiletical (derash), and a third that describes the relationship between the text and Jewish observance (halacha l’ma-aseh). In practice, these categories turn out to be more fluid than the titles suggest, with the various commentaries sometimes crossing lines to make a point that might have been expected elsewhere on the page or gently disagreeing with each other. The resulting interchange is a reminder that Judaism is not a monolith, but a tradition of dialogue and debate.

Each Torah portion is followed by the prophetic selection that is read in conjunction with it. The comments to these are more limited, with primary attention devoted to a description of the passages’ contents and their relationship to the Torah portion or the occasion on which they are read. (Unfortunately, the book does not include a list of the Torah portions that accompany the prophetic selections for special occasions.) There are also some forty short essays that discuss a variety of topics relating to the ancient Near East, biblical religion, and Jewish worship with varying degrees of sophistication and reliability and a variety of supplementary tools, including maps, diagrams, and a...