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Getting started with Jewish literature

Riders

Well-Known Member
I'd like to gets started with the old testament this year to study the Jewish God. Are there other books good books to get to know the Jewish God?
 

Harel13

Am Yisrael Chai
Staff member
Premium Member
I'd like to gets started with the old testament this year to study the Jewish God. Are there other books good books to get to know the Jewish God?
I second @Rival's suggestion of getting a good Jewish translation, such as Artscroll, perhaps.

There are a number of good sites for basic info on Judaism, such as:
https://www.chabad.org/
My Jewish Learning - Judaism & Jewish Life
Jewish Virtual Library

These sites and others offer excellent Jewish perspectives on God and Jewish theology.
 

Jayhawker Soule

-- untitled --
Premium Member
I'll admit I'm not too knowledgeable about the various English translations. I've heard - and seen myself - that JPS is lacking. What have you got against Artscroll?
I find it to have an unpleasant bias (so, for example, there rendering of Deut. 26.5 and Lev. 19:33-37).
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
Which do you guys prefer?
I found Koren Sacks marginally better and enjoyed that it leaves names and places untranslated. It also uses the you/thee distinction, which makes it easier for language buffs like me to figure when Moshe, for example, is speaking to one person or many. They don't seem to have such a biased translation philosophy, but I'm sure a Jewish person would be able to evaluate that much better than me.

I tend to cross-check all of my commentaries for translation but more often for commentaries. So for me that's Rashi, Nachmanides, Sforno, Hertz, Soncino Chumash (which includes Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Rashbam, Kimchi, Gersonides, Ramban, Sforno) and the Or HaChaim. I'm much more dependant on actual explanations of verses than translations, which I've come to look beyond in a way.

But usually if something's really bothering me I take it to you :sweatsmile: or RF Jews generally, or Rabbi Google.
 
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Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
@Harel13

In the Vayikra passage Jayhawker mentions, AS translates 'proselyte', where Koren has 'stranger'. To me that reflects a certain bias, where the Koren matches other translations.

In the Devarim passage, AS has 'An Aramean tried to destroy my forefather' where Koren has, 'An Aramean nomad was my father'.

AS just seems to 'retcon' certain hard passages with theological bias or basically inserted commentary, as @rosends said before.
 

rosends

Well-Known Member
I think that AS starts with certain assumptions and beliefs and incorporates certain baseline positions. Onkelos translates it as AS reports and they were long before AS or Koren. Rashi wrotes, "He mentions the loving kindness of the Omnipresent saying, ארמי אבד אבי, a Syrian destroyed my father, which means: “Laban wished to exterminate the whole nation”" The Ibn Ezra disagrees, writing "The meaning of our phrase thus is, a perishing Aramean was my father." I would be surprised if the Koren doesn't do the same in certain places, but without the text handy, I can't tell.
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
I would be surprised if the Koren doesn't do the same in certain places, but without the text handy, I can't tell.
I think it does, but I can't pull passages from memory. I'll keep it in mind the next time I'm going through it because it interests me. That's why I said 'marginally' in my comment, because as with all translations it tends to do this.
 

Jayhawker Soule

-- untitled --
Premium Member
Which do you guys prefer?
I have a mild preference for Robert Alter, but I also like Everette Fox and Richard Elliot Friedman. I’ve found the commentary in Plaut to be exceptional.

One of my issues with Artscroll and Chabad is their persistent (though, perhaps, understandable) dismissal of relevant scholarship.
 
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