Commentary on the Torah by Richard Elliot Friedman includes the original Hebrew text of the Torah, a complete new translation of these five books of the Bible, and commentary that aims to show how each passage illuminates the Torah as a whole. Friedman's massive project invites comparison with the legendary commentary written by Rashi, which has served as the standard work of its kind for almost 1,000 years. This new commentary draws on recent archeological discoveries, medieval commentaries, and modern textual scholarship "to shed new light on the Torah, and, more important, to open windows through which it sheds its light on us." The book also continues Friedman's ongoing project of making serious religious scholarship accessible to the general reader (as did his previous works, including Who Wrote the Bible and The Hidden Face of God). To that end, it is organized not only with chapter and verse markings, but also by traditional weekly synagogue readings. This textual organization, combined with Friedman's relentless focus on the text's meaning for faithful lay readers, makes his Commentary an ideal resource for synagogue and church study groups, as well as a necessary reference work for individual students of religion. --Michael Joseph Gross

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Now in paperback--the first major commentary of the Torah by a Jewish scholar in centuries, with new translations, by the author of the bestselling Who Wrote the Bible? and the critically acclaimed Hidden Book in the Bible.

Richard Elliott Friedman is one of this country's most authoritative biblical scholars, whose insightful, accessible work appeals to a wide readership. His Hidden Book in the Bible was selected as one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year, while Who Wrote the Bible? has sold just under 100,000 copies in both editions. Friedman has now produced the project that his lifetime of research and scholarship has prepared him to do: a new commentary on the Torah.

Friedman draws on the discoveries of modern biblical scholarship and archaeology. In his Commentary on the Torah, Richard Friedman provides an exciting new translation of the Torah and commentary that guides lay readers through the Five Books of Moses. As he states, "More than perhaps any past commentary, from medieval to modern times, the Commentary on the Torah is focused on showing the unity of the Torah, showing the exquisite, meaningful connections that make this a great, united work and not just a collection of individual stories and laws."