Book Review: The Torah: A Modern Commentary Revised Edition
Reviews the 2006 revised edition of W. Gunther Plaut's landmark Reform Torah commentary, examining reviser David E. S. Stein's approach to gendered translation of the Hebrew text and of God, the incorporation of Chaim Stern's fresh renderings of Genesis and the haftarot, and the volume's expanded essays and bibliography, set against the original 1981 edition's pioneering place in liberal Jewish Bible scholarship.
Zucker reviews the 2006 revised edition of W. Gunther Plaut’s The Torah: A Modern Commentary, the first comprehensive liberal Torah commentary when originally published in 1981. He focuses on reviser David E. S. Stein’s careful handling of gendered language, both in translating the biblical text and in referring to God, alongside the incorporation of Chaim Stern’s fresh translations and an expanded set of essays and bibliography.
David J. Zucker, PhD, is Rabbi/Chaplain at Shalom Park, a senior continuum of care center. His books include The Torah: An Introduction for Christians and Jews (Paulist, 2005). He has published several articles in The Jewish Bible Quarterly.
Cite this article
David J. Zucker. "Book Review: The Torah: A Modern Commentary Revised Edition." Jewish Bible Quarterly 38, no. 2 (April – June 2010): 127–130.
David J. Zucker. "Book Review: The Torah: A Modern Commentary Revised Edition." Jewish Bible Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 2, 2010, pp. 127–130.