Eli L. Garfinkel - The JPS Jewish heritage Torah commentary

The JPS Jewish Heritage Torah Commentary promises to become an indispensable component of the modern Jewish library. This expansive, accessible, masterful, and truly inspiring volume is certain to make the study of Torah personally relevant and meaningful to a wide audience of grateful learners, both teachers and students, for years to come.

Rabbi Oren J. Hayon, senior rabbi, Congregation Emanu El, Houston

On behalf of every rabbi, Jewish educator, and inquiring mind: Thank you, Rabbi Garfinkel, for this extraordinary contribution to Torah study! Readable and relevant, every page is brimming with scholarship, creativity, inspiration, and lovea must-have for anyone looking to deepen their engagement with Jewish texts or tradition.

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, Park Avenue Synagogue, New York City

For more than twenty years those of us who were first exposed to Rabbi Garfinkels teaching Torah during summers at Ramah Wisconsin have been asking for an edition of his commentary for the entire yearly cycle of parshiyot. The pedagogic artistry he experimented with in his early work is on full display in The JPS Jewish Heritage Torah Commentary. By organizing his commentary through four dimensions followed by open-ended questions to consider, Rabbi Garfinkel thoroughly enriches the experience of weekly engagement with the Torah text.

Rabbi David Soloff, director emeritus, Camp Ramah, Wisconsin

Anyone who opens up the wisdom of Torah with so many points of entrance and in such a thoughtful and accessible manner should be congratulated as a master teacher. I look forward to using Rabbi Garfinkels sensitive and learned guide for my own teaching.

Dr. Jane Shapiro, cofounder, Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning

Rabbi Garfinkel has ingeniously applied the Torah to the significant issues of our times, and I love the questions at the end of each section that inspire us to think deeply.

Rabbi Elliot Dorff, rector and Distinguished Service Professor of Philosophy, American Jewish University

Steeped in Jewish sources and the mind of his intended audience, Garfinkel takes an issue about which passions are flaringJewish past, present, and future in the Land of Israeland connects it to the oldest texts of the Jewish people in original, refreshing, and understandable ways.

Rabbi David Komerofsky, Temple Israel, Canton, Ohio

The Jewish Publication Society expresses its gratitude for the generosity of the following sponsors of this book.

• Wendy Fein Cooper and Leonard J. Cooper, in honor of our son and favorite Torah Israeli and birthright guide, Ian Kobi Cooper

Rabbi Eli L. Garfinkel

The Jewish Publication Society | Philadelphia

University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln

2021 by Eli L. Garfinkel. All rights reserved. Published by the University of Nebraska Press as a Jewish Publication Society book.

Cover designed by University of Nebraska Press; cover image: Torah Ark Doors with Country Birds (details) Andrea Strongwater.

Author photo Sari Garfinkel.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Garfinkel, Eli L., author.

Title: The JPS Jewish heritage Torah commentary / Rabbi Eli L. Garfinkel.

Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press; Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2021. | Series: JPS Study Bible | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020040355

ISBN 9780827612679 (paperback)

ISBN 9780827618695 (epub)

ISBN 9780827618701 (mobi)

ISBN 9780827618718 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH : Bible. PentateuchCommentaries.

Classification: LCC BS 1225.53 . G 37 2021 | DDC 222/.107dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020040355

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

To the families and staff of Temple Beth El of Somerset, New Jersey, which has helped my family and me experience Torah Israel, the Jewish people, and Jewish thought in the fullest possible way.

To the love of my life for two decades, Naomi, and our precious children, Sari and Josh.

The JPS Jewish Heritage Torah Commentary is, in a sense, a quarter century in the making. The process began in the late nineties at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin where I was a teacher in the camps Judaic studies program. Campers were bored and inattentive during the Shabbat morning Torah reading, mainly because they had nothing to read other than photocopies of the Hertz umash. Rabbi Dr. Joseph Hertzs The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, first published in 1936, was and is a remarkable commentaryit shaped the Jewish minds of laypeople for decadesbut it was never intended to serve the unique education needs of teenagers.

In response to this problem, I wrote Mikraot Ramah, a commentary on the summer Torah portions (found in Numbers and Deuteronomy), encompassing summaries, midrashim, Jewish law, asidut, morality, and many other ideas and questions. I am grateful to Rabbi David Soloff, who gave me the green light to write Mikraot Ramah, and thus put me on a path toward this broader volume that is designed to engage Jews of all ages.

I owe a debt of thanks to Rabbi Barry Schwartz, director of The Jewish Publication Society, for believing in me and this endeavor even when its production date rolled into the fourth and fifth year. With the benefit of hindsight, marriage, parenthood, and twenty years of study, I hope that I have created a commentary for the whole year that substitutes nuance for ideology, focus for blur, and organized structure for random grazing. I owe deep gratitude to Joy Weinberg, the JPS managing editor, who shepherded this project and used her superb editorial skills to teach me that good writing depends on nuance, focus, structure, and factual accountability. She knew exactly when to give encouragement and precisely when to increase the pressure, and this book exists because of her dedication and patience.

Torah cannot be studied or taught in a vacuum; its wisdom can only be absorbed and transmitted in the context of a community. For more than fifteen years, Temple Beth El of Somerset, New Jersey, has provided me with a place not only to teach Torah and study it but a place to love my people actively, to cry with them in times of need, and dance with them in times of joy. They have embraced my family and me wholeheartedly, and I am indebted to them for everything they have done for us.

I am also grateful to the University of Nebraska Press for copublishing this book and thereby giving me the opportunity to follow Isaiahs exhortation that we magnify and glorify the divine word (Isa. 42:21).

My family is my universe. My best friend and loving wife, Naomi Lasky, has stood by me for two decades through thick and thin. Together, we have raised our amazing children, Sari and Josh. They make us proud every day, and I am grateful enough to pinch myself to make sure that this life isnt just a good dream.

Tam vnishlam, todah la-El Olam: It is finished, it is donewith gratitude to the Eternal One!

In my experience, it can be difficult to explain what it means to be a Jew. The root of the difficulty is that Jewishness transcends the definition of religion or a set of beliefs. There are millions of Jews all over the world who proudly identify as Jews and yet do not practice the Jewish religion.