Joseph Telushkin - Biblical Literacy: The Most Important People, Events, and Ideas of the Hebrew Bible

BIBLICAL LITERACY

The Most Important People, Events,
and Ideas of the Hebrew Bible

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

Nonfiction

Rebbe

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To the next generation of our family

OUR CHILDREN
Rebecca, Naomi, Shira, and Benjamin

OUR NEPHEWS AND NIECES
Meir, Nisan, and Sharona
Saul and Sophie
Lena
Sosha, Max, and Zev
Brian, Russell, Scott, and Tracy Rose

May the study of Torah continue through them and their descendants.

I have been studying the Bible since I was seven. Two particularly influential teachers in shaping my understanding of this holy text were my grandfather Rabbi Nissen Telushkin, of blessed memory, author of Ha-Torab ve-ba-Olam (The Torah and the World), a three-volume study of the Torah, and my father, Shlomo Telushkin, of blessed memory. I also want to acknowledge the influence of my beloved uncle, Dr. Manoah Bialik, of blessed memory, an extraordinary teacher of Bible and Talmud, and an extraordinary mensch.

I owe much to the Yeshiva of Flatbush in Brooklyn, which I attended from kindergarten through high school, especially my ability to study the Bible and other Jewish texts in the original. Among the outstanding teachers with whom I studied are Rabbi David Eliach, the schools longtime, and recently retired, principal. Rabbi Eliach has a masterful ability to illuminate with fresh insights a biblical text that I, and others, might have read a dozen times, and to do so with a clear notion of its ethical import. Rabbi Amnon Haramati has an encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible and an ability to infuse his students with a sense of its significance. He tried to ensure that we learned many of its most beautiful chapters and verses by heart in the original Hebrew. Today, more than thirty years later, I wish I had been more diligent in carrying out his assignments.

For more than thirty years, my friend Dennis Prager, my classmate at the Flatbush Yeshivas Joel Braverman High School, and I have spent countless hours discussing biblical texts and how they speak to us today. His insights have greatly helped shape my understanding of the Bible.

Several friends and colleagues generously read and critiqued this book while in manuscript and made suggestions that influenced my writing. I am happy to have this opportunity to publicly acknowledge their help while assuming sole responsibility for any errors or misinterpretations in this work.

Dr. Jeremiah Unterman, the newly appointed director of the Toronto Board of Jewish Education, and the holder of a doctorate in Bible Studies, gave this work a careful reading, and provided a detailed critique. Along with pointing out a number of errors I had made, he deepened my appreciation of verses to which I had devoted insufficient attention. I am grateful for the gift of his time and knowledge.

Dr. Stephen Marmer, professor of psychiatry at UCLA Medical School, read the manuscript carefully and enriched my efforts through his psychological insights and substantial body of Jewish knowledge.

Daniel Taub, a highly knowledgeable student of the Bible, helped improve my style, while offering alternative explanations of some episodes. Rabbi Leonid Feldman also shared with me some very insightful explanations of biblical passages.

Dr. Michael Berger of Emory University, a rabbi and academic with a vast knowledge of the Bible and Talmud, delved into every page of this lengthy manuscript, and thus saved me from errors and misinterpretations. It would be difficult to overstate my appreciation for his work.

This is the fifth book that David Szonyi has helped edit for me, and, as always, he has immensely improved its clarity and readability, while offering insights garnered from his own ongoing study of the Torah. My appreciation for David grows from book to book.

My beloved wife, Dvorah, who currently is engaged in her own systematic study of the Torah, made many valuable suggestions which I have incorporated into the manuscript.

I also wish to acknowledge Dr. Jacob Milgroms impact on my understanding of the Bible. I consider him the greatest Bible scholar of our age. His impeccable scholarship is accompanied by an extraordinary ability to extract the texts ethical and spiritual meaning. Dr. Uriel Simon, professor of Bible at Israels Bar Ilan University, and one of the worlds greatest experts on Jewish Bible commentators, also has repeatedly deepened my understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures. My understanding of the Bible has also been deeply impacted by the insightful and compelling writings of two of the great Bible scholars and teachers of our century, Dr. Nahum Sarna and Professor Nehama Leibowitz.

My gratitude goes as well to the members of my congregation, the Synagogue of the Performing Arts in Los Angeles, who have heard much of this books material during five years of sermons. I also am proud to acknowledge my ongoing involvement as an Associate of CLAL, the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. For over two decades, CLAL has played a significant role in educating much of American Jewrys lay leadership in the Bible and in Jewish values. The work of Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg and of his newly appointed successor, Rabbi Irwin Kula, of Dr. David Elcott and the other extraordinary faculty and staff of CLAL, has made a deep and growing impact on the quality of American Jewish life.

I would like to express a deep sense of gratitude to my two editors at William Morrow, Ann Bramson and Gail Kinn, for their faith in this project. Gails editing of the manuscript was superb. In several key instances, her suggestions improved the work immensely. As always, Sonia Greenbaum, my scrupulous copy editor, improved the book stylistically, while catching numerous small errors and inconsistencies.

I feel a great deal of pleasure and gratitude in thanking Richard Pine. All writers should be blessed with such an agent, a man whose editorial insights are matched only by his negotiating abilities and loyal friendship. I also very much appreciate the help of Arthur Pine, his father and partner, and of Lori Andiman and Sarah Piel, their two associates.