Word: torah
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Torah. In Philadelphia, the Jewish Publication Society of America announced a milestone in its gigantic Biblical scholarship project. After eight years, Jewish scholars led by Hebrew Union College's Harry Orlinsky (who was the only non-Christian on the committee that produced the Revised Standard Version) have completed a new translation of the Torah, the five books of Moses, which will be published in January. They hope eventually to finish the entire Old Testament in a 20-year project that has the backing of all branches of American Judaism-and the best scholars from each...
Traditionalists who read new Bibles mainly to be outraged can make short work of the new Torah. Its first words are not "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Scholars decided the passage should read instead, "When God began to create the heaven and the earth...
...uncompromising work of scholarship, the new Torah has something to antagonize everybody. Singers of spirituals will note with dismay that the Israelites crossed the Sea of Reeds rather than the Red Sea. Moralists may be chagrined at the retranslation of the Third Commandment, which now reads, ''You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord your God; for the Lord will not clear one who swears falsely by His name"-a dictum against perjury but not profanity. From increased knowledge of ancient Hebrew, the scholars translated the Hebrew nefesh to mean "the man himself" rather than...
...began to write before I knew the alphabet. Sabbath was an ordeal for me, because writing was forbidden." His writing drew on traditional sources, since from childhood he studied the Bible, Torah, and, secretly, the cabala. "Cosmic riddles were actual in my home. . . . One could as easily have questioned the validity of reason as the existence of God. . . . The worship of reason was as idolatrous as bowing down to graven images...
...main point of the saying you are quoting from my Tales of the Hasidim [March 23] is expressed not in the words you quote ["What the Torah teaches us is this: none but God can command us to destroy man"] but in the sequel: "And if the very smallest angel comes after the command has been given and cautions us: 'Lay not thy hand upon . . .' we must obey him." I would think it desirable to draw your readers' attention to this part of the saying...