Showing posts with label Torah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Torah. Show all posts

September 9, 2021

The Koren Tanakh: The Torah, The Prophets, and The Writings

 

Last month we took a look at The Koren Tanakh of the Land of Israel: Samuel and before that Exodus, both published by Koren Publishers Jerusalem, who kindly sent me copies of those exquisitely produced, tabletop editions to review. This time, however, we have the entire first edition of The Koren Tanakh – a well-researched translation of the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings.

 

Beginning back to front, the opening pages provide this clarifying statement:

 

The Torah is eternal.

Humanity is ephemeral and dynamic.”

 

As God’s people on earth, our transient lives interact with God and one another while we await the Messiah. Meanwhile, we look to the Torah (first five books of the Hebrew Bible) to become better acquainted with our rich heritage and better understand God’s will for all peoples. But why do we need a new Hebrew-English translation?

 

The opening text explains:

 

The Torah is the cornerstone of the world, of our People, and it forms the baseline of the Tanakh, the holy writings of God and His prophets. The changing nature of human society demands a fresh Tanakh translation which speaks to each and every one of us while remaining rooted in the eternal essence of the Torah. The Tanakh is a living script, the screenplay of the history of humanity from Creation to the present.

 

God’s Word is living, and while spiritual truths do not change, our understanding does.

 

The contents and layout of this edition will help. For starters, we might begin by familiarizing ourselves with the timelines, charts, and maps placed in the front and back matter of the book to aid our study. Then, depending on the present time of year, we might proceed with the “Torah Readings For Special Days,” such as Numbers 28:1-15, p. 389 for Rosh Hodesh. Or the “Blessings Before and After Reading the Torah.”

 

As we continue into the actual scriptures, the index tabs on the outer edge of this thick volume enable us to flip from book to book or section to section. Unless, however, we can read Hebrew, we won’t necessarily know what we’ll find! Although my own language studies are sadly lacking, I suspect that rabbis, pastors, students, and biblical scholars will be delighted to see the contemporary English translation on the right side of each page aligned with the Hebrew text on the left.

 

With the name of each book presented in both the English and Hebrew version, we begin with “Bereshit/Genesis,” which translates the opening text of the Torah as:

 

When God began creating heaven and earth, the earth was void and desolate, there was darkness on the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved over the waters. God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light. God saw the light: it was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness He called ‘night.’ There was evening, and there was morning – one day.

 

Midway in the Nevi’im/ Prophets, we find Yeshaya/ Isaiah with these opening verses from Chapter 55:

 

You who are thirsty, all, come to water; you who have no silver, come, take food and eat; come and take food without silver, wine and milk without cost, for why should you weigh out your silver for no bread, your labor bringing you no fullness? Listen – listen to Me: let goodness nourish you, and let your souls delight in plenty. Turn your ear to Me and come; listen, that your souls may live; let Me forge an everlasting covenant with you, like David’s faithful promises, for I make him a witness to the nations, a leader, a ruler of nations; for you shall call out, call, to a people you know not, and a people who know you not will come running out to you for the sake of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your glory.             Seek out the Lord while He is to be found; call to Him – now, when He is close.

 

The more we read God’s Word, the more apt we are to feel that closeness. Regardless of our feelings, though, we know God is with us because the Bible consistently says so! Therefore, no matter the circumstances, we, as Psalm 100 exhorts us, can choose to “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise… for the Lord is good; His loving-kindness is forever, His faithfulness for all generations.

 

©2021, Mary Sayler, poet-writer, reviewer, and life-long student of God’s Word