Book Review: The key to the Torah

For those interested in going into more depth, Rabbi Goldin provides extensive footnotes, from the Talmud to scholars in the modern period.

By MOSHE DANN
'Unlocking the Torah text' book (photo credit: PR)
'Unlocking the Torah text' book
(photo credit: PR)
Looking for an intellectually challenging approach to studying the weekly Torah portion ? Enjoy intriguing, thought-provoking questions? Searching for a dvar Torah to offer guests around the Shabbat table? Then Rabbi Shmuel Goldin’s Unlocking the Torah Text: An In-Depth Journey Into the Weekly Parsha is for you.
Dividing each sedra (Torah portion) into four parts, he presents each part in three sections: context, questions and approaches (to answers), with added occasional points to ponder, and personal experiences and reflections. This offers not only a stimulating read, but a personal exploration as well.
Goldin’s approach reflects his background: a BS in psychology, an MA in Jewish education and rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University. He served as the rabbi of Congregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood, New Jersey, for two decades and taught Bible and philosophy at the Isaac Breuer College and the James Striar School of Yeshiva University.
Not content to merely present a wealth of traditional rabbinic sources, Goldin searches for meaning, pushing and pulling the text as he wrestles with profound life questions. This methodology contrasts with the hassidic approach, based on stories about tzaddikim (righteous people) and rebbes to elucidate moral perspectives and life-teaching insights. For Goldin, the excitement lies in the text – the seeming contradictions and paradoxes, the hidden message, the unusual twist that sparks questions.
For those interested in going into more depth, Rabbi Goldin provides extensive footnotes, from the Talmud to scholars in the modern period. This provides a very broad, well-grounded perspective, making the read a true educational experience – by allowing the reader to engage the text at various levels, and get involved in the process of inquiry. This also enables Goldin to go from scholarly discussions to contemporary issues, like assimilation and living an authentic Jewish life.
In Parshat Vayigash, for example, the author begins with the well-known question, “Why didn’t Joseph ‘phone home’”? To answer, he brings Nahmanides, Rabbi Yoel Bin-Nun and Sforno. In the second part, “What’s in a name” (referring to Jacob’s new name, Israel), he cites the Hizkuni, Or Hahaim and his own sense of amazement. In the third part, “The first ghetto,” he brings the Abravanel, Netziv and Yalkut Shimoni; in the fourth part, “A disappointing encounter,” he cites Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz and Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, with the question: “How is the quality of our lives ultimately to be judged?” In Parshat Shmot, Goldin provides “a few thoughts about initiative”: “Who knows how different history might have been had Moses failed to initiate and act at each of the critical moments of his life? “Had Moses ignored the burning bush, would he have nevertheless risen to leadership along a different path? “Had Moses waited at the foot of Mount Sinai for God to summon him, would we still be waiting for the Revelation to begin?” Here, he is reaching for our hearts and minds as a good teacher: How does the biblical narrative affect us? How do we connect to Torah in our daily lives, our ambitions and hopes? In Parshat Va’era, after an extensive survey of rabbinic opinions as to whether or not Pharaoh had free will, Goldin brings us face to face with the ultimate questions underlying the process of teshuva (repentance): How do we overcome our free-will-driven desires? How do we forgive others, and ourselves? After a thorough examination of rabbinic commentary on the early development of laws and regulations in Parshat Yitro, especially the Ten Commandments, Goldin adds an unusual fifth section on the Oral Law and its importance in Jews’ daily lives.
For instance, during a particularly arduous process of building a community eruv (a boundary within which one is permitted to carry on Shabbat), there was a question about precise measurements. A congregant who was assisting asked if God really cared about such minutiae. Goldin replied: “I don’t believe that God cares; I believe that God cares that we care.”
Goldin’s sharp insights are sprinkled throughout: “The ultimate purpose of Jewish ritual and belief is to shape the way we think and act.” (Parshat Ki Tisa) “To live in a time when God is ‘hidden’ is to face a trial that transcends the test of Sinai. When the thunder, lightning and shofar of the Book of Shmot [Exodus] fall silent; when we are forced to find and appreciate God’s existence in the quiet miracles that surround us each day – that is when the mature challenge truly begins.” (Parshat Vayakhel-Pekudei) In a most intimate way, Rabbi Goldin has shared not only his insights, but also his struggle to discover God and himself – not only to search for answers, but to live the question. 
Moshe Dann is a writer and journalist. His book of short stories, As Far As the Eye Can See, was published in September by the New English Review Press.