When challenged by a proselyte to “teach me the whole Torah while I balance on one foot,” the first-century sage Shammai grabbed a ruler and chased the poor man away. This harsh response expressed the legitimate concern that the grandeur of Torah can be lost in the process of rendering it concise and accessible. Despite this perennial worry, the impulse to transmit Torah to the Jewish people in an understandable and digestible way frequently trumped the risks.
Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz of blessed memory was our generation’s great champion of this endeavor. The Erez Series of Concise Guides is his recent posthumous contribution. The introduction to the series proclaims, “These books allow anyone... to enter into the tradition... [they] were deliberately designed to be accessible to everyone.” In our generation, when millions of Jews lack basic familiarity with Torah and mitzvot, this is absolutely critical, but it is also fraught with challenges. Here we will examine two of the series’ five volumes – A Concise Guide to the Torah and A Concise Guide to Halakha – noting their tremendous contributions while also touching on their distinctive approach to distilling the vastness of Torah for the uninitiated.
The volumes are attractive. The cover, spacing, margins, fonts and divisions allow for an enjoyable reading experience. The writing is clear, well edited and impeccably researched. They are self-referential, affording readers easy opportunities to enrich their understanding of any given passage. For example, appended to verses in the Guide to the Torah that articulate points of Jewish law are references to the practical details of those laws in the Guide to Halakha. While sharing these features, each volume can stand alone with its own distinctive character.
The Guide to the Torah includes a translation of the Hebrew text of the Chumash (Pentateuch) with commentary and intermittent summaries. The volume breaks down the text into the weekly parasha (portion) and then subdivides each into smaller units. The weekly portion is introduced by a summary, and the subsections also have their own introduction. Typically, these abridgments are merely concise overviews of the material, but some provide extraordinary meta-insights. For example, the weekly portion Kedoshim includes an extremely diverse range of material. The Torah jumps back and forth between topics without any obvious connecting thread. Before encountering this jumble, we read that the absence of order “might reflect the need to relate to the portion as a whole, the entirety of which creates the desired holiness.” (pg. 302)
A running commentary to the Torah’s words is embedded within the text of the translation itself. The Torah’s text is in bold while the commentary appears in a lighter font, allowing the reader to distinguish between the two. This makes for an extremely smooth reading experience, yet it also masks the Torah’s laconic style, which demands more of the reader’s engagement. The commentary fills in the text’s gaps and answers questions that the original leaves hanging. The reader is not given the chance to fill in the blanks on his or her own. This certainly makes the text accessible, but it dramatically changes the encounter with it.
WHILE MUCH of the commentary merely clarifies and recapitulates the text on its own terms, there are instances where Midrash (rabbinic eisegesis, or interpretation, as opposed to exegesis, explanation) directs that interpretation. A particularly poignant juxtaposition of a straightforward read alongside a midrashic take is the commentary’s treatment of the episode of Reuben and Bilha (Genesis 35:21-26). While the plain sense of the text would seem to indicate that Reuben consorted with his father’s concubine Bilha, a number Talmudic sages declare that this is a mistaken understanding of the verse. They insist that Reuben merely attempted to redirect his father’s attention toward Reuben’s mother, Leah. The commentary strikingly presents both possibilities. In the past, R. Steinsaltz was criticized in some traditionalist circles for less than flattering portrayals of biblical protagonists like the one he allows here. Yet, when it comes to the legal portions of the Torah, the commentary follows the rabbinic understanding consistently.
This conservative impulse regarding practice carries over into A Concise Guide to Halakha as we will see below. This volume aims to be, “an up-to-date survey of the commandments, prohibitions and customs practiced by Jews today... [including] the various customs practiced by the different ethnic communities inside and outside of contemporary Israel.” (pg. ix) The extent to which this volume achieves its far-reaching ambitions is impressive. In crisp, clear prose, the book touches on a wide range of topics. Reflecting the experience of the ingathering of the exiles in the modern state of Israel, one will find the Middle-Eastern Henna ceremony (pg. 49) and the hassidic Meal of Mashiach on the last day of Passover (pg. 328) and much in between.
Given this wide-ranging scope, the exclusion of certain customs stands out. Knowing the publisher’s and R. Steinsaltz’ theological and denomination stance, one should not be surprised that the practices associated with liberal Jewish movements are excluded. However, other omissions are less expected. Certain positions of Lithuanian Jewish practice are overlooked. The religious-Zionist community’s celebration of Yom Ha’atzma’ut (Israel Independence Day) is left out. While it is acknowledged that in some “communities women may recite Kaddish” (pg. 505) and that “there have been significant changes over the past several decades” in Talmud study for women (pg. 511), more far-reaching developments associated with Orthodox feminism go unmentioned. Strikingly, women are only “permitted to recite Kiddush for other women,” (pg. 43) even though the Shulhan Aruch states explicitly that women can recite Kiddush for men.
One might wonder which communities and individuals will use these books. One the one hand, there is material that is offensive to certain traditionalist communities. On the other, will those affiliated with the liberal Jewish movements avail themselves of a resource that does not acknowledge them? Even religious Zionists and some segments of Modern Orthodoxy could feel slighted. Those with weak Jewish backgrounds who are otherwise well-educated wondering how hard and soft sciences interface with Torah will not find that nexus explored in these volumes.
And yet, all this does not undermine the extraordinary impact that these volumes should have. When Hillel responded to the proselyte mentioned above, he said, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to others, the rest is commentary, now go and learn.” The acknowledgment of the need to learn “the rest” is a crucial part of Hillel’s response. The overall spirit of and even the titles of these books indicate that they are not intended as a last word. They are called “A Concise Guide to…” not “The Concise Guide to…” We can hope that seekers from across the Jewish spectrum will see this as an invitation to open these treasure-troves and become inspired to strive to learn the rest.
CONCISE GUIDE TO TORAH, HALAKHA (2 books)By Rabbi Adin Even-Israel SteinsaltzSteinsaltz Center/Maggid