Books for Torah Study: A Bibliography for Text Study
Every Jewish home should have some Jewish books.
And every Jew should read a few of them, too! Here is a list to get started.
Want to learn how to study? Take our online How to Study Torah course
Highly recommended
Bible Texts & Translations
The Torah: A Modern Commentary. Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut (ed.). URJ Press, NY, 1981.
A Torah Commentary for our Times. Harvey Fields (ed.) URJ, New York, 1990
The Five Books of Moses. Everett Fox. Schocken Books, New York, 1990.
Full Tanakh (JPS translation)
The Five Books of Moses. Robert Alter, Norton.
Full Tanakh (JPS translation)
How to Study: Bible Study and Interpretation
Back to the Sources. Barry W. Holtz (ed.) Summit Books, NY, 1984.
Learning Torah, Joel Grishaver. URJ Press, NY, 1990.
Studying the Torah. Avigdor Bonchek. Jason Aronson, New Jersey, 1997
What’s Bothering Rash?: Breishis; Shmos, Avigdor Bonchek. Feldheim Publishers, New York, 1997,1999
Who Wrote the Bible? Richard Friedman. Harper.
The Hidden Book in the Bible. Richard Friedman. Harper.
Don’t Know Much about the Bible. Kenneth Davis.
In Potiphar’s House. J. Kugel. Harper San Francisco: NY, 1990
Reference Tools
Concordance
A Hebrew and English Lexicon, Brown, Driver, Briggs. Clarendon Press: Oxford
Encyclopedia Judaica: articles on Bible, (vol. 4) any of the commentators, and a variety of other topics.
Midrash
The Midrash (or Midrash Rabbah). Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman and Maurice Simon (ed. and tr.). Soncino Press, London, 1977.
The Book of Legends (Sefer Ha-Aggadah). Bialik and Ravnitzky (trans. W. Braude) Schocken Books: New York.
Legends of the Jews. L. Ginzburg,
Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation. Menahem Kasher. American Biblical Encyclopedia Society. New York
Rabbinic Commentaries
Mikraot G’dolot
Pentateuch with Rashi’s Commentary. Dr. A. M. Silberman (ed.) Jerusalem,1929
Ramban Commentary on the Torah. Rabbi Dr. Chavel (tr.) Shilo, New York, 1971
Sforno Commentary on the Torah. Rabbi R. Pelcovitz (tr.) ArtScroll Mesorah, Brooklyn, 1987
Ibn Ezra’s Commentary on the Pentateuch. H. N. Strickman & A. M. Silver. Menorah Pub. New York, 1988
Sparks Beneath the Surface. Kushner & Olitzky. Aronson: New Jersey, 1995
Tzenah U’renah (trans. M. Zakon) Mesorah Publications: New York, 1983
Soncino Chumas., Cohen. Soncino Press.
Akeydat Yitzcha., Commentary of Rabbi Yitzhak Arama, Translated and condensed by Eliyahu Munk. Jerusalem, 1990.
Modern Commentaries
Studies in Genesis (Exodus,....) N. Leibowitz, WZO, Jerusalem, 1976
Anchor Bible Series: (for example) Genesis, E.A. Speiser. Doubleday and Company, New York, 1964.
Exploring Exodus. Nahum Sarna, Shocken Books, New York, 1986
Learn Torah With...(ed.) S. Kelman and J. Grishaver, Alef Design Group, Los Angeles, 1995, 96, ...
The JPS Torah Commentary (ed.) Sarna, Milgrom, Levine & Tigay)
Separate volumes also of value:
Understanding Genesis. Nahum Sarna, Shocken Books, New York, 1966
CD ROMs
Judaic Classics (Deluxe Edition), The Soncino Talmud or Midrash Rabbah. Davka
The Book of Legends. Davka
Webliography (Links)
Kolel online learning
JPS Bible 1917 English Translation
The Electronic Torah Warehouse
Comparative (Christian) Bible translations
Bible Study Tools (Christian)
Torah Productions : a subscription-based archive of midrashic texts
