Tools: Go & Study
Torah study is alot like playing a musical instrument. There are
some basic skills you need to know, its good to have a teacher,
and a study partner, but after that, the real secret is Practice!
Luckily, our tradition has a built in mechanism for weekly and
yearly review. Many find Shabbat a conducive time to open the
weekly Parashah. Here are some tools to help in that study.
(I've put an asterisk beside must-have/highly recommended volumes)
Bibliography:
Bible Translations
New JPS Translation of the Torah, Philadelphia, 1985
Anchor Bible Series: Genesis, E.A. Speiser. Doubleday and Company,
New York, 1964.
*The Five Books of Moses. Everett Fox. Schocken Books, New York,
1990.
Reference Tools
Concordance
Learning Torah. Joel Grishaver. UAHC, New York, 1990
*“Bible” by Joel Rosenberg, in Back to the Sources. Barry Holtz
(ed.) Summit Books, New York, 1984.
Encyclopedia Judaica: articles on Bible, 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.
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. Silverman (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
Modern Commentaries
*The Torah, A Modern Commentary. W. Gunther Plaut (ed.) UAHC, New
York, 1981
Studies in Genesis (Exodus,....) N. Leibowitz, WZO, Jerusalem,
1976
*A Torah Commentary for our Times. Harvey Fields (ed.) UAHC, New
York, 1990
Understanding Genesis. Nahum Sarna, Shocken Books, New York, 1966
Exploring Exodus. Nahum Sarna, Shocken Books, New York, 1986
The JPS Torah Commentary. N. Sarna (ed.) JPS, 1991
Forum
Tools: Go 