An Epic Examination of a Beloved Work

It is a spiritual treasure of Scripture, poetry, literature and history. It is the foundational sacred text of Judaism and is revered by Christians and Muslims as well. For thousands of years, Jews have interpreted and reinterpreted the Torah--the first five books of the Bible--”as one reads a love letter, eager to squeeze the last drop of meaning from every word,” as one rabbi put it.

Now, after three decades of planning, Conservative Judaism has added to this long and luminous tradition with its first official Torah commentary.

Called Etz Hayim, or “Tree of Life,” the 1,560-page commentary serves as a window into the contemporary mind-set of the Conservative movement, which bridges the Reform and Orthodox traditions, and has about 1 million members in the United States.

Embracing both tradition and change, ancient teachings and modern scholarship, the Conservative commentary began landing in synagogues last week as congregations started their annual cycle of Scripture readings.

“It’s a wonderful combination of contemporary Bible scholarship and classical Jewish interpretation,” said Rabbi Joel Rembaum, senior rabbi of Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles, who contributed one of the book’s 41 essays.

Until now, Conservative synagogues have used a 1937 commentary by the late J.H. Hertz, who was Britain’s chief rabbi. Writing in a time of widespread anti-Semitism, Hertz feared that any less-than-favorable content would be used to downgrade Judaism. He took an apologetic approach, trying to put the best spin on the Torah’s characters, several rabbis said.

The new Conservative commentary offers no apologies, reflecting the sense of security Jews now feel about their place in the world.

In the Genesis account of Jacob stealing Esau’s birthright, for instance, the Hertz commentary tried to whitewash the act and shift the blame to the boy’s mother, Rebekah, according to Rabbi Elliot Dorff of the University of Judaism. But the new commentary bluntly notes: “Jacob invokes God’s name in an outright lie!”

Hertz also rejected modern biblical scholarship, which raises questions about the Bible’s historical accuracy. Dorff said the rabbi was reacting against the use of modern scholarship to undermine Judaism as the origin of Christianity and the Torah as a God-given text. In 1906, the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary declared that “higher criticism is higher anti-Semitism,” Dorff said.

The new commentary fully embraces modern scholarship--from Genesis 1:1 onward. “The opening chapters of Genesis are not a scientific account of the origins of the universe,” the commentary says. “The Torah is a book of morality, not cosmology.”

In addition, the commentary includes an essay on the hot topic of biblical archeology by Lee I. Levine, a professor of Jewish history and archeology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The essay notes that new archeological finds call into question some biblical narratives, such as whether Joshua ever really conquered Canaan or whether the Exodus ever occurred precisely as recorded in the Bible.

“We don’t believe the Torah is the literal word of God,” said Rabbi David L. Lieber, the University of Judaism’s president emeritus who served as the commentary’s senior editor. “We approach it with great reverence because of its wisdom, but we still feel free to raise questions regarding some of its teachings.”

That questing and questioning is apparent in the commentary’s modern moral views expressed on issues ranging from homosexuality to women’s roles. Commenting on the Leviticus passage condemning homosexuality, Hertz wrote in the 1930s that same-sex relations were an “abyss of depravity from which the Torah saved the Israelites.”

The Conservative commentary is milder, noting that the Torah mentions homosexuality only in the context of rape or prostitution. And it says that Conservative movement resolutions call on congregations to welcome gay and lesbian members, even as traditional bans on homosexuality continue to be debated.

The view of women has also been revised. The commentary takes care to avoid using the male pronoun for God or humanity, and includes women editors, commentators and essayists. Until now, the only Torah commentaries to include women were specialized volumes written by feminists, according to Rabbi Susan Grossman, who served as a co-editor of the new commentary.

“We’re very proud of the fact that this is the first commentary to mainstream women’s voices,” said Grossman, rabbi of Beth Shalom Congregation in Maryland. “This reflects the Conservative movement’s role as a bridge between tradition and change.”

Grossman said the commentary also incorporates “post-Holocaust theology.” The Hebrew midwives who defied the Pharaoh’s command to kill all baby boys were forerunners of the “righteous Gentiles” who defied Adolf Hitler and shielded Jews, the commentary says.

And, according to Rembaum, the commentary feeds the widespread contemporary hunger for spirituality, or a direct relationship with God. By including a traditional midrash (interpretation) about Abraham challenging God’s plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Rembaum said, the commentary presents the relationship with God as “dialogic, in your face.”

“Today, that’s where a lot of people are: They’re looking for a dialogue with God, a presence you can relate to,” Rembaum said. “The beauty of this text is that it is talking to both the head and the heart.”

The commentary was the brainchild of University of Judaism President Emeritus Lieber, who said he was first inspired by the publication of a Protestant interpretive Bible in 1969. It was not until 1987, however, that the movement’s Rabbinical Assembly decided to move forward with the effort. The work is a joint project of the Assembly and United Synagogue, which is the membership organization for Conservative congregations.

The book, bound in handsome leather embossed with gold lettering, includes three sections: commentary on the plain meaning of the text as understood by Israelites at the time; midrash drawn from 2,000 years of study by ancient sages and contemporary thinkers, and Jewish legal tradition on how to apply the law to daily life.

Chaim Potok, author of “The Chosen,” Rabbi Harold Kushner, who wrote “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” Dorff and Grossman were editors of the three sections. Jules Harlow, past director of publications for the Rabbinical Assembly, was literary editor.

In addition, the book includes essays on such topics as women, ecology, education, the land of Israel and ancient Near East mythology.

The commentary made its debut last weekend in such local temples as Valley Beth Shalom in Van Nuys and Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. Rabbi Harold Schulweis of the 1,700-family Van Nuys synagogue said congregants were enthusiastic over its user-friendly format and “blend of the philosophical, the scientific, the poetic and the spiritual.”

“I think it makes possible the serious study of the Torah for ordinary people,” Lieber said. “For the first time, they have a text that speaks to them at their level that is authentically scholarly.”