The Torah Revealed: Talmudic Masters Unveil the Secrets of the Bible

A vast series of elucidations of the Torah (or Old Testament), the Talmud is based on 613 commandments for living. These commandments, called the Taryag mitzvah, are said to have been delivered from God to Moses (along with the five books of the Torah themselves), who then passed them along to the Israelites orally. The Israelites in turn passed the commandments down the generations, with each generation adding its own particular gloss on the material, until the Talmud was transcribed in Aramaic in the 5th century. For this collection, Finkel (Contemporary Sages) provides 54 Torah""portions,"" or short sections for interpretation from each of the five books, along with relevant commentary from the Talmud that include much more of the accumulated commentary than the original core commands. He has purposefully selected sections with""ethical and moral themes"" that cover everything from how Cain was""crafty"" when he asked God if his""sin was too great to bear,"" to the meaning of Joseph's moving his people""from one end of Egypt to the other."" (The Talmud says:""What does this have to do with us? He moved them around in order that his brothers should not be called immigrants."") After a short introduction, Finkel simply launches into passages from the bible, and lets the Talmud's myriad voices speak for themselves. While the translations are often stiff, the transitions abrupt and the depth of the actual full-blown Talmud much greater than the short excepts given here, the book whets one's appetite for further exegesis and study, undoubtedly its intended purpose.