Seventy Facets: A Commentary on the Torah: From the Pages of the Jerusalem Report

For Judaism, the Torah is the centerpiece of all instruction. From the time of the Pharisees, though, the written Torah has been augmented by the oral Torah: thus, according to tradition, ""the Torah has seventy faces."" Gorenberg, columnist for the Jerusalem Post, goes even further to say that ""the seventy faces are seventy facets of a single gem; even if no human eye can take in all of them at once, they remain parts of a whole."" In 1991, the late Marcia Kretzmer created a weekly column on Torah in the Jerusalem Post. In it, she invited a variety of writers and thinkersDincluding Orthodox, Conservative and Reform rabbis, biblical scholars and poetsDto contribute to the conversation about the meaning of the weekly Torah reading. After Kretzmer's death, Gorenberg took over the column and strove to keep the original vision alive. Here, he has collected from the column 70 of the articles, one on each of the 54 weekly Torah portions as well as articles on the four special readings of the spring (Shekalim, Zachor, Parah and Hachodesh) and the holidays. What emerges from these midrashim is a unity in diversity that emphasizes the sacred authority of Torah while disagreeing about its manifold meanings. For example, while Blu Greenberg notes in her readings of Deuteronomy that observing the law ""becomes the measure of integrity in the covenantal relationship,"" Mark Silverman, commenting on Deuteronomy, calls this covenantal relationship into question. Gorenberg's anthology explores with a jeweler's eye the many-faceted beauty and wealth of Torah. (Jan.)