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The Living Torah: The Five Books of Moses and the Haftarot
The Living Torah : The Five Books of Moses and the Haftarot - A New Translation Based on Traditional Jewish Sources, with notes, introduction, maps, ... & index (English and Hebrew Edition)
1406 pages, Hardcover
Published June 1, 1981
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* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author
Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.
See also: Anonymous
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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September 13, 2020Finished reading it with Mati over Shabbat! A big yasher koach to him!
I think this is my current favorite Torah translation. It is VERY clear, which really helped both Mati and me - with other translations, I had to rephrase things much more frequently for him. He really wanted to read the actual text of the Torah and not something simplified, and with this one he could understand it without issues.
I regularly come across people asking for learning resources for Jewish teens who have language disabilities, and I never heard this one recommended, so I'll be recommending it from now on and I'm also mentioning that aspect here. The Living Torah was translated for a general adult audience, but it is very clear and contemporary. I honestly think it was an easier read for us than some of the kids' Bible retellings I could find. (Of course it has adult contents: sex, violence, etc. It's the actual Torah. So keep that in mind!)
I also really appreciated that it was a translation that was made with Jewish tradition as its primary context. This is my issue with a lot of the contemporary Christian translations. Jews have thousands of years of tradition about how to interpret the Torah, so a translation I personally want to use should build on that. This had both the clarity (I am sorry, JPS!) and the traditional approach.
As someone who can read the Torah in Hebrew, I have my quibbles with every possible translation :), but here when I was frustrated with a particular word choice, there was usually a footnote explaining it. (And then I could get annoyed with a major historical sage or two. As those things go.)
Rabbi Kaplan, you gave my kid the gift of Torah. The memory of the righteous for a blessing...
Now on to the Living Nach, which was translated by other people, but with similar principles. I'll do my best to report back, soon IY"H.
_________________
Source of the book: KU Jewish Studies
I think this is my current favorite Torah translation. It is VERY clear, which really helped both Mati and me - with other translations, I had to rephrase things much more frequently for him. He really wanted to read the actual text of the Torah and not something simplified, and with this one he could understand it without issues.
I regularly come across people asking for learning resources for Jewish teens who have language disabilities, and I never heard this one recommended, so I'll be recommending it from now on and I'm also mentioning that aspect here. The Living Torah was translated for a general adult audience, but it is very clear and contemporary. I honestly think it was an easier read for us than some of the kids' Bible retellings I could find. (Of course it has adult contents: sex, violence, etc. It's the actual Torah. So keep that in mind!)
I also really appreciated that it was a translation that was made with Jewish tradition as its primary context. This is my issue with a lot of the contemporary Christian translations. Jews have thousands of years of tradition about how to interpret the Torah, so a translation I personally want to use should build on that. This had both the clarity (I am sorry, JPS!) and the traditional approach.
As someone who can read the Torah in Hebrew, I have my quibbles with every possible translation :), but here when I was frustrated with a particular word choice, there was usually a footnote explaining it. (And then I could get annoyed with a major historical sage or two. As those things go.)
Rabbi Kaplan, you gave my kid the gift of Torah. The memory of the righteous for a blessing...
Now on to the Living Nach, which was translated by other people, but with similar principles. I'll do my best to report back, soon IY"H.
_________________
Source of the book: KU Jewish Studies
September 14, 2008
A terrific alternative translation of the Bible. Always worth checking against other translations for how Kaplan phrases things slightly differently.
August 9, 2019
Great translation. Footnotes are excellent.
January 3, 2015
This translation strikes a good balance between scholarship and authenticity, but is lacking in comparison to some other translations in terms of poetry. That said, it is an excellent piece of scholarship that will reward the reader who is seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the Torah.
The Living Torah is Aryeh Kaplan's annotated translation of the first five books of the Hebrew bible, and from the start one can clearly see that the intent is to make these books accessible and understandable for English readers. The translation itself is very prosaic and literal, which means that some of the nuance is lost between the English translation and the Hebrew original. However Kaplan's translation is replete with very helpful footnotes which clarify multiple meanings in the text, give historical perspective and address issues of interpretation. In fact, it is so heavily annotated that this can at times be a distraction from the text itself, as occasionally a passage will contain footnotes for every few words. However if one can resist the temptation to glance down to the bottom of the page every time one encounters the asterisk, Kaplan's translation reads very well and makes a set of narratives which can be mysterious as clear as possible.
It does, however, not read in an especially poetic way much of the time. Any translator must grapple with this problem; how to convey the nuance and allusive properties of the original in to a language which lacks those things, while retaining the literal meaning of the text? Any translation is a compromise and Kaplan seems to have chosen accuracy above all else.
As such, this version of the Torah pairs very well with a reading of something like the King James translation, which is aesthetically pleasing if less literal. Kaplan has done an excellent job, and if one wishes to read the Torah in English through the lens of orthodox Judaism, one could scarcely do better than to read The Living Torah.
The Living Torah is Aryeh Kaplan's annotated translation of the first five books of the Hebrew bible, and from the start one can clearly see that the intent is to make these books accessible and understandable for English readers. The translation itself is very prosaic and literal, which means that some of the nuance is lost between the English translation and the Hebrew original. However Kaplan's translation is replete with very helpful footnotes which clarify multiple meanings in the text, give historical perspective and address issues of interpretation. In fact, it is so heavily annotated that this can at times be a distraction from the text itself, as occasionally a passage will contain footnotes for every few words. However if one can resist the temptation to glance down to the bottom of the page every time one encounters the asterisk, Kaplan's translation reads very well and makes a set of narratives which can be mysterious as clear as possible.
It does, however, not read in an especially poetic way much of the time. Any translator must grapple with this problem; how to convey the nuance and allusive properties of the original in to a language which lacks those things, while retaining the literal meaning of the text? Any translation is a compromise and Kaplan seems to have chosen accuracy above all else.
As such, this version of the Torah pairs very well with a reading of something like the King James translation, which is aesthetically pleasing if less literal. Kaplan has done an excellent job, and if one wishes to read the Torah in English through the lens of orthodox Judaism, one could scarcely do better than to read The Living Torah.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews