A Review of Kaminsky and Lohr’s Book "The Torah"

The Torah: Book Review

In Kaminsky and Lohr’s book, The Torah, they provide a helpful and succinct analysis of the Torah’s structure, interpretation, and meaning. Simply divided into two sections, general overview of the whole Torah and synopses of the five individual books, the work appears to display intelligence and depth of biblical understanding. At the same time, Kaminsky and Lohr manage to write in a way that is easy for a biblical novice to apprehend. Because of their objective and concise writing style as well as comprehensible language, the book serves as a basic foundation for beginning a study of the Torah.

In the first half of the book, the authors focus on creating a construct for grasping the meaning of the Torah. The authors seem to demonstrate admirable objectiveness in addressing that meaning, providing both Jewish and Christian viewpoints. While this objective approach to the Torah is seen throughout the book, it is particularly evident in its balanced examination of interpretative (p. 42). Rather than defend on particular approach to reading the Torah, the authors outline the history of many interpretative understandings in relatively unbiased fashion. Similar courtesy is seen in the work’s analysis of Mosaic authorship (p.13), as well as its discussion of Pauline theology (p.30-31). This spirit of impartiality appears to reach a unique culmination near the end of its general overview, where the authors maintain that “readers are encouraged to…decide for themselves if a proposed interpretation seems sound or not” (p.64). With authors that seem fairly unconcerned with pressing particular agendas on controversial issues, The Torah seems that it should be able to garner a wider range of respect than would otherwise be possible.

Addressing the five books of the Torah individually in the second half, the authors clearly divide each chapter into an overview and basic structure, but each chapter also contains a section on controversies that seems out of place. In chapters organized around overarching outlines and religious themes, the sections on controversies seem out of place, giving these chapters a slightly disjointed feel. Specifically, in the section on Deuteronomy, an overview is given, and then the text completely switches focus to discuss Deuteronomy’s authorship, before returning to an outline of book. (p.141-145) Genesis & Exodus’s controversies relate back to historical criticism addressed earlier in the book, while Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy’s chapters contain sections on ethical systems and themes that almost seem sufficiently cross-applicable as to demand an entirely separate chapter on the Torah’s controversies.

However, even with this lack of cohesiveness in the chapters of the second half, The Torah was an academically rich and interesting overview of the first five books of the Bible. Written by a Jew and a Christian, the book is insightfully comparative in nature, giving the ancient fresh perspective and analysis. It serves as an unbiased, overarching exploration of the flow of the Torah’s narrative, rendering interpretive and textual context to the study of individual books and chapters as one dives deeper into understanding the Torah.