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- Rashi's Daughters, Book 1: Joheved
- Rashi's Daughters - Joheved
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- Solving the Puzzle of Talmud from a Woman's Viewpoint
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Rashi's Daughters, Book 1: Joheved
Maggie Anton
Manufacturer: Banot Press
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ASIN: 0976305054
Release Date: 2005-01-01 |
Book Description
Rashi, one of the greatest Jewish scholars who ever lived, had no sons, only three daughters. Much has been written about Rashi and his grandsons, the Tosafot, but almost nothing of his daughters. Legend has it that they were learned in a time when women were forbidden to study the sacred texts. Rashi's Daughters tells the story of these forgotten women.
Customer Reviews:
Rashi's Daughters, Book 1: Joheved.......2007-07-14
Book One of Rashi's Daughters focuses on Joheved, the eldest of Rashi's children. Salomon ben Isaac (later called Rashi in the historical records) was one of the greatest Talmudic authorities that ever lived. He lived and taught the Talmud in the 11th century in Troyes. Like most scholars of his time, Rashi's students included local Jews, future scholars, and merchants trading in the area. However, at a time when basic education for women was extremely rare and the teaching of the Tadmud to a woman was beyond rational thought, Rashi also counted his daughters amongst his most learned students.
Joheved was the oldest of Rashi's daughters. In her own right, she was an amazing woman. She ran the family winery including the vine tending of the vines, bookkeeping, and the financial negotiations with other merchants. She also took on the care of her ailing paternal grandmother, an extremely strong willed woman who had taught Joheved everything about the wine making business. Joheved also served as a loving respectful wife, daughter, and sister. In addition to these fine qualities, Joheved had a love of learning, a thirst for knowledge, a deep devotion to her faith. It was these later qualities, and the fact that Rashi bore no sons, that Joheved was given the very unique opportunity to study the Talmud with her father.
Book One of Rashi's Daughters is a wonderful book that allows the reader to travel back to the 11th century to visit Rashi, his family, and his friends. The author has obviously done a good deal of research and this effort shows in the every word the characters utter, each activity that they undertake, and the way that each of these individuals perceives the world. Beyond these carefully crafted historical accuracies, though, the author has also created an entertaining story that captivates and inspires. After I started reading this book, I found it impossible to put down. I was completely drawn into the story and left the book with the feeling of having had the most amazing visit with a close friend. I eagerly await Book Two.
Rashi's Daughters - Joheved.......2007-07-01
This book, without exception, is the most enjoyable reading experience. Is has it all. Great characterization and outstanding writing. Would like to see it become a movie. Waiting for Maggie's next two. A great book club selection.
No title.......2007-06-14
I love the book! I think Maggie Anton did a great research on this subject.
Solving the Puzzle of Talmud from a Woman's Viewpoint.......2007-04-19
Rashi's Daughter: Johebed by Maggie Anton
Book Review by Arthur L. Finkle
Solving the Puzzle of Talmud from a Woman's Viewpoint
As a long-time educator, I am always on the lookout for the better mousetrap. If you want to learn the rudiments and then some, Rashi's Daughter is just the right fit. A historical novel, Ms. Anton demonstrates many cultural understandings of one of the most famous of the Jewish commentators of the Bible and Talmud.
The background is 11th century France, where Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak (Rashi) lives, interprets and acts in his role of father to three daughters. Not having sons, he indulges his daughters, the oldest of whom (Johebed) wants to make the most of her inquiring mind. She knows Bible. Now, unlike the preponderance of women of her day, she wants to learn Talmud.
Rashi, seeing that Johebed truly thirsts for knowledge of Talmud, begins to teach her in a Tractate in which she is interested. Thereupon, he builds upon this start.
The reaction of his other daughters and his wife is interesting but probably true. Rashi's wife believes that Johebed ought to learn the domestic side of womanhood rather than "wasting" her time building upon a mind that will not be used in Jewish scholarship. So attuned is the medieval culture, that Johebed sisters also do not see what use such scholarship is. Moreover, they fear that a stigma will attached to their own marriage prospects.
Ms. Anton develops Johebed's character in small increments, including the ambivalence she experiences in disappointing the female side of her immediate family and yet reveling in the study of Talmud. This study is generally not about the content of the tractate; rather, it is the process of Rabbinical thinking in order to make rulings about Jewish law, which, generally, governs Jewish life. Such scholarship requires not only a retentive mind but also a reasoning ability not possessed by all. Indeed, although there was universal education in the Jewish communities since the 1st century BCE, fewer than ten of one hundred went on to study Talmud. Johebed is not only in this classification but, in helping other students with their Talmud studies, is actually mentoring male students of Rashi.
My Novel Group found that the amount of superstition played a great part in the French Jewish community. They also were impressed that the roles of men and women were so defined by the 11th century. Moreover, the comity between Jewish and Christian was an unexpected benefit. Even the local Christian scholars asked Rashi to interpret the Hebrew Scriptures for them.
Maggie Anton has published a superior book. To be followed by the stories Johebed's two other sisters. Reading such entertaining prose demonstrates the Talmudic process; French medieval living conditions; the role of women; and the special role of the eldest daughter of this Jewish intellectual giant.
As a teacher, I found that Rashi's Daughter: Johebed, explained the Talmudic process in a way that most people could understand. The explanation of the Hebrew Scriptures in terms of law, values, adages and cultural habits appear in the Mishnah, codified in 200 CE. Then, the scholar studies commentary on the Mishnah, i.e., the Talmud.
Then there is something that is extremely difficult to explain to the laity, that is, that process is more important than the content. Further, there has to be total rationality for all 63 Talmudic tractates. And the lesson preparation is often difficult.
A good Book that should be better.......2007-03-17
This is an interesting telling of the lifestyle of Jews at the end of the first millennium CE, in France. It describes some of the life of the scholar Rashi but is primarily about the early years of his daughter Yochoved, the details of which must be fictional. Customs of the times are given and raise many questions. Hidden in its pages is an appeal for early feminism. While it was good reading, in retrospect I think it is rather shallow. Much is glossed over or skipped entirely. For example, the role of Rashi's wife, and of other women, is almost entirely as child bearers. There is only one reference to the Crusades, occurring at that time. Some of Rashi's interpretations and decisions are given but not with the background for his reasoning. Another volume about his second daughter, Miriam, is about to be released. I was left with no desire to pursue it.
Book Description
The engrossing historical series of three sisters living in eleventh-century Troyes, France, continues with the tale of Miriam, the lively and daring middle child of Salomon ben Isaac, the great Talmudic authority. Having no sons, he teaches his daughters the intricacies of Mishnah and Gemara in an era when educating women in Jewish scholarship was unheard of. His middle daughter, Miriam, is determined to bring new life safely into the Troyes Jewish community and becomes a midwife. As devoted as she is to her chosen path, she cannot foresee the ways in which she will be tested and how heavily she will need to rely on her faith. With Rashi's Daughters, author Maggie Anton brings the Talmud and eleventh-century France to vivid life and poignantly captures the struggles and triumphs of strong Jewish women.
Customer Reviews:
not as good as the first book.......2007-10-11
I really enjoyed Book One and bought this one as soon as I saw it was out. I was not as impressed with the story and thought the author focused too much on the sexual longings of her characters. In book one that was part of the story but not the main theme. Still a good book, but not quite the one I had hoped for.
readin'.......2007-10-09
Amazon, The product was fine, but I ordered 4 products at the same time.
ONe came and then two others. I understood that they might come at diffeerent times, but my original ordered entitled me to free shipping, which you stated on line. After the order was broken up into two orders, I was charged for shipping. I was annoyed sufficinely to cancel one of my three remaining orders and I will ve more likely to wander overto Barnes and NOble store. -- Also I found your instructions while ordering confusing and I am a lawyer and should be able to read. But I guess not. Thank you for letting me place a review in. Rose-Ellen Schwartz
Medieval French Jewish Culture.......2007-09-29
After reading Anton's first book in the series "Joheved", I was eager to purchase "Miriam". The focus on midwifery and women's medicine is very interesting and engaging. Little details about life and lifestyle are fascinating. And who knew these folks were so "juicy" about sex and sexuality? Really, I gained alot of perspective and I read this and the previous book in huge gulps. Learned more than I ever knew about Talmud and the Commentaries. Great read.
Not quite as good as the first.......2007-09-22
I loved part 1: Joheved. Maggie Anton created a world for me that I'd never experienced before: midieval Jewish France, its business practices, agriculture and most of all, the scholars' devotion to Talmud. Part 2 also relied heavily on Talmud and that was wonderful. The underlying theme, however, just wasn't strong enough to carry the whole book. There were so many other choices that could have been spotlighted and I was disappointed that the author chose the one she did. I still have hope, however, that part 3: Miriam will be back on track with the strength of the first book.
fabulous biographical fiction .......2007-09-20
In 1078 Troyes, France, Rabbi Salomon ben Isaac, cherished and highly regarded by the local Jewish community as Rabbi Rashi, lovingly teaches the Talmud to his three daughters although that defies centuries of the norm as only males are supposed to study it.. His courageous intelligent middle daughter, Miriam really appreciates learning what the ancient Jewish wise men had to say about life as a Jew. As she learns much about her religion, she is determined to break gender boundaries that men not the Talmud has placed on women. Grieving the death of her betrothed, Miriam wants to become the midwife and mohel to the Jewish community of Troyes. However, many people oppose a woman studying the sacred Talmud as that is a man's job and a female performing circumcision on the newborn is as unacceptable too. While pushing the medieval envelop, Miriam has a new suitor as well Judah ben Nathan who has issues to hide too.
This is a fabulous biographical fiction based on the renowned medieval French Rabbi Rashi and his middle daughter Miriam. The tale brings to life how the eleventh century Jews lived in France, especially the educated rabbinical social class. As with the first book that focused on Rashi's oldest daughter Joeheved, RASHI'S DAUGHTERS-BOOK II: MIRIAM entertains the audience but also provides a profound spotlight on an enlightened Jewish teacher and his middle daughter. The saga continues with the youngest offspring Sotah to follow.
Harriet Klausner
Book Description
If we can decode the human genome and fashion working machines out of atoms, why can't we navigate the quagmire that is our health care system? In this important new book, Julius Richmond and Rashi Fein recount the fraught history of health care in America since the 1960s. After the advent of Medicare and Medicaid and with the progressive goal to make advances in medical care available to all, medical costs began their upward spiral. Cost control measures failed and led to the HMO revolution, turning patients into consumers and doctors into providers. The swelling ranks of Americans without any insurance at all dragged the United States to the bottom of the list of industrialized nations.
Over the last century medical education was also profoundly transformed into today's powerful triumvirate of academic medical centers, schools of medicine and public health, and research programs, all of which have shaped medical practice and medical care. The authors show how the promises of medical advances have not been matched either by financing or by delivery of care.
As a new crisis looms, and the existing patchwork of insurance is poised to unravel, American leaders must again take up the question of health care. This book brings the voice of reason and the promise of compromise to that debate.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent reading for students of medicine and public health.......2006-05-05
In reading the previous reviews, I must say that they are quite accurate in many of their findings - the style of writing tends to be verbose and there isn't much in the ways of "how to do fix the US health care system." But that is not what this manuscript is about.
Let me quickly rebut a few points from each of the previous reviews.
From Mr. Weston: " When I bought the book, I was hoping the authors' would answer the question "What is equitable health care?" Is it equitable for the government to pay for medications that control blood pressure, insulin response, and bone density when all of these could be managed by diet and exercise? Americans have a problem giving welfare to those who can work. Why give "healthfare" to those who can diet and exercise? "
First of all, equity is in the eye of the beholder. This is an area where even the most brilliant health economist cannot give a true answer. Our basis for equity depends upon our own moral upbringing.
Secondly, it is obvious from the latter half of his comment that he does not have anything to do with the health care delivery system. Lifestyle modifications for hypertension, diabetes, and osteopenia/osteoporosis, while certainly beneficial, are not effective to the degree needed to prevent stroke, heart attack, or hip fractures. However, I will concede that doctors often over-utilize healthcare resources of limited benefit.
Moving on to Ms. Clendenen's excellent review:
" The three that immediately come to mind are the complete neglect in discussing the impact that the cost of pharmaceuticals has had on the overall cost of health care, the impact that malpractice litigation and the threat of malpractice suits have had, and the incredible cost of the administrative labyrinths that exist for most providers. "
It would appear that for her, a serious health economist, this book misses the mark. There, however, is a brief discussion of malpractice litigation in Chapter 7. I believe the authors spent considerably less time on this subject than on the subjects of medical education and "orgranized medicine" because malpractice litigation appears to have limited effect on total national health expenditures (estimated to be about 1/2 of 1%).
I agree with her that this book does little to explain the impact of administrative complexities on physicians. I can firmly attest that I spend far too much time doing paperwork than seeing patients. However, in the concluding chapter, the authors suggest a system - albeit a system closer to the single-payer edge of the political spectrum - that naturally would result in less administrative hassles for everyone involved compared to our current "nonsystem".
And now onto Ms. Craig: Her thoughtful review begins to introduce the concept, not discussed in this book, that a small percentage of patients represent the largest percentage of medical expenditures. She also refers to ICU stays - where I have witnessed survival rates less than 30% - that account for a tremendous fraction of our health care dollar. As a nation we do spend too much money on care in the last 6 months of life. Unfortunately, we often times cannot tell when someone will die. Additionally, even when death is virtually around the corner (by that I mean, when there is no chance for a "meaningful" life) we have families who want doctors to keep their loved ones "alive" for extended periods of time. As a nation, our culture of life may be in opposition to our appropriate use of health care resources.
Okay, enough of the rebuttals (I only do it because I liked this book). I believe the point of "The Health Care Mess" is to introduce the layman to the history of the American healthcare system. It does this while addressing issues relevant to physicians - medical education and the American Medical Association's persistent interference with progressive health reform. I believe this book may not be best geared towards the practicing health economist or the policy maker. "The Health Care Mess" is best designed for motivating a sleeping constuency - medical professionals and medical students. These folks are far too overburdened with their work to realize that they also need to be involved in the health care debate. Perhaps that is why the authors suggest making our current disorganized health care system focus attention on the academic medical centers as "hubs" for healthcare.
You will not find answers in this book. But you will find that political stumbling blocks are typically the reasons why most recommendations to modify our current system have failed. It is the politics, not the science, that is important in changing health policy. This is where the focus lies in "The Health Care Mess."
Misses the biggest problems.......2006-03-25
This book does a good job at pointing out how broken the American health care system is. I really enjoyed the retrospective look at how we got where we are today. Some of the reasons for the problems are pointed out well, as in the discussion of community rating of insurance. Unfortunately, the book misses some of the most important reasons for the health care mess. The solutions proposed also strike me as at best unworkable.
The book's authors are big fans of national health insurance. As they point out, national health insurance does have some things going for it. However, I just don't see how national health, if implemented in today's health care climate, would bring about any savings at all. The Medicare program is the closest thing we have now to national health insurance; far from saving us money, from what I see its costs are completely out of control and headed through the roof. The book never discusses this. The book makes no mention at all of how to deal with bringing down costs at the high end; the 5% or so of patients who create probably 80% or more of all health care costs. The fact is that at some point you have to be willing to say no, we are going to send this patient to a hospice to die instead of treating him, because his treatment is just too expensive.
I see the American health care system as caught in a trap of diminishing returns. In terms of quality of life, we get by far the most benefit from the first few dollars spent on a patient. By the time you get up to spending millions of dollars on a single patient, you are getting next to nothing for your money. Keep in mind that money has to come from somewhere; taxes, or premiums, or cuts in quality of service. Spend a million dollars on a one-pound micro-preemie in a neonatal ICU, and it will take hundreds of overburdened nurses scrimping on their time with other patients to make up for it. Some of those neglected patients will die as a result. No amount of money is going to relieve the human condition. All of us are going to die someday, no matter what is spent on our care. The authors never seem to realize this.
The book also misses the biggest problem with medical research today, which is that a treatment available only at exorbitant cost is actually worse than no treatment at all. Take the use of heart transplants to treat heart failure. By definition, each heart transplant requires at least two complex and expensive surgeries and decades of follow-up care due to immunosuppression. Many transplant patients die on the operating table or in the postoperative period, which pushes the cost per successful outcome even higher. There are also huge costs from maintaining the system to allocate donated organs. When you look at how else the money could be used, treatments like this hurt more people than they help. Research focused on complicated high-tech medicine is making public health worse.
As I see it, we have only two choices if we really want to cut medical costs: we can regulate the industry to outlaw the most costly procedures; or we can get rid of medical insurance altogether. I don't see much hope of the former. We may end up getting the latter by default. Medical insurance suffers from the basic problem that the doctors who are the ones who make the decisions over what care will be provided aren't the ones who have to deal with the people who pay the bills. This leaves us in a fog filled with conflicts of interest. Our current legal standards for malpractice cases, which don't allow cost considerations to enter into medical decisions, only make the problem worse.
The authors also ignore the reasons behind Americans' poor lifestyle decisions. Doctors are always telling us to eat less and exercise more. Somehow the doctors never mention that sweet and greasy foods are subsidized by our government to the tune of billions of dollars every year. Agricultural subsidies are what make corn syrup, bread, rice, cooking oil, hamburger, and cheese cheaper than fruits and vegetables. Government subsidies, crazy zoning laws, and parking requirements are why we live so far from our jobs and end up driving everywhere.
For a far more interesting perspective on the health care mess than the one provided by this book, I would suggest Hadler's "The Last Well Person." For more on what the automobile is really costing us, see Kunstler's "The Geography of Nowhere" and Shoup's "The High Cost of Free Parking."
Faults of Style and Substance.......2006-01-04
As a student of health care economics (due to being employed in a managerial position in a health care enterprise,) I embarked on reading this book with great anticipation and was left with great disappointment. My disappointment stemmed from faults in both style and substance.
As to style, the writing is replete with complex sentences with subordinate clause following on subordinate clause until one can no longer remember what the subject or the verb is, much less make any sense of the meaning of the sentence. I read extensively in professional journals as part of my employment and feel that the stylistic mannerisms of this book significantly diminished its impact. There were a number of simpler grammatical errors that should have been caught by the editors at Harvard Press. I was dismayed that two so presumably eminent scholars should write in such a confusing and obfuscating way.
As to matters of substance, I was surprised that some of the more significant influences on the current state of the US's health care "system" were either ignored or brushed aside as being uninmportant. The three that immediately come to mind are the complete neglect in discussing the impact that the cost of pharmaceuticals has had on the overall cost of health care, the impact that malpractice litigation and the threat of malpractice suits have had, and the incredible cost of the administrative labyrinths that exist for most providers. Also glossed over is the exorbitant amount of money being taken out of the health care system in the form of profits for shareholders of for-profit healthcare entities (not just big pharma)and salaries and bonuses for the high-flying executives of these for-profits.
All in all, this book was so narrowly focused on medical schools and medical education as to be nearly useless in explaining how we have gotten to where we are. Critical Condition, by Barlett and Steele, is a much better book in describing the history behind the current state of affairs, and offers a much better solution than Richmond and Fein propose.
Couldn't Read It.......2005-12-13
Note: This review was done after only reading the first 20 pages of the book. Please keep that in mind when evaluating the reasonableness of my review.
I bought this book as an impulse purchase after hearing the authors on Al Franken's show on Air America Radio on 11/15/05 because I wanted to get an understanding of, and solutions to, the health care problem.
I stopped reading for two reasons. First: the authors immediately expressed an assumption in the book's introduction that I felt would unhelpfully bias their presentation and recommendations. Second: the writing was so wordy that I felt the author's were trying to add weight to a simple message that was buried so deep in the book that it wasn't worth my effort to dig it out.
In support of my first reason regarding the authors' bias, consider the following sentences in the second paragraph on page 4: "We deplore the wide disparities not only in health care but in income, education, housing, and other important factors that affect well-being and opportunity . . . We seek a system in which the financing and distribution of health services reflect our image of a just society, a society in which economic arrangements reflect a moral dimension."
Now I agree that there are very poor and very rich people in America. I also agree that there are very sick and very healthy people. But the existence of extremes doesn't negate the fact that most people in America are generally satisfied with their lives because they are relatively healthy and are meeting their daily needs. When I bought the book, I was hoping the authors' would answer the question "What is equitable health care?" Is it equitable for the government to pay for medications that control blood pressure, insulin response, and bone density when all of these could be managed by diet and exercise? Americans have a problem giving welfare to those who can work. Why give "healthfare" to those who can diet and exercise?
In support of my second reason regarding the authors' wordiness, consider these sentences in the second paragraph on page 20: "It would have been easy to conclude that all that was needed [regarding medical education] was a marginal adjustment here and a bit of tweaking there. Such a conclusion would have been valid if medicine and medical education could have stood apart from the society in which they were embedded. But, of course, they could not do so. They necessarily were influenced by the world outside of medicine, and that world, that external environment and its influences, was changing."
Now couldn't the authors' have assumed their readers already knew, 1) medicine and medical education are influenced by the world in which they operate, 2) the world refers to the external environment, and 3) the external environment is always changing? It was wordiness like this that forced me to put the book down rather than continue my struggle to find what new truths the authors' had to offer on the topic of health care and public policy.
Since I still want to understand the health care mess and how we can get out of it, I ordered Paul Starr's Pulitzer Prize-winning book "The Social Transformation of American Medicine." I found the book by scrolling down the product page for "The Health Care Mess" and seeing what "Customers who bought this book also bought." I clicked on the link "One Nation Uninsured: Why The U.S. Has No National Health Insurance by Jill Quadagno." I then read the Washington Post's Book World review on that product's page, which referred to Paul Starr's book.
This is what I love about shopping for books and other products on Amazon. I would have never found Paul Starr's book unless Amazon had provided those links and reviews. If you are also shopping for a book to understand the health care mess, read the reviews, the table of contents, and the excerpts for Paul Starr's book in Amazon. Notice that this information is not available for "The Health Care Mess". I googled "The Health Care Mess" and the only reviews available are those on the book's back cover, which are from prestigious individuals who no doubt didn't take the time to read the book.
The truth is out there. Seek and ye shall find.
Book Description
Rashi's Torah Commentary draws upon comments made by Rashi throughout each of the Torah portions in the Five Books of Moses and extracts the basic thoughts, ideas, and values of Judaism that are embedded in each of his brief comments. The author, Pinchas Doron, fully develops these ideas and shows how Rashi's Torah commentary attained such unparalleled regard.
Customer Reviews:
Too much Pinchas, not enough Rashi.......2005-02-03
The title says it all.
It's great to have the important work by Rashi available in a good English translation; but this is a greatly abridged version, so lots of Rashi is missing, and too much of Pinchas Doron is there. One begins to wonder if this ultimately is Rashi's commentary or Doron's.
And I concede this is a petty quibble, but the editor should have taken the exclamation point key away from Doron's word processor: he concludes almost every sentence with a ! instead of a period, which not only loses the emphatic effect of an !, it rapidly becomes irritating and, more importantly, trivializes Doron's explanatory material.
Average customer rating:
- brilliant, very technical
- wonderful resource
- The best linear translation available.
- Mestudah Chumash
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Metsudah: Chumash/Rashi (5 Volume Set)
Rabbi Avraham Davis
Manufacturer: Ktav Pub Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1931681856 |
Customer Reviews:
brilliant, very technical.......2007-09-16
Not being familiar with other Rashi translations, I can't write with authority about technical issues, such as how this compares with the Artscroll Rashi. I am writing as someone much less knowlegeable, who has been using a different Chumash (i.e. Pentateuch) every year and decided to graduate to Rashi this year after using Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Chumashes.
Of the most tradition-minded one-volume Chumashes I've used (Artscroll, Hertz and Samson Raphael Hirsch) Rashi is most similar to Artscroll- not surprisingly, since Artscroll relies heavily on Rashi. Rashi, like Artscroll relies heavily on Midrashim, no matter how fantastic. I think this is less true for Hirsch and Hertz.
Nevertheless, Rashi is quite a bit different from Artscroll. My sense is to a greater extent than Artscroll, Rashi was writing for scholars rather than for a popular audience. Even though Rashi certainly is interested in broad moral issues, he is also highly interested in grammatical issues. To a greater extent than Artscroll, he writes to elucidate the meaning of verses even if they don't tell a story or have an obvious broader meaning.
wonderful resource.......2001-03-29
While I am not Jewish, I have gleaned a lot from this resource. The interlinear translation style is extremely wonderful resource, esp. for people trying to pick up the language or to see the underlying Hebrew. The Rashi commentary is easy to follow. All the texts are well laid-out and extremely readable. I find the resource valuable for helping someone pick up Hebrew. The translation is more word for word than thought for thought, but that is appropriate in this context, given that it is an interlinear translation. Rashi adds valuable insights. His text being there in Hebrew and English is done just as well as the Torah text. The use of a the more readable font for the Hebrew is easier for people like me who are still picking up Hebrew. The only thing, as a Gentile, I have a struggle with in the English translation is the transliterated words as opposed to the Anglinized words. Not a big deal, just takes some getting used to. This is well worth the price, esp. for the serious student or scholar.
The best linear translation available........2000-11-23
This has proved to be an absolutely phenominal resource in my study of Rashi.
Firstly, the translation is simple, clean, and generally accurate. Metsudah wisely chose to be truer to the exact translation than to the "spirit." For the purpose of a linear translation, this is a tremendous benefit.
Secondly, the layout of the text is very easy to read. The top of the page has two columns of Torah: vocalized Hebrew on the right side, its translation on the left. The bottom of the page is Rashi: vocalized (and non-Rashi-scripted) Hebrew and its translation alongside. There are a number of linear translations out there, but this is by far the easiest to read.
Thirdly, Metsudah provides helpful footnotes which help clarify some of Rashi's more ambiguous statements.
Any serious student of Rashi will find this text invaluable.
(P.S. Metsudah also publishes linear translations of, among other things, the siddur, tehillim and megillot. All are worth having.)
Mestudah Chumash.......1999-12-26
This Chumash (5 Books of Moses) is an absolutely wonderful learning tool. It has the English and the Hebrew in linear form so it is very easy to use. The translation is not one of those "thy" and "thou" translations, but rather is real, understandable English. I also like that the names are transliterations of the real Hebrew names and not the Anglicized names so often encountered. In short, this is a genuine Jewish Bible (Five Books of Moses) and is great for anyone who is looking for that. As if this is not enough, it iscludes the commentary of Rashi, in the same great linear format. Rashi (he lived in 11th Century France) is one of the greatest of all Torah commentaries and explains things according to the Oral Tradition. All together, this is a great edition and I unhesitatingly recommend it for use in study of Chumash and learning Hebrew or for simply reading the Torah.
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