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The Jewish Study Bible
JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY
TANAKH TRANSLATION
Introduction
MORE THAN TWENTY-FIVE CENTURIES have passed since an anonymous Jewish poet wrote an
elaborate and lengthy prayer that included this exclamation:
O how I love your teaching!
It is my study all day long (Ps. 1 19.97).
These two themes-the love for Torah (teaching) and dedication to the study of it-have
characterized Jewish reading and interpretation of the Bible ever since. The love is the impetus
for the study; the study is the expression of the love. Indeed the intensity with which
Jews have examined this text through the centuries testifies both to their love of it-a love
combined with awe and deep reverence-and to their intellectual curiosity about it. That tradition
of impassioned intellectual engagement continues to the present day.
The tradition of biblical interpretation has been a constant conversation, at times an argument,
among its participants; at no period has the text been interpreted in a monolithic fashion.
If anything marks Jewish biblical interpretation it is the diversity of approaches employed
and the multiplicity of meanings produced. This is expressed in the famous rabbinic
saying: "There are seventy faces to the Torah" (Num. Rab. 13.15 and parallels), meaning that
biblical texts are open to seventy different interpretations, with seventy symbolizing a large
and complete number......