The original text of the five books of Moses is not easy reading. Nevertheless, we want to pass this tradition on to the next generation. When my children grew up, I wanted to tell them about the parasha of the Week. I searched for an acceptable translation adapted for children between the age of 7 and 17 years old, but disappointingly so, in vain. My search for usable material resulted in the following:
What I found, made me realize that if I wanted a translation of the 5 books of Moses fit for children, one that follows our Jewish tradition, I had to make it myself. I started translating (Yes I do know Hebrew, both biblical and modern) according to my own criteria.
At the end of each parasha I have formulated some of questions and thoughts ‘to think about’. There are also some longer explanations about specific subjects such as ‘what is work on Shabbath’, ‘the Jewish calendar’ ‘the red cow’, ‘the food laws’ etc. These are listed in the ‘Index of explanations’.
The questions are on various levels, from relatively simple to a quite abstract level.
Some answers to the questions can be found at the end of each parasha. I say explicitly ‘some answers’ because to almost any question in the Jewish tradition, there are lots of answers and always more new questions. That is the way rabbis have discussed during the ages.
There are a lot of names in the Torah that are pronounced distinctly different in Hebrew/English/Dutch/French or any other language. Many names have versions in other languages (Riwka = Rebecka / Rivke / Becky etc). I have chosen to transcribe the names as close to the Hebrew as possible. The Hebrew letter Yod has been transcribed as a Y and not, as is usual, as a J to come closer to the Hebrew pronunciation (Examples: Binyamin, Yoshu-ah, Yosef). The Hebrew letter Bet-without-dot has been transcribed as a W and not as a V or a B. As such it is Awraham and not Abraham, Riwka and not Rivka or Rebbecka, Lawan and not Laban.
Exception is the Bet-without-dot at the end of a word as in Ya-akov (Jacob).
In the Torah there are various ways in which God is mentioned. Many books and commentaries have been written about the different meaning of each name, and why a certain name appears in a given context. It is important to understand that the fact that we see different names in the Torah, does not mean that anything changed with God, rather, God revealed Himself in a different way to mankind. Anybody of us can wear different hats without the person being changed, for example somebody can be a bus driver for the people getting on the bus, but at the same time be a son to his parents, a parent to his children etc. In the same way God can appear sometimes as a king and sometimes with fatherly attributes and another time as a judge. Those different ways in which God revealed Himself are expressed by the various names in the Torah. The most common names are ‘Elohim’, generally translated as ‘the Universal’, and ‘Adonay’. The name ‘Adonay’, is used when reading the four-letter-name Yod, Heh, Vav, Heh. Nowadays nobody (within the Jewish world) knows how to pronounce this name, and even in the old days only the spiritual leaders knew how to pronounce this name. Therefore, when we meet the four-letter-name in the text, it is pronounced as ‘Adonay’ which is a completely different word in Hebrew and is commonly translated as ‘Lord’[1].
Understanding the meaning of the different names, let alone translating them to another language is a very complicated issue. After long deliberations, I have chosen to use the term ‘God’ for all instances, except in some very specific cases.
At some points in the text there is a reference to ‘other gods’ in which case I did not use a capital G.
A similar problem arises with the names Ya-akov and Yisra-El. In the text Ya-akov’s name is being changed to Yisra-El, but also after that, both names are used in the original text, sometimes even in one sentence, such as in the beginning of the book Shmot-Exodus: ‘These are the names of the sons of Yisra-El who came to Egypt with Ya-akov’
I did not find any real logic in the choice for the use of one name or the other. However, in this case I do not have to ‘translate’, and I have used the naming as it is used in the original text.
Another issue is the naming of the ‘Jewish community’. I have used the term ‘Children of Yisra-El’ (the literal translation of Bnei-Yisra-El)’ until halfway through parasha 16 Beshalach because until there, this is the only term used. From halfway parasha 16 Beshalach, a number of other terms are introduced such as ‘Beit-Yisra-El’ what literally means ‘the House of Yisra-El’ and a little further in the text, the term ‘Adat bnei-Yisra-El’. Eida (the singular noun from Adat) means something like tribe or community. I have not found any logic in the use of the various terms and have chosen to continue using the term ‘Children of Yisra-El’ from the middle of parasha 16 Beshalach and onwards, except where a very specific different term is used.
[1] In the Christian world the four-letter combination is often formed into a word. That is an explicitly Christian transcription, we don’t use it. We don’t use any transcription for or pronunciation of the four-letter combination.
The parashot have names. These names are traditionally derived from the first word, or one of the first words in the parasha and are as such not a reflection of the content of the parasha. In some cases, it is quite the contrary: in the parasha named (5) Chayei Sarah, meaning ‘the lives of Sarah’, Sarah’s death is pronounced in the very first sentence of the parasha.
In addition to the name of the parasha, I have chosen to give the parashot numbers to facilitate finding them. The numbering is not part of the original text or of any tradition.
Many Christian bibles use chapter- and verse-numbers and some use ‘headings’ in the text. These are not part of the original Hebrew text and I have not used these headings; however, I indicate the chapters and verse-numbers at the beginning of each parasha for the user’s ease; these chapter and verse-numbers are also used in most Jewish translations.
The original Hebrew text contains no punctuation or capitals. For a large part, the text is written continuously, thus leaving it to the educated reader to ‘know’ where a sentence starts and ends. When the text is read in the synagogue, there are specific melodies used. These are not random but are a form of punctuation, accentuating specific words and connecting specific words. I have made extensive use of this information and remarks such as are found in the ‘Tikun Kor-im Simunim’; a book used to practice the sing-song recitation of the Torah, with a wealth of information about the how and why specific texts are read in a specific way.
However, all the punctuation in this text is my choice.
Specifically I want to point out that the text (both the original and mine) contains many times the words ‘xxx spoke….’ That would imply that quotation marks are needed. However, because I have transcribed the original, I can’t use these quotation marks. But because I do want to indicate where the ‘spoken’ text begins and ends I have used the apostrophe as a kind of semi-quotation-marks. Example: Moshe (Moses) said, ‘gather all the people’ and they went and gathered all the people.
At various points in the text, I inserted footnotes – these are mine and are meant to stress or illustrate a point.
At various points in the text, I have some text in parenthesis (like this EvT). Also, these are meant to illustrate or stress a point – These texts are mine, but because they appear as it were, in the text, I put my initials at the end, to stress that this is not part of the text or of my transcription.
The haftaroth (haftarah in singular) are parts of the Jewish bible (Old Testament) and taken from the Prophets and Scriptures. These are read in the synagogue on Shabbath after the Torah-reading. Every parasha has a defined corresponding haftarah, but on specific days such as a new month or a specific holiday, we read a special haftarah. To make it a bit more complicated, Jews from North-European descent (Ashkenazic Jews) and Jews from Southern European and North-African descent (Sephardic Jews) read different haftaroth. I am from Ashkenazic descent and have chosen to follow that tradition.
The haftaroth contain beautiful texts and stories that are absolutely worth reading. Textually they are often ‘easier’ reading than the Torah-text. I have not translated/transcribed the haftaroth but have indicated the specific texts.
We do not read the whole of the Prophets and the Scriptures, except for five books (actually scrolls) that we read during specific holidays or occasions:
The Song of Songs is, in the Ashkenazic tradition, read publicly on the Shabbath during Pesach.
The book of Ruth is, in the Ashkenazic tradition, read on the morning of Shawuot, the festival of weeks.
The book of lamentations is in all Jewish communities read during the night of the ninth of the Jewish month of Av, commemorating (among others) the destruction of the temple.
The book of Esther is in all Jewish communities read on the festival of Purim.
Ecclesiastes is, in the Ashkenazic tradition, read on the Shabbath of Succoth, the festival of booths.
As indicated above, only two of the above texts are traditionally read in all Jewish communities, Esther on Purim, and Lamentations on the Ninth of Av. The practice of reading the other three books on the Three Pilgrimage Festivals (Pesach Succoth and Shawuot) is widespread but by no means universal. To read them is a custom among Ashkenazic Jews, but some Sephardic Jews do not associate the three books with the three festivals.
The book of Yoshu-ah is the first book after the Torah. It describes the conquest and allotment of the land of Cana-an and a lot of things foretold in the Torah come to pass in the book of Yoshu-ah. But also, a lot of things foretold in the Torah, do NOT come to pass, causing a lot of interesting discussions. I have always thought the ending of the Torah at the end of the book Dwarim – Deutronomy a kind of anti-climax; with the people sitting in the wilderness on the other side of the Jordan-river and my hero Moshe dying.
All the way from the promise God made to Awraham in the book of Bereshit – Genesis, much of the Torah is about fulfilling this promise; and then we don’t get to read it!
Because of the above and because there are some really spectacular stories in it, I decided to include the book of Yoshu-ah in this transcription.
There is no festival or other occasion where we read the book of Yoshu-ah. If you choose to follow the traditional ‘Parasha of the Week’ as it is read in the synagogues, the book of Yoshu-ah doesn’t fit in anywhere and you will have to find your own moment to read this.
More about the book of Yoshu-ah can be found at the beginning of that book.
The basis for this book is first and foremost the original Hebrew text. Additionally, I have used translations to Dutch, English and German. Furthermore, I have used the encyclopaedic dictionary of Even Shoshan. There is a wealth of information on the internet, and I have made extensive use of it. In the book I listed some (but certainly not all) of the literature used for this book. But the most essential initial contributors were my three children Zohar, Yechiel and Moriah who were the first (very) critical public.
And last but not least I want to mention Rabbi Jacob Soetendorp Z”L who has been an inspiration during my whole life.
A lot of people have offered constructive and less constructive criticism and I readily admit that there is plenty to criticise.
The most difficult issue was the choice between wanting to remain as close to the original text as possible while at the same time keeping the text readable without violating the text. That was not at all easy because there are a lot of things in the original text that may seem superfluous, but upon closer inspection have a meaning. The Jewish tradition maintains that there is nothing that is superfluous in the Torah, every word and every letter in the Torah has a meaning, although we may not always understand it.
The choices that have been made here are my own and I take full responsibility for those choices.
Of course, a book like this, does not come out of a vacuum. It is the result of a long history and tradition. I do hope that people will use this book and will, through this book, gain a bit more understanding of this tradition and of the structure and the texts we read every Shabbat. I hope this will stimulate a lot of people to delve deeper in the rich tradition that is an integral part of Judaism.
Whoever wants to delve deeper should take the original text or any of the many translations available. A good place to start (I think) is the internet-site of Sefaria.
After all is said and done, I hope you will enjoy reading, discussing, and learning from this book. If this book stimulates the reader to read on and study more, than I am satisfied that this book has fulfilled its purpose.
