Author Archive: Michael Fessler

Exodus Study Group, Week 3 and 4

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On January 17 and 24, we revisted Exodus Chapter 1 through the lens of the most prominent medieval Torah commentaries. We used Michael Carasik’s The Commentator’s Bible: Exodus, published by the Jewish Publication Society, which is an excellent reworking of these classic commentaries for modern readers.

In addition, on January 24, we reviewed a piece of contemporary Israeli women’s midrash on the midwives story, from the collection Dirshuni: Contemporary Women’s Midrash. The specific piece we reviewed can be read here:

The Midwives Saw and Feared –  Dirshuni

I unfortunately forgot to hit “Record” on our January 17 class, but the video for January 24 can be found below.

On January 31, we’ll move on to Chapter 2 of Exodus.

 

 

 

Exodus Study Group, Week 2

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This week, we continued with our close reading of the first chapter of Exodus, reviewing verses 15-22 in several translations.

Here is the text sheet we used this week:

Exodus, Chapter 1 - Week 2 (PDF)

Next week, on Wednesday, January 17 at 6:30 PM, we'll make another pass through Exodus Chapter 1 through the lens of the most prominent medieval Torah commentaries. We'll be using Michael Carasik's The Commentator's Bible: Exodus, published by the Jewish Publication Society, which is an excellent reworking of these classic commentaries for modern readers.

The video of this week's discussion appears below:

 

 

Exodus Study Group, Week 1

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Our Exodus (Shemot) study group met for the first time on Wednesday, January 3.

Here is the study sheet that we used during the class:

Exodus Study Group Week 1.

Note that on the sheet, I shared four translations of our Torah text:

1) Jewish Publication Society (JPS)

2) Everett Fox

3) Richard Elliott Friedman

4) Robert Alter

The first two are available online as options for viewing the Torah on the Sefaria website:

https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.1.1?ven=Tanakh:_The_Holy_Scriptures,_published_by_JPS&lang=en&with=Translations&lang2=en

https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.1.1?ven=The_Five_Books_of_Moses,_by_Everett_Fox._New_York,_Schocken_Books,_1995&lang=en&with=Translations&lang2=en

JPS is the translation used in our chumash, Etz Hayim

Everett Fox's translation can be acquired in book form  here: https://www.amazon.com/Five-Books-Moses-Leviticus-Deuteronomy/dp/0805211195

Richard Eliott Friedman's translation is here: https://www.amazon.com/Commentary-Torah-Richard-Elliott-Friedman/dp/0060507179

and Robert Alter's translation is here: https://www.amazon.com/Five-Books-Moses-Robert-Alter/dp/B000YITC1G

The video of the class  can be viewed here: