In Hebrew, Torah means Law. The five books of the Torah are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, are the most treasured part of the Scriptures for Jews, on the Sabbath Jews read a portion of the Torah so all five books are read during the course of the year’s services. The Talmud is commentary on the Laws of Judaism, the Babylonian Talmud is more extensive than the Jerusalem Talmud, and can fill several shelves of a bookcase. Since much of this commentary is on the dietary laws and Jewish festival observance, we will consult summaries of the Talmud on the moral and ethical laws of the Torah. We encourage Christians to study the moral lessons of the Torah, we do not hold to the dual-covenant belief that the laws in the Torah have been superseded. St Irenaeus in his influential work, On Heresies, teaches us that the moral laws of the Torah are still binding on Christians, and that the dietary and festival laws that have been superseded can be read as teaching moral lessons allegorically. Please support our channel by purchasing the books we discuss from Amazon, we receive a small associate’s commission: The three Medieval commentators on the Torah are: • Rashi, known for his commentary on the Torah and Tanakh: Metsudah Chumash 5 Vol Set Hardcover, Torah with Rashi commentary and footnotes, by Rabbi Avraham Davis (purchasing individual volumes is not practical) https://amzn.to/3rWbeIs • Rambam, aka Maimonides, known for his summary of the Talmud Commentary, and his organization of the Torah laws into 613 Mitzvoth, 248 Positive Mitzvoth and 365 Negative Mitzvoth: Maimonides: The Commandments (Sefer Ha-Mitzvoth) The 613 Mitzvoth of the Torah elucidated in English (2 vol.), Charles B. Chavel (Translator) https://amzn.to/3a9cJLd • Ramban, aka Nachminides, known for his commentary on the Torah and the Kabbalah: Ramban: Commentary on the Torah - 5 Volume Set, by Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, Rabbi Charles Chavel (Translator) https://amzn.to/35ecxLq Other commentaries and summaries of the Torah and the Talmud: The Book of Legends/Sefer Ha-Aggadah: Legends from the Talmud and Midrash https://amzn.to/2WyaMVv The Talmud: A Selection (Penguin Classics), by Norman Solomon (Translator, Introduction, Commentary) https://amzn.to/3H6G47d Everyman's Talmud: The Major Teachings of the Rabbinic Sages, by Abraham Cohen https://amzn.to/3H5yQAj The Bedside Torah : Wisdom, Visions, and Dreams, by Bradley Shavit Shavit Artson https://amzn.to/3s2UEZ3 The Essential Talmud Paperback, by Adin Steinsaltz https://amzn.to/3I7msRO The Torah Revealed: Talmudic Masters Unveil the Secrets of the Bible, by Avraham Yaakov Finkel https://amzn.to/34RmD5p Our blog will also have links for: Books by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin: https://wp.me/pachSU-CN

2. Many of our videos are, in essence, book reviews, since we
prefer to quote the classical and modern authors to encourage
you to study and reflect on these classics yourself.
We also record videos that are book reviews referenced by
other videos, so we are not overly repetitious. In this video we
will review the commentaries on the Torah and the moral
teachings of the Talmud for our series on the Ten
Commandments, or Decalogue, and discuss the Medieval
Rabbis who wrote the classical commentaries, mainly Rashi,
Rambam, and Ramban.

3. And we will review other books commenting on the Jewish
moral laws that instruct us in how to live a godly life, which is
the primary foundation of our Judeo-Christian culture, and
indeed, along with the Greco-Roman Stoic and Moral
Philosophers, is also the foundation of the Western
philosophical tradition.

4. First of Ten+ Planned Videos

5. In Hebrew, Torah means Law. The five books of the Torah, Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, are the most treasured part of the
Scriptures for Jews, on the Sabbath Jews read a portion of the Torah so all five
books are read during the course of the year’s services. The Talmud is
commentary on the Laws of Judaism, the Babylonian Talmud is more extensive
than the Jerusalem Talmud, and can fill several shelves of a bookcase. Since much
of this commentary is on the dietary laws and Jewish festival observance, we will
consult summaries of the Talmud on the moral and ethical laws of the Torah.
We encourage Christians to study the moral lessons of the Torah, we do not hold
to the dual-covenant belief that the laws in the Torah have been superseded. St
Irenaeus in his influential work, On Heresies, teaches us that the moral laws of the
Torah are still binding on Christians, and that the dietary and festival laws that
have been superseded can be read as teaching moral lessons allegorically.
LEADING MEDIEVAL RABBINICAL COMMENTARIES ON THE TOIRAH

6. https://amzn.to/3rWbeIs Who are the medieval
Rabbinical commentators on
the Torah?
The earliest is Rashi, a
medieval French rabbi from
the eleventh century. Rashi
was famous both for his
commentary on the Talmud
and on the Tanakh,
particularly the first five
books of the Old Testament
known to Jews as the Torah
or Chumash: Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers
and Deuteronomy.
Includes valuable commentary
on Rashi’s commentary.

7. RAMBAM
https://amzn.to/3a9cJLd
Rambam, or Maimonides, a medieval
Sephardic Jewish philosopher, was born
in Cordoba, Spain, and lived for most of
his life in Egypt. We will be studying his
summary of 613 commandments drawn
from the Torah, 248 You Shall positive
commandments and 365 negative You
Shall Not commandments. His
summarization of the Talmud in his
fourteen volume Mishneh Torah, which is
a semi-canonical status among Jews to
the present. The Talmud is a sprawling
commentary on Jewish life, examining
both the moral teachings of the Torah
plus rabbinical discussions on following
the dietary laws and how to observe the
many religious holidays.

8. You can access much of Rambam’s work, in
particular the Mishne Torah, and also the Rashi
commentary, on the Chabad website.

9. https://www.chabad.org/

10. https://amzn.to/35ecxLq
Ramban, or
Nachmanides, was a
Sephardic rabbi and
philosopher also born
in Spain, emigrating to
Jerusalem after the
First Crusade. He was
known both for his
commentary on the
Torah, which we will
consult, and for his
writings on the
Kabalah, or mystical
writings on the Torah.

11. MODERN SELECTIONS FROM TALMUD, AND
COMMENTARIES ON THE TORAH AND TALMUD

12. https://amzn.to/3p5c3i3
Dr Eisenberg is like a modern
day Rambam, he is a
radiologist, non-practicing
attorney, and a Jewish scholar
and author. His explanations
of the 613 Mitzvah are
elegant and concise.
https://amzn.to/2WyaMVv
https://amzn.to/3I7msRO
https://amzn.to/34WCYpi
The Book of Legends,
originally published in
Hebrew in 1911 is absolutely
marvelous, with many moral
teachings drawn from the
Talmud and the Midrash, with
a complete index.
We did learn from
this commentary, but
it is no improvement
on the classical
commentaries, and
we demurred on
some of his modern
perspectives.
This summary has
been in print for thirty
years, and starts with
a history of the
Talmud, plus
summaries of its main
moral teachings.

13. https://amzn.to/3I8a8R3
https://amzn.to/3H5yQAj
https://amzn.to/3s2UEZ3
https://amzn.to/34RmD5p
This revered collection is
organized by topic, such as
sections on the Moral Life,
Domestic Life, and Social Life,
plus sections on topics like
Jurisprudence, Nature of God,
and many other sections.
As the title suggests,
this author prefers to
retell both classical
moral stories from
Jewish sources, plus
stories of his own on
the Torah.
This is a selection of
stories from the Torah
itself, in the order of
the five books in
which the stories and
teachings appear.
This 800+ page volume has
selections from the Talmud
arranged in the order of
the actual tractates. The
introduction discuss how
to study the Talmud.

14. RABBI TELUSHKIN COMMENTARIES ON MORAL
TEACHINGS OF TORAH AND TAMUD

15. https://amzn.to/3p4aNvg
https://amzn.to/3z6eK5S
https://amzn.to/34YCLSy
https://amzn.to/3hadOpu
Our Rabbi uses many
sources, including
Scriptures, sages, the
Talmud, and some many
modern sources, both
Jewish and Christian.
This thin book on Hillel
and Shammai was thin
because not much was
passed down from this
interesting rabbi. We also
enjoyed his comparison
between Judaism and
Christianity.
Our rabbi reviews each
book of the Old
Testament, but not the
Deutero-Canonical books,
and briefly discusses the
613 Mitzvah.

16. https://youtu.be/ygxn2qqGnOI

17. We ordered the Ten Commandments of Character while
writing this review, the question of character is
interesting, we can compare the kingships of Saul and
David. David may have even sinned more than Saul, but
David had greater character, or so you could argue. These
additional so-called commandments do not neatly map
onto the Decalogue, we look forward to pondering the
issue of character when reading this book.

18. https://amzn.to/3M1UMQB
https://amzn.to/3veWGaF
https://amzn.to/3hif3TL
Kindle:
Kindle:
https://amzn.to/3skNMGx
When we were perusing our library,
we discovered we had purchased
many books written by Rabbi
Telushkin over the years. The Jewish
section at the bookstore is dominated
by Jewish Culture and Cuisine and the
Holocaust, with few books on how to
live a godly life, but for Rabbi Joseph
Telushkin, morals and ethics are all he
wants to write about.
These are his latest books, and the
table of contents and sample pages in
Amazon are interesting, but the
second volume are not organized by
the individual commandments in the
Decalogue as I anticipated. The
printed Volume 2 is pricey, so we will
purchase the Kindle edition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Telushkin

19. To find the source of any direct
quotes in this blog, please type in
the phrase to the search box in
my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
YouTube Description has links for:
• Script PDF file
• Blog
• Amazon Bookstore
© Copyright 2021
Blog and YouTube Description
include links for Amazon books
and lectures mentioned, please
support our channel with these
affiliate commissions.
Link to blog: https://wp.me/pachSU-CA

20. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLqDkfFbWhXOnzdjp__YZtg/