Five Books of Miriam: A Woman's Commentary on the Torah

by Ellen Frankel

Book Overview

Weaving together Jewish lore, the voices of Jewish foremothers, Yiddish fable, Midrash, and stories of her own imagining, Frankel creates a vivid exploration into what the Torah means to women. Here are Miriam, Dinah, Lilith, and many other women of the Torah in dialogue with Jewish daughters, mothers and grandmothers, past and present. Together these voices examine and debate every aspect of a Jewish woman's life-work, sex, marriage, her connection...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006063037X
• ISBN13: 9780060630379
• Release Date: December 1997
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A delightful and thought provoking book

This is an extraordinarilly well-written book by someone whose knowledge in depth and breadth is full enough for the subject! I bought it expecting a feminist commentary. Instead I found a women's commentary. This book may show you the difference. Her technique allows different views to be presented (e.g., both Sarah and Hagar have voices; the rabbies, "our mothers," and "modern sages" have their say). She also engages in delightful touches, such as giving the recipe for the infamous bowl of porridge for which Esau sold his birthright. Dr.Frankel has great credentials. My only disappointments are that there was no sequal and that there were no citation notes for the rabbinical stories until the end of the book. These are not criticisms; only a reflection of how well she leaves you wanting more. There are, however, citations for each Torah verse discussed on the page of the verse. Highly recommended, except for the most closed minded. Readers may also want to know that the author previously published a book of 4000 years of Jewish tales. The same positive comments apply.

A joyful read!

This is an intriguing, enjoyable and sometimes moving read. Not for the biblical scholar or the historian, but great for the lay person. It was not what I expected: I'm a lay preacher and bought it hoping for useful sermon material. I have always approached the Torah seriously, with awe and puzzlement (and sometimes frustration); this book showed me joy and fun and poetry.

Wonderful resource

This book is a wonderful resource to examine how women in the Bible may have thought and felt. I keep a copy on my shelf right next to my Bible and prayer books. It is a great thing to give to a girl on her Bat Mitzvah.

Well done!!

I enjoyed every page of this book of commentary on the 5 books of Moses. I even tried the recipe for red lentils that was offered as the meal that Jacob might have fed to Esau in exchange for his father's birthright.Ms. Frankel is a noted Jewish scholar, and this book should not be taken lightly, or as a pure exercise of fiction. She is trying to find the voices of Jewish women that were lost in history, whether sad, bitter, or even humorous.Reading this book, which is broken out into the individual Torah portions, with encapsulations of the Biblical texts, was a wonderful treat. It not only gives its own differing perspectives, but encourages one to think for onesself, to go a different road if that's where your thoughts take you.This book is well written and lots of fun. I recommend it to everyone with an interest in Torah (or Old Testament!) studies.

An interesting, personal commentary with pleasure

As the title states this is a commentary from a woman's point of view. It is not a feminist manifesto. Although the author is knowledgeable this is not a traditional, learned Torah commentary. The author has created various female characters (named for biblical or other traditional women) to create her commentary as a form of dialogue, almost talmudic at times. The flavor is modern but there is little use of external texts. It is a very personnal work compared to more standard modern commentaries such as Plaut or JPS's own excellent 5 volume commentary. The text of the torah itself isn't included but there are summaries of each section. The author's pleasure in writing this book comes through on every page. It can be a good source for a Bat Mitzvah girl who needs to do a dvar torah and is looking for some non standard ideas that won't be offensive to anyone who doesn't find a Bat Mitzvah itself offensive.