New: The Living Torah - Hebrew & English in 1 Vol. (2.0 Edition)

We are excited to present The Living Torah 2.0. The second and enhanced edition of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s translation of the Torah.

It is with great excitement and awe that one approaches the publishing of the Five Books of Moses, the Torah. However, knowing that we were building upon the foundations and edifice that Rabbi Kaplan so beautifully and scholarly set forth, it left us only with the pleasure involved in enhancing the product, and bringing The Living Torah into the 21st century.

Rabbi Kaplan was able to take the sacred text of the Torah and translate it into modern English, making it read like a story, while not losing the primary purpose of the Torah, namely, it being a book of lessons and Divine guidance (Torah being etymologically similar with the word Ho’raah). In The Living Torah every sentence and every paragraph becomes alive to the reader.

The intention of this edition was to keep Rabbi Kaplan’s “voice.” Rabbi Kaplan was meticulous in his methodology, and every nuance of his work had reasoning and depth, we endeavored to keep his precision in this work. We did intend, however, to “upgrade” the design and usability of the Chumash, through clearer layout and fonts and upgraded design. We hope we succeeded to this end.

Another intention of this edition was to add to its usefulness. While the first edition fulfilled its purpose of being a Synagogue Edition Chumash, in this edition we made two primary additions:

Targum Onkelos. The commentary of Onkelos has become a staple component of the Synagogue Chumash. Besides for its own value, it also allows for the reader to complete the study of Shnayim Mikra V’echad Targum, lit., “twice Scripture and one translation), where one reads the weekly Torah portion verse by verse, reading each verse two times in the original Hebrew followed by reading it once in the Targum of Onkelos.

Haftoroth. The reading of the Torah on Shabbath and Festivals are followed by the reading of the Haftorah, a selection from the Prophets which shares a theme with the Torah portion of time of year. In this edition we added all the Haftoroth, those for Shabbath and those for all the Festivals, so that one can follow and/or read the appropriate Hafotorah on each occasion. [Additionally, this is useful for those who have the custom to include the reading of the weekly Haftorah in their study of Shnayim Mikra V’echad Targum.]

Note on Haftorah: There are various customs as to which Haftorah is read on a particular Shabbath or Festival, whenever differences arose we included the custom of Ashkenazim, Sefardim and Chabad communities.

Additionally, the English text of the Haftoroth are taken from The Living Nach series, and includes their commentary. We hope that this commentary will enhance your understanding of the words of the Prophets and their eternal messages.

Translator/Author: Aryeh Kaplan

Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.8 x 9.5 inches