Hearing the Biblical Voice: Studies in the Weekly Torah Reading inspired by the writings of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch: Genesis: Volume One Paperback – August 4, 2021

Stephen Bailey’s lucid and elegant Studies in the Weekly Torah Reading unfolds as a series of probing questions and profound answers.Based on the writings of Samson Raphael Hirsch, Bailey explores the difficult problems the Genesis text presents to an inquisitive reader. For example, “The description of the first Human Being appears twice. What do we learn from each description? What does God declare as the role of the human being? In Chapter 2, Woman was created from the side of Man. Does that mean the first human was an androgynous being?Although Hirsch’s own Biblical commentary addresses the same issues, Hirsch’s often convoluted German sentences are not easy reading, even in good English translation. By contrast, Bailey is a gifted teacher who can explore complex ideas in a clear and direct style. The first chapters present “teaching stories” with leading questions followed by analysis which illuminates what we can learn from the text. Although Bailey’s main source of ideas is Hirsch, he often cites other sources ranging from Talmudic to modern.His chapter headings are often provocative and amusing—“Matchmaker, Matchmaker Make Me a Match,” “Not-So-Identical Twins,” “Let’s Make a Deal,” “World-Class Wrestling,” “Not-So-Brotherly-Love,” “Joseph the Dramatic Playwright.” My favorite is “the Final Exam” for the Akeidah, the binding of Isaac.Bailey gives new credibility to the term “narrative” which has so often been abused to describe a version of events which has nothing to do with any reality except what the speaker has invented. Bailey is telling meaningful stories based on classic Jewish sources that evoke multiple dimensions of the Genesis text.The present volume is the first of five to be published on each of the Mosaic books. Bailey’s perspective is from the Jewish tradition, but I believe an interested Christian reader also would find in Bailey’s work a depth of understanding that would bring the Bible to life in a new light.Alongside Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ beautiful short essays on each weekly Torah reading, I look forward to my journey through the Bible this coming year in the words of an equally masterful teacher, Stephen Bailey