Tanach Thoughts

 This is a continuation of this post , which is merely my translation into English of an excellent list of different sorts of commentators on Tanach, provided by the website of the late Nechama Leibowitz. Just putting this out there for anyone's use. Professor Shlomo Dov Goitine Henry George (not Jewish) Rabbi Mordechai Gimpel Yaffe (Techelet Mordechai) Rabbi Shlomo Dubno Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (Michtav Me'Eliyahu) Rabbi Hertz Naftali Homberg (Hakorem) Rabbi David Tzvi Hoffman Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Horwitz (Be'er Yitzchak) Rabbi Yeshiayah Halevi Horwitz (the Shl"ah) Chaim Hazaz Rabbi Wolf (Binyamin Ze'ev) Heidenheim) (RaVe"h) Rabbi Eliezer Halevi Heilperin (Bi'urei Mohara"l) Rabbi Efraim ben Shimshon (Rabbeinu Efraim) Rabbeinu Asher ben Yechiel (Ro"sh) Professor Yosef Heinman Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn (Nimukei Rashi) Rabbi Meir Simcha Hakohen of Dwinsk (Meshech-Chochmah) Rabbi David Halevi Segal (Divrei David)...

 As it turns out, Gidon had a sidekick. Well, not quite a sidekick. He's called a "na'ar" in Hebrew. A young assistant. Kind of like an intern, except with stealth and fighting capabilities. Like a spy plane. Okay, I'll stop. His name was Purah, which is exceedingly interesting. The word Purah will be familiar to some of us from Anim Zemirot: "Purah Bedorcho Be'vo'oh Me'edom". Purah means "winepress" in old Hebrew. Why is this interesting? Because Gidon's story opens up with him beating wheat in... a winepress ! As I heard from Rabbi Uzi Bienenfeld, Gidon did this because he didn't want the Midianites to discover him and take what precious little food his family had.  In that part of the story, the more well-known word for winepress was used - "Gat". But the two words mean the same thing. Gidon's story begins in a winepress, and then he has an assistant named "winepress" sneaking with him to spy on th...

Note: I started writing this review shortly after the end of the third lockdown, but never got around to finishing it (translating the section below), so the result is that this is being published over a month after I first started writing this.  Yes! After five weeks (the duration of the third lockdown here in Israel) of chipping away at the book named in the title, I've finished it and can now share with the world all of my very important thoughts on a book that I'm not sure very many people in the world are even aware exists...but I take what I can find (and yes, I found it next to the neighborhood's genizah can)... Introduction To The Holy Scriptures is my translation of the title which is מבוא לכתבי הקודש - Mevo Lekitvei Hakodesh. It was originally written by Shmuel Shrira in Russian, according to Zalman Shazar , who wrote the introduction to the Hebrew edition. Apparently the two were among a group of scholars funded by Baron  Günzburg , which is how they met. My tho...