Discover the Top 4 Must-Have Chumashim (Hebrew/English Study Bibles)!

Hello and welcome to the JNet Book review.  My name is Rabbi Mendel Winner, and today   we're going to be reviewing The Chumash, better  known as the Five Books of Moses. The word Torah,   which the Chumash is known as, also comes from  the word Horah'a which is instruction and lesson.   Because, not only are we learning the Chumash  to know Jewish history, and to see how every one   of 613 Mitzvas originated in Chumash, but we're  looking for inspiration and life lessons in every   single verse and every single line. There are many  different ways of learning Chumash. Going back to   Cheder where children learn with their teacher,  Chumash with the legendary Rashi commentary. There   is the Parsha that's read in shul on Shabbos where  you can review the weekly Torah portion, which is   divided by the weeks. There's also Chitas which  is the daily Torah portion. On Sunday you learn   Sundays, Monday you learn Mondays lesson. The  Alter Rebbe said that a Jew should live with the   times. Now we're not talking about the New York  Times Times of course, we're talking about the   Torah times. The everlasting and timeless message  that that week's and that day's Torah portion is   teaching us. Before we begin the review, I would  like to go over a few pointers. When it comes   to translations, the translator is faced with a  very tough challenge. They have to have a proper   command in the original language, in Hebrew, and  then the language that they're translating into,   in English. Now with every translation it's  inevitable that the subtleties of the original   translation will be lost, because it's impossible  to convey the full message into another language.   If you would go ahead and purchase an English  Bible online, or in any random store that Bible in   English is translated from Latin which in turn is  translated from Greek which in turn is translated   from Hebrew. So you have three translations that  over time unfortunately went away from the origin   and the authenticity of the original text. That's  why the books that we're going to be reviewing   today, were translated by team of Rabbis and  Scholars that have fluency in the commands,   and are very knowledgeable of course in the  original Hebrew and in English. So it is the   best and closest the most accurate as possible  we can get to the original. The original Torah,   The Five Books of Moses, were dictated  by God and transcribed by Moshe. Now,   it was written pretty much cryptic, semi coded,  and therefore if you would read it without any   commentary it would be almost impossible to  understand the full story. That's why when   translating The Chumash each translation varies to  how much commentary they incorporate in the text,   so you get a better understanding of what's  going on. I'm going to begin today's review   with the classic Stone Chumash which I have in  front of me. Many of you are familiar with it,   see it in shul, and this is the oldest one out  of the few that we have here. Now, when they   translated the English text they exclusively  stuck to literal translation. So they'll take   A Possuk, and they'll say Hashem spoke to him to  convey the message to them, which is literally   how to translate the verse. At times it could be  a little bit challenging to fully understand the   full picture. I mean who is Hashem talking to,  and who is the them? Is Hashem talking to Moshe   to talk to the Jewish people? Is Hashem talking  to Moshe and Aharon to convey to the elders,   or to the Kohanim? That's why commentary is so  essential, and therefore they included on bottom   commentary where they collect from Rashi, and of  course from Ramban, and other medieval and more   modern commentators that give insight and show  how to learn the text. An important fact that   comes to mind when studying the Stone Chumash  being that it sticks to literal translation   you may have a hard time understanding the full  background and context. So take for example The   Ten Commandments one of them is not to kidnap,  now the word in Hebrew is used Lo Sig-no which   literally means don't steal. Without commentary  you would just assume that it means don't steal,   which of course is a negative commandment, but  it's not part of the 10. What they do in the   Stone Chumash is that they translated literally  don't steal. Yes, on the commentary on bottom   they're going to expound upon that, that it  means don't steal people which is kidnapping,   but in the actual text you won't have it. So,  for a person that's looking to learn Chumash   in the text alone, and wants to get the full  background, they may miss the commentary. One   aspect of this Chumash which I dislike slightly  is that there's very little inspiration and life   lessons. So, they stick to if a person wants to  study the text, and the Chumash, and the stories,   and the explanation of it that's great. but to  apply these life lessons on a practical level   in a person's personal life there isn't much to  it. I'd recommend this Chumash for a person that   wants to study the text in its original without  any commentators, and if they choose to look at   commentators and commentaries later on of course  they're welcome to, but they want to look at their   translation as literal as possible. That's the  Stone Chumash for you. The next Chumash I want to   review is the newly famous Chabad House Chumash.  And they did a phenomenal job in translating the   original text, but including commentary, primarily  Rashi which is the classic when studying Chumash   of course, but they still wanted to retain the  literal translation. So what they did was they   have the literal translation in bold font, and  then in non-bold font they included commentary   and explanation so you can basically fill in the  blanks. When it says Hashem spoke to him to tell   them, you know who the him is, and they put in who  to them is. They also include the chronological   order of what took place when. See The Chumash  wasn't written in the order that took place,   and therefore it's essential to understand  that this piece actually historically took   place before that piece, and so on. Now the actual  translation and commentary that they included was   primarily based off Rashi and they also include a  tremendous amount of the Rebbe's Sichos, and the   Rebbe's talks to understand the full picture and  so on. What I love about this Kehos Chumash, is   that that you can sit down and read the text  alone and have a full understanding in picture.   It flows smoothly, you get the full background  the reasoning behind it and the deeper dimension   all included in the translation, and of course if  you want to just keep to the literal text you can   focus on the bold. They also included commentary.  The authors of this translation collected from   Chassidic Works relating to understanding the  text, to understanding the Mitzvah, or the the   story that is being told, and a deeper Chassidic  and Kabbalistic explanation which gives very   powerful Timeless life lessons and inspiration  that you can take home from this week's Parsha.   Another great component of this Chumash is the  introduction before every single Parsha, of what's   going to take place in that Parsha, and powerful  life lesson from that Parsha. I would recommend   this Chumash for a person that doesn't have much  time to open up many different books, and research   many different things. They just want to sit down  and get an all-encompassing rich lesson and idea,   and background of that week's Torah portion for  that week's daily Chumash, with full insights and   reasoning and logic and explanation in one sitting  included in the text with a nice beautiful flow.   This is probably the best one for you. The only  challenge that some people may have with this   Chumash, is that if you look at the text alone  it may be a little bit overwhelming, because they   include so much commentary in the actual text. Our  next Chumash is the Gutnick Chumash which is based   off the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The  actual translation is kept much more to literal   translation. Yet, whenever there is commentary of  Rashi that's essential to understanding the text,   they'll put in parenthesis which is great for  an easy read and understanding what's going on,   Afterwards, if you want to expand a little bit  deeper you have the classic questions where   they'll bring a few different commentators on  Chumash explaining and answering some of these   core questions and give their explanation. From  there you have the Torahs Menachem where they draw   from the Rebbe's works. Where he brings questions  and challenges on all the other commentators,   and then introduces his novel approach which  clarifies all the difficulties. Another section   here is the Sparks of Chassidus, they have this  small gray box of some Kabbalah and Chassidus, if   you want to go a little deeper and esoteric a  deeper dimension on that week's Torah portion.   Following that you have the last word which is  perhaps what you can say the marching orders.   A practical lesson and inspiration that  you can take away from that week's Parsha.   In the beginning of the Gutnick Chumash they have  the names of all the Parshas, its deeper meaning,   and inspiring message from each name of the  Parsha. I recommend this Chumash for an individual   that wants to try a little bit of everything.  They want to learn the text in its literal sense,   then they want to try a little bit of a little  bit of Chassidus, a little bit of inspiration,   and then to see the Rebbe's approach about how to  learn that week's Parsha. Our final Chumash for   today is the Steinsaltz Chumash, which includes  the commentary of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. A very   strong focus on the Steinsaltz Chmuash is  highlighting the linguistic, historical,   archaeological, and scientific information.  So let's say for example, it talks about the   well that Yitzchok dug up, they're going to show  pictures archaeological discoveries of wells from   that era, different terms that are used in the  Chumash. They're going to research the origins of   the language. Let's see for example, if there's a  unique plant or species mentioned in The Chumash,   they're going to find the scientific language.  Just for a quick summary, I would recommend this   Chumash, the Stone Chumash for those that want  to focus on the literal translation. If you want   to have an all-encompassing, great read, easy  flow, and full background I would recommend the   Kehos Chumash, where you have the commentary as  well, and you can have just a great, well-rounded,   knowledgeable idea of what the Torah is saying.  For those that want to divide, focus on the text,   then commentary, then Kabbalah, then powerful  lessons, I would recommend The Gutnick Chumash.   And, finally, the Steinsaltz Chumash perhaps for  the more academic individual that wants to go   into the deep Insight of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.  As well as the fascinating background where he   focuses more on the historical, archaeological,  and scientific ideas of certain parts of Chumash.   Today's book review has been brought to you by  Seforimdeals.com. Unlock the wisdom of Centuries   with Seforimdeals get the best prices  on holy books from classic Torah texts,   to Modern commentators, visit Seforimdeals.com  today and enrich your learning journey.