Best commentaries from a Jewish perspective

[Dizerner]

Don't subscribe to Judaism, but would be interesting to compare their perspectives.

What would be your opinion on this set, a seeming kind of compilation of sorts:

Judaica Press Prophets & Writings - 24 vol. set

This invaluable aid to learning Tanach is used by students around the world! This set provides the benefit of owning two sets in one, since each volume features both the complete Hebrew Mikraoth Gedoloth as well as a concise, modern English translation of the text with extensive commentary. In...

www.judaicapress.com

Thinking of picking it up on sale; any other recommendations or thoughts appreciated.

 

[docphin5]

Don't subscribe to Judaism, but would be interesting to compare their perspectives.

What would be your opinion on this set, a seeming kind of compilation of sorts:

Judaica Press Prophets & Writings - 24 vol. set

This invaluable aid to learning Tanach is used by students around the world! This set provides the benefit of owning two sets in one, since each volume features both the complete Hebrew Mikraoth Gedoloth as well as a concise, modern English translation of the text with extensive commentary. In...

www.judaicapress.com

Thinking of picking it up on sale; any other recommendations or thoughts appreciated.

Don’t waste your money. Judaism is a dead religion. They still hope to slaughter animals and sprinkle their blood as if that has some efficacy. If that fails they hope to kill some gays thinking that will please their god.

 

[Dizerner]

Don’t waste your money. Judaism is a dead religion. They still hope to slaughter animals and sprinkle their blood as if that has some efficacy. If that fails they hope to kill some gays thinking that will please their god.

Opinion noted.

I'm not looking for spiritual information, but information on the Hebrew language.

 

[docphin5]

Opinion noted.

I'm not looking for spiritual information, but information on the Hebrew language.

Getting into the earth of Judaism requires reading history of second Temple Judaism, where it all started, that is, for Jewish-Christianity. I have been reading The Book of Jubilees by R.H. Charles. It is enlightening (given Charles footnotes), frightening (given the national civil war between Pharisees and Sadducees), and inspirational (given the depth and insight into Jewish ideas/concepts before Phariseeism/Rabbinical Judaism came to dominate Judaism). It is where Christianity started.

 

[Open Heart]

Getting into the earth of Judaism requires reading history of second Temple Judaism, where it all started, that is, for Jewish-Christianity. I have been reading The Book of Jubilees by R.H. Charles. It is enlightening (given Charles footnotes), frightening (given the national civil war between Pharisees and Sadducees), and inspirational (given the depth and insight into Jewish ideas/concepts before Phariseeism/Rabbinical Judaism came to dominate Judaism). It is where Christianity started.

Judaism began when God established his covenant with Israel, ages before second temple Judaism.

Do you really think Pharisees and Sadducees were killing each other in the streets, or are you using the phrase " civil war" figuratively?

Judaism is far from a dead religion. 73% of the world's 15 million Jews are religious.

 

[Open Heart]

Don't subscribe to Judaism, but would be interesting to compare their perspectives.

What would be your opinion on this set, a seeming kind of compilation of sorts:

Judaica Press Prophets & Writings - 24 vol. set

This invaluable aid to learning Tanach is used by students around the world! This set provides the benefit of owning two sets in one, since each volume features both the complete Hebrew Mikraoth Gedoloth as well as a concise, modern English translation of the text with extensive commentary. In...

www.judaicapress.com

Thinking of picking it up on sale; any other recommendations or thoughts appreciated.

I notice that this is just for the Prophets and Writings sections of the Tanakh. These are secondary to the Torah. I would start with a commentary about the Torah, since Torah is central to Judaism. There are many wonderful commentaries out there. Dennis Prager has out a couple of commentaries, one on Genesis and one on Exodus, that are written both for Jews AND non-Jews.

 

[Dizerner]

I notice that this is just for the Prophets and Writings sections of the Tanakh. These are secondary to the Torah. I would start with a commentary about the Torah, since Torah is central to Judaism. There are many wonderful commentaries out there. Dennis Prager has out a couple of commentaries, one on Genesis and one on Exodus, that are written both for Jews AND non-Jews.

Well, I already own this set on the Torah:

Commentators’ Bible, The (Set of 5 Volumes) - Accordance

Five volumes of the acclaimed English edition of Miqra’ot Gedolot; translated and annotated by Michael Carasik. Now, for the first time, Miqra’ot Gedolot is available in an accessible English edition. This bundle includes volumes covering Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy...

accordancebible.com

Thank for your recommendations.

 

[docphin5]

Judaism began when God established his covenant with Israel, ages before second temple Judaism.

Allegory with a spiritual or moral meaning. No burning bush, no staffs turning into snakes, no fire from heaven, etc. You need to check your reality.

Do you really think Pharisees and Sadducees were killing each other in the streets, or are you using the phrase " civil war" figuratively?

It is historical fact that second temple Jews carried on a bloody, national civil war between the Chasids, a popular movement, and the national leaders, a more liberal, educated, Hellenized group. This went on from the time they became independent of Syria (162 B.C.) until the Romans stripped them of their independence and made them a Roman province with King Herod (37 B.C.) answering to Rome. Pharisees invited first one foreign power then another, namely, the Romans, in to defeat their jewish “enemies.” They remained unruly up to the point that Rome destroyed the nation in 70 C.E. I am sure they don’t advertise their history today since it was so bloody and fanatical to all their neighbors and themselves but it is historical fact. It is important to know in order to understand the development of Jewish-Christianity because from that hot bed came the Essenes at Qumran spiritualizing the scriptures and anticipating the coming Messiahs. They founded “the Way”, Lord’s baptism, the Lord‘s dinner (with bread and wine), and interpreted scriptures for the spiritual meaning.

Judaism is far from a dead religion. 73% of the world's 15 million Jews are religious.

Any religion that longs for the days of ritually sacrificing animals, stoning people for their sins, and killing gays just for existing, is a dead religion. You can pretend otherwise and sugar coat it but it is what it says it is. The only way to save it is to find its spiritual meaning which is what the Essenes were doing before the Pharisees wiped them out too.

 

[Jewjitzu]

Don't subscribe to Judaism, but would be interesting to compare their perspectives.

What would be your opinion on this set, a seeming kind of compilation of sorts:

Judaica Press Prophets & Writings - 24 vol. set

This invaluable aid to learning Tanach is used by students around the world! This set provides the benefit of owning two sets in one, since each volume features both the complete Hebrew Mikraoth Gedoloth as well as a concise, modern English translation of the text with extensive commentary. In...

www.judaicapress.com

Thinking of picking it up on sale; any other recommendations or thoughts appreciated.

Check out Artcsroll.com, soncino.com. English commentaries cannot cover the vast amount of Hebrew commentaries that are out there.

 

[Open Heart]

Allegory with a spiritual or moral meaning. No burning bush, no staffs turning into snakes, no fire from heaven, etc. You need to check your reality.

"Thou shalt not steal" is not an allegory. Wrong genre.

It is historical fact that second temple Jews carried on a bloody, national civil war between the Chasids, a popular movement, and the national leaders, a more liberal, educated, Hellenized group. This went on from the time they became independent of Syria (162 B.C.) until the Romans stripped them of their independence and made them a Roman province with King Herod (37 B.C.) answering to Rome. Pharisees invited first one foreign power then another, namely, the Romans, in to defeat their jewish “enemies.” They remained unruly up to the point that Rome destroyed the nation in 70 C.E. I am sure they don’t advertise their history today since it was so bloody and fanatical to all their neighbors and themselves but it is historical fact. It is important to know in order to understand the development of Jewish-Christianity because from that hot bed came the Essenes at Qumran spiritualizing the scriptures and anticipating the coming Messiahs. They founded “the Way”, Lord’s baptism, the Lord‘s dinner (with bread and wine), and interpreted scriptures for the spiritual meaning.

I'm aware that at the time just before the Roman-Jewish war, that there was incredible violence between Jews. In fact, we Jews say that this "baseless hatred" of Jew for Jew is why God allowed the temple to be destroyed. However, I was not aware that this violence was Saducees against Pharisees. Do you have a link for that? I tried to google it and could find nothing.

Any religion that longs for the days of ritually sacrificing animals, stoning people for their sins, and killing gays just for existing, is a dead religion. You can pretend otherwise and sugar coat it but it is what it says it is. The only way to save it is to find its spiritual meaning which is what the Essenes were doing before the Pharisees wiped them out too.

When we say a religion is a dead religion, we are talking about a religion which was once widely followed but is now followed by at best an insignificant number of people. For example, Greek religion is dead. Egyptian religion is dead. This is not the case with Judaism. Of 15 millilon Jews in the world, 73% claim Judaism as their religion.

The Essenes have nothing to do with Christianity.