Some Of The Rebbe's Torah: <i>The Gutnick Chumash</i>,Shlomo Greenwald, <i>Jewish Press Staff Reporter</i>

The Gutnick edition of the Chumash - a beautifully laid-out Hebrew-English Chumash featuring a selection of classical commentaries and even larger selection of writings and thoughts of the Lubavitcher Rebbe - has recently been published as a single volume. The well-researched and splendidly presented edition hits on many marks and will add much for beginners to Chumash study (clearly an intended audience at Chabad houses across the world) and those familiar with the text.

Really there are two fresh aspects in the Gutnick Chumash. The first is the original translation. English-translated Chumashim have been around for decades, and several very good ones have been around for over 10 years. So while the concept may not be so novel, this Gutnick translation features many of the best aspects of the previous ones.

Above all, the text is very readable. In the foreword, Rabbi Chaim Miller, who translated the Chumash and compiled the commentary, points out that unlike some other previous translations, the Gutnick edition does not intersperse transliterations - of those especially difficult-to-translate words - among the translations. What is lost in accuracy is gained in an immensely more reader-friendly Chumash. (Readers of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's Living Torah, a generally terrific Chumash, could attest to such difficulties.) Some scholars may decry that trade-off, but I think many who enter shul each week and want to enjoy and learn the week's parshah benefit from having a Torah that can be read and understood simply and efficiently. And avoiding transliterations is just one factor that makes the Gutnick Chumash such a pleasure to read.

There is one downside, however, to the translation. It includes virtually every statement of Rashi's commentary to Chumash in parentheses. Yes, they are in parentheses, and yes, the foreword explains that these are Rashi's words and not those of the Chumash. (The foreword also explains that the Rebbe believed "that all of Rashi's words are essential to a basic understanding of the text") but still I think that readers may become confused. Most shul-goers who open up an English Chumash - and certainly the typical Chabad shul-goer, many of whom come from backgrounds of little Chumash study - won't open up the foreword and won't make a significant distinction between what is in parentheses and what is not.

But aside from that, the translation proves to be very useful, easy, and illuminating.

Still, the real treat here is the second fresh aspect of this edition: the commentary by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The commentary included in the Gutnick edition is from the Rebbe's "Rashi Sichos," where the Rebbe developed a unique approach to Rashi's commentary (though I couldn't tell, based on the sources given for each of the Rebbe's comments, which were "Rashi Sichos" and which were not).

An example of the Rebbe's approach to the understanding of the Chumash can be found on the passuk describing Moshe's birth (Shemos 2:2). The passuk says that Moshe's mother, Yocheved, "Saw that he was good." The commentary from the Rebbe - in this edition called Toras Menachem - quotes a Gemara which offers two distinct explanations about what Yocheved saw that indicated that Moshe was good: Either that he was born circumcised or that the entire house filled up with light when he was born.

The Rebbe points out that both of these are possible - they don't contradict each other. So maybe Yocheved saw both. Why the disagreement? The Rebbe says, based on a Midrash, that the first possibility would indicate that Moshe possessed extraordinary "personal holiness and purity." The second, that Moshe had the ability to impart his holiness to others. So while both may have been true, the point in question in the Gemara is what was Moshe's primary leadership talent.

This example is typical of the Rebbe's fealty to Midrashic and Talmudic interpretations and his tendency to favor a "These and those are both the words of the living G-d" approach. Both of these aspects, as well as the Rebbe's use of classical Chassidic mysticism, may throw off some Orthodox Jews residing in more logical circles. But for those who enjoy a touch of mysticism, and certainly for those whose whole essence includes it, there is no one better to deliver it than the Rebbe, a veritable heavyweight and thoughtful Jewish philosopher.

The Gutnick Chumash includes many more features. Two of them are boxed-in tidbits from the Rebbe - one on the explicitly mystical aspects of the Torah and the other on the practical application of the Torah, which appear occasionally. There are also the Rebbe's thoughts on the name of each parshah, a list of mitzvos of each parshah, a selection of earlier commentaries on various topics (usually those upon which the Rebbe will comment) an essay on public reading of the Torah, and very useful summary charts. With all these features, the clear translation, and the fine collection of the Rebbe's thoughts and insights, the Gutnick Chumash is a welcome edition to the choices out there for English-reading Jews.

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