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Home > Magazines > Bible Review > October 2002

Unwrapping the Torah

Making a symbol real again

By Tikva Frymer-Kensky

The Bible plays an enormous role in Jewish ritual life. Many of the psalms have been incorporated into the synagogue liturgy, forming an essential component of the regular daily services, as well as the Sabbath and festival services. On Jewish festivals, entire books of the Bible are read aloud: the Song of Songs on Passover, Ruth on Shavuot (Pentecost), Lamentations on Tisha b’Av (the Ninth of Av, commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples by the Babylonians and the Romans), Jonah on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), Ecclesiastes on Sukkot (Tabernacles) and Esther on Purim. But […]

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Footnotes

1.

See Daniel N. Schowalter, “Lost in Translation,” BR 11:04; and Harvey Minkoff, “How Bible Translations Differ,” BAR 18:02.

Endnotes

1.

A minor version of this service takes place on Monday and Thursday mornings. At that time, only three people are called up and only the first section of the week’s portion is read. There is no haftarah.