MORE THAN TWENTY-FIVE CENTURIES have passed since an anonymous Jewish poet wrote an elaborate and lengthy prayer that included this exclamation: how I love your teaching! It is my study all day long (Ps. 119.97).
These two themes-the love for Torah (teaching) and dedication to the study of it-have characterized Jewish reading and interpretation of the Bible ever since. The love is the impetus for the study; the study is the expression of the love. Indeed the intensity with which
Jews have examined this text through the centuries testifies both to their love of it-a love combined with awe and deep reverence-and to their intellectual curiosity about it. That tradition of impassioned intellectual engagement continues to the present day.
The tradition of biblical interpretation has been a constant conversation, at times an argument, among its participants; at no period has the text been interpreted in a monolithic fashion. If anything marks Jewish biblical interpretation it is the diversity of approaches employed and the multiplicity of meanings produced.
This is expressed in the famous rabbinic saying: "There are seventy faces to the Torah" (Num. Rab. 13.15 and parallels), meaning that biblical texts are open to seventy different interpretations, with seventy symbolizing a large and complete number. Thus, there is no official Jewish interpretation of the Bible.
In keeping with this attitude, the interpreters who contributed to this volume have followed a variety of methods of interpretation, and the editors have not attempted to harmonize the contributions, so an array of perspectives is manifest.
In addition, we do not claim any privileged status for this volume; we can only hope that it will find its place among the myriad Jewish interpretations that have preceded and will follow.
We hope that Jewish readers will use this book as a resource to better understand the multiple interpretive streams that have informed, and continue to inform, their tradition.
We also hope that The Jewish Study Bible will serve as a compelling introduction for students of the Bible from other backgrounds and traditions, who are curious about contemporary academic Jewish biblical interpretation.
