07-21-2008, 11:29 PM
Shlama Albion
I own no other translation which causes me to cry like this one. This was actually my gateway into Torah, along with Andrew's help. You are so right, that for the English reader,
Selah!
I actually couldn't break through Exodus into Leviticus (spiritual dyslexia) until I came across this translation in a Barnes and Noble one day. The thing is, I had been a Borders guy! Borders simply hadn't carried something, if I remember correctly, that I really desired. I had been so turned off by the christian book section at the time, that I instead looked on the shelves across from them. There neatly hidden between a Hindi book on Tantric Yoga and the Jewish Study Bible, was this new translation that I had never seen. I opened to one page. The prose structure itself compelled me to call my dad and borrow the money to get it. It had unnerved me in a way I hadn't experienced before. That day I took it with, and began to read it alone in a secluded forest preserve. Passage after passage began to create a swell within my chest. I was being flooded with the very thing that possessed enough life to set me free. This was at a time of yet another crossroads for me. Since I've completed reading all the way through Deuteronomy, I've had a definitive lack of spiritual oppression in my life which used to come from within me. Set free from things that a couple deliverance ministries were unable to figure out.
Also, since finishing this translation's Deuteronomy, I've been forced back into other translations for Joshua, Judges, and etc. It's been really tough. Yet I was finally able to get a copy of Fox's translation of Samuel (his only other translation available so far). I'm getting ready to read it. I cannot wait! Since it's been out-of-print for quite some time, it can cost a poor person an arm and a leg. I know it did for me. In its preface, he stated his near-future intention of completing "The Early Prophets", then working his way to "The Later Prophets", and so-forth until able to complete the Tanakh. He stopped replying to my emails which I'd send about twice a year asking how the prognosis looked, since he had planned the printing of "The Early Prophets" near the end of 2005. No word since, other than signing up for Random House's author e-alerts, alerting customers approx. 9 months before a new manuscript goes into publication. Haven't heard from them either since early 2007.
I guess if it happens, it happens. For all I know he lost interest, or is being silent on a surprise upcoming release of the whole Tanakh. Either way, I've grabbed everything I can concerning his translation, including Buber and Rosenzweig's "Scripture and Translation". I've already asked YHWH for His grace to one day see the Peshitta translated according to this German Jewish innovation. It takes a tremendous aptitude and capacity to pull this thing off. If someone can do it before I attempt, then may all of YHWH's grace be upon them. I'm years away! But dear akhi, I would definitely covet the "Schocken Torah", as I call it, as a lifetime possession to possess. The Torah indeed possesses the Life of God, and it was written in Hebrew. If you can't read Hebrew, then this is indeed the next best thing. Read it aloud. This is what it was designed for. And you too, I'm sure, will soon enough be able to understand what the king meant when he took the dictation "The Torah of YHWH is perfect, restoring/converting/healing the soul" (Psalm 19:7).
~Akh Ryan
I own no other translation which causes me to cry like this one. This was actually my gateway into Torah, along with Andrew's help. You are so right, that for the English reader,
Quote:this book seems the next best thing, to actually being able to read it in the original Hebrew.
Selah!
I actually couldn't break through Exodus into Leviticus (spiritual dyslexia) until I came across this translation in a Barnes and Noble one day. The thing is, I had been a Borders guy! Borders simply hadn't carried something, if I remember correctly, that I really desired. I had been so turned off by the christian book section at the time, that I instead looked on the shelves across from them. There neatly hidden between a Hindi book on Tantric Yoga and the Jewish Study Bible, was this new translation that I had never seen. I opened to one page. The prose structure itself compelled me to call my dad and borrow the money to get it. It had unnerved me in a way I hadn't experienced before. That day I took it with, and began to read it alone in a secluded forest preserve. Passage after passage began to create a swell within my chest. I was being flooded with the very thing that possessed enough life to set me free. This was at a time of yet another crossroads for me. Since I've completed reading all the way through Deuteronomy, I've had a definitive lack of spiritual oppression in my life which used to come from within me. Set free from things that a couple deliverance ministries were unable to figure out.
Also, since finishing this translation's Deuteronomy, I've been forced back into other translations for Joshua, Judges, and etc. It's been really tough. Yet I was finally able to get a copy of Fox's translation of Samuel (his only other translation available so far). I'm getting ready to read it. I cannot wait! Since it's been out-of-print for quite some time, it can cost a poor person an arm and a leg. I know it did for me. In its preface, he stated his near-future intention of completing "The Early Prophets", then working his way to "The Later Prophets", and so-forth until able to complete the Tanakh. He stopped replying to my emails which I'd send about twice a year asking how the prognosis looked, since he had planned the printing of "The Early Prophets" near the end of 2005. No word since, other than signing up for Random House's author e-alerts, alerting customers approx. 9 months before a new manuscript goes into publication. Haven't heard from them either since early 2007.
I guess if it happens, it happens. For all I know he lost interest, or is being silent on a surprise upcoming release of the whole Tanakh. Either way, I've grabbed everything I can concerning his translation, including Buber and Rosenzweig's "Scripture and Translation". I've already asked YHWH for His grace to one day see the Peshitta translated according to this German Jewish innovation. It takes a tremendous aptitude and capacity to pull this thing off. If someone can do it before I attempt, then may all of YHWH's grace be upon them. I'm years away! But dear akhi, I would definitely covet the "Schocken Torah", as I call it, as a lifetime possession to possess. The Torah indeed possesses the Life of God, and it was written in Hebrew. If you can't read Hebrew, then this is indeed the next best thing. Read it aloud. This is what it was designed for. And you too, I'm sure, will soon enough be able to understand what the king meant when he took the dictation "The Torah of YHWH is perfect, restoring/converting/healing the soul" (Psalm 19:7).
~Akh Ryan