Creating Space Between Peshat and Derash
A Collection of Studies on Tanakh
Rabbi Hayyim J. Angel
In this third collection of his essays on Tanakh, Rabbi Hayyim Angel continues to present his learning methodology and in-depth text studies to a wider readership. The collection as a whole invites readers into the learning process, understanding individual passages while utilizing the underlying methodology developed and applied by our classical commentators through the ages.
About the Author
Hayyim Angel has served at Congregation Shearith Israel (the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue, founded in 1654) of New York since 1995, and was appointed its Rabbi in 2006. He also has taught advanced Bible courses at Yeshiva University since 1996. He has published nearly 70 scholarly articles, primarily in Tanakh. Twenty of those appeared as a collection in 2006, Through an Opaque Lens. Twenty more appeared as a collection in 2009, Revealed Texts, Hidden Meanings: Finding the Religious Significance in Tanakh. He earned his B.A., M.A. in Bible, M.S. in Jewish Education, and Rabbinic Ordination from Yeshiva University in New York.
Praise for Creating Space Between Peshat and Derash
Just as a skilled archer can consistently place his arrows within the center ring, an effective teacher can regularly locate his explanations within proximity to the central meaning of the textHayyim Angel is such a teacher and his exegetical quiver holds a wide and engaging assortment of arrowsHe is sensitive to the multiplicity of available meanings, on which he focuses the resources of our revered tradition, which are aimed with the discernment born of his considerable classroom and pulpit experience. It was a pleasure to read the essays contained in this volume and that pleasure is now yours as well.
~ Rabbi Dr. Moshe Sokolow, Fanya Gottesfeld-Heller Professor of Jewish Education, Azrieli Graduate School, Yeshiva University (from the foreword)
If you work through these studies, you will see not only his conclusions, but also how he reaches them. That is the difference between interpretation, even brilliant interpretation, and genuine analysis. The former may be valuable in itself and excite your admiration; the latter helps you to think and study on your own. It is the quality of his analysis and the transparency of his exposition that has made Hayyim Angel a remarkably popular and influential teacher at Yeshiva College for over a decade.
~ Rabbi Shalom Carmy, Chair of Bible and Jewish Philosophy, Yeshiva College and Editor of Tradition (from his foreword to Hayyim Angel's Revealed Texts, Hidden Meanings)
As a Rabbi and Teacher, Angel's book displays literary analyses of astonishing clarity and a commitment to reading the text in religious contexts as an aide to living. Both professional scholars and religious readers of all traditions will find it both thought-provoking and fruitfulIn its unique insights, with clearly-supported arguments based on searingly-close reading, and useful teachings, methodological and Biblical, Angel's book is an honourable distillation of his work.
~ The Rev. Dr. Bruce K. Gardner, Former Honorary Research Fellow in Hebrew and Semitic Languages, Aberdeen University, Scotland (from his review of Hayyim Angel's Revealed Texts, Hidden Meanings, presented at the Society of Old Testament Study in Britain)
A Collection of Studies on Tanakh
Rabbi Hayyim J. Angel
In this third collection of his essays on Tanakh, Rabbi Hayyim Angel continues to present his learning methodology and in-depth text studies to a wider readership. The collection as a whole invites readers into the learning process, understanding individual passages while utilizing the underlying methodology developed and applied by our classical commentators through the ages.
About the Author
Hayyim Angel has served at Congregation Shearith Israel (the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue, founded in 1654) of New York since 1995, and was appointed its Rabbi in 2006. He also has taught advanced Bible courses at Yeshiva University since 1996. He has published nearly 70 scholarly articles, primarily in Tanakh. Twenty of those appeared as a collection in 2006, Through an Opaque Lens. Twenty more appeared as a collection in 2009, Revealed Texts, Hidden Meanings: Finding the Religious Significance in Tanakh. He earned his B.A., M.A. in Bible, M.S. in Jewish Education, and Rabbinic Ordination from Yeshiva University in New York.
Praise for Creating Space Between Peshat and Derash
Just as a skilled archer can consistently place his arrows within the center ring, an effective teacher can regularly locate his explanations within proximity to the central meaning of the textHayyim Angel is such a teacher and his exegetical quiver holds a wide and engaging assortment of arrowsHe is sensitive to the multiplicity of available meanings, on which he focuses the resources of our revered tradition, which are aimed with the discernment born of his considerable classroom and pulpit experience. It was a pleasure to read the essays contained in this volume and that pleasure is now yours as well.
~ Rabbi Dr. Moshe Sokolow, Fanya Gottesfeld-Heller Professor of Jewish Education, Azrieli Graduate School, Yeshiva University (from the foreword)
If you work through these studies, you will see not only his conclusions, but also how he reaches them. That is the difference between interpretation, even brilliant interpretation, and genuine analysis. The former may be valuable in itself and excite your admiration; the latter helps you to think and study on your own. It is the quality of his analysis and the transparency of his exposition that has made Hayyim Angel a remarkably popular and influential teacher at Yeshiva College for over a decade.
~ Rabbi Shalom Carmy, Chair of Bible and Jewish Philosophy, Yeshiva College and Editor of Tradition (from his foreword to Hayyim Angel's Revealed Texts, Hidden Meanings)
As a Rabbi and Teacher, Angel's book displays literary analyses of astonishing clarity and a commitment to reading the text in religious contexts as an aide to living. Both professional scholars and religious readers of all traditions will find it both thought-provoking and fruitfulIn its unique insights, with clearly-supported arguments based on searingly-close reading, and useful teachings, methodological and Biblical, Angel's book is an honourable distillation of his work.
~ The Rev. Dr. Bruce K. Gardner, Former Honorary Research Fellow in Hebrew and Semitic Languages, Aberdeen University, Scotland (from his review of Hayyim Angel's Revealed Texts, Hidden Meanings, presented at the Society of Old Testament Study in Britain)