Dr. Israel Drazin is the author of fifteen books, including a series of five volumes on the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible, which he coauthors with Rabbi Dr. Stanley Wagner, and a series of four books on the twelfth century philosopher Moses Maimonides, the latest being Maimonides: Reason Above All, published by Gefen Publishing House,
www.israelbooks.com.
By
Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin
The Talmud and the codes mandate that Jews should read the weekly Torah portion twice in the original Hebrew and once as it is rendered in Aramaic by Targum Onkelos. Remarkably, they lauded this work above their own writings, the Talmuds and Midrashim, for they never required that these books be read. They also extolled this translation by calling it targum didan, "our translation," suggesting that they want people to realize that this is the true plain meaning of the Torah. Yet, Jews are ignoring the rabbinical command to read the Targum today. This is a tragedy because Onkelos does contain the Torah's plain meaning, as the rabbis said, and Targum Onkelos is far more than that; it is fascinating.
