IJII

Targum Onkelos is the rabbinically endorsed Aramaic translation of the Five Books of Moses. Publishers have recognized its historical and theological importance since the invention of the printing press and have honored Onkelos by placing it on the inside center spot adjacent to the biblical Hebrew text. Many Jews know that it exists. They know that it is for the most part a literal translation of the Torah. But most Jews do not know that there are two other full-length Targums as well as fragments of currently non-existing Targums; Targum means "translation" and is used today primarily for translations composed in Aramaic. The other two complete Targums are Targum Neophyti and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. What are these Targums and when were they composed?

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Are evangelicals interested in supporting the State of Israel because they are convinced that this support will help them convert more Jews to Christianity?

Orthodox Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Riskin of Israel, the founder of the first orthodox Jewish center in Israel for religious dialogue with Christians in 2008, and Dr. John D. Garr, board chairman and CEO of Hebraic Heritage Christian Center, assembled a total of seventeen Jewish and evangelical scholars in Atlanta, Georgia for a two day colloquium to discuss this question and other interfaith issues. The results were excellent and a follow-up session is planned. I was one of the attendees and the following are my impressions.

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Imagine the value of a book that addresses anti-Semitism, a disease raging in today's world, composed by a non-Jew, a deep-thinker, a philosopher, a man living in France in 1944 during a period of fierce Jew hatred; imagine what ideas this book could impart. This is the value of Jean-Paul Sartre's short, but information-filled indictment of society called Anti-Semite and Jew.

Characteristics of an anti-Semite

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Women and Men in Communal Prayer:
Halakhic Perspectives
Edited by Chaim Trachtman, MD
Ktav Publishing House, 2010, 418 page

Reviewed By
Israel Drazin

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Sages of the Talmud
The Lives, Sayings and Stories of 400 Rabbinic Masters
By Mordechai Judovits
Urim Publications, 2009, 345 pages

This is a book for everyone, Jews and non-Jews, Talmud-students and secularists, men and women, history and literature lovers. Even rabbis who have studied Talmud all their lives will gain information from reading this book and they will enjoy themselves doing so. Mordechai Judovits knows his subject and presents a host of interesting information very well.

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The Israelites' first Passover, celebrated in Egypt just prior to the exodus and described in Exodus 12:1-11,was radically different from the Torah mandated holiday observed after the exodus. Exodus 12, which describes the Egyptian ceremony, raises many questions.

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If we could achieve the goals of this fine book, or even some of them, we would be living in a better world, with more joy, meaning and purpose; we would be in paradise.

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Religious Zionism of Rav Kook
By Pinchas Polonsky
Translated from Russian by Lise Brody
Machanaim, 2009, 93 pages

Pinchas Polonsky explains two novel open-minded concepts of Rabbi Abraham-Yitzhak Kook (1865-1935) in this book, concepts that could, and indeed should, radically change the way Judaism and other religions are practiced.

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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.

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