Skull
Platinum Member
Dennis Prager's Exodus commentary is the first of his five volumes on the Torah. Reviews seem generally positive and it is selling very well.
He may have started with Exodus not Genesis, because the former contains the Ten Commandments.
Here is how his Introduction begins:
"Most people—especially in their younger years—pass through a difficult time with one or both of their parents. In my teen years and twenties, I was one of them. But no matter how I felt, there was never a time I did not honor my parents. For example, from the age of twenty-one, when I left my parents’ home, I called my parents every week of their lives.
I treated my parents with such respect because I always believed God had commanded me to do so: “Honor your father and mother” (Commandment Five of the Ten Commandments). The Torah—as the first five books of the Bible have always been known in Hebrew—commands us to love our neighbor, to love God, and to love the stranger; but we are never commanded to love our parents. We are commanded to honor them (and we are not commanded to honor anyone else).
Why do I begin this introduction to a Bible commentary with this personal story?
Because it encapsulates why I have devoted so much of my life to explaining the Torah: because of its central message—that God is good and demands we be good."
A little more from the Intro:
“I have been teaching the Torah for much of my adult life and have devoted decades to writing this explanation of, and commentary on, the Torah.
I have done so because I believe if people properly understand the Torah and attempt to live by its values and precepts, the world will be an infinitely kinder and more just place.
All my life I have been preoccupied—almost obsessed—with the problem of evil: people deliberately hurting other people. At the age of sixteen, I wrote in my diary that I wanted to devote my life “to influencing people to the good.” That mission has animated my life. In a nutshell, I love goodness and hate evil. My favorite verse in the Bible is 'Those of you who love God—hate evil' (Psalms 97:10).”
He may have started with Exodus not Genesis, because the former contains the Ten Commandments.
Here is how his Introduction begins:
"Most people—especially in their younger years—pass through a difficult time with one or both of their parents. In my teen years and twenties, I was one of them. But no matter how I felt, there was never a time I did not honor my parents. For example, from the age of twenty-one, when I left my parents’ home, I called my parents every week of their lives.
I treated my parents with such respect because I always believed God had commanded me to do so: “Honor your father and mother” (Commandment Five of the Ten Commandments). The Torah—as the first five books of the Bible have always been known in Hebrew—commands us to love our neighbor, to love God, and to love the stranger; but we are never commanded to love our parents. We are commanded to honor them (and we are not commanded to honor anyone else).
Why do I begin this introduction to a Bible commentary with this personal story?
Because it encapsulates why I have devoted so much of my life to explaining the Torah: because of its central message—that God is good and demands we be good."
A little more from the Intro:
“I have been teaching the Torah for much of my adult life and have devoted decades to writing this explanation of, and commentary on, the Torah.
I have done so because I believe if people properly understand the Torah and attempt to live by its values and precepts, the world will be an infinitely kinder and more just place.
All my life I have been preoccupied—almost obsessed—with the problem of evil: people deliberately hurting other people. At the age of sixteen, I wrote in my diary that I wanted to devote my life “to influencing people to the good.” That mission has animated my life. In a nutshell, I love goodness and hate evil. My favorite verse in the Bible is 'Those of you who love God—hate evil' (Psalms 97:10).”
