Fixing God's Torah: The Accuracy of the Hebrew Bible Text in Jewish Law

The title of this work by Professoe Levy might make one beleive that it deals with correcting the content of the Torah. In fact this is not correct. The Maimonidean 8th Principle of Faith relates to the veracity of the Torah. It is commonly misunderstood to mean that the Torah text thatis used today is "letter for letter" the same text as was found in the original. This was never the intent of Maimonides as the rabbis of the Talmud clearly stated that we are no longer experts in spelling of all the words (plene and deficient) in the Torah text. Rather the principle relates to the textual integrity of the Pentateuch in that the entire contents is Divine in origin. Professoe Levy's book does a wonderful job of demonstrating some of the historical issues that surrounded the (fixation) Pentateuch as we have it. A major defficiency is the use of transliterated text to the exclusion of using Hebrew characters. A better method would have included a Hebrew font with an transliterated text side by side or in a footnote. Thus the neophyte and the reader who is more well versed in the Hebrew would oth be able to read the text without unneccessary effort.

Since the nineteeenth century, the absolute integrity of the text of the Pentateuch as the letter-for -letter accurate revelatory message of the Divine to Moses on Mount Sinai has been an article of faith for Orthodox Judaism. Prof. Levy shows with meticulous scholarship that from early Rabbinic times onwards, through the Middle Ages and even into more modern times many rabbinic scholars acknowledged and discussed the variations in the Masoretic and other texts of the 5 Books ( particularly in the context of the accuracy of the Scrolls used in synagogue). What was commonplace discussion in early times turned into sensation in our own times; what was never at issue turned into heresy, and, conversely, a view that was never espoused turned into an article of faith. The book is a superbly documented window onto the history of Judaism, and on to the history of the transmission of texts, with restrained but pointed relevance to some contemporary causes celebre - eg Bible Codes, whose basic premise this books elegantly demolishes. Should be in every theological and Jewish library!