Torah Commentary by Rabbi Samuel David Luzzatto (4 vol.)

Luzzatto’s Torah commentary presents the reader with the work of an accomplished and highly respected Bible Commentator of the 19th century, a leading Bible scholar at the university of Padua, who tackled the well worn theories of Bible critics who deny the Divinity of the Torah, both Gentile and Jewish.

His commentary preceded, by 40 years, that of Dr. David Hoffman, head of the Berlin Rabbinical seminary, which first appeared in 1904 and also addressed Bible critics.

Luzzatto’s credentials as an expert in all the languages that could have had an influence on the text of the Torah are beyond question, including, for the first time, Syriac.

Doing all this work in a country that was thoroughly Catholic, and taking issue with ancient as well as recent critics, was an act of fearlessness and integrity, and displayed peerless scholarship.
His highlighting the moral superiority of the Torah to any competing classic work on morality is most refreshing.

The translator, Eliyahu Munk, was born in Frankfurt on Main, where he received his education at the Samson Rafael Hirsch Realschule, and the Yeshiva of the late Rabbi Joseph Breuer, of blessed memory. He continued his education at the Yeshiva in Gateshead, England. He served in Jewish education (primarily as a teacher) for almost 30 years in Toronto, Canada. He lives in Jerusalem and has translated over a dozen classic Torah Commentaries.