The Torah: A Women’s Commentary Reaches a Wider Audience on Sefaria

Thanks to a partnership with the online Jewish digital library Sefaria, a broader audience now has access to the groundbreaking volume The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, co-edited by Hebrew Union College faculty Rabbi Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, Ph.D. ’13, the Effie Wise Ochs Professor Emerita of Biblical Literature and History, and Rabbi Andrea L. Weiss, Ph.D. ’93, the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Provost and Associate Professor of Bible, along with managing editor Rabbi Hara Person ’98, Chief Executive of the Central Council of American Rabbis (CCAR).

The work, originally published in 2007 by URJ Press and Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ), is the first comprehensive commentary on the Torah written entirely by Jewish women from a range of academic disciplines, backgrounds, and perspectives. The volume offers a contemporary commentary on the Torah grounded in classic Jewish sources, while focusing on women in the Five Books of Moses and on texts and issues particularly relevant to women. The commentary was named the 2008 Jewish Book of the Year by the Jewish Book Council. In 2015, CCAR Press took over for URJ Press as the publisher of the commentary.

The Torah: A Women’s Commentary has been available since January through Sefaria, a nonprofit dedicated to building the future of Jewish learning in an open and participatory way by digitizing and freely sharing Jewish texts in Hebrew and in translation.

“Sefaria has always aspired to include diverse Jewish voices within our accessible library of Jewish texts,” said Sara Wolkenfeld, Sefaria’s Chief Learning Officer. “Thanks to the generosity of Sally Gottesman, who shares our vision of making Torah content composed by women available to all who wish to study it, we were able to partner with the CCAR and the WRJ to include The Torah: A Women’s Commentary on Sefaria.”

“The Torah: A Women’s Commentary has proved itself a breakthrough event from the moment of its publication – and even before – due to the quality of its scholarship, its ability to communicate, and its unique structure and diverse perspectives,” said Eskenazi. “The fact that it showcases the work of Jewish women scholars, clergy, and poets makes it both unique and revolutionary. Its influence continues to spread unabated in Jewish and non-Jewish circles. As part of Sefaria, it takes its rightful place alongside the luminaries of the ages such as Rashi and Ibn Ezra. This wonderful development is a great gift to all who care about the Bible and its interpretation, and the contributions the Torah can make to our world.”

“Sixteen years after the publication of a work that has already been so influential, the Central Conference of American Rabbis is honored to join Women of Reform Judaism in this partnership, which will greatly increase the representation of both women and Reform rabbis on Sefaria and make this amazing commentary available to an even wider audience,” said Person. “This initiative is a fitting next step for the commentary, and we are delighted to make this work part of the digital canon that so many will draw from in their teaching and preaching.”

“I was pleasantly surprised by the enthusiastic reception this new development received and moved to see how meaningful it has been to Sefaria users that the scholarship and insights of the contributors to The Torah: A Women’s Commentary are now widely accessible on this important platform for Jewish learning,” reflected Weiss.

“Too often, as clergy or lay leaders have prepared text studies and learning resources, they have faced barriers to including women-led and female-centric work,” said Women of Reform Judaism CEO Rabbi Liz P.G. Hirsch. “Now with this partnership, scholarly feminist Torah commentary is easily accessible for all.”