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Books > Subjects > Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > Hebrew [172 similar products]
Before I get to the main part of this review. I must first state that I can read and understand Hebrew (including being able to read ancient Hebrew scripts).
This particular book is a nice try at producing a Torah text in Ancient Hebrew during the 1st Commonweath of Israel. Yet, there are many problems with the text. The typeset used is not very uniform on the pages, and it is very difficult to find particular pasukim or parashot (sections and chapters) for that matter. The text never gives its reference, i.e. what Torah text is it being transliterated from?
There is no introduction to tell whose text was used, i.e. the Yemenite Tajjim (Torah texts from Yemenite Jews), the Ohr Torah texts of Ashkenazim and Sephardim, or the Samaritan text. ALL texts that are based on an ancient text have introductions that explain where the text came from, and what their experience with the material is. Even though the author is from an organization that has some biases against the Northern European Jewish communities it is more than likely that they trnasliterated from Northern European texts.
The biggest problem with the text is that most people haven't learned how to read this form of Hebrew, and as scholarship points out this script is only one of a few variations that existed in ancient Israel. So the majority of people who buy this book will more than likely not even be able to read it.
The other issue is that the Samaritans in Holon, Israel and Shechem have a text, which they have preserved in their form of Ancient Hebrew and has more historical validity as a text compared to Robert Yawanathan Denis'd book. (There are about 6000 differences between the Samaritan Torah the Masoretic Torah). It would better if you go to the Samaritan web-site and buy their Torah text since it is more ancient than this book (and you know where their sources are). [...]
All in all, this book may appeal to people who are thinking that the script looks cool. They see the title with "Ancient Hebrew" and feel as if they have an "Ancient Torah" in their hands. And there is a good chance they won't be able to read much of it, because Hebrew from the 1st Commonweatlth had no vowels. Yet, the truth of the matter is this book does not prove itself to be such a thing. My advice to anyone considering buying this book is learn Hebrew, then purchase either a Yemenite Tajj (Yemenite Torah text) or a Samaritan Torah text, since both have more history behind them and can be traced to ancient times.
