New energy has been brought to the study of Torah both through newtranslations of Biblical, Rabbinic, Kabbalistic, and Hassidic texts andin new midrashic approaches.

The Five Books of Moses

Everett Fox
Schocken, 1996

Far closer to the meaning, poetry, word-play, and breathing patters of the Hebrew than any previous English translation.


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The Song of Songs

Marcia Falk
HarperSanFrancisco, 1990



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The Song of Songs

Chana and Ariel Bloch
University of California Press, 1998

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The Book of JOB

Stephen Mitchell
North Point Press, 1987

Makes the intense drama of Job audible to contemporary ears.


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Wisdom of the Jewish Sages

Rami Shapiro
Bell Tower, 1993

Translation of Pirke Avot from the Talmud with a Jewish-renewal overtone to his understanding of the Rabbis.


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Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl: Upright Practices and Enlightenment of the Eyes

Arthur Green
Paulist Press, 1982

Brought Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl into English.


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The Language of Truth: The Torah Commentary of the Sefat Emet

Arthur Green
Jewish Publication Society, 1999

Did the same -- along with Green's own comments -- for the Gerer Rebbe, Yehudah Leib Alter.


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Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment

Daniel Matt
Paulist Press, 1983

Along with Matt's Essential Kabbalah, made powerfully poetic
translations of key Kabbalistic texts available for the first time.

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God Was in This Place and I, I Did Not Know

Lawrence Kushner
Jewish Lights, 1991

Kushner weaves his own midrash together with a series of Rabbinic and
Hassidic commentators, creating a richer tapestry of meaning than
either past or present could have been.

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From Jerusalem to the Edge of Heaven

Ari Elon
Jewish Publication Society, 1998

Intertwines Elon's own understanding of a number of Talmudic texts with his life-experience in the Israeli army and peace movement.

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Tales of Tikkun: New Jewish Stories to Heal the Wounded World


Phyllis Ocean Berman and Arthur Ocean Waskow
Jason Aronson, Inc., 1996

Draws on both Bible and Talmud in writing new midrashic tales to heal wounded aspects of tradition -- especially the absence of women – and thus to turn the world at large as well in a healing direction.

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What Dinah Thought

Deena Metzger
Viking, 1989

Midrash has also been appearing in the form of novels, especially
enriching the roles of biblical women. An especially rich example.


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Exiled in the Word

Jerome Rothenberg and Harris Lenowitz
Copper Canyon Press, 1989

An extraordinary collection of
ecstatic Jewish poetry and mysterious beyond-prose, from the Bible to
our generation, in powerful translation.

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Our Fathers' Wells

Peter Pitzele
HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

The Jewish renewal movement has also taken the entire notion of midrash in a new direction, beyond words -- creating midrash-in-action, as people played the various parts in biblical stories and filled in the missing places in the tales through their own improvisational drama. This approach was called by some of its practitioners "drushodrama" and by others "Bibliodrama." Peter Pitzele raised the process to a high art, and in Our Fathers' Wells told some of the stories that had
emerged from Bibliodrama.

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