Home Home / Letter to Mrs. Margalioth about "The In…

Correspondence

Dec. 27, 1963

Letter to Mrs. Margalioth about "The Indivisible Isaiah" (1963)

Neviim
View The Text

This content is currently available in its original PDF format. As we expand the library, we plan to add a text version as well.

RELATED CONTENT

Correspondence

Letter to R. Avrutick about Concerns on the JPS Bible's Translation and Departure from Masoretic Tradition (1963)

Dear Abe, I am putting into letter form, special delivery, some of the thoughts I tried to express over the phone this morning. When the new J.P.S. translation was first announced I did not share the alarm of some of our fellow Orthodox Rabbis. At most, I felt slightly revolted by the cheap publicity. However, I now have some authentic information, in advance of the official publication, that is genuinely alarming and that, I believe, requires immediate action by the R.C.A. which has, at the last Executive Meeting, referred the matter to the Publications Commission for a report in March. I recommend that the commission, or preferably a specialized sub-committee of it, report before February 14th, which is the official publication date for the book.The information came to me from a lay scholar who is an observant Jew and who attended a meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis. (I ask you to keep this particular aspect confidential since I do not want to be revealed to the others.) At this occasion, Prof. \[name omitted] regaled his learned audience with contemptuous references to Orthodox Jewry to which he referred as "the lunatic fringe." He maintained that the restraint the translators felt on their account during the preparation of Genesis was almost completely abandoned by the time they reached Deuteronomy.The major departures from the Masoretic tradition should be sought in footnotes throughout the text which refer the reader to "superior readings" in the Samaritan, Vulgate, and—I believe—Septuagint translations.I would like to refer you and the committee to a particular verse which, according to my informant, can best serve as a criterion for loyalty or disloyalty to the Masorah. That is in Genesis 10:10 where four cities are mentioned, in the land of Shinar, as being in the kingdom of Nimrod. Biblical scholars have identified the first three, but have not excavated the fourth, identified in the Bible as Kalach.Non-Masoretic exegetes have the…
General Jewish Thought

Correspondence

Letter to R. Blau about Recommending "The Indivisible Isaiah" to Yavneh Students (1963)

Dear Rabbi Blau, At the end of January 1964, a book will be published by the Sura Institute of Yeshiva University which I think is of the utmost importance and should be read by every member of Yavneh across the country. The name of the book is “The Indivisible Isaiah: Evidence for the Single Authorship of this Prophetic Book” by Rachel Margalioth of Jerusalem, presently in New York. This 245-page volume is a translation and extensive revision of the Hebrew Shad Hayah Yeshayahu, which argues scientifically and consistently for the thesis that all the book of Isaiah was written by one author, and that there was only one Prophet Isaiah. The author is a distinguished biblical scholar who is in all ways loyal to the teachings and traditions of Torah. You can well appreciate that her work, which goes against the whole dogmatic trend of higher biblical criticism, is one which ought to be read and studied and pondered by every member of Yavneh as well as every thinking Orthodox Jew. Her arguments are forceful, novel, and in accordance with the Jewish scholarly methodology. I cannot urge you strongly enough to circularize this information to all members of Yavneh and encourage them to purchase the book and study it. The list price of the volume will be $4.75. However, I prevailed upon Mrs. Margalioth to make it available to Yavneh students for only $2.75 (less than the regular student discount). Please do give this your attention and try to circularize this to Yavneh as soon as is feasible. All orders should be sent to the author directly at 250 West 99th Street. Please let me hear from you on this matter. Cordially yours, Rabbi Norman Lamm.
Neviim Yavneh Student Group

Correspondence

Letter to Rochelle Leventhal about "The Indivisible Isaiah" (1964)

Dear Miss Leventhal: Thank you for sending me the book "The Indivisible Isaiah" by Mrs. Margalioth. Since I was of some assistance to Mrs. Margalioth in publishing the book, I received a copy of the Hebrew and English with the compliments of the author. It is therefore unnecessary for me to purchase another volume through Sura. Consequently, I am sending back the book under separate cover. Sincerely yours, Rabbi NORMAN LAMM
Neviim