Rating: 
Summary: Indispensable for those interested in serious Bible study --
Review: A triumph of research, and insight which draws commentary from widely diverse sources. This is not your father's King James Bible! Accurate translation and wonderful "Gleanings". A triumph.
Rating:
Summary: This book is OUTSTANDING!!
Review: Definitely the best book that I have ever read. The commentaries are insightful and illuminating. The translation is revealing. This is a must for everyone that knows how to read. Truly, we are blessed to have this wonderful work and we are blessed for the incredibly hard work that was put into it. Thank you!!!
Rating: 
Summary: A small bit disappointing
Review: I bought this book in awe of it's historical information, and perhaps to gain more understanding of the Torah, and also of It's background. It is a disappointment, however in the way Plaut approaches the text. He is a "modern" man, with the view that the Torah is not the word of God proper, but a record of the Jewish people. This offended me, but for those of you who agree with Plaut, it would be perfect for you. However, even to th conservative scholar, like me, this volume cannot be disregarded, on account of it's historical explanations.
Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING! And I just started to read the Torah.
Review: I have just started to read and study this GREAT book and it has opened up the bible, in ways that I have never thought of. Being raised in a strict pentecostal "HOLLY ROLLER Family" I was taught that the King James Version of the bible was "The Only Word of God." Now as I grow older and wiser, I know the TRUTH. I find the book hard to put down. A must for everyone, regardless of their religious and ethnical background.
Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING! And I just started to read the Torah.
Review: I have just started to read and study this GREAT book and it has opened up the bible, in ways that I have never thought of. Being raised in a strict pentecostal "HOLLY ROLLER Family" I was taught that the King James Version of the bible was "The Only Word of God." Now as I grow older and wiser, I know the TRUTH. I find the book hard to put down. A must for everyone, regardless of their religious and ethnical background.
Rating: 
Summary: not bad at all, but I like some others better
Review: I think the reviewer who wrote a long 3 star review in 1999 described the major strengths and weaknesses of this book: definitely more detailed than I expected, but insufficiently respectful of traditional interpretations. I think the Hertz Chumash and the Conservative Chumash (Etz Hayim) both strike a somewhat better balance between tradition and modern views. But I would like to point out one thing that this book does very well: Plaut goes out of his way to incorporate not just the views of today's commentators, but also views other than the most traditional Jewish views (at one extreme) and his own: for example, he uses 19th and early 20th century commentators more frequently than Etz Hayim, and (unlike Etz Hayim) occasionally takes passages from the Koran to show how the Muslim tradition addresses Torah laws and stories. On balance, I can't say this is my favorite Chumash- but nevertheless I am glad I spent a year using it.
Rating:
Summary: the best
Review: If you are interested in the Torah then buy this book. There is no other biblical commentary that I can even compare with this one. The language is enlightening but not overpowering. It's scholarship is wonderful and not overdone for the everday folk who don't work in the field of biblical history. I've purchased a couple of other used Plaut books after buying this one - "The Rise of Reform Judaism", for example. All are terrific. Great gift for a bar or bat mitzvah.
Rating:
Summary: A small bit disappointing
Review: If you've ready any of my other book reviews, you'd know that I'm a Ceremonial High Magician in the Western Tradition of Magick and Occultism. I've read many editions, translations and commentaries of the Jewish and Christian Bibles. Out of all of the Jewish Torah's I've read, this is the single best edition I've found for true study, teaching and symbolism. Quite enlightening, regardless of Spiritual path!
Rating:
Summary: The greatest Torah for Magicians and serious Bible Study!
Review: If you've ready any of my other book reviews, you'd know that I'm a Ceremonial High Magician in the Western Tradition of Magick and Occultism. I've read many editions, translations and commentaries of the Jewish and Christian Bibles. Out of all of the Jewish Torah's I've read, this is the single best edition I've found for true study, teaching and symbolism. Quite enlightening, regardless of Spiritual path!
Rating:
Summary: Slightly faded statement of Reform Judaism
Review: In all fairness to the authors this work is now well over 20 years old and in many minor ways this shows clearly. In the main though, the Plaut/Bamberger commentary still fairly represents the thinking of Reform Judaism on the Torah.
In keeping with the spirit of the Reform movement I think that the UAHC should start thinking about ways in which the commentary can be updated to better represent the current thinking within the Reform movement and where it might be heading over the next 20 years. It was never intended that this commentary would be cast in stone like tablets from Sinai, but rather that as the thinking within the movement changed the commentary would change to reflect that.
Certainly someone could start by revising the bibliography at the end of the volume to better reflect what is currently available as well as the important works from the German period of excellence in Hebrew studies from about 1850 - 1930. Certainly the clear trend of recent work is greater emphasis on Hebrew language and grammar as well on geographic detail and physical realia. Gunkel represented the folkloristic approach while Holzinger of the ignored KHC series was far more interested in details of Hebrew language and grammar as are most modern Jews and Israelis.
My hope is that a future version of this commentary will take a closer look at the contributions of the greatest of the Spanish grammarians such as ibn Janah and ibn Saruq along with the Karaites and the period of German excellence in Hebrew grammar (1850-1930).
In any event this is NOT the last word in Reform commentary on the Torah nor should it be considered so.
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