By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin in Pikesville, Maryland
Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin
Maggid Books, an imprint of Koren Publishers Jerusalem Ltd., this year has published Deuteronomy, the last of the five Parsha Companions authored by Rabbi David Fohrman. Rabbi Fohrman reveals nuances in Deuteronomy’s Hebrew text that many people do not know, but that were detected in the ancient Talmud and Midrashim.
Rabbi Fohrman is an American rabbi, educator, and internationally recognized teacher of the Hebrew Bible. He is best known for his close literary reading of the Torah, combining traditional Jewish sources with careful analysis of the biblical text. Rather than treating the Torah as a collection of laws or stories, he explores recurring words, phrases, literary structures, and subtle textual patterns to uncover deeper, fascinating, theological, and ethical messages.
He studied at Johns Hopkins University before receiving rabbinic ordination. He later became associated with Ner Israel Rabbinical College, where he studied under the school’s well-known scholars. He later founded Aleph Beta, which produces hundreds of video courses and essays on biblical interpretation. Aleph Beta has attracted a worldwide audience because of its engaging, accessible style and its emphasis on discovering meaning in the biblical text.
His work appeals to readers across a broad spectrum of Jewish backgrounds because he seeks to demonstrate that many profound ideas emerge from paying close attention to the Torah’s own language before consulting later commentators. At the same time, he regularly shows how classical rabbinic literature anticipated many of these insights.
He authored widely read books, including The Beast That Couches at the Door (on Cain and Abel); The Queen You Thought You Knew (on the Book of Esther); Genesis: A Parsha Companion; Exodus: A Parsha Companion; Leviticus: A Parsha Companion; Numbers: A Parsha Companion; this book about Deuteronomy; Genesis: The Beginning of Desire; and Shattering the Tablets.
He is known for several significant contributions. He examines repeated words, unusual grammar, parallel narratives, and literary patterns. He demonstrates how insights from the Talmud and Midrash often emerge naturally from the biblical text itself. His conversational writing style allows readers without advanced Hebrew training to appreciate sophisticated textual analysis. And his fresh perspectives on familiar passages, such as stories many readers know well, reveal unexpected layers when readers examine them carefully.
The book focuses on Deuteronomy’s unique character. Unlike the previous books of the Torah, Deuteronomy largely consists of Moses’ farewell speeches. Rabbi Fohrman explores why Moses recounts earlier events differently from the original narratives and asks what these differences teach about leadership, memory, repentance, justice, covenant, and spiritual growth.
Rather than beginning with theological conclusions, Rabbi Fohrman encourages readers to investigate the text itself. Small changes in wording, repeated expressions, and surprising literary echoes become clues that lead to larger insights. Readers are invited to participate in the discovery rather than receive interpretations.
The discussions are written in clear language. Readers familiar with traditional Jewish learning will appreciate the connections to classical sources, while newcomers can follow the arguments without prior knowledge.
When Rabbi Fohrman speaks about discovering nuances in the Hebrew text, he is referring to features of the biblical language that can easily disappear in translation but become significant when studied closely.
Readers will learn much from his approach and the questions he investigates, such as why a particular Hebrew word appears repeatedly in one passage but nowhere else. Why does Moses describe an earlier event using different wording than in Exodus or Numbers? Why is one synonym chosen instead of another? Why is a sentence arranged in an unusual order? Why does shared vocabulary connect two seemingly unrelated stories?
They will also benefit from learning, for example, from the times when Deuteronomy retells an event differently from Exodus. Rabbi Fohrman asks why Moses intentionally changes the emphasis. He explores how these variations can illuminate the needs of the new generation about to enter Canaan and how the ancient rabbis detected theological and ethical significance in those differences.
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Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps.
