Imagine reading Shakespeare without knowing anything about Elizabethan England. Much of the language, humor, politics, and cultural references would be lost. The same is true of the Torah. Without understanding the world in which it was given, readers inevitably miss layers of meaning hidden within the text.

Understanding that context is precisely the goal of the recently published Koren Tanakh of the Land of Israel: Deuteronomy.

A similar contextual approach transformed Talmudic scholarship. The late Professor Yaakov Elman pioneered the field of Talmudo-Iranica, demonstrating how Persian culture provides valuable context for grasping the Babylonian Talmud. His work illustrates how historical context can deepen our reading of sacred texts.

As we start reading the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy) this week, even experienced readers may lack sufficient context. For a reader to truly understand and appreciate the narratives here, they need to grasp the social and political realities of ancient Egypt, where much of the story of the Jewish people began.

In The Koren Tanakh of the Land of Israel: Deuteronomy, editor-in-chief David Arnovitz has added another volume in this extraordinary series. This volume, like the previous ones in the series, explains the stories within the historical and cultural milieu in which they occurred. This commentary does an exceptional job of exploring and explaining the Egyptian context of the stories and narratives here. With Devarim, the series concludes its series on the first five books of the Torah.

The premise of the series is that to fully understand Tanach, it must be understood within........

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