Biur al HaTorah [commentary to the Pentateuch]

SFORNO, OVADIAH

Giovanni Griffio

Venice

1567

FIRST EDITION. Large printer’s device on title. Initial word of each of the Five Books historiated

Vinograd, Venice 538

True to the humanistic Italian-Jewish tradition, Obadiah Sforno (c.1470-c.1550) excelled in several diverse fields: philosophy, mathematics, and particularly medicine. It was he who taught the Hebrew language to the German philo-Semite Johannes Reuchlin (for which Sforno had been criticized by some). Though written in a deceivingly simple style, Sforno’s present commentary contains great depth and offers original rationales for the various commandments (ta’amei ha-mitzvoth). Of late, Rabbi Yehuda Copperman of Jerusalem (in Hebrew) and Rabbi Ralph Pelcowitz (in English) published annotated editions of Sforno’s commentary.