The Work and Its Title
Netivot ha-Shalom (“Paths of Peace,” a phrase drawn from Proverbs 3:17) is the title under which Moses Mendelssohn and a circle of collaborators produced a new edition of the Pentateuch with translation and commentary. It is a composite work rather than a single authored essay: each page presents the Hebrew text of the Torah together with the Aramaic Targum Onqelos, Rashi’s commentary, a German translation printed in Hebrew characters (the Tirgum Ashkenazi), and a Hebrew commentary called simply the Bi’ur (“explanation”). Since that Hebrew commentary gave the edition its distinctive character, the whole enterprise is commonly referred to as “the Bi’ur,” or as Mendelssohn’s Bi’ur. Title pages describe the work as containing the five books of the Torah “with tiqqun soferim, the Ashkenazi translation, and the Bi’ur” — the tiqqun soferim element referring to the notes on the correct scribal and masoretic text that accompany the edition.
Contents and Layout
The work is divided into five volumes, one for each of the Five Books of Moses, and within each volume the material follows the traditional division into the weekly Torah portions read in synagogue. The layout is that of a traditional rabbinic Bible (Miqra’ot Gedolot) adapted to a new purpose: the sacred text stands at the center, framed by the classical Aramaic rendering and by Rashi, the two staples of Jewish Bible study, while the new German translation and the new Hebrew commentary occupy the lower part of the page or a parallel column. The effect is deliberately conservative in form and innovative in content — the familiar furnishings of a traditional Humash are made to carry a modern, philologically disciplined reading of the text.
The German translation is interlocked with the Hebrew commentary: the Bi’ur constantly refers to the translation, explains why a given Hebrew word or construction was rendered in a particular way, and uses the German equivalents as a kind of lexical key. In this respect the edition functions as a compact dictionary and grammar of biblical Hebrew as much as a translation.
The German Translation
Mendelssohn was the author of the German rendering, and it is the element of the work most closely associated with him. It is written in Hebrew letters so that it could be read by Jews unfamiliar with German script and could circulate within the conventional format of a Hebrew book. The translation aims at pure High German rather than the Judeo-German dialect of everyday Ashkenazi speech; it is lucid, syntactically careful, and intent on rendering the plain sense (peshat) of the Hebrew while still producing idiomatic German. It preserves something of the rhythm and word order of the original, and it renders the biblical text with dignity and restraint — notably in passages that speak of God in bodily or human terms, where the translation avoids grossly literal formulations. Because of its clarity and its fidelity, the translation served an educational purpose as well: it gave Jewish readers a route into the biblical text and, at the same time, into standard German.
The Hebrew Commentary (the Bi’ur)
The Bi’ur proceeds verse by verse in concise Hebrew notes. Its dominant concerns are grammatical and lexical: it parses forms, identifies roots and constructions, distinguishes near-synonyms, and explains how a phrase is to be construed. It regularly weighs the renderings of Onqelos and the explanations of Rashi, sometimes endorsing them, sometimes disagreeing and preferring a more literal reading. Alongside Rashi it draws on the medieval Hebrew philological tradition — Abraham ibn Ezra, Rashbam, David Kimhi and others — and its governing preference is for the plain, contextual sense over midrashic expansions, though it does not polemicize against derash. Occasionally the notes expand beyond philology into short excursuses on theological and philosophical matters, such as the meaning of biblical anthropomorphism, the nature of prophecy and miracle, and the sense of particular commandments.
The commentary was not the work of a single hand. Mendelssohn directed the project and wrote portions of the Bi’ur himself, but substantial parts were composed by collaborators, among them Naphtali Herz Wessely, Shlomo Dubno, Naphtali Herz Homberg and Aharon Friedenthal. The division of labor differed from book to book and portion to portion, and the resulting commentary, though consistent in method and style, is the product of a team working under Mendelssohn’s editorship rather than of one author throughout.
Prefatory Material
The first volume opens with prefatory material that sets out the program of the work, most importantly Naphtali Herz Wessely’s introduction Divrei Shalom ve-Emet, which defends the enterprise and argues for the study of Scripture in its plain sense together with the acquisition of orderly, pure language — a case for combining traditional Torah study with the linguistic and general culture of the surrounding society. The volume also carries approbations and editorial remarks framing the edition for its readers.
Supplementary Commentaries in Some Printings
Certain printings of Netivot ha-Shalom append further commentaries to the five volumes, among them Samuel David Luzzatto’s Ha-Mishtadel, the notes and supplements of Simon and Joseph Szanto entitled Bozer Olelot, and Naphtali Herz Homberg’s Ha-Korem. These additions extend the conversation around the Bi’ur, supplying criticism, defense and supplementation of its readings, but the core of the work remains the combination of the Hebrew text, Onqelos, Rashi, Mendelssohn’s German translation and the Bi’ur itself.
Scope and Arrangement
Netivot ha-Shalom is a Pentateuch edition, not a Bible-wide project. The title designates the edition as a whole; the Bi’ur is the Hebrew commentary that runs through it. The German rendering is printed in Hebrew characters, and the commentary is keyed to the verse rather than composed as a continuous treatise. The notes often explain the translation’s choices, so the German and Hebrew parts of the edition are coordinated: the rendering supplies the accessible text, while the Bi’ur supplies the grammatical and lexical reasoning behind it.
Exegetical and Theological Profile
The Bi’ur is selective: it addresses difficulties in grammar, lexicon and construal rather than commenting on every word. It often sets out more than one possible reading and then argues for the one that best fits the context. Its theological remarks are embedded in particular verses and are defensive rather than systematic; they aim to preserve a reverent reading of Scripture and to show that prophecy, miracle and law can be understood in rational terms. The work contains no independent philosophical essay; its ideas are worked out ad hoc in the notes.
Significance
The edition’s importance lies in its combination of traditional Jewish exegesis with modern philological explanation and a modern-language rendering. It presents the Hebrew text as the object of study and the German translation as an aid to understanding, not as a substitute. In doing so it models a form of Jewish Bible study in which grammar, context and rational theology serve the reading of Scripture, and it gives the Bi’ur a place alongside the older commentaries rather than against them.
