Reading the Seams

Abstract

‘Reading the Seams’ investigates the ways in which particular critics respond to the interplay in the Torah between independent materials and thefinal form of the text. After tracing different positions on the question, threeexamples from the Torah illustrate startling shifts in topic, contradictions and/or fragments of tradition. By paying attention both to the peculiarities of the compositional history and the redaction of the Torah, one not onlybecomes accustomed to these aspects of the text but grows to recognize theways in which they invite the reader to make sense of them. Reading Torahin parts and as a whole is not only a literarily rewarding and satisfyingapproach but also a fruitful and necessary one.