"Every letter and every word of the Torah hides numerous mysteries."
-Isaac Bashevis Singer
Yung Zhao explores the scripture in light of Jewish tradition, archaeology, history, linguistics, literature, sociology, mathematics, geology, and so on.
He offers thoughtful and intelligent commentaries. Examples are the following:
The day before the beginning was Sabbath. Prior to the creation, God kept the Sabbath.
Adam's first sentence was, "O God, Thou art my God" (Psalm 63:1a), and his first prayer was for a helper as his partner."
The tree of life was actually an atonement tree, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil was an apricot tree.
The fate of Jacob's family was changed by Judah (Genesis 37-50). The true hero was Judah rather than Joseph.
"Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars" (Proverb 9:1). The seven pillars refer to the seven books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Talmud, and Zohar) and seven righteous men (Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Amram, and Moses).
While other works on the scripture exist solely to relay content to readers, Midrash Sinim is found provocative and intriguing, much interesting food for thought. It unveils numerical codes, deciphers long-term puzzles, solves controversial questions, and provides gripping tales of biblical figures, through which the profundity of the Torah and Jewish tradition shines with even greater brilliance.
