wynnewood, pa. | The death of Professor Nahum Sarna on June 23 at the age of 82 was a sad moment for Jewish scholarship.
Through his publications, his teaching and the disciples he inspired and trained, Sarna was one of the most influential Judaic scholars of the second half of the 20th century. His contribution to the appreciation of the Bible among English-speaking Jews was unsurpassed.
His scholarship was notable for the lucidity of his thought, the breadth of his learning, his exegetical acumen and his unsurpassed sensitivity to the ethical and spiritual dimensions of the Bible and its commentaries.
Sarna was a distinguished member of a small group of American and Israeli scholars who guided Jewish biblical scholarship to maturity in the second half of the 20th century.
It was Sarna and his contemporaries, thoroughly trained in post-biblical Judaic commentaries such as the Talmud as well as ancient Near Eastern languages and literatures, who showed how illuminating this combination of fields can be.
In 1957 Sarna’s broad knowledge of Jewish literature led to his simultaneous appointments as a member of the Bible department and as librarian at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York. In 1965, he accepted an appointment at Brandeis University, where he served as the Dora Golding Professor of Bible until his retirement in 1985.
Many of the students he taught at each of these institutions went on to become rabbis, educators, and professors of Judaic studies at various universities in the United States and Israel.
Ever the pedagogue, one of the most important aspects of Sarna’s scholarly career has been his devotion to scholarly projects that serve Jewish communal needs.
All of his books have been written with lay as well as scholarly readers in mind. “Understanding Genesis” (1966), originally published by the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Melton Research Center for Jewish Education, was written to inform Bible teachers about modern scholarship on Genesis.
Its appeal turned out to be much broader, leading to its republication by Schocken and setting the pattern for “Exploring Exodus” (1986) and the more recent “Songs of the Heart: An Introduction to the Book of Psalms” (1993).
Throughout his life, Sarna was honored in many ways for his contributions winning numerous scholarly awards and honorary doctorates.
No scholar has done as much to educate English-speaking Jewry about the Bible, and he did so with the conviction that intelligent readers prefer serious scholarship lucidly presented over popularizing simplifications.
The response to his books has proven him correct.