6 1,Cis4in Our and Old g rien,„,s ppy an d Nectithy arew Year! THE INTELLIGENT CHICKEN WHERE SMART PEOPLE EAT NOW OPEN (248) 855-4455 32431 Northwestern Hwy. (between 14 & Middlebelt, Farmington Hills) www.intelligentchicken.com M-F: 11 am-8:30 pm; Sat: 11 am-3 pm; Sun: 4 pm-8:30 pm 11APIPT NEW YEAR NOW FEATURING • Filet w/Zip Sauce • St. Louis Spare Ribs • Bistecca Parmesan LET THE SHARKAS BROTHERS CATER YOUR NEXT PARTY • Private/Corporate 'Anniversaries • Bar/Bat Mitzvahs • Home Gatherings 9/10 • Pizza Napoletana • Pasta w/Palmino Sauce • Marinara Sauce • Chicken Piccata (248) 788-2500 • FAX: (248) 788-4302 • OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK 5540 DRAKE RD. (CORNER OF DRAKE & WALNUT LAKE RD.) • W. BLOOMFIELD 1999 R,14 Detroit Jewish News Mixed Media New Timeless Tanach JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh (Jewish Publication Society) is a Bible for pre- sent and future generations of Jews comfortable with modern scholarship, at home in contemporary English, interested in the layers of meaning embedded in the sacred text. This edi- tion has roots in the work of a 10th- century scribe and a 20th-century computer as well as scores of scholars in between. What makes this new edition of the most widely book ever published news- worthy is its layout, featuring the Hebrew and English texts side by side on the same page, enabling readers to easily go back and forth between the two. The choice of texts also is significant: JPS describes the Hebrew as the most ancient complete Hebrew text. The English is a translation completed in the 1980s by sever- al committees of scholars, incorporat- ing findings of recent biblical scholarship. It was written in mod- ern English "that [is] idiomatic, reflec- tive of the language and spirit of the biblical period, not Elizabethan England," as editor-in-chief Dr. Ellen Frankel explains. According to the publisher, this is considered by both Jewish and Christian scholars to be the most authoritative translation." Dr. Frankel says that after consul- tations with Nahum Sarna and Chaim Potok, who edited the JPS Torah Commentary, they decided that the Leningrad Codex was the appropriate Hebrew text. That masoretic text, which includes all the vowel signs, accent marks, can- tillation marks, marginal notes and endnotes which have been transmit- ted with the text, is traceable back to a scholar in Tiberias named Aaron ben Moses ben-Asher, who flourished circa 930 C.E. His version was corrected and recopied by Samuel ben Jacob, a scribe in Egypt in 1010. When his manu- " script was discovered in 1840, it became known as the Leningrad Codex. Over the years, international Bible scholars have edited this codex for modern use. In 1987, a team of scholars devel- oped a computer version, which JPS obtained. Making many changes in the text for formatting, punctuation and typographic markers, the JPS team made the text their own, copy- righting it. The preface tells the full story of the tradition of biblical transmission and editing. Rabbi David Sulomm Stein, who has a back- ground in engi- neering and served as manag- ing editor, co- designer and chief proofreader, points out that the way this vol- ume handles uncertainties in the text also makes it unique. In more than 60 instances, foot- notes indicate when more than one possible meaning of the Hebrew is possi- ble, where a single letter or vowel can change the meaning of a phrase. He explains that over the past 1,000 years, as biblical manuscripts have been transmitted, there have been differ- ences from one version to another, per- haps attributable to scribal error. For example, in 2 Samuel 18.3, the troops might have said to King David, "Now there are ten thousand like us," or "You are worth ten thousand of us." Similarly, in Psalms 64.7, the poet might have said, "They have accom- plished," or "They have concealed." In most editions, editors have dis- creetly made decisions about which possibility to include. "JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh goes out of its way to be accountable to its readers," says Rabbi Stein. "In the process, it gives readers a unique window into the history of the transmission of the Bible text. Personally, I find that history both fascinating and humbling."