MARCH 30 • 2023 | 83

ABOVE: Balcony arrangements in Israel. LEFT: Fragment of a Classical decorated ceiling 
from Temple Mount excavations. BELOW: The author on site in Mamilla.

times provided drawings and 
3-D models to the building 
crew; the Midrash explains 
that Moses also received 
models along with the Torah’s 
words. For the same reason, 
ArchitecTorah includes many 
photographs and diagrams.
Browsing through 
ArchitecTorah, the reader 
will find out how the rabbis 
recommended allocating 
scarce water during droughts 
— and how the Romans built 
aqueducts that automatically 
prioritized public needs when 
the supply got low. 
The reader will discover 
why the procession carry-
ing lulav and etrog around 
the synagogue once worked 
smoothly, and now results 
in traffic jams inside mod-
ern synagogues — not just 
because many people now 
have a lulav and etrog. 
Skarf tells us how Joseph’s 
strategy of transferring the 
population of Egypt during a 
famine compares to 20th- 
century urban renewal in the 
United States. 
He informs us about the 
limited season for making 
bricks in ancient Egypt, how 
ancient prisons differ from 
modern ones, how apart-
ment buildings in modern 
Israel accommodate the 
rules for building a sukkah, 
and why archeologists find 
divided staircases and double 
entrances to caves all over 

Israel. 
In one essay, Skarf explains 
the temptations that archi-
tects and others in the build-
ing trades face when (and if!) 
they try to keep the biblical 
prohibitions against bribery. 

BITE-SIZED EASY 
READING 
In short, Skarf gives us an 
average of three or four 
bite-sized essays about each 
weekly reading, illuminating 
aspects of the Torah from 
his vast knowledge of the 
ancient Near East, the history 
of architecture and all strata 
of rabbinic literature. Each 
essay provides a few minutes 
of easy reading, some sur-
prising information and the 
tools a reader would need to 
learn more. ArchitecTorah will 
reward each reader with plen-
ty of gems. 
Skarf uses the transliterated 
Hebrew names for the books 
of the Bible (for example, 
Shemot, rather than Exodus), 
for the names of biblical 
characters (Moshe and not 
Moses) and for many of the 
structures (mishkan and not 
tabernacle). He provides a 
glossary at the end of the 
book to aid readers who 
would be inconvenienced by 
that choice. His other appen-
dices include a bibliography, a 
primary source index to rab-
binic and classical texts, and a 
general index of topics. 

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