82 | MARCH 30 • 2023 

ARTS&LIFE
BOOK REVIEW

J

oshua Skarf has a strong convic-
tion that “whatever we work in 
can only be used to enhance the 
Torah.” He maintains that his specialized 
knowledge in his profession — archi-
tecture — affords him a distinct angle 
from which to view topics throughout 
the Torah. And he backs 
up that conviction in 
ArchitecTorah, a book 
of 178 short essays that 
invite readers to look into 
a passage of the Torah 
from that angle. 
Everywhere Skarf 
looks, the Torah assumes 
we know about struc-
tures: tents, houses, civic 
buildings, altars, temples, 
cities with zoning regula-
tions, cemeteries, hydrau-
lic systems, instruments of war and 
peace … and everywhere he looks, Skarf 
has knowledge to deepen our under-
standing of all those structures. 
Skarf does not let his vast knowledge 

get in the way of telling the story. Each 
of the essays fits into two or three pages 
of lively prose, clearly written for a gen-
eral audience. He marshals evidence 
from one end of rabbinic literature 
to the other, from classical studies of 
architecture, and from the most mod-
ern scholarship —always scrupulously 
showing his sources. When he does use 
a technical term — not often — the term 
illuminates our understanding, and he 
explains the term in plain English. 
“The second half of the book of 
Shemot details the crafting of the 
Mishkan and its vessels,” Skarf observes; 
yet for all that description, readers have 
trouble creating a clear picture of those 
subjects. The ancient rabbis report that 
Moses himself could not understand the 
descriptions. Skarf reports that “ekph-
rasis,” defined by the Oxford English 
Dictionary as “the use of detailed 
description of a work of visual art as a 
literary device,” almost never suffices 
to convey the image of a structure. For 
this reason, designers have since ancient 

ArchitecTorah is a delightful book of essays 
geared toward general readers.

The Intersection of 
Architecture and Torah

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Meet Joshua Skarf

Author Joshua Skarf grew up in the 
Metro Detroit Jewish community. He 
describes major influences on his 
study of Torah, includ-
ing time as a student 
at Akiva (now Farber 
Hebrew Day School). 
“In 1997, when 
I was a senior at 
Akiva, I remember 
my father taking me 
to a Siyyum HaShas 
[celebrating complet-
ing the study of the entire Talmud] … 
It sort of captured my imagination, so 
I went to school the next day and told 
my Talmud teacher, ‘I am going to start 
Daf Yomi [learning one two-sided page 
of Talmud every day]).’ And he said, 
‘Good luck, but it is not going to last 
more than a couple of days.’” 
Skarf continues, “He was 
right to say that because it 
was nothing more than bra-
vado to think that I was going 
to do that, but I have been 
doing it for the last 25 years.”
During those years, 
Skarf graduated from the 
University of Michigan, 
began a career as an archi-
tect and moved to Israel. At 
some point while he was 
doing Daf Yomi, he started 
keeping track of the various sugyot 
[Talmudic discussions] that were archi-
tecturally related. 
“I actually did that with the Bavli 
and Yerushalmi [the two versions of 
the Talmud], with all of the Midrash 
Halakhah and with not most, but a 
good deal of the Midrash Aggadah.” 
The daily page of Talmud gives more 
of a broad, rather than deep, under-
standing of rabbinic literature, so Skarf 
began devoting his free mornings on 
Friday — the day off in Israel — to a 
more profound investigation of top-
ics that interested him. Over time, he 
sorted these topics by each week’s 
Torah reading and wrote his findings 
into a few short essays of two or 
three pages for each parshah. In the 
course of 18 years, this project became 
ArchitecTorah. 

Joshua Skarf

ABOVE: View looking up through typical Roman Ionic and Corinthian columns