Science and Sacrifices: The Influences and Impacts of Rabbi David Zvi Hoffman’s Commentary to Leviticus

Abstract

This study will endeavor to analyze the way the opening chapters of Leviticus depict the sacrificial laws and how Rabbi Hoffman utilized his vast knowledge of the writings of Jewish commentators, bible critics, and academics to craft a truly unique commentary to the Book of Leviticus, the first of the commentaries he wrote on the Torah. While other academic studies have analyzed Rabbi Hoffman’s broader contributions to Orthodox thought at length, this study will only briefly touch on Rabbi Hoffman’s other endeavors before it will focus more on Rabbi Hoffman’s seminal work on Leviticus, and will concentrate mostly on Rabbi Hoffman’s commentary to Leviticus’s first seven chapters. When appropriate, this study will also utilize Rabbi Hoffman’s commentaries to other parts of Leviticus and the remaining books of the Torah (with the exception of Numbers, which unfortunately is no longer extant), his responsa published in Melamed Le-ho’il, and his pamphlet with direct proofs against Wellhausian biblical criticism. Finally, this study will survey the legacy of Rabbi Hoffman’s commentary, including an analysis of the many modern and contemporary biblical commentators whose novel readings and interpretations are largely credited to the observations first made by Rabbi Hoffman, and will conclude with a comment on what ritual sacrifice means to modern Judaism and how Leviticus and its content are viewed today. (from Introduction)