Great Jewish Torah Commentators: Voices Across the Centuries

A Conversation Across Time

Open a traditional printed edition of the Torah — a Mikraot Gedolot, the “Great Scriptures” — and you will see something remarkable. The Torah text sits in the center of the page, surrounded on all sides by commentaries. Rashi on one side. Ramban on another. Ibn Ezra, Sforno, Onkelos, the Ba’al HaTurim — their words encircling the biblical text like voices in an ongoing conversation.

And that is exactly what they are. Torah commentary in Judaism is not a monologue. It is a dialogue that spans a thousand years, conducted by scholars who disagreed passionately, built on each other’s insights, and treated every word of the Torah as inexhaustibly meaningful. To study Torah with commentaries is to enter that conversation — to sit, across centuries, with some of the greatest minds in Jewish history.

Here are the scholars whose voices still echo in every Jewish study hall.

Rashi (1040-1105)

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki — universally known as Rashi — was born in Troyes, France, and produced what is simply the most important and most widely studied Torah commentary ever written. There is no competition. If a Jewish student studies one commentary alongside the Torah text, it is Rashi.

What makes Rashi extraordinary is his economy. He says precisely what needs to be said and not a word more. Where a verse is unclear, he explains it — often in just a few words. Where the plain meaning (peshat) is sufficient, he lets the text speak. Where the rabbinic tradition adds crucial context, he weaves in a midrash. He signals his moves clearly: “the plain meaning of the verse is…” or “this is a midrashic interpretation…”

Rashi’s commentary on the first verse of the Torah illustrates his method. Rather than diving into the meaning of “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” Rashi asks: why does the Torah begin with the story of creation rather than with the first commandment given to the people of Israel? His answer — drawn from a midrash — is that the Torah begins with creation so that if the nations of the world accuse Israel of stealing the land, Israel can respond: God created the entire world and gave the land to whom He chose.

In a single comment, Rashi addresses theology, law, politics, and the reader’s expectations. He does this thousands of times across the Torah.

Rashi also wrote the definitive commentary on the Talmud, without which the Talmud would be virtually unreadable for most students. He accomplished more for Jewish literacy than any single scholar in history.

Ramban (1194-1270)

Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman — the Ramban, also known as Nachmanides — was born in Girona, Spain, and produced a Torah commentary that is, in many ways, the opposite of Rashi’s. Where Rashi is concise, Ramban is expansive. Where Rashi stays close to the surface of the text, Ramban dives into its depths — philosophical, mystical, and theological.

Ramban’s commentary is characterized by its intellectual boldness. He frequently challenges Rashi — respectfully but directly — offering alternative readings and arguing his case with Talmudic precision. He also brings a mystical dimension that Rashi generally avoids, hinting at Kabbalistic meanings with cryptic phrases like “by the way of truth” (al derech ha-emet) — his code for a mystical interpretation he will not fully spell out.

One of Ramban’s most famous contributions is his insistence that the narratives of Genesis are not just history but prophecy — that the experiences of the patriarchs foreshadow the future of the Jewish people. “The deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children” (ma’aseh avot siman la-banim), he writes — a principle that transforms every patriarchal story into a map of Jewish destiny.

Ramban’s commentary also reflects his personal experience. In 1263, he was compelled to participate in a public disputation with a Jewish convert to Christianity in Barcelona. He defended Judaism so effectively that he was forced to flee Spain. His commentary on the Torah, written partly in the Land of Israel where he settled, carries the weight of a man who had risked everything for his faith.

Ibn Ezra (1089-1167)

Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra was a Spanish polymath — poet, grammarian, astronomer, mathematician, and biblical commentator — who spent much of his life wandering across Europe in poverty, producing works of stunning intellectual clarity.

Ibn Ezra’s Torah commentary is the gold standard for peshat — the plain, contextual meaning of the text. He was passionately committed to understanding what the words actually mean grammatically and syntactically before drawing interpretive conclusions. He was also willing to challenge traditional readings when the grammar demanded it, sometimes infuriating more conservative scholars.

Ibn Ezra is famous for his cryptic hints about the authorship of certain biblical passages. In several places, he drops oblique comments suggesting that certain verses may have been written after Moses’s time — an observation that later scholars (notably Spinoza) would develop into more radical critical theories. Ibn Ezra never states this explicitly, always cloaking his insights in the phrase “the wise will understand.”

His commentary is sharp, witty, and sometimes sarcastic. He can dismiss a rival interpretation in three words. He is the commentator for readers who love precision and have little patience for mystical speculation.

Sforno (1475-1550)

Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno was an Italian rabbi, physician, and philosopher whose Torah commentary brings a distinctly humanistic and philosophical perspective. Writing during the Italian Renaissance, Sforno was influenced by the intellectual currents of his age — though he remained thoroughly committed to traditional Judaism.

Sforno’s commentary is notable for its emphasis on human dignity and free will. He consistently reads the Torah as a text about human moral development. His interpretation of the Garden of Eden story, for example, focuses on humanity’s capacity for moral choice rather than on punishment. He sees the Torah’s laws as educating humanity toward ethical perfection.

His commentary is accessible, elegant, and often surprising. He is perhaps the commentator most appealing to modern readers interested in philosophical and ethical dimensions of the Torah.

Ohr HaChaim (1696-1743)

Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, known by the title of his commentary — the Ohr HaChaim (“Light of Life”) — was a Moroccan rabbi and Kabbalist who brought a unique fusion of legal rigor, mystical insight, and emotional intensity to the Torah text.

The Ohr HaChaim is beloved in Hasidic and Sephardic communities for its warmth and spiritual depth. Rabbi Chaim reads the Torah as a living text that speaks directly to the soul. His commentary on passages about love of God, ethical obligations, and the relationship between Israel and the divine are among the most moving in all of Torah literature.

The Ba’al Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism, reportedly said that if he could meet Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, together they could bring the Messiah. The story may be legendary, but it captures the reverence in which the Ohr HaChaim is held.

Modern Commentators

The tradition of Torah commentary did not end in the medieval period. Important modern commentators include:

• The Malbim (1809-1879), who demonstrated that every word in the Torah is precise and that apparent synonyms always carry distinct meanings.
• Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888), who developed an elaborate etymological approach and read the Torah as a guide to engaged, modern Orthodox life.
• Nechama Leibowitz (1905-1997), the beloved Israeli educator whose Studies in the Weekly Parashah taught an entire generation to read Torah with close attention to the commentators’ methods and disagreements.

Why It Matters

Torah commentary is not an academic exercise. It is, for Jews, the continuation of revelation. The Torah was given once at Sinai, but its meaning unfolds across time — through the questions each generation asks and the answers its scholars provide.

When Rashi explains a word, he is not just defining a term. He is teaching a way of reading — patiently, precisely, with attention to what the text says and what it does not say. When Ramban adds mystical depth, he is insisting that the Torah’s meaning is inexhaustible. When Ibn Ezra demands grammatical accuracy, he is honoring the text by taking its language seriously.

The commentators do not agree. They argue, correct each other, and sometimes dismiss each other’s readings entirely. But the argument itself is the point. In Judaism, disagreement in the service of truth — machloket l’shem shamayim — is sacred. The conversation between the commentators is not a failure of consensus. It is a celebration of the Torah’s infinite depth.

To study Torah with commentaries is to join that conversation. The table has been set for over a thousand years. There is always room for one more voice.