BOOK REVIEW:

A valuable companion in the biblical wilderness
By Zvia Walden (Haaretz)

"The Five Books of Miriam: A Woman's Commentary on the Torah," by Ellen Frankel, HarperOne, $13 (translated into Hebrew as "Midrash Miriam" by Azzan Yadin, Am Oved, 372 pages, NIS 89)

This is a unique book, representing an entirely new genre. It is unique and impressive because, to the best of my knowledge, it is the first book to offer a midrashic interpretation of the Pentateuch - following the order of the parashot (weekly readings) - written by a woman. It is also unique and surprising because sometimes its tone resembles a soap opera, and sometimes an ordinary conversation.

Dr. Ellen Frankel is the chief executive officer and editor in chief of the Jewish Publication Society (JPS), the most important Jewish publishing house in the United States. She chose to explicate the Pentateuch through the voices of 18 women and another representative 20 voices, which make what could be called guest appearances. Every Sabbath, she enables the previously missing voices of women from various generations to be heard. The multi-voiced nature of this one-of-a-kind work and genre is also multidisciplinary and multi-generational.

[...]

UPDATE: And here's another woman's commentary on the Pentateuch:

Fifteen years later, the WRJ is publishing "The Torah: A Women's Commentary," edited by Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, a professor at the Los Angeles branch of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

While there have been a number of "women's" biblical commentaries over the years -- such as "In the Image of God, A Feminist Commentary on the Torah," by Judith S. Antonelli, and "A Women's Commentary on the Torah," edited by Rabbi Elyse Goldstein -- the new WRJ commentary is the most comprehensive to date; Antonelli's book intersperses biblical and rabbinic interpretations, and Goldstein presents comments from one female rabbi on each portion.

The WRJ commentary, on the other hand, incorporates the work of more than 80 female biblical scholars, rabbis, archaeologists, historians, poets, cantors and philosophers -- the "stars" of Jewish scholarship -- beginning with Eskenazi, an expert on the role of women in the biblical world and the implications of the Bible for the Jewish world today. Others include Rachel Adler, (sometimes referred to as "the mother of Jewish feminism"), Judith Plaskow, Carol Meyers ("Discovering Eve: Israelite Woman in Context"), Judith Baskin (a major scholar of rabbinic literature), as well as Los Angeles locals Rabbi Laura Geller and Rabbi Sue Elwell and rising "stars" in the younger generation, such as associate editor Andrea Weiss and Rabbi Judy Schindler.

It's to be released in December.