On Leviticus 13 and Biblical Interpretation Beyond Any Likely Original Meaning (4/25/26)

This morning in my Torah Study (via Zoom with Houston’s Congregation Beth Israel, we covered the Holiness Code in Leviticus 19. In Torah Study, we read the text and interpret the text to make the text meaningful in our lives. I am a lawyer with interests in constitutional and statutory interpretation to make the text meaningful to the community served by the Constitution and statutes; the process is the same, but our Torah Study community is curious about the “original meaning” of the Torah text, but we are far from wedded to whatever we believe the or an original interpretation might be. As Jim Kugel, probably my favorite Hebrew Bible Scholar, says: The text we honor is the interpreted text, including interpretation by the tradition of rabbis and by ourselves in our current community. I could write a lot on whether interpretation of the Hebrew Bible should be different from interpretation of Constitution or statutes, and do on my Federal Tax Procedure Blog, here.

In this post, I want to focus on Leviticus 19:13. Since all translation is interpretation, we find it helpful to use two principal texts: Plaut’s The Torah: A Modern Commentary (Revised Edition 2006) in hardcopy (although I also have it in Kindle) and Sefaria’s online resource, here, which is really quite good. Often someone will bring in Robert Alter’s magnificent translation/interpretation in his book on the Torah, The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary (2004). Just for fun, I offer the three translations with commentary.

Plaut translation:

13] You shall not  defraud your fellow [Israelite]. You shall not commit robbery.

The Plaut translation offers no commentary other than supplying the bracketed word.

Sefaria Translation 

13 You shall not defraud your fellow.^a You shall not commit robbery.

The only “commentary” in Sefaria is in the subscripted text adding: fellow I.e., fellow Israelite—whether male or female. In contrast to others “neighbor.”

 Alter translation

13 You shall not defraud your fellow man and shall not rob.

 Alter has no comment on this text.

In this morning's session, we read from the Plaut edition, the reading included the bracketed [Israelite] that, if a proper interpretation, is a commandment not to defraud fellow Israelites.