I'm about halfway through the book and already it's one of my favorite Judaiaca and/or Bible commentary books ever (other favorites include Telushkin's Jewish Wisdom and others and Marc Brettler (who wrote the foreword)'s How to Read the Bible).

The first chapter (after the introduction), called No Word Unturned, was actually so good I read it twice. It's very dense in the sense that a lot of information is packed into a small amount of space but it is written so well that you fly through the pages instead of plodding through thick text. The chapter summarizes the major different schools of (Hebrew) bible commentary. A quote from one of my favorite paragraphs: after explaining how most of the rabbis in the Rabbinic period considered there to be numerous (tens? hundreds?) of interpretations of the Bible's cryptic passages, he notes that some had a more restrictive view. 'Rabbi Ishmael is associated with the legal principle that "The Torah speaks in human language." This notion precludes using every word in the Torah as an opportunity for midrash. In other words, Rabbi Ishmael and those of his schol were opposed to omnisignificance. Even Sigmund Freud conceded that, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."'

The book also has an extensive bibliography, and recommends other books to the reader to other books, such as a recent book by Kugel, so the reader can go more indepth if he wants to.

I've got more to say about this great book but I'm going to a lecture tonight so I've gotta go. Buy this book!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed "Torah Through Time". I had heard Dr. Shai Cherry speak a number of times and so I was delighted to learn of his first book. I found the book very well organized and written. It is interesting, informative and thought provoking. I highly recommend this book!