The Grammar Of God Summary

Aviya Kushner, the author of The Grammar of God, was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family where not only was Hebrew her first language and language studied/spoken it school, moreover, it went beyond simply speaking it in home and class, rather, her family culture was vested in discussing, reveling in, and questioning the grammar, meaning, and overall language of the ancient Hebrew text: The Bible. When Kushner came across an English translation of the Bible for the first time, she writes about how she did not seem to recognize the thing she loved dearly. This jolting surprise in a Graduate school course led her on the path to write this book that examines the role of language, translation, and what it all means. The heart of the book seeks to

God seems harsh and cold, what is there to like? Not only have major issues ideas been misconstrued through the translations, but also, the beauty and rhythm of the Bible has been completed changed, as Kushner notes. In talking about some of the more dramatic changes, Kushner discusses how she was sitting in class while the professor and her classmates were talking about the harshness of Moses' laws. That is when it hit me: an appreciation for the Bible. Her book cleared up the idea of why the Bible has always come across negatively to me, it has merely been misconstrued. What amazes me even more is her empathetic response to the translators. When finding out how much has been changed in English of the book she loves, instead of sitting in anger, she sought to understand why. She uncovered truths about those who took up translating, and even found she resonated with them at times. The way that she was able to illustrate the law made me a little awestruck. The Ten Commandments are not the ten commandments, they are the ten statements. Kushner explained how the presentation of the Law matters, and it resonated deep within

Many of the religious leaders that I have spent time around act as if the "Old Testament" does not even have a Jewish origin. What Kushner was able to do in such a short book cannot be described as anything other than empathetic and done out of love. Although my journey to appreciating the Bible on a deeper level started last fall in "Intro to Bible" (because of the discussion of Hebrew origins), Kushner's book has brought me further along. I can be nothing if not grateful for that. Understanding the context of a book millions of individuals hold sacred is important, and that is a piece of what Kushner has given to such a large community of people: accessibility to the Hebrew understanding, even if it is only limited to 196 (or so)