Martin Lockshin
York Research Tower, room 756
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3

Phone: (416) 736-2100 x 77384
Email: lockshin@yorku.ca

Marty Lockshin ’s primary area of scholarly expertise and writing is the history of Jewish biblical interpretation, particularly the interplay between tradition and innovation.  Most of his research has been centred on those medieval biblical commentators who valued tradition intellectually, who lived traditional lives and who still innovated unabashedly in their understanding of the Bible.  The largest part of his scholarship has been about Samuel ben Meir (12th century Northern France), a traditionalist Bible commentator with an uncanny knack for offering new understandings of biblical texts—his conclusions are often strikingly similar to the “discoveries” of biblical critics seven or eight hundred years later.  Marty has published a 4-volume English annotated translation of Rashbam’s major work and also a 2-volume annotated Hebrew edition.  His interest in biblical interpretation has led him to study Jewish-Christian relations, since Jews and Christians over the ages had both competitive and (at times) cooperative approaches to the study of their sacred Scripture.

Marty has served in the past as Chair of the Division of Humanities and as Director of the Centre for Jewish Studies.  He has taught a wide array of Humanities courses connected to Judaism, or to Judaism and Christianity, and has taught many “text” courses in Hebrew in the Department of Languages, Literature and Linguistics.  Even in lecture courses his favourite kind of teaching involves close reading of texts together with the students.

Outside of the academy Marty is also interested in tradition and innovation. He writes widely in the popular Jewish press about the phenomenon of Jewish “modern Orthodoxy” in North America and Israel.   Marty spends sabbaticals (and as much time as possible when not on sabbatical) doing research in Israel.

Selected Publications:

Rabbi Samuel ben Meir's Commentary on Genesis: An Annotated Translation. Edwin Mellen Press, 1989.

Rashbam's Commentary on Exodus: An Annotated Translation. Society of Biblical Literature, 1997.

Rashbam’s Commentary on Leviticus and Number: An Annotated Translation. Society of Biblical Literature, 2001.

Rashbam’s Commentary on Deuteronomy: An Annotated Translation. Society of Biblical Literature, 2004

Rashbam's Commentary on the Torah (Hebrew; 2 volumes; Jerusalem, 2009)

"Translation as Polemic: The Case of Toledot Yeshu. In Minhah le-Nahum (The Nahum Sarna Festschrift). Edited by M. Brettler and M. Fishbane. Sheffield Press, 1993, pp. 226-292.

"Truth or Peshat: Issues in Law and Exegesis." In Law Politics and Society in The Ancient Mediterranean World. Edited by B. Halpern and D. Hobson. Sheffield Press, 1993, pp. 271-279.

"Tradition or Context: Two Exegetes Struggle with Peshat." In From Ancient Judaism to Modern Israel. Edited by J. Neusner and E. Frierichs. Volume 3 (Atlanta, 1989), pp. 173-186.

"Judaism: The Rabbinic Era." In Civilizations: A Cultural Atlas. Edited by A. Haberman. Toronto: Gage Publishing,1994, pp. 42-47.

"The Connection Between Rabbi Samuel ben Meir's Torah Commentary and Midrash Sekhel Tov" [Heb.]. In Proceedings of the Eleventh World Congress of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem, 1994) Division A, Hebrew Section, pp. 135-142.

"Zeev Falk's Attitude to Halakhah." The Reconstructionist vol. 54, no. 3 (1988): 25-28.