9780827615106 Judaism and Its Bible: A People and Their Book, published by University of Nebraska

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Psalm 91, which came to be called "a song of affliction," was so popular that even Rabbi Joshua ben Levi...allowed it to be used for healing despite his belief that "one may not be healed with biblical verses."

This is false. R' Joshua ben Levi only permitted using Psalm 91 for protection, not for healing.

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For many Jews the Bible is a powerful object. This idea underlies the Mishnah's claim that holy writings "defile the hands," a notion that paradoxically reflects their special sanctity.

The rabbinic decree that sacred scrolls defile hands has nothing to do with the superstitious belief in 'powerful objects.' The real reason is the one given by Rav Mesharshiya -  that people were storing their sacred scrolls together with their priestly food and this was damaging the scrolls. To address this problem, the rabbis enacted uncleanness from the scrolls so people would stop keeping their scrolls together with food (b. Shabbat 14a).

Page 6: V'nitzchazek should be V'nitchazek

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The Mishnah prohibits the reading of some prophetic passages such as Ezekiel's vivid portrayal of the female Jerusalem (Ezek. 16)

This is misleading. 'The Mishnah prohibits' sounds like a ruling from the anonymous Mishnah, but in fact this is the ruling of Eliezer ben Hurcanus quoted by the Mishnah and not the Mishnah's own ruling.

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The book of Chronicles, which draws heavily on Samuel and Kings, reflects changes in the Hebrew language as its author replaced older words, such as mamlakha...and gufah...with their later equivalents, malkhut and geviyah.

In fact, geviyah does appear in Samuel - Sam 1.31.10; 1.31.12 and in other books generally considered older than Chronicles such as Genesis, Judges, Nahum and Ezekiel so it should not be automatically considered a late word in Hebrew.

Page 164, note 73: Herman should be Hermann

Page 165, note 6: Justin should be Justinian

Page 261: Herman should be Hermann

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Nor did Elijah avoid the carrion brought by ravens (1 Kings 17:6)

Kings does not say that the ravens brought carrion. It says they brought him לחם ובשר - bread and meat. Just like bread is prepared by humans, the meat intended here is also meat prepared by humans.

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No less an authority than Maimonides taught that all the non-pentateuchal books except for Esther would be revoked in the Messianic Age.

This is not a teaching specific to Maimonides. He simply repeated what had been said long before him by Johanan bar Nappaha and Shimon ben Lakish apud j. Meg. 1.5.

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Natronai, who headed the rabbinic academy in Sura in the tenth century, pointed out that this attitude had led Ashkenazi Jews to abandon the Bible.

Natronai says nothing at all about Ashkenazi Jews in the indicated responsum. Ashkenazi Jews barely existed in his time so it would have been quite noteworthy had he commented on them. Also, tenth century should be ninth century.

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The Talmud itself mentions Egyptian, Median, Aramaic, Elamite, and Iberian renderings.

The Talmud does discuss Aramaic and Greek translations of scripture, but the other languages are discussed in a theoretical vein - if a reader recites Esther in a foreign version, is the obligation to commemorate the history of Purim fulfilled or not. Also, there is no reference in the Talmud to 'Iberian.'

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This has come to be attributed to "Onkelos," most likely because of a misunderstanding of a talmudic passage that actually refers to Aquila's Greek rendering.

The Talmud (b. Meg. 3a) attributes the Pentateuch Targum to Onkelos. The ensuing discussion there makes it clear that an Aramaic rendering is intended in accordance with typical Talmudic usage of the word 'Targum.' Thus, the attribution of the Pentateuch Targum to Onkelos comes from the Talmud and not from a misunderstanding of the Talmud.

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The eighteenth-century Lithuanian scholar Elijah ben Solomon (the Vilna Gaon) owned a copy of Mendelssohn's rendering of the book of Proverbs.

This is obviously untrue because Mendelssohn never translated Proverbs. Elijah mentions having a copy of Proverbs בלשון אשכנז, but this refers to a Yiddish version rather than a German one.

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At the same time, as the State of Israel's Declaration of Independence notes, Jews are proud that they "wrote and gave the Bible to the world" even as they resent the fact that translations of it enabled others to "say that they are Israel."

The quote "say that they are Israel" does not appear in Israel's declaration of independence.

Page 166, note 19: J. Horayot 3:7 should be J. Horayot 3:5
Page 189, note 1: M. Megillah 2:9 should be B. Megillah 18a
Page 202, note 2: 159 should be 125