by Rab­bi Lawrence A. Hoffman

A fre­quent speak­er at syn­a­gogues and JCCs, Joel M. Hoff­man, Ph.D., authored two books before writ­ing his most recent book, The Bible’s Cut­ting Room Floor (Thomas Dunne Books / St. Martin’s Press), and has col­lab­o­rat­ed with his father, Rab­bi Lawrence A. Hoff­man, on over a dozen oth­er works, includ­ing the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award win­ner My People’s Prayer Book (ten vol­umes, Jew­ish Lights Publishing).

Lawrence A. Hoff­man: Why did you write a book about what didn’t make it into the Bible?

Joel M. Hoff­man: The more I read these ancient texts, the more I fall in love with them. They enlight­en our read­ing of the Bible and offer com­pelling accounts that speak to the human con­di­tion with sur­pris­ing insight.

LAH: For example?

JMH: I espe­cial­ly like the Life of Adam and Eve, a vivid descrip­tion of what hap­pens to the first man and woman after they’re expelled from the Gar­den of Eden. The nar­ra­tive also explores the kind of unex­pect­ed sor­row that every­one faces even­tu­al­ly. I have a whole chap­ter on that.

LAH: What else jumps out at you?

JMH: The sources clar­i­fy so many details about the Bible. The Tow­er of Babel was delib­er­ate­ly water­proofed to with­stand anoth­er flood, for exam­ple, but with­out these texts, the only way you’d know it is if you hap­pen to be an expert in ancient mate­ri­als science.

LAH: If these pas­sages from the cut­ting room floor had become the canon instead of what we have, would west­ern civ­i­liza­tion be different?

JMH: What a fas­ci­nat­ing ques­tion! For one thing, peo­ple would have a dif­fer­ent view of mis­for­tune, which most peo­ple today intu­itive­ly see as a pun­ish­ment. ​“Why me,” they ask when some­thing goes wrong. Or, ​“what did I do to deserve this?” They get that from Deuteron­o­my. But this clas­si­cal notion of reward and pun­ish­ment was only one under­standing of mis­for­tune back then. The texts on the Bible’s cut­ting room floor high­light oth­ers: Suf­fer­ing is sim­ply part of human life, nei­ther deserved nor unde­served. Or peo­ple were not sup­posed to suf­fer at all, but God’s world is slight­ly out of con­trol. If alter­na­tive approach­es like these hadn’t been white­washed from main­stream Judaism and Christi­anity, peo­ple today might have bet­ter tools to under­stand life and cope with its traumas.

LAH: How does this book relate to your trans­la­tion work?

JMH: As I was grow­ing up, you taught me by per­son­al exam­ple to appre­ciate my her­itage and to pur­sue learn­ing. My trans­la­tion work is dri­ven by a desire to use that learn­ing to show peo­ple the orig­i­nal beau­ty of the Bible.This is too.

LAH: You have no idea how proud I am of you as your father. I re­member how you used to help me copy-edit my books when you were young. Now you’re writ­ing your own. It’s a joy to see.

JMH: That’s not a question.

LAH: No, it’s not. I get to do that. I’m your father.

JMH: I love you, Dad.

Rab­bi Lawrence A. Hoff­man, Ph.D., is a two-time recip­i­ent of the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award, and has writ­ten or edit­ed more than 40 books, includ­ing over a dozen that include his son. His lat­est such work, All the World (Jew­ish Lights Pub­lish­ing), focus­es on the High Hol­i­day themes of par­tic­u­lar­ism and universalism.

Relat­ed Content:

• Read­ing List: Rab­bi Lawrence A. Hoffman
• How the Bible Became Holy by Michael L Satlow
• The Jew­ish Bible: A JPS Guide