An atheist reads the Torah

"This is a very different sort of book on the Torah. It approaches the Torah with no awe or reverence, but with a linguist's sensitivity to language and linguistic processes - and a secular humanist's dispassionate curiosity about the central symbol of the Jewish people. The book tells readers exactly what is in the Torah, to the extent that we can determine it. It presents the reader with a clear demarcation between translation and inference - between what the translated text actually says...and what rabbis and other Torah enthusiasts typically say that it says. It questions centuries of Torah (and, by extension, Bible) reverence and proves, with actual Torah citations, that the supposed wisdom of the Torah is mostly the product of 'rabbinical spin' - the process of transforming the simple, ancient (and in many places well-meaning) Torah text into a document of immense profundity and relevance to our times. [...] The purpose of the book is to let readers know what the Torah really says, so that they can decide for themselves what its place should be in their lives"-- Publisher's website.