Five Cities of Refuge: Weekly Reflections on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy Book

This collection of dual-meditations / commentaries on key passages from the Torah offers lots of rabbinic insights, old and new, from Kushner (a scholar, author, and rabbi) and then more of a layperson's perspective on the text from Mamet (a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright). Most of their reflections offer a deep wrangling and wrestling with the meaning of the text and its application. Some of the reflections seemed tangential and didn't seem to actually offer any engagement with the chosen text for the day. Overall, I enjoyed these reflections. They may be a bit scholarly in some aspects, but on the whole this book offers a companion to keep on hand when reading the Torah. In it, you will find many points of reflection for your own personal wrestling with the first five books of the Bible.
The word TORAH comes from the verbal root YAH-RAH, which means literally to "toss, throw" and that is what rabbis do. They "toss out" and "throw" their teaching to their pupils. Those who "hear" the word then "catch" what is being "tossed" their way. To not heed the teachings of the Torah is thus, metaphorically speaking, to "drop" or "let fall to the ground" these important teachings, commandments, narrative stories, etc.