Em LaMikra is a 19th-century Torah commentary by Rabbi Elijah Benamozegh. Its analysis relies on academic scholarship - incorporating philology, archeology, and history - while defending traditional rabbinic biblical interpretation against the critiques of biblical criticism. Soon after the work was published, it elicited fierce debate among several Jewish communities. Rabbis of Aleppo ordered that copies of the Pentateuch in which Benamozegh’s commentary had been printed be burned, arguing that the academic nature of the work, comparisons of the practices of the Israelites with those of other near-eastern religions, and quotations from Karaite commentaries and the New Testament all rendered the commentary a work of heresy. While some Jewish communities, like that of Damascus, adhered and burned Benamozegh’s commentary, others refused to do so, and yet others came to Benamozegh’s defense.
