Texts Bar/t Mitzvah Students Need To Own
(each sibling should own her/his own):
General recommendation: Do not save pennies by buying small size books.
Use regular print texts for ease of use and seeing.

We use the first five texts at our services. Check them out the next time you are there.
Recommended versions (in the order that most students prefer):

"The Kaplan"      The Living Torah, by Aryeh Kaplan (Hebrew—English version)

Modern informal translation, with many pictures, charts and tables, and very short comments. No commentary on the Haftarot, but the three companion volumes of the Living Nach (Prophets and Writings), have extensive commentary on the rest of the TaNaKh.

"The Stone"       The Stone Chumash, by Nosson Scherman

Modern traditional translation (uses haShem instead of Lord), with charts and tables, and moderate length issue-driven comments. Short sermonic comments on the Haftarah.

"Etz Chayim"       Modern Conservative version

Jewish Publication Society (JPS) 1960 translation with short explanatory comments and a second commentary on modern Jewish practices derived from the text. Detailed Haftarah comments. Few charts or illustrations or tables. Most parents like this one.

"The Plaut"        The Torah, A Modern Commentary, and TheHaftarah Commentary, by Gunther Plaut.

Modern Reform commentary with short explanatory comments and extensive pre and post section essays on the text and tradtions. The 1960 JPS text has been made gender-inclusive when speaking of "The Eternal," which is what it calls G0d's Name.

"The Hertz" Pentateuch with Haftorahs, by J. H. Hertz

1917 JPS translation. Old English text is off-putting, but the commentary is very good and introductory, if somewhat sermonic at times. Detailed Haftarah comments.

The "Artscroll Tikkun"

You will need to buy a Tikkun anyway (see below), and this version has English translation with commentary, and extra informative materials. It's a two-fer! The translation is similar to "The Stone."

Recommended Texts:

Jewish Study Bible , Oxford Press (English only), 2004.

This book has wonderful commentaries and introductions to all the books of the Bible. It is part of the Oxford Bible series, but uses the 1960-82 Jewish Publication Society translation. (Note: the Hebrew is not included. If you buy this one, get the Hebrew text, with English, inexpensively, by either purchasing the Jerusalem Bible, or the JPS Hebrew/English.

The Stone TaNaKh.

This has a small commentary all the way through. Limitation: the translation of the Song of Songs is allegorical, with the "literal" translation in the commentary. So buy another version of the Song of Songs. This text also shows where the Haftarot begin and end within the context of the Books of the TaNaKh, and has a wonderful index in the back to many topics. It also has a section of charts and tables.

Jerusalem Bible (Jewish version—watch out for the Catholic Jerusalem Bible!

You will not make that mistake if you buy at our local Jewish bookstore.). No commentary. No charts or tables. No index. Translation is old style and formal, but it uses transliterations of Hebrew for all personal and place names (e.g.: Moshe for Moses, Yerushalayim for Jerusalem, with an index in the back of all such names and how they usually are spelled in English.). Small and portable.

JPS (Jewish Publication Society) Hebrew-English TaNaKh.

Does show where the Torah portions begin, and has a chart of Haftarah and other special readings, but it has no commentary. No charts or tables. No index. No indication of Haftarot in the Books of the Prophets as does the Stone TaNaKh.

Living Nach In 3 Volumes.

If you liked Aryeh Kaplan's The Living Torah, you may like this continuation of it as well. Nach is an acronym for the Prophets (N'vi'im) and Writings (C'tuvim). Together with the Living Torah, you have the whole TaNaKh in 4 volumes. Not easy to tote, but there is a wealth of traditional commentary in these books. Rabbi Kaplan died before he could complete the whole Bible, but his students did the job for him in his style. Available only in English. Supplement with the Hebrew text as you would for the Jewish Study Bible.

Tikkun means preparation or reparation, so TikkunOlam means repairing the world, while Tikkunl'Kor'im means a preparation for readers of Torah. There is also a Tikkun Sofrim, a book for scribes to prepare to write a Torah.

The Tikkun you will buy is designed to help a reader prepare to read the Torah. On one side of the page the Hebrew has all the vowels, consonant dots, and trope signs, as we see it in books. The other side of the page has only the consonants just like the Torah scroll from which we will read. Your child will need this to prepare not only her/his bar/t mitzvah service portions, but future Torah portions as well.

Here are the issues to consider, besides the price, when purchasing a Tikkun. The comparison table lays these all out.

1. Whether the chapter and verse numbers, and the page numbers, are in Arabic numerals or in Hebrew letters used as numbers. Arabic numerals are easier to use.
2. Whether the Torah scroll side is typeset, with the "Book Side" facing the "Torah Scroll" side to make finding one's place easy. The oldest Tikkunim had photocopies of a Torah scroll, making them look exactly like the Torah. But the "Book" side did not line up exactly, word for word, line by line, with the Torah side, meaning you sometimes had to search a while to find the words you were looking for. The new Tikkunim have typeset Torah sides matching the Book sides, line by line, word for word. But the type fonts used for the Torah side do not look as much like the hand calligraphy of Torah scrolls.
3. Distinctive Kamatz Katan. There is one vowel sign, the kamatz, that has two pronunciations, depending on the grammar of the situation. Here is Genesis 2:1:

   vay'chulu haShamayim v'haAretz, v'chol tz'va'am. Normally the vowel in bold would be an ah, but here it is an oh.

   Some Tikkunim and newer prayerbooks make the Kamatz Katan (small! Kamatz, pronounced oh) larger(!) or disconnected distinguish them.

4. Tikkunim also have the texts of the Haftarot and Megillot in the back. Some have verse numbers, some don't. As you will also be purchasing a TaNaKh, which also has these in it, and from which we can read those books, this is not too important.