Rabbi Dr. David Zvi Hoffmann, a prominent rabbinic figure in Berlin during the late-19th and early 20th centuries, gave a series of lectures at the Rabbinical Seminary of Berlin between 1873 and 1877. The content of these lectures was Torah commentary alongside a focus on responding to arguments of biblical criticism emerging at the time. Over the next several decades, Hoffmann wrote, edited, and revised his lectures and published the first volume, on the book of Leviticus, in German in 1904. The work was subsequently translated into Hebrew and republished in several editions.