Joseph Herman Hertz's influential Torah commentary, long considered a pillar of Orthodox Judaism, actually emerged from distinctly Conservative Jewish roots during his formative years at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1887-1894). Through extensive analysis of Hertz's writings, correspondence, and Seminary records, a clear intellectual lineage emerges between Hertz and his Conservative mentors Sabato Morais and Alexander Kohut, whose approaches to biblical criticism, Jewish law, and rationalist theology profoundly shaped his worldview. The Pentateuch commentary's leitmotifs mirror his teachers' frameworks, particularly in rejecting Wellhausenian biblical criticism while embracing historical methodology for post-biblical texts, defending Mosaic authorship while acknowledging organic legal development, and favoring rationalist over mystical interpretations. Rather than reflecting Orthodox dogma, Hertz's theological positions align with Zacharias Frankel's positive-historical school, establishing him as a Conservative Jewish thinker whose commentary served dual purposes: providing popular religious instruction while mounting scholarly arguments against Christian supersessionism and Reform Judaism. This research repositions Hertz as a crucial figure in Conservative Jewish intellectual history who successfully bridged European Wissenschaft scholarship with Anglo-American Jewish religious needs.