Saturday, November 20, 2010

Steinsaltz Talmud covered in NYT

THE STEINSALTZ TALMUD is covered in the New York Times:
Life’s Work Is a Talmud Accessible to All Jews

By ISABEL KERSHNER
Published: November 18, 2010

JERUSALEM — In the 1960s, when a young Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz embarked on the mammoth task of translating the ancient Jewish texts of the Talmud into modern Hebrew and, even more daringly, providing his own commentary alongside those of the classical sages, the state of Israel was still in its teens, there were no home computers, and man had not yet landed on the moon.

The monumental work took 45 years. But this month in his hometown, Jerusalem, Rabbi Steinsaltz, now 73, marked the end of the endeavor, as the last of the 45 volumes of his edition of the Babylonian Talmud, originally completed 1,500 years ago, rolled off the press.

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Background here and here.