The people’s Talmud: Synagogues celebrate new translation of essential Jewish text

It wasn't exactly a Bill Clinton book-signing melee, but for the 100 people gathered at Oakland's Beth Jacob Congregation last month, it was a much more significant event. They came to celebrate the publication of a definitive English language translation of the Babylonian Talmud.

The 73-volume Schottenstein Talmud from ArtScroll/Mesorah Heritage Foundation took years to complete, and the final volume actually doesn't go to press until March. But the publishers aren't waiting to get this party started. Mesorah has launched what it calls a "year of learning and celebration," which included the Oakland event.

"The Talmud is the lifeblood of Am Yisrael [the Jewish people]," said Rabbi Yair Silverman of Berkeley's Congregation Beth Israel. "There have been many attempts to translate it, but this edition preserves the nuances."

Silverman was one of several featured speakers at the event. One of the others was Rabbi Nesanel Kasnett, senior editor of the Schottenstein Talmud. The New York-based scholar gave a detailed account of how he and his team went about their work.

"The writing has to be precise," he said as he demonstrated with a series of printouts how a particular passage made its painstaking way from first draft to final product. It felt more like a Talmud lesson than a public lecture, but that only seemed to add to the experience.

That Mesorah came to Beth Jacob is no coincidence. A few years ago, former Beth Jacob Rabbi Howard Zack relocated to Columbus, Ohio, the same hometown of Jay Schottenstein, benefactor of the new ArtScroll Talmud. The two are good friends, and Zack served as a "cheerleader" for the project from the get-go.

Beth Jacob's current rabbi, Judah Dardik, spoke to the gathering, recalling his yeshiva days working with less-than-ideal editions of Talmud. The new version, he said, "is the great equalizer. It opens the Talmud for anyone who cares to read it."

After Beth Jacob congregants Hila and Yitz Applebaum were honored for their support of the Schottenstein Talmud project, Rabbi Moshe Talansky of the foundation gave a barnburner of a speech about the beauty of Talmud.

"You know who your study partner is when you study Talmud?" he asked the crowd. "God himself."

Talansky concluded his remarks with a low-key pitch for financial support to sponsor upcoming ArtScroll volumes. Later, Beth Jacob's Dardik explained that he had been initially hesitant to introduce a fund-raising element to the event.

"When I first got the call," recalled Dardik, "I said that there are many causes pulling on people's pursestrings. I asked if this was a fund-raiser, and they said no, though it was true they hoped people would support their projects. I asked if there was going to be pressure, and was told 'No.'"

The sales pitch did not seem to dampen the enthusiasm of those in attendance. Following the event, Brian Kaye of Piedmont, a 12-year veteran of the Beth Jacob Talmud study group, was elated.

"I was very interested to learn how they rendered the Talmud translation," he said. "It was very exciting to see the real people who did it, to put a human face on it."

Added Deborah Sosebee of Oakland, another study group veteran, "Highlighting the connection from ancient times to the present time was very meaningful. It's mind-boggling how they do it, making Talmud accessible to me, and I'm not a scholar!"