Wednesday, January 26, 2005

MORE ON THE ARTSCROLL TALMUD from Ha'aretz:
A talmudic revolution
By Avi Beker

Most of the Jews in Israel, as well as in the U.S., are probably not aware of the silent but dramatic revolution behind the somewhat laconic announcement by the Mesorah ArtScroll publishing house in Brooklyn. It stated that the 73rd and last volume of the translation of the Babylon Talmud into English, accompanied by commentaries, would be published next month.

Without exaggeration, it can be stated that the Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud (named for the main donor) has caused the most significant revolution in the bookshelves of American and Israeli Talmud scholars in the past century. It has made the Talmud available on a scale that had never been known within or outside the Jewish people. Even in the heyday of the Eastern European yeshivas, before the Holocaust, there were never so many Jews who studied, read and understood the unique language, style and logic of the "Sea of Talmud." Every one of the volumes in the ArtScroll enterprise was published with more than 60,000 copies, and they have been deposited in the libraries of the most prestigious universities in the world.

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