Jerusalem – After 4 Decades Steinsaltz Nears Completion

Jerusalem – On November 7, 2010, after 45 years of hard work, Rav Adin Steinsaltz’s enormous undertaking – to render the entire Gemara into simple, modern Hebrew – will reach completion, reports Hebrew website Ynet. Upon finishing Maseches Niddoh and Maseches Chullin, what has been referred to as the largest Jewish project of our time will be complete and the event will be marked around the world with a Global Day of Jewish Learning.

When Rav Steinsaltz began his translation and commentary at the age of 28, he knew he was embarking on something big, but he had no idea how much time and effort he would expend. In an interview with Ynet one year before the scheduled completion, Rav Steinsaltz, 73, says perhaps that was for the best.

“Since I got started at a relatively young age of course I didn’t take into account the enormous effort this required. The work involves not just research and writing, but also numerous logistical problems,” he says. “But sometimes, if a person knows too much, he does nothing.”

The Steinsaltz Edition of the Talmud is a one-man production, though he has received some help in recent years. But in addition to the major four-decade undertaking, the Israel Prize laureate who Time Magazine called “the scholar of the millennium” has published dozens of books, some of which have been translated into English and other languages, and heads Shefa, an umbrella organization for all of the educational programs and institutions he has set up over the years.

“Though the Talmud is not the foundation stone of Judaism it is the main conduit,” Rav Steinsaltz told Ynet. “The entire edifice of Jewish culture is bound up in the Talmud, and any place where the Talmud is lacking it is not only lacking knowledge, but also a central and vital component. In general, it could be said that every Jewish society, which for various reasons has lost Talmudic study, withered in terms of its Jewishness and assimilated socially. Therefore, part of the task of bringing the Talmud back to Am Yisroel was an attempt to solve this problem to a certain extent.”

But Rav Steinsaltz has no shortage of opponents to his approach. Many Litvish rabbonim have even banned the use of his books. Rav Shach zt”l said studying from an elucidated Talmud “has no trace of kedushoh and emunoh,” arguing it would cause the Gemara to be forgotten, chaliloh, and even called for his books to be put in sheimos. Other rabbonim, including Rav Chaim Kanievsky shlita, signed notices calling on the public to oppose the Steinsaltz Edition in “protest that would be heard from one end of the earth to the other.” Israel Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar said these commentaries were meant for baalei tshuvoh who had never learned Gemara, warning bnei yeshiva to avoid easy commentaries and calling their use “mental laziness.”

The Steinsaltz Edition includes vowelization, punctuation and a translation from Aramaic to Hebrew, with the addition of easy explanations. Even the layout differs from the classic Vilna edition for technical reasons.

“Not only does my commentary not bring the Gemara down a level, but to a certain degree even provides an opportunity to delve and advance further,” says Rav Steinsaltz, in defense of his lifelong project. “In the final analysis, my commentary seeks primarily to solve technical problems: linguistic problems, problems of context, problems stemming from the fact that the Talmud is not an ordered book constructed step by step – all of these problems are really problems of entering the Talmud itself, and unfortunately sometimes the traditional approach to learning allocates so much time to overcoming the technical problems to the point where little time remains to study in depth and offer chiddushim.

“True, at a lot of yeshivas there was resistance to the elucidation, but not due to concerns it would prevent creative thinking – to the contrary. I tried to retain as many of the possibilities of the classical commentaries within the elucidation and within a whole set of additions and notes, but of course it’s easier to engage in study that is mostly technical work and does not open up the possibility of devoting more time to creative thinking.”

Some opponents expressed concern it would enable the uninitiated to concoct various unfounded interpretations. “A portion of Talmudic study is largely the freedom the student has to understand and interpret, yet the study itself is so closely tied to the Talmud that it does not allow room for unbounded interpretation. Of course people who have fixed opinions and beliefs of their own will continue to follow their chosen paths, whether they fit the Talmud or deviate from it. But this problem does not hinge on a certain commentary, but rather on differences among people, and there is no better way than through the Talmud to have them hold fast to Jewish beliefs and practices.

“At the time of the formation of the Enlightenment and secularism, the central figures were those who had studied the Talmud through the classical method. Many of the people who went in different and even strange directions had been yeshiva students. Personally, at no point along the way did I feel concerned that my commentary would displace the traditional Gemara. With people much greater than I, who did have such intentions, it turned out that the power of the tradition still remains and the many books that were written became aids to the traditional approach.

“In my case, the more heartwarming responses I receive are from people who came to fully embrace Judaism through this commentary. Oftentimes the other responses are from people who learned in different ways, and if not for my elucidation, they would have stopped learning.”

Now that Rav Steinsaltz has a deadline on the horizon he has begun turning his attention to new endeavors. “I have several other projects that I don’t know exactly how to prioritize. One of them is also a very big undertaking that has to do with the Yerushalmi, and another is publishing the ‘smaller masechtos,’ which have not yet been published with suitable commentary. In general these plans and projects, some of which I’m already engaged in, don’t leave much free time. According to my calculations they might entail another 100 years of work. Afterwards I’m thinking of going into retirement.”