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Huge News: Talmud Published Online in English and Hebrew

Sherman123

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This is gigantic news, it's been a dream for decades. We only had the publication of the printed Artscroll translation within the past twenty years, and that was groundbreaking. But it's only really accessible if you go to your local Shul or have $3,500 lying around. Putting this online is a colossal achievement and will be marked in Jewish history forever: thats how big a deal this is. It was a labor that took decades, and culminated... yesterday!

To put this in perspective I'll borrow from Einstein:

The scientific organization and comprehensive exposition in accessible form of the Talmud has a twofold importance for us Jews. It is important in the first place that the high cultural values of the Talmud should not be lost to modern minds among the Jewish people nor to science, but should operate further as a living force. In the second place, the Talmud must be made an open book to the world, in order to cut the ground from under certain malevolent attacks, of anti-Semitic origin, which borrow countenance from the obscurity and inaccessibility of certain passages in the Talmud.

To support this cultural work would thus mean a tremendous achievement for the Jewish people.

I'm really excited. Up to now my only means of studying Talmud has been with some tractates that have been translated and put online, and more realistically studying from the printed edition with my Rabbi or at our library.

Moreover, this isn't just a PDF scan of the Talmud. It was a laborious word by word re-translation, interlinked to the other books of the Tanakh, the Zohar, the Midrash itself, and major commentaries through the ages. This is as close as you can get of the foundational corpus of Jewish thought at your fingertips.

Very exciting!

https://blog.sefaria.org/2017/02/07/setting-the-talmud-free/
With full Talmud translation, online library hopes to make sages accessible | Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Leading Talmud translation goes free online with Sefaria | The Jewish Standard
 
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If you've ever had a Talmud question now it can be answered! I know I've gotten questions from quite a few Christians over the years, and this will make answering them much easier. Though the risk is that it also makes quote mining and cherry picking easier...
 
As huge an undertaking as it is, I'm still surprised it took this long.
 
As huge an undertaking as it is, I'm still surprised it took this long.

The Talmud is colossal, and since to us it's the Torah it has to be painstakingly translated. Imagine if the King James Bible was 3,000 pages long! We know how fraught translations were for the Vulgate and KJV, now multiply ten-fold. Because then imagine you had to provide proper commentary for those 3,000 pages in addition to whats on the page, not to mention cross-citing it with the appropriate biblical texts and exegesis so that it can be used as intended. Then factor in all of the disputes, issues, and problems that arise in a linguistic and interpretive sense when bringing things from Hebrew and Aramaic to English.
 
That's pretty amazing. I had no idea the Gemara was so extensive. It even has the Hebrew interlaced with the english
 
The Talmud is colossal, and since to us it's the Torah it has to be painstakingly translated. Imagine if the King James Bible was 3,000 pages long! We know how fraught translations were for the Vulgate and KJV, now multiply ten-fold. Because then imagine you had to provide proper commentary for those 3,000 pages in addition to whats on the page, not to mention cross-citing it with the appropriate biblical texts and exegesis so that it can be used as intended. Then factor in all of the disputes, issues, and problems that arise in a linguistic and interpretive sense when bringing things from Hebrew and Aramaic to English.

And let the professional fault-finding begin, sigh...although if there are little issues, they do need to be corrected.
 
This is gigantic news, it's been a dream for decades. We only had the publication of the printed Artscroll translation within the past twenty years, and that was groundbreaking. But it's only really accessible if you go to your local Shul or have $3,500 lying around. Putting this online is a colossal achievement and will be marked in Jewish history forever: thats how big a deal this is. It was a labor that took decades, and culminated... yesterday!

To put this in perspective I'll borrow from Einstein:



I'm really excited. Up to now my only means of studying Talmud has been with some tractates that have been translated and put online, and more realistically studying from the printed edition with my Rabbi or at our library.

Moreover, this isn't just a PDF scan of the Talmud. It was a laborious word by word re-translation, interlinked to the other books of the Tanakh, the Zohar, the Midrash itself, and major commentaries through the ages. This is as close as you can get of the foundational corpus of Jewish thought at your fingertips.

Very exciting!

https://blog.sefaria.org/2017/02/07/setting-the-talmud-free/
With full Talmud translation, online library hopes to make sages accessible | Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Leading Talmud translation goes free online with Sefaria | The Jewish Standard

Sounds like good news. Do an example for me please.

I want to look up the English text of Tractate Sanhedrin 43a . Which link do I use and once I get in the link where in the link do I go and what do I click on? Thanks.
 
Sounds like good news. Do an example for me please.

I want to look up the English text of Tractate Sanhedrin 43a . Which link do I use and once I get in the link where in the link do I go and what do I click on? Thanks.

It's very easy! And yes, this is the portion that many scholars think refers to the trial and execution of Jesus. However, there are many other interpretations if you're interested.

Sefaria: a Living Library of Jewish Texts Online
 
Thanks, but once I clink on the link it's in Hebrew. I couldn't get it in English. What do I click on?

Scroll down to see the translation. The Hebrew is always first, it's a full page length down. There are also two separate topics being discussed in the tractate, so move past the first Hebrew and English pairing and go to the second.
 
Scroll down to see the translation. The Hebrew is always first, it's a full page length down. There are also two separate topics being discussed in the tractate, so move past the first Hebrew and English pairing and go to the second.

OK, I see it. Super, thanks!
 
This is gigantic news, it's been a dream for decades. We only had the publication of the printed Artscroll translation within the past twenty years, and that was groundbreaking. But it's only really accessible if you go to your local Shul or have $3,500 lying around. Putting this online is a colossal achievement and will be marked in Jewish history forever: thats how big a deal this is. It was a labor that took decades, and culminated... yesterday!

To put this in perspective I'll borrow from Einstein:



I'm really excited. Up to now my only means of studying Talmud has been with some tractates that have been translated and put online, and more realistically studying from the printed edition with my Rabbi or at our library.

Moreover, this isn't just a PDF scan of the Talmud. It was a laborious word by word re-translation, interlinked to the other books of the Tanakh, the Zohar, the Midrash itself, and major commentaries through the ages. This is as close as you can get of the foundational corpus of Jewish thought at your fingertips.

Very exciting!

https://blog.sefaria.org/2017/02/07/setting-the-talmud-free/
With full Talmud translation, online library hopes to make sages accessible | Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Leading Talmud translation goes free online with Sefaria | The Jewish Standard

Ok, a few questions, then:

1. Is this a predominately Jewish production? I know at times when there's a Christian publication, skeptics sluff them off automatically by saying, "It's bogus - typical Christian revisionism." And that without research to whether it is accurate or not.

2. Has this been peer-reviewed by Hebrew scholars that may not be of the Jewish faith? There's a lot of legitimate Hebrew / English scholars who have interpreted Hebrew into contemporary English text Bibles, etc. I wonder if they will be on board with these writings.

3. Already, there are different interpretations. For instance, in your Sefaria site, the final part of Jeremiah 23:5-6 reads, "And this is the name by which he shall be called: “The LORD is our Vindicator.” Whereas in the JPS Jewish Bible it reads, "...and this is his name whereby he shall be called, HaShem is our righteousness."

So I suspect there will be a lot written about the veracity of the Sefaria translations, but I'm glad it will be available regardless.
 
Ok, a few questions, then:

1. Is this a predominately Jewish production? I know at times when there's a Christian publication, skeptics sluff them off automatically by saying, "It's bogus - typical Christian revisionism." And that without research to whether it is accurate or not.

2. Has this been peer-reviewed by Hebrew scholars that may not be of the Jewish faith? There's a lot of legitimate Hebrew / English scholars who have interpreted Hebrew into contemporary English text Bibles, etc. I wonder if they will be on board with these writings.

3. Already, there are different interpretations. For instance, in your Sefaria site, the final part of Jeremiah 23:5-6 reads, "And this is the name by which he shall be called: “The LORD is our Vindicator.” Whereas in the JPS Jewish Bible it reads, "...and this is his name whereby he shall be called, HaShem is our righteousness."

So I suspect there will be a lot written about the veracity of the Sefaria translations, but I'm glad it will be available regardless.



That depends on which JPS version you use. The early one (1917) was based on the KJV, and had many more inaccuracies. The JPS 1985 version has Vindicator. I am not sure which translation the 1955 version has.
 
Ok, a few questions, then:

1. Is this a predominately Jewish production? I know at times when there's a Christian publication, skeptics sluff them off automatically by saying, "It's bogus - typical Christian revisionism." And that without research to whether it is accurate or not.

2. Has this been peer-reviewed by Hebrew scholars that may not be of the Jewish faith? There's a lot of legitimate Hebrew / English scholars who have interpreted Hebrew into contemporary English text Bibles, etc. I wonder if they will be on board with these writings.

3. Already, there are different interpretations. For instance, in your Sefaria site, the final part of Jeremiah 23:5-6 reads, "And this is the name by which he shall be called: “The LORD is our Vindicator.” Whereas in the JPS Jewish Bible it reads, "...and this is his name whereby he shall be called, HaShem is our righteousness."

So I suspect there will be a lot written about the veracity of the Sefaria translations, but I'm glad it will be available regardless.

1. Yes, it is a Jewish production. It was a major effort supported by Jewish philanthropists to bring forth Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's translation to a digital form. R'Steinsaltz has a legendary reputation within the Jewish community, but yes, there will probably be disagreement over choices in translation. For example, there are critical comparisons between the Artscroll and Sefaria versions.

2. It was probably kept within the Jewish community, though I'm sure R' Steinsaltz had collaborators he trusted.

3. Yes, there are going to be differences in translation choices, but it's worth noting that the JPS Bible is not really used in Orthodox Congregations but is used for Orthodox study. There you usually get the Artscroll translation, or a Chabad Chumash. Conversely, I think the most common recommendation I've seen among Orthodox scholars has been Aryeh Kaplans Living Torah.
 
That depends on which JPS version you use. The early one (1917) was based on the KJV, and had many more inaccuracies. The JPS 1985 version has Vindicator. I am not sure which translation the 1955 version has.

Yep. The 1917 has a lot of deference to traditional Christian/English interpretations and suffers inaccuracies because of it. My understanding is that the nJPS is much, much better.
 
This is gigantic news, it's been a dream for decades. We only had the publication of the printed Artscroll translation within the past twenty years, and that was groundbreaking. But it's only really accessible if you go to your local Shul or have $3,500 lying around. Putting this online is a colossal achievement and will be marked in Jewish history forever: thats how big a deal this is. It was a labor that took decades, and culminated... yesterday!

To put this in perspective I'll borrow from Einstein:



I'm really excited. Up to now my only means of studying Talmud has been with some tractates that have been translated and put online, and more realistically studying from the printed edition with my Rabbi or at our library.

Moreover, this isn't just a PDF scan of the Talmud. It was a laborious word by word re-translation, interlinked to the other books of the Tanakh, the Zohar, the Midrash itself, and major commentaries through the ages. This is as close as you can get of the foundational corpus of Jewish thought at your fingertips.

Very exciting!

https://blog.sefaria.org/2017/02/07/setting-the-talmud-free/
With full Talmud translation, online library hopes to make sages accessible | Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Leading Talmud translation goes free online with Sefaria | The Jewish Standard

Thanks for this post with the links. I will definitely use them.

Thanks again!
 
This is fantastic. I have several books on the Talmud, but to have it all in one place. I've been hoping that this would come to fruition soon.
 
Enjoy! I'm already trying to plan out some tracts to study with my chevrusa. =)
 
Ok, a few questions, then:

1. Is this a predominately Jewish production? I know at times when there's a Christian publication, skeptics sluff them off automatically by saying, "It's bogus - typical Christian revisionism." And that without research to whether it is accurate or not.

2. Has this been peer-reviewed by Hebrew scholars that may not be of the Jewish faith? There's a lot of legitimate Hebrew / English scholars who have interpreted Hebrew into contemporary English text Bibles, etc. I wonder if they will be on board with these writings.

3. Already, there are different interpretations. For instance, in your Sefaria site, the final part of Jeremiah 23:5-6 reads, "And this is the name by which he shall be called: “The LORD is our Vindicator.” Whereas in the JPS Jewish Bible it reads, "...and this is his name whereby he shall be called, HaShem is our righteousness."

So I suspect there will be a lot written about the veracity of the Sefaria translations, but I'm glad it will be available regardless.

It's written by Jews for Jews and about the Jewish faith. Why in the world would you ever want a non-Jewish translation? and why would anyone who isn't Jewish ever be interested in creating one?
 
It's written by Jews for Jews and about the Jewish faith. Why in the world would you ever want a non-Jewish translation? and why would anyone who isn't Jewish ever be interested in creating one?

Presumably for proselytizing? It's always been one of the concerns about making translations widely available. That people would begin to cherry pick excerpts of the Talmud to service proselytization efforts. Because of the voluminous nature of the Talmud there are thousands upon thousands of pages to draw from.
 
Presumably for proselytizing? It's always been one of the concerns about making translations widely available. That people would begin to cherry pick excerpts of the Talmud to service proselytization efforts. Because of the voluminous nature of the Talmud there are thousands upon thousands of pages to draw from.

They already do that to a large extent, they just had someone else do the cherry picking (Dr Michael Brown for one). However, NOW people can actually be pointed to context. Most people aren't aware that the Talmud is actually a discusison between rabbi's.. Sort of a serious 4th century religious debate forum without flaming, where they gave different opinions on what does the law mean in their time.
 
Presumably for proselytizing? It's always been one of the concerns about making translations widely available. That people would begin to cherry pick excerpts of the Talmud to service proselytization efforts. Because of the voluminous nature of the Talmud there are thousands upon thousands of pages to draw from.

I'm not talking about the language (there is no language called "Jewish"). I'm talking about the people who translated it. Why would anyone want a Talmud translated by non-Jews and why would anyone who isn't Jewish have an interest in creating a non-Jewish translation?
 
I offer my agnostic congratulations on a great job well done. I think God made a good choice when he chose the Jews.

Well thank you very much. Though, I'm a little confused by the thoughts on God in the latter sentence, and the agnostic comment in the former, lol.
 
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