Hyman Klein (1908–1958) was an English scholar of the

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

and translator of

rabbinic literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire corpus of works authored by rabbis throughout Jewish history. The term typically refers to literature from the Talmudic era (70–640 CE), as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic ...

. Klein's major contributions to the study of the Talmud were a series of articles that distinguished between the terse, attributed statements ("

Gemara The Gemara (also transliterated Gemarah, or in Yiddish Gemore) is an essential component of the Talmud, comprising a collection of rabbinical analyses and commentaries on the Mishnah and presented in 63 books. The term is derived from the Aram ...

") of the Talmud, and the anonymous ("Sebara") stratum, the latter of which he considered to be Savoraic.

Biography

Klein was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and attended the Etz Chaim Yeshivah and

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

.Terry R. Bard, "Julius Kaplan, Hyman Klein, and the Saboraic Element," in The Formation of the Babylonian Talmud, ed. Jacob Neusner (Leiden: Brill,1970): 68."Klein, Hyman." ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'', edited by Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, 2nd ed., vol. 12, Macmillan Reference USA, 2007, p. 222 He also served as head of the

Liverpool Talmudical College The Liverpool Talmudical College (Hebrew: ''Yeshiva Torat Chaim'') was a Yeshiva established in 1914 to provide a higher religious education in Liverpool; it was preceded by a Talmud Torah established in c. 1895. It educated some 200 students a ...

. He died in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

Works

Klein's articles made major contributions to the methodology of separating the attributed, terse traditions ("Gemara") and the unattributed traditions ("Sebara"). Klein believed that

Rav Ashi Rav Ashi () ("Rabbi Ashi") (352–427) was a Babylonian Jewish rabbi, of the sixth generation of amoraim. He reestablished the Academy at Sura and was the first editor of the Babylonian Talmud. The original pronunciation of his name may h ...

was responsible for the editing of Gemara, but that Sebara stemmed from the Savoraim.Shamma Yehudah Friedman, “Perek ha-isha rabbah be-bavli, be-tziruf mevo klali al derekh heker ha-sugya,” in Mehkarim u-mekorot, vol. 1 (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1978),293 ebrew/ref> Along with the work of Julius Kaplan and Avraham Weiss, Klein's methodology influenced later scholars, such as Shamma Friedman and David Weiss Halivni.Wald, Stephen G. "Talmud, Babylonian." ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'', edited by Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, 2nd ed., vol. 19, Macmillan Reference USA, 2007, pp. 470-481. "Gemara and Sebara," ''JQR'' 38 (1947), 67–91 “Gemara Quotations in Sebara,”''JQR'' 43 (1953), 341–63; “Some Methods of Sebara,” ''JQR 50'' (1959), 124–46; “Some General Results of the Separation of Gemara from Sebara in the Babylonian Talmud,” ''Journal of Semitic Studies'' 3 (1958), 363–72. Klein also translated tractate '' Nazir'' for the

Soncino Press Soncino Press is a Jewish publishing company based in the United Kingdom that has published a variety of books of Jewish interest, most notably English translations and commentaries to the Talmud and Hebrew Bible. The Soncino Hebrew Bible and Tal ...

References

{{Authority control Talmud translators 1908 births 1958 deaths Alumni of the University of Cambridge English scholars and academics