The ''Schottenstein Edition of the Babylonian Talmud'' is a 20th-century, 73-volume edition 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 ...

(Talmud Bavli) featuring an elucidated translation and commentary, and published by

ArtScroll ArtScroll is an imprint of translations, books and commentaries from an Orthodox Jewish perspective published by Mesorah Publications, Ltd., a publishing company based in Rahway, New Jersey. Rabbi Nosson Scherman is the general editor. ArtScro ...

, a division of

Mesorah Publications ArtScroll is an imprint of translations, books and commentaries from an Orthodox Jewish perspective published by Mesorah Publications, Ltd., a publishing company based in Rahway, New Jersey. Rabbi Nosson Scherman is the general editor. ArtScr ...

. It is the first Orthodox non-academic English translation of the Babylonian Talmud since the Soncino Edition. It has gained much popularity since its release and is used in many congregations throughout the English-speaking world; it is now published in three languages:

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

, and

Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew (, or ), also known as Israeli Hebrew or simply Hebrew, is the Standard language, standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. It is the only surviving Canaanite language, as well as one of the List of languages by first w ...

. Rabbis Chaim Malinowitz and Yisroel Simchah Schorr are the general editors of the project. Nothing was considered final until Malinowitz approved the finished drafts.

History

The first volume, Tractate Makkos, was published in 1990, and dedicated by Mr. and Mrs. Marcos Katz. Subsequent editions were produced with the financial assistance of

Jerome Schottenstein Jerome Meyer Schottenstein (; March 5, 1926 – March 10, 1992) was an American entrepreneur and philanthropist, co-founder of Schottenstein Stores Corp. Biography Jerome Schottenstein was born to a Jewish family, the son of Ephrayim Schottenst ...

, an

Orthodox Jew Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tran ...

and founder of an

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

department store. The total cost of the project was $40 million (including the Hebrew edition); some sources estimate the cost of production for each volume to be $250,000. The publication of all 73 volumes took 15 years, ending with the publication of the final volume of tractate

Yevamot Yevamot (, "Brother's Widow", also pronounced Yevamos, or Yavmus) is a tractate of the Talmud that deals with, among other concepts, the laws of Yibbum (, loosely translated in English as levirate marriage), and, briefly, with conversion to Jud ...

. In 2020,

Agudath Israel of America Agudath Israel of America (; also called the Agudah) is an American organization that represents Haredi Judaism, Haredi Orthodox Jews. It is loosely affiliated with the international World Agudath Israel. Agudah seeks to meet the needs of the Har ...

credited the Schottenstein Edition for a large rise in the number of English-speaking individuals becoming involved in the seven-year-long

daf yomi ''Daf Yomi'' (, ''Daf Yomi'', "page of the day" or "daily folio") is a daily regimen of learning the Oral Torah and its commentaries (also known as the Gemara), in which each of the 2,711 pages of the Babylonian Talmud is covered in sequence. A ' ...

cycle and their participation at the 13th

Siyum HaShas Siyum HaShas (, lit. "completion of the Six Orders f the Talmud) is a celebration of the completion of the Daf Yomi (daily Talmud folio) program, a roughly seven-and-a-half-year cycle of learning the Oral Torah and its commentaries, in which ea ...

, which marked the completion of the full learning sequence.Hundreds of Thousands Celebrate 13th Siyum HaShas

, January 2, 2020. Accessed August 8, 2024. "The Talmud is written largely in Aramaic, and thus a translation of the Talmud, specifically the popular ArtScroll Schottenstein Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, an English-language and Hebrew-language translation and elucidation, has been credited with significantly increasing the number of participants in the Daf Yomi program."

Structure

Each page of the Hebrew/Aramaic text is in the style of the traditional

Vilna Edition Shas The Vilna Edition of the Talmud, printed in Vilna (now Vilnius), Lithuania, is by far the most common printed edition of the Talmud still in use today as the basic text for Torah study in yeshivas and by all scholars of Judaism. It was typeset b ...

, with various classical commentaries (such as

Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki (; ; ; 13 July 1105) was a French rabbi who authored comprehensive commentaries on the Talmud and Hebrew Bible. He is commonly known by the List of rabbis known by acronyms, Rabbinic acronym Rashi (). Born in Troyes, Rashi stud ...

) surrounding the text of the

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

and

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 ...

. Each Hebrew page is opposite a page of English translation—one Hebrew

folio The term "folio" () has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging Paper size, sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for ...

takes approximately six to eight pages of English to translate. The literal meaning of the text is shown in bold, while supplementary words and phrases that ease the quick transition of topics are shown in regular font. The English-language commentary is primarily based on Rashi's, and describes his continuing importance as follows: The editors explained further that they chose

Ran RAN may refer to: * Radio access network, a part of a mobile telecommunication system * Rainforest Action Network * Ran (gene) (RAs-related Nuclear protein), also known as GTP-binding nuclear protein Ran, a protein that in humans is encoded by t ...

's commentary for Tractate Nedarim as an exception, based on a belief that the commentary attributed to Rashi for this tractate was not written by Rashi.

References

External links

Artscroll's website
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110130095248/http://judaism.about.com/od/torahtalmud/a/talmud_schotty.htm , date=2011-01-30 Talmud versions and translations Translations into English Sifrei Kodesh

History

Structure

See also

References

External links