THE TALMUD IS REBORN 1500 YEARS LATER.

THE TALMUD IS REBORN 1500 YEARS LATER.
A modern translation that moves the jews.

 

 

On November 7th,  worldwide day for the study of judaism, a unique celebration via satelite joined 245 jewish communities from 55 countries to conmemorate a very important moment in jewish history:  the translation into modern hebrew of Babilon's Talmud,  written in arameo 1500 years ago,  and of which the final volume, number 45,  appears in  Jerusalem,  after 45 years of tremendous effort and work-
 
This enterprise belongs to Adin Steinsaltz,  72 year old professor and rabbi,  married to a french woman and grandfather to a dozen grandchildren.  His own father, who emigrated from Poland to Palestine in 1924, had said to him, while sending him on to Jerusalem to study at the home of the owner of a rabbinical seminary in Paris:  "I am not interested in whether you are or will be a believer,  but I do not want an ignorant son in the family. "
 
The Talmud is "the centre point of the jewish civilisation",  says The Guardian.  The essence consists in  an "open message",  which never intended to be the "final word".  Since the first volume,  Steinsaltz was naturally turned away by all fundamentalists.  However this did not stop him.  "Our problem in this day and age",  he said,  "is that of survival,  and without this text,  how are we supposed to survive?".
 
Some would compare him to Rashi,  the greatest analizer of the Talmud,  others such as Time magazine,  to a spirit that you only come across "once every thousand years".  Adin Steinsaltz also creates controversy.  With his cheeky eyes and his traditional pipe,  this elderly rabbi has shown what judaism is still capable of.