THE TALMUD

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 21

THE TALMUD

A GREAT UNDERTAKING

COMPLETE TRANSLATION

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, March 31. Arrangements have been made by the "Sonciuo Press" for a. complete version in English of the Jewish code of law and. commentary kuown aa the Babylonian Talmud. A more or less exact sunmiiry of its contents has in recent' years appeared on both sides of the Atlantic, but up to now there has been no complete and unabridged translation, giving the Talmud in a form useful to scholars, comparing the translation with the original text, and readable to students unaccustomed to the somewhat difficult expression of Rabbinic thought. The English version will occupy twenty-five volumes, to appear in successive sets between the spring of 1934 and 1937. The sixty-three tractates of which the Talmud is composed will be translated by over twenty different Eabbinic scholars in this_ country, under the general editorship of Rabbi Dr. Isidore Epstein, Lecturer in Semitic Languages at Jews' College, the theological training centre of Jewish ministers in London. The Chief Rabbi, the Very Rev. Dr. J. H. Hertz, is sponsoring the book with a forewood, and while each translator will be responsible for the introduction and commentary upon his tractate, as well as the actual translation, it is hoped to keep the whole in a uuiform literary shape through tho activities of a special committee supervising the level of the translation. In an interview with the "Observer" representative, Mr. J. Davidson, a director of the "Sineino Press," described the scope of the translation. "The Talmud," he said, "is not strictly speaking a book; it is a compilation or even a literature, the work of many generations. "It was built up out of the sayings of the intellectual and spiritual leaders of tho Jewish people in Palestine during the course of the first four or five centuries of the Christian era. These sayings, arranged not by authors, but according to subjects, cover the whole gamut of Jewish life—religions worship, family and sex relationships, health and diet, study, business, labour, recreation, social intercourse, and so forth. Representing as it does the collective wisdom of the Jewish people over several centuries, it constitutes a national culture of profound interest and importance. "While the Old Testament has given the orthodox.Jew the broad principles of his faith and morality, the Talmud was intended to.show him how to apply those principles to his actual conduct, in the form of practical maxims and rules of right and wrong. It is, in fact, a kind of encyclopaedia of conduct, so far as the Jews of the time could see its possibilities. "The first set of six volumes will be out next spring, and eight translators are already at work on different portions of the text embraced in these. The typographical .design of the Soneino Talmud has been entrusted to Mr. J. Van Kriinpen, the celebrated Dutch designer who is using his Lutetia fount. "The first edition of the six volumes will be issued only in 1000 numbered sets at £5 10s to subscribers. The total cost of the twenty-five volumes will be about £23, but specially signed copies on home-made paper will be more expensive.''