Re: In Praise of the Steinsaltz HEBREW Talmud (not the English translation).

How do you know? He gives notes and occasionally pictures of flora,
> > fauna and historic things that no one else knows what they are. Perhaps
> > he knows and is sharing his knowledge with us. Then again, perhaps he
> > doesn't know, and is making it all up. We have no way of knowing...Kepipes

Remainder of anti-Rabbi Steinsaltz screed, snipped...Moshe Schorr

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The pictures of plants and animals are very few and far between, at
least in the volume I'm learning now (Ta'anit-Megillah). I personally
like the illustrations, it makes it almost like a magazine. I've
thought of publishing editions of limudei kodesh with photographs of
pretty girls (Bava Metsia: The Swimsuit Edition).

To me, Rav S's biggest gift in his Hebrew Talmud is putting in the
nikkud and breaking it up into sugyot. A lot of seat of the pants scut
work, but someone had to do it. You can learn it with the nikkud and
then go back into the Vilna shas and find that you really can do it. It
also makes one want to look hard for a good chravruta.

His translations should be taken with a grain of salt, as should any
translations.

The Rav is apparently on a tour of the U.S. In a speech on Sunday,
1/22/06 at the Melvin J. Berman Academy near Washington, DC, he gave
the speech edited below, saying "American Jews lack passion".

http://www.washingtonjewishweek.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=4735&TM=227.692

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: American Jews lack 'passion'
by Aaron Leibel
WJW Staff

The lack of "passion" in the American Jewish community may threaten its
continuity, according to a talmudic scholar.

Speaking Sunday evening at the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy's
Deborah Lerner Gross Jewish Cultural Arts Center to mark Gross' fifth
yarhzeit, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz said the community is characterized by
"civilized, middle of the road, moderate" people, "but no passion."

"We need to get people more involved because if you don't have
involvement, nothing will happen," he said.

The American Jewish community needs "to grow and expand or it will get
smaller and smaller," he said.

The rabbi, who has written more than 60 books, said Monday in a
telephone interview that he discerns "no passion about anything Jewish"
among most American Jews.

As examples, he pointed to a lack of zeal for learning Hebrew well
enough to read and understand and for studying Yiddishkeit in a serious
way, as well as to the small number of U.S. Jews who make aliyah,
despite widespread support for the Jewish state.

He finds much "low-key verbiage" among American Jews.

Steinsaltz defined creativity as "making something new, something that
didn't exist before."

Best known for his translation of the Babylonian Talmud, the rabbi said
the idea that all people can approach God through the intellect is
wrong.

"Some people need to approach the Divine" through art, literature or
dance, he said.

But art in Jewish schools is often about creativity for its own sake,
rather than as a way for children to get close to God, he explained.

While praising the creative and the new in prayer, Steinsaltz also
noted that the repetition of prayers gives people a sense of stability
and comfort.

He finds "beauty in stability," noting the value of seeing a "new
heaven and earth," but says that seeing the same heaven and earth also
is positive.

In any case, he said, "right and wrong is more important than beauty."

---------------------------------

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