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The Talmud is a repository of thousands of years of Jewish wisdom.
Its two-and-a-half million words consist of a conglomeration of
law, legend, and philosophy, a blend of unique logic, shrewd
pragmatism, history, science, anecdotes, and humor. In The
Essential Talmud, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, regarded as one of the
leading rabbis of the century, offers an introduction to this
sacred Jewish text, clearly and brilliantly describing the beliefs,
attitudes, and methods that have occupied students of the Talmud
for centuries. If the Bible is the cornerstone of Judaism", writes
Rabbi Steinsaltz, "then the Talmud is the central pillar, soaring
up from the foundations and supporting the entire spiritual and
intellectual edifice". The Talmud, though in many ways the most
important book in Jewish culture, is a work with which most Jews
are almost entirely unfamiliar. Rabbi Steinsaltz, whose life's work
includes his efforts to revive the study of the Talmud among the
Jewish people, observes that "a Jewish society that ceases to study
the Talmud has no real hope of survival". Describing the Talmud as
"the backbone of creativity and national life" for Jews, Rabbi
Steinsaltz explains that "understanding the Talmud gives one a key,
not only for itself, but for all Jewish culture". He goes on to
state that "from a cultural perspective the Talmud is the tool for
self-understanding" for the Jewish people. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
has a remarkable encyclopedic knowledge of Torah, Halakhah (Jewish
law), and. Kabbalah (Jewish mystical thought), as well as a mastery
of the sciences. He has earned worldwide recognition as a scholar,
teacher, and mentor. The Essential Talmud, like several other works
by RabbiSteinsaltz, has become a modern Jewish classic. His own
Talmud translation and commentary, a project that Rabbi Steinsaltz
began in 1967, has received extraordinary praise, and tens of
thousands of volumes of his Talmud edition are circulating. The
Essential Talmud is a superb window through which we can gain a
glimpse, and more, of perhaps the most unique sacred work in the
history of religion. In a single brief volume, Rabbi Steinsaltz
succeeds in capturing the flavor and spirit of the Talmud as a
human document and at the same time summarizes its main principles
as an expression of divine law. A work of profound scholarship and
yet also of concise, simple, and brilliant pedagogy, The Essential
Talmud will make equally enlightening reading for those who are
already versed in the subject and those who come to it for the
first time.
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