Adin Steinsaltz

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Adin Steinsaltz (2006)

Adin Steinsaltz ( Hebrew עדין אבן ישראל שטיינזלץ) Or Adin Even Yisrael (born on 11. July 1937 in Jerusalem , died on 7. August 2020 ) was an Israeli rabbi and Jewish scholar, teacher , philosopher and Talmudic commentator and a leading figure in the national-religious movement. He has published around 60 books and numerous articles. His magnum opus is an adaptation and translation of the Talmud into Modern Hebrew with its own commentary, thanks to which the Talmud could be made accessible to broader interest groups. It appears in Hebrew, English , French , Russian and Spanish and has sold millions of copies. The Time magazine called Steinsaltz 1988, the year when he the Israel Prize was awarded as the "millennium scholars" (English once-in-a-millennium scholar ).

Family and education

Steinsaltz grew up as the only child of non-religious, socialist parents in Jerusalem. Prior to his Bar Mitzvah become religious , he attended a religious school and studied physics and chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . At the same time he devoted himself to Jewish studies.

Rabbi Steinsaltz lived in Jerusalem with his wife Chaya Sarah, a relative of the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov . The marriage had three children and fifteen grandchildren.

In December 2016, Rabbi Steinsaltz had a severe stroke and has not been able to speak since then. He died in August 2020 at the age of 83.

Act

First page of the Talmud, Vilnius edition; in the middle Mishnah and Gemara , on the right a Rashi commentary

As a young man, Steinsaltz founded his own schools in Israel, which are characterized by a comparatively broad spectrum for religious schools and which are attended by both Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox students. The Mekor Chaim schools are located in Jerusalem and in Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories near Jerusalem.

In 1965, Steinsaltz began setting up the Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications and working on his Talmud translation, which was not undisputed in Orthodox Judaism and which he completed 45 years later in November 2010. The Steinsaltz Talmud edition has, in addition to the partly Middle Hebrew , partly Aramaic text and a New Hebrew translation that he vocalized , new comments on certain Tosafot , a new layout and new pagination , as well as a Hebrew commentary by Steinsaltz at the point where in the traditional Talmud editions, based on the Vilna edition published in the 1880s , that of the great Jewish scholar of the Middle Ages , Rashi (1040–1105), is mentioned.

Steinsaltz belonged to the Lubavitch movement and was a friend of the last Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who died in 1994 . He supported the Chabad Lubavitch organizations in the Soviet Union , where he founded a Jewish school in Moscow and St. Petersburg , and acted as a spiritual mentor to Russian Jews.

In 1999 he founded a Hesder Yeshiva in Tekoa , a Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied areas south of Jerusalem. In a Hesder Yeshiva, Jewish studies are combined with military service in the Israeli army . A small number of selected graduates of the Hesder Yeshiva receive further training in Steinsaltzs Kollel and, after three years of study, receive the semicha to become rabbis.

In 2003 the Steinsaltz Center in Jerusalem was inaugurated. In 2005, Steinsaltz was elected the nasi of the modern Sanhedrin , which had been newly built a year earlier , and in June 2008 he announced his resignation out of concern about its possible violations of halachic laws . Most recently, Steinsaltz worked on a translation of Bible commentaries, a reinterpretation of Maimonides ' Mishne Torah and a book on Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Adin Steinsaltz welcomed the political rapprochement between the Vatican and Israel after the Second Vatican Council and the 1986 reception of Pope John Paul II (by Rome's Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff ) in the synagogue of Rome , as well as the establishment of diplomatic relations in the 1990s. The relations were strictly at the state level and not religious, which meant, among other things, that no senior representative of the Jewish religion was officially recognized by the Vatican. At the same time, from a religious point of view, he was rather skeptical about Judeo-Christian approaches. According to Steinsaltz, Judaism has fewer theological problems with Islam than with Christianity or the Catholic Church. Mutual recognition as legitimate is by no means easily possible, at classic Judeo-Christian conferences “mostly good Christians face bad Jews”, or there is little interest among the chief rabbis and leading scholars, including himself.

Steinsaltz has also spoken out against the construction of an Islamic center near Ground Zero in New York and considered the project to be tactless (English a lack of tact ).

Cross and Hebrew plus sign

Altplus.svg

For the Hebrew Scriptures one was different shape of the plus sign designed, where the lower part lacks the vertical bar so that its form not to a (Christian) Cross recalls. The character is contained in Unicode as U + FB29 ﬩ hebrew letter alternative plus sign and is used, among other things, in elementary school lessons in Israel as well as in El Al to control the seat position. In a mirror interview, Steinsaltz spoke of absurd externalities: In addition to the modified addition symbol, the cross as a shape had also been avoided in planning at crossroads in Tel Aviv , which is why the traffic there is still quite chaotic.

Awards

Steinsaltz has received numerous awards and honorary doctorates, and in 1988 he was awarded the Israel Prize , the highest honor in Israel, for his commitment to Jewish upbringing and education . In 2012 he received the President's Medal of Distinction, the highest civilian honor in Israel.

Works (selection)

In addition to the Talmud editions and other publications on the Talmud, Steinsaltz has published numerous other books and articles.

  • My Rebbe, Maggid, English, 2014; ISBN 978-1-59264-381-3 .
  • Initials and Abbreviations in Chasidic and Kabbalistic Literature, Hebrew, 1968.
  • Sefer HaKen (Editor), marking 150 years since the demise of Rabbi Scheur Zalman of Lyady, Hebrew, 1969.
  • The Rebbe: Thirty Years of Presidency (Co-editor: Rabbi Hanoch Glitzenstein), Hebrew, 1980.
  • The Long Shorter Way: Discourses on Chasidic Thought, English 1988.
  • The Sustaining Utterance: Discourses on Chasidic Thought, English 1989, Russian 1996, Portuguese 2009.
  • The Thirteen Petalled Rose, English 1980, reprint 2006, Dutch, 1983, Russian 1985, French 1989, Portuguese 1992, Hebrew 1998, Italian 2001, German ( The Thirteen Petalled Rose . On the secrets of Kabbalah and its meaning for our lives) ; Crotona, 2011; ISBN 978-3-86191-019-0 .
  • The Tales of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav (formerly Beggars and Prayers), English 1979, French 1996, Russian 1998, Hebrew 1981.
  • The Seven Lights: On the Major Jewish Festivals (Co-author: Josy Eisenberg), English 2000.
  • Commentary on the Tanya , Hebrew since 1991, English since 2003.
  • Les 5 Meguillot, illustrations by Yitzhak Tordjman, English and French 1990.
  • Biblical Images, Hebrew 1984, Japanese 1984, French 1990, English 1994, Russian 1995, German 1996.
  • The Woman of Valor, illustrations by Yitzhak Tordjman, French 1993, English 1994.
  • Tehillim (Psalms), Hebrew and English 2005.
  • Hebrew (The Israel Government School of Tourism) 1966/1982.
  • The Passover Haggadah, Hebrew 1979, 1998, English 1983.
  • Teshuvah: A Guide for the Newly Observant Jew, English 1987, French, Hebrew 1982, Portuguese 1994.
  • The Sociology of Ignorance (Co-author: Amos Funkenstein ), Hebrew 1988, Russian 1997.
  • Le Chandelier d'Or, French 1993, English 2000.

Web links

Commons : Adin Steinsaltz  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz - Curriculum Vitae ( Memento from December 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). The Aleph Society, accessed May 26, 2011
  2. ^ Richard N. Ostling; Marlin Levin: Religion: Giving The Talmud to the Jews. In: Time , January 18, 1988, accessed: May 26, 2011.
  3. ↑ Endangered Species? ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) In: The Jewish Week. July 29, 2005
  4. ^ A b c Nathan Jeffay: Man of the People of the Book. After 45 Years, Adin Steinsaltz Has Completed His Talmud Translation. In: The Jewish Daily Forward . March 8, 2011, accessed: May 26, 2011.
  5. ^ Biography of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz ( memento of August 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on steinsaltz.org
  6. ^ Schools in Israel ( Memento June 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). The Aleph Society, accessed June 9, 2011.
  7. ↑ a b Sue Fishkoff : "Gigantic task." After 45 years of work, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz has finished translating the Hebrew Talmud . Jüdische Allgemeine , November 11, 2010, accessed: May 27, 2011.
  8. ↑ Sue Fishkoff: "Gigantic task." After 45 years of work, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz has completed his Hebrew translation of the Talmud ( memento of August 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Jüdische Allgemeine , November 11, 2010, accessed: August 1, 2016.
  9. ↑ Yeshivat Hesder Tekoa ( Memento from January 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed: June 9, 2011 (English)
  10. ↑ Advanced Kollel ( Memento of November 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). The Aleph Society, accessed June 9, 2011
  11. ↑ Nadav Shragai: Now that there's a Sanhedrin, who needs the Supreme Court? One year after a new assembly of Torah scholars was established, the esteemed Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz has become its president . Haaretz, November 3, 2005, accessed: June 9, 2011.
  12. ↑ Sue Fishkoff: Steinsaltz completes Talmud translation with Global Day of Jewish Learning . JTA October 31, 2010, accessed: February 25, 2016.
  13. ^ Found in Translation . Scholar Adin Steinsaltz discusses his recently completed edition of the Talmud, why the Internet is better than TV, and the prospect of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and Elvis playing cards together . Tablet Magazine , May 19, 2011. Accessed May 27, 2011.
  14. ^ A b c Stefan Simons, Dieter Wild : A pain for the church . In: Der Spiegel . No. 15 , 1994 ( online ).
  15. ^ Adin Steinsaltz: A question of sense and sensibility . The Washington Post , July 26, 2010, accessed: May 26, 2011
  16. ^ The Holocaust in Three Generations: Families of Victims and Perpetrators of the Nazi Regime. Gabriele Rosenthal A&C Black, August 13, 1998, p. 107.
personal data
SURNAME Steinsaltz, Adin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Israel, Adin Even
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli rabbi
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Jerusalem
DATE OF DEATH August 7, 2020
Place of death Jerusalem