In 1965, a young polymath launched a radical project sparking controversy within the traditional Jewish community. Over the next forty-five years, he and his team of protégés translated the Babylonian Talmud, bringing the study of the Oral Torah to the masses.
Rabbi Adin Even-Yisrael Steinsaltz, a towering figure of Jewish scholarship, became world renowned for his groundbreaking work: the translation of the Babylonian Talmud from Aramaic into modern Hebrew and then into English. The project made the study of Talmud—previously limited to students trained in the language and tradition of Talmudic dialectic—accessible to the lay public for the first time.
Through his commentaries, translations, and prolific works—among them The Thirteen Petalled Rose, The Strife of the Spirit, The Long Shorter Way, and Opening The Tanya, he also brought classical Chasidic texts and teachings to a wide, contemporary audience.
Rabbi Adin Even-Yisrael Steinsaltz passed away this past August at the age of eighty-three.
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