The Steinsaltz Edition Talmud originally began as a Hebrew edition of the Babylonian Talmud by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, with his literal Hebrew translation of the Talmud along with his elucidation and commentary. The Hebrew translation started in 1965 and was completed in late 2010. The Hebrew edition contains the standard text of the Talmud with vowels and punctuation in the middle of the page.[1] The margins contain the standard Rashi and tosafot commentaries, as well as Steinsaltz's own translation of the Talmud text into modern Hebrew with his elucidation.[2] Steinsaltz has also recently published an electronic version of the Hebrew edition on DVD.[3]
Between 1989 and 1999 Random House published a small number of volumes in English,[4] and a new printing by Koren Publishers Jerusalem began to re-release volumes in 2012, including an edition with full-color illustrations.
Talmudic researcher and lecturer Aharon Feldman penned a lengthy critical review of the Steinsaltz Talmud. Among many criticisms, he writes that it gives the impression that the Talmud is intellectually flabby, inconsistent, and often trivial.[8] The English Koren Talmud has been criticized as having inaccurate scientific information, such as identifying Ursa Major as a star and describing polycythemia vera as a disease causing excessive bleeding from the gums and from ordinary cuts.[9] Rabbi Dr. Marc Shapiro, a known critic of ArtScroll,[10] has criticized the Koren Talmud as always coming out below ArtScroll's edition in his experience and expressed "I don’t know why anyone would prefer it over ArtScroll."[11] Rabbi Leib Zalesch, Judaic Studies Teacher at Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School, characterized the Koren Talmud as coming across "like a cheap ArtScroll knockoff" due to lacking a well-organized structure that clearly conveys the flow and narrative of the Talmud, and being "void of any notion of its user being guided gently through the Talmudic jungle by an experienced guide or teacher."[12] Zalesch further argued that the Koren edition contains "non-research masquerading as valuable information" and that "Steinsaltz is your perpetually annoying seventh grade classmate, always quick with a brainy but irrelevant factoid."[12]
Jacob Neusner's How Adin Steinsaltz Misrepresents the Talmud. Four False Propositions from his "Reference Guide" (1998) displays strong disagreement.[citation needed]
The Hebrew edition of the Steinsaltz Talmud was the target of fierce opposition in much of the Orthodox world, with many leading Rabbis such as Elazar Shach, Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, and Eliezer Waldenberg harshly condemning it.[13][14] Much of the criticism was not focused on the Hebrew Talmud translation but stemmed from other works of Steinsaltz and, by extension, Steinsaltz's general worldview.[15] Waldenberg wrote that when The Essential Talmud and Biblical Images (Hebrew: "דמויות מן המקרא" ו"תלמוד לכל") were brought before him, he was shocked to see the way in which Steinsaltz described the Patriarchs and Talmudic sages, as well as his approach to the Oral Torah. Waldenberg further wrote that these works had the power to "poison the souls" of those who read them.[16]