Talmud la-kol

by Adin Steinsaltz

"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