Editor's Note

by Sandee Brawarsky

Each tractate of the Talmud begins on page 2. One commentator suggests that this is to remind us that no matter how much we study and learn and return to the tractate, we haven’t even approached the first page of the vast work. The late Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg would say that the Talmud is about the constant struggle to understand.

One of my favorite stories about the Talmud involves the U.S. Army. In 1946, Rabbi Samuel A. Snieg, who survived Dachau and was serving in the U.S. Zone in Germany, had the idea of publishing an edition of the Talmud for Jews who had been liberated from the camps. An often-repeated account tells of another rabbi approaching an aide to Gen. Eisenhower, and mentioning the power of printing the Talmud in a place where so many Jewish books had been burned. The Army agreed, and in 1948 financed the printing of 50 sets in Heidelberg, while the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which handled the logistics of the project, funded an additional 650 sets. As Ralph Goldman, executive vice-president emeritus of the JDC explained, the organization was committed to providing spiritual sustenance to the survivors, as well as help with basic needs.

The title page depicts the Land of Israel, with its idyllic palm trees and cedars, set above an image of a Nazi labor camp enclosed with barbed wire. An English dedication thanks the U.S. Army for its role in the rescue of the Jewish people and for sustaining the displaced persons. This is the only instance of a national government publishing the Talmud.

In this issue, we are honored to feature the work of Rabbi Adin Even Israel Steinsaltz, whose remarkable achievement is also unprecedented: This season, he is completing the 45th and final volume of the Hebrew edition of the Babylonian Talmud, featuring his translation and commentary. He has opened up the Talmud to generations of learners in Hebrew as well as Russian, French and English. I had the pleasure of working with Rabbi Steinsaltz some years ago when the first volumes of the English-language edition were published, and, it was through my association with him that I met my husband (whose high school Gemara appears in these pages).

Among our other illustrious contributors are Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, author of a splendid new biography of Rashi; Jonathan Rosen, who revisits his landmark book, “The Talmud and the Internet,” Talmudic scholar Eliezer Diamond, who has been engaged with the text since he was a child; Rabbi Anne Ebersman, who writes about creativity and the coexistence of divergent opinions; Rabbi Meir Fachler, who describes an innovative educational approach; and Jerome A. Chanes, on the shaping of the dialectical process.

On the cover, we feature the work of David Cowles, who photographed the Moussa Dar’i synagogue in the Abbasiya neighborhood of Cairo in 1994, as part of a larger project documenting the remnants of Jewish life in North Africa. When he arrived at the synagogue, he was struck by the layers of dust covering every surface, like moon dust, and the little birds flying about; an elderly caretaker named Mr. Khodsi sat in the only chair. When Cowles’ translator went outside with Mr. Khodsi, he shot this scene. The synagogue faces out onto what used to be a lush garden, where there had been a yeshiva and a library filled with ancient books.

Cowles uses a 19th-century process to make his prints, bringing out tones of silver and gold through light. “It’s almost like remembering something,” he says, when the image is preserved through the tone, expressing the mood, without the distraction of color. He didn’t want to create a document of loss, but rather a testimonial that these communities existed. Like the Talmud, his work is at once historical and contemporary (www.drcowles.ca).

Artist Lynne Avadenka’s collages on page 7 also make me think of the
Talmud, as she layers maps and words, linking text, images and ideas, with infinite possibilities for connection. The works on paper resemble letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Some of her pieces are now on view at the International Print Center New York in Chelsea, through Dec. 12. (www.lynneavadenka.com)

Keep sending us your commentary, editor.textcontext@gmail.com

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