The Torah has been translated by Jewish scholars into most of the major European languages, including English, German, Russian, French, Spanish and others. The most well-known German-language translation was produced by Samson Raphael Hirsch. A number of Jewish English Bible translations have been published, for example by Artscroll publications
Jewish translations
Torah
Torah | Jewish translations
. A number of Jewish English Bible translations have been published, for example by Artscroll publications It has been translated by Jewish scholars into most of the major European languages No, the Jews speak Hebrew. Yes
who is the prophet who was thrown into the sea and swallowed by the whale
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Jonah
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which sea was he swallowed in ?
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Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
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who is he ?
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A prophet in the Hebrew Bible of the northern kingdom of Israel in about the 8th century BCE.
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where was he born ?
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Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
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the book you mentioned above what is it ?
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The canonical collection of Hebrew scriptures, including the Torah.
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what is the second thing you have mentioned ?
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It can most specifically mean the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.
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in which language was it written in ?
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It can even mean the totality of Jewish teaching, culture, and practice, whether derived from biblical texts or later rabbinic writings.
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was it translated into jewish ?
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Because the Torah is read in a yearly cycle in the synagogue, there are many Jewish translations of the Torah only (without Nevi'im and Ketuvim). Such a translation is sometimes called a "chumash", particularly when it is published in a bilingual Hebrew–English edition.
Jewish English Bible translations | Torah translations
The Torah has been translated by Jewish scholars into most of the major European languages, including English, German, Russian, French, Spanish and others. The most well-known German-language translation was produced by Samson Raphael Hirsch. A number of Jewish English Bible translations have been published, for example by Artscroll publications
Torah | Jewish translations
Many translated Bibles and prayer books from before the Holocaust were still in Yiddish, even those published in countries like the United States. A further reason is that often those Jews who study the Bible regularly still do so, to a greater or lesser extent, in its original language, as it is read in the synagogue. Even those who require translations often prefer a bilingual edition. Nevertheless, Jewish translations of the Bible to English have become far more widespread, especially since the 1980s, and have been made available in numerous complementary versions and styles.
Jewish English Bible translations | Background
The Book of Ezra refers to translations and commentaries of the Hebrew text into Aramaic, the more commonly understood language of the time. These translations would seem to date to the 6th century BCE. The Aramaic term for "translation" is "Targum". The Encyclopedia Judaica has: At an early period, it was customary to translate the Hebrew text into the vernacular at the time of the reading (e.g., in Palestine and Babylon the translation was into Aramaic). The targum ("translation") was done by a special synagogue official, called the meturgeman ... Eventually, the practice of translating into the vernacular was discontinued.
Torah | Aramaic
As a part of the Christian biblical canons, the Torah has been translated into hundreds of languages.
Torah | Christian translations
Following upon the Leeser translation, and partially simultaneously with it, was the Anglo-Jewish translation by Abraham Benisch: "Jewish School and Family Bible", which was published in England in four sequential volumes from 1851 to 1861. Benisch's translation of the Torah was published in five volumes, with the Hebrew and English on facing pages. In each volume the text of the Torah is followed by "haftarot" and the Sabbath prayers.
Jewish English Bible translations | Abraham Benisch translation
It can even mean the totality of Jewish teaching, culture, and practice, whether derived from biblical texts or later rabbinic writings. This is often known as the Oral Torah. Common to all these meanings, Torah consists of the origin of Jewish peoplehood: their call into being by God, their trials and tribulations, and their covenant with their God, which involves following a way of life embodied in a set of moral and religious obligations and civil laws (""). In rabbinic literature the word "Torah" denotes both the five books ( "Torah that is written") and the Oral Torah (, "Torah that is spoken").
Torah | Introduction
Some of the first translations of the Torah began during the Babylonian exile, when Aramaic became the lingua franca of the Jews. With most people speaking only Aramaic and not understanding Hebrew, the Targums were created to allow the common person to understand the Torah as it was read in ancient synagogues.
Bible translations | Aramaic Targums
Jewish English Bible translations are modern English Bible translations that include the books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) according to the masoretic text, and according to the traditional division and order of Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim. Jewish translations often also reflect traditional Jewish interpretations of the Bible, as opposed to the Christian understanding that is often reflected in non-Jewish translations. For example, Jewish translations translate עלמה "‘almâh" in as "young woman", while many Christian translations render the word as "virgin". While modern biblical scholarship is similar for both Christians and Jews, there are distinctive features of Jewish translations, even those created by academic scholars.
Bible translations into English | Jewish translations
From the eighth century CE, the cultural language of Jews living under Islamic rule became Arabic rather than Aramaic. "Around that time, both scholars and lay people started producing translations of the Bible into Judeo-Arabic using the Hebrew alphabet." Later, by the 10th century, it became essential for a standard version of the Bible in Judeo-Arabic. The best known was produced by Saadiah (the Saadia Gaon, aka the Rasag), and continues to be in use today, "in particular among Yemenite Jewry". Rav Sa'adia produced an Arabic translation of the Torah known as "Targum Tafsir" and offered comments on Rasag's work.
Torah | Arabic
Jewish English Bible translations are English translations of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) according to the Masoretic Text, in the traditional division and order of Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim. Most Jewish translations appear in bilingual editions (Hebrew–English). Jewish translations often reflect traditional Jewish exegesis of the Bible; all such translations eschew the Christological interpretations present in many non-Jewish translations. Jewish translations contain neither the books of the apocrypha nor the Christian New Testament.
Jewish English Bible translations | Introduction
One writer cites these examples, emphasizing Kaplan's modern translation:
Jewish English Bible translations | Living Torah and Nach
This translation emerged from the collaborative efforts of an interdenominational team of Jewish scholars and rabbis working together over a thirty-year period. These translators based their translation on the Masoretic Hebrew Text, and consistently strove for a faithful, idiomatic rendering of the original scriptural languages.
New Jewish Publication Society of America Tanakh | Introduction
The Hebrew Bible is composed of three parts; the Torah (Instruction, the Septuagint translated the Hebrew to "nomos" or "Law"), the Nevi'im (Prophets) and the Ketuvim (Writings). Collectively, these are known as the Tanakh. According to Rabbinic Judaism the Torah was revealed by God to Moses; within it, Jews find 613 Mitzvot (commandments). Rabbinic tradition asserts that God revealed two Torahs to Moses, one that was written down, and one that was transmitted orally. Whereas the written Torah has a fixed form, the Oral Torah is a living tradition that includes not only specific supplements to the written Torah (for instance, what is the proper manner of "shechita" and what is meant by "Frontlets" in the Shema), but also procedures for understanding and talking about the written Torah (thus, the Oral Torah revealed at Sinai includes debates among rabbis who lived long after Moses).
Christianity and Judaism | Sacred texts
In Constantinople and Salonica Bibles were printed in Hebrew, flanked by translations into Ladino and Judaeo-Greek in Hebrew characters, for the use of the Sephardi Jews. Some later prints contained the Ladino text alone.
Bible translations into Spanish | Jewish translations
In a similar vein, Rabbi Akiva (c. 50 – c. 135 CE), is said to have learned a new law from every "et" (את) in the Torah (Talmud, tractate Pesachim 22b); the particle "et" is meaningless by itself, and serves only to mark the direct object. In other words, the Orthodox belief is that even apparently contextual text such as "And God spoke unto Moses saying ..." is no less holy and sacred than the actual statement.
Torah | Divine significance of letters, Jewish mysticism
The word "Torah" in Hebrew is derived from the root ירה, which in the "hif'il" conjugation means 'to guide' or 'to teach' (cf. ). The meaning of the word is therefore "teaching", "doctrine", or "instruction"; the commonly accepted "law" gives a wrong impression. The Alexandrian Jews who translated the Septuagint used the Greek word "nomos", meaning norm, standard, doctrine, and later "law". Greek and Latin Bibles then began the custom of calling the Pentateuch (five books of Moses) The Law. Other translational contexts in the English language include custom, theory, guidance, or system. The term "Torah" is used in the general sense to include both Rabbinic Judaism's written law and Oral Law, serving to encompass the entire spectrum of authoritative Jewish religious teachings throughout history, including the Mishnah, the Talmud, the Midrash and more, and the inaccurate rendering of "Torah" as "Law" may be an obstacle to understanding the ideal that is summed up in the term "talmud torah" (תלמוד תורה, "study of Torah").
Torah | Meaning and names
The 1917 translation was felt to be outdated by the 1950s, and a new effort developed that involved cooperation between numerous Jewish scholars from a variety of denominations. The translation of the Torah was started in 1955 and completed in 1962. Nevi'im was published in 1978 and Ketuvim in 1984. The entire Tanakh was revised and published in one volume in 1985, and a bilingual Hebrew–English version appeared in 1999 (also in one volume). The translation is usually referred to as the "New JPS version", abbreviated NJPS (it has also been called the "New Jewish Version" or NJV). The translators of the New JPS version were experts in both traditional Jewish exegesis of the Bible and modern biblical scholarship.
Jewish English Bible translations | New JPS (1985)
The Torah is composed of 5 books called in English Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They chronicle the history of the Hebrews and also contain the commandments that Jews are to follow. Rabbinic Judaism holds that the Torah extant today is the same one that was given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai. Maimonides explains: "We do not know exactly how the Torah was transmitted to Moses. But when it was transmitted, Moses merely wrote it down like a secretary taking dictation...[Thus] every verse in the Torah is equally holy, as they all originate from God, and are all part of God's Torah, which is perfect, holy and true." "Haredi" Jews generally believe that the Torah today is no different from what was received from God to Moses, with only the most minor of scribal errors.
Jewish principles of faith | The origin of the Torah
For centuries Jews worldwide spoke the local or dominant languages of the regions they migrated to, often developing distinctive dialectal forms or branching off as independent languages. The usual course of development for these languages was through the addition of Hebrew words and phrases used to express uniquely Jewish concepts and concerns. Often they were written in Hebrew letters, including the block letters used in Hebrew today and Rashi script. Conversely, Ladino, formerly written in Rashi script or Solitreo, since the 1920s is usually written in Turkey in the Latin alphabet with a spelling similar to that of Turkish, and has been occasionally printed in the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets.
Jewish languages | Alphabets
This translation was superseded by the JPS "Tanakh" (NJPS), which appeared in a complete form in 1985. However, the 1917 version is still widely disseminated through its appearance in the commentaries of the Soncino Books of the Bible and the Torah commentary edited by Joseph H. Hertz. Further, it has influenced many subsequent 20th century translations by drawing attention to the Jewish view of many passages.
Jewish Publication Society of America Version | Later translation
Kehot Publication Society has started a translation of the Torah, and as of March 2007 has completed the books of Shemot (Exodus) and Bamidbar (Numbers). The volumes, titled "Torah Chumash Shemos" and "Torah Chumash Bemidbar", are bilingual Hebrew–English translations that include a running commentary based on Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson's interpretation of Rashi's commentary. The project is supervised by editor-in-chief Moshe Wisnefsky.
Jewish English Bible translations | Kehot Publication Society
According to Jewish law, a Torah is invalid for public reading if even a single letter is incorrect or misplaced, for Jewish law considers each letter as indispensable. In 1525, in Venice, Jacob Ben-Hayim, editor of the second edition of the Mikraot Gedolot, took it upon himself to fix grammatical errors in the Hebrew Bible. Ben-Hayim's version unified Judaism's varying texts and commentaries on the Bible under one umbrella, and it is this version that has remained the standard version used by generations to this day. However, Ben-Hayim had to rely on inferior manuscripts and commentaries, which caused numerous inaccuracies to appear in his version, and these were only magnified in subsequent editions.
Menachem Cohen (scholar) | Background
According to Rabbi Akiva, the divine language of the Torah is distinguished from the speech of men by the fact that in the former no word or sound is superfluous. He established two principles broadening the scope of the rule of his teacher Nahum of Gimzo, who had declared that certain particles, like את, גם and או, were inclusive and certain others, such as אך, רק and מן, were exclusive. These two principles are: Hence he interprets the following forms of expression as amplifications: an infinitive before a finite verb, e.g., הכרת תכרת (Sanhedrin 64b); the doubling of a word, e.g., איש איש (Yeb.
Talmudical hermeneutics | Superfluity in the text
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh is the Jewish scriptural canon and central source of Jewish law. The word is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the three traditional subdivisions of the Tanakh: The Torah ("Teaching", also known as the "Five Books of Moses" or "Pentateuch"), the Nevi'im ("Prophets") and the Ketuvim ("Writings"). The Tanakh contains 24 books in all; its authoritative version is the Masoretic Text. Traditionally, the text of the Tanakh was said to have been finalized at the Council of Jamnia in 70 CE, although this is uncertain. In Judaism, the term "Torah" refers not only to the Five Books of Moses, but also to all of the Jewish scriptures (the whole of Tanakh), and the ethical and moral instructions of the rabbis (the Oral Torah).
Jewish principles of faith | Scripture
In the 10th century AD Saadia Gaon wrote a "Tafsir", an Arabic translation of the Torah and some other Biblical books with a commentary. These were written in Hebrew characters (Judaeo-Arabic). Much of the commentary is lost, but the translation of the Torah and several other books has survived intact, and even serves as part of the liturgy of Yemenite Jews, who read the Torah in the synagogue with each Hebrew verse translated twice: first to the Aramaic targum and then to Saadia's "Tafsir". As the language of Saadia Gaon's translation became archaic and remote from common speech, most Jewish communities of the Arab world evolved their own translations of the Torah into their local dialects of Judaeo-Arabic.
Bible translations into Arabic | Jewish
The Hebrew Bible comprises the Torah (the five books of Moses), the Neviim (the books of the Prophets), and the Ketuvim (the "Writings"). Judaism has traditionally held that, along with the Torah, referred to as the "Written Torah", God revealed a series of instructions on how to interpret and apply the Torah. The additional instructions were known as the Oral Torah. By the second century CE Jewish sages began writing down interpretations of the Bible; Orthodox Jews consider these writings to embody the "oral law." These writings take several forms:
Names for books of Judeo-Christian scripture | Judaism
Unless otherwise specified, the word "Talmud" on its own is normally understood to mean the Babylonian Talmud. The Jerusalem Talmud was compiled in the 4th century CE in Galilee, and the Babylonian Talmud was compiled about the year 500 CE, although it continued to be edited later. While the Pentateuch is sometimes called the "Written Torah", the Mishnah is contrasted as the "Oral Torah" because it was passed down orally between generations until its contents were finally committed to writing following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, when Jewish civilization was faced with an existential threat.
Ancient Hebrew writings | Early rabbinic literature
In 1957 Joseph Gaer produced an abridged translation called "The Jewish Bible for Family Reading". Influenced by biblical source criticism and the documentary hypothesis, Gaer moved all "duplications, specifications, detailed descriptions of rituals and genealogies" to a summary in an appendix; made a separate appendix summary of the Torah's "principal laws;" and omitted "all obvious redundancies." Intended for the English reader with little or no knowledge of Hebrew, the text of "The Jewish Bible for Family Reading" is organized in brief sections with descriptive titles (such as "The Story of Creation" and "Isaac Takes a Bride") without the verse numbers that are typical of Bible translations.
Jewish English Bible translations | The Jewish Bible for Family Reading
Bible in the Jewish Tradition: Other translations:
Jewish English Bible translations | See also
These include the avoidance of Christological interpretations, adherence to the Masoretic Text (at least in the main body of the text, as in the new Jewish Publication Society (JPS) translation) and greater use of classical Jewish exegesis. Some translations prefer names transliterated from the Hebrew, though the majority of Jewish translations use the Anglicized forms of biblical names.
Bible translations into English | Jewish translations
Judaica Press, an Orthodox Jewish publisher, has published a multi-volume English translation. The Judaica Press "Complete Tanach with Rashi" is a bilingual Hebrew–English translation of the Bible that includes Rashi's commentary in both Hebrew and English. The English translations were made by A. J. Rosenberg. The "Complete Tanach with Rashi" is available online. Although the Pentateuch has not been fully published in hardcopy (Genesis [in three volumes] and Exodus [in two volumes] only), Judaica Press also published a set of 24 bilingual Hebrew–English volumes of "Mikraot Gedolot" for Nevi'im and Ketuvim, published as "Books of the Prophets and Writings". As in traditional "Mikraot Gedolot", the Hebrew text includes the masoretic text, the Aramaic Targum, and several classic rabbinic commentaries.
Jewish English Bible translations | Judaica Press
Aramaic translations of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) played an important role in the liturgy and learning of rabbinic Judaism. Each such translation is called a Targum (plural: "Targumim"). During Talmudic times the targum was interpolated within the public reading of the Torah in the synagogue, verse by verse (a tradition that continues among Yemenite Jews to this day). Targum is also an important source for Jewish exegesis of the Bible, and had a major influence on medieval interpreters (most notably Rashi). Maimonides (Hilchot Ishut 8:34) writes that the Talmudic definition of a "person who knows how to read and translate the Torah into Aramaic" refers to "the Aramaic translation of Onkelos".
Bible translations into Aramaic | Jewish translations
After the 2nd century CE when the Roman Empire exiled most of the Jewish population of Jerusalem following the Bar Kokhba revolt, they adapted to the societies in which they found themselves, yet letters, contracts, commerce, science, philosophy, medicine, poetry and laws continued to be written mostly in Hebrew, which adapted by borrowing and inventing terms.
Hebrew language | Mishnah and Talmud
The first American Jewish English translation of the Torah, and subsequently of the entire "Tanakh", was the 19th century effort by Isaac Leeser. Leeser began with a five-volume, bilingual Hebrew–English edition of the Torah and "haftarot", "The Law of God" (Philadelphia, 1845). His translation of the entire Bible into English was completed as "The Twenty-four books of the Holy Scriptures" in 1853 (commonly called "The Leeser Bible"). In 1857 he re-issued it in a second (folio-size) edition, with abridged notes. Until the 1917 Jewish Publication Society translation, the Leeser translation was the most important Jewish English translation. It was widely used in North American synagogues and reprinted in England.
Jewish English Bible translations | Isaac Leeser translation
This Bible's translation style is comparable to the 1917 JPS Tanakh.
Jewish English Bible translations | The Holy Scriptures
In Rabbi Culi's time, many individuals in Turkey were not sufficiently fluent in the Hebrew language to study the Torah and its commentaries in the original. Rabbi Culi thus undertook the "colossal task" of writing a compendium of the major fields of Torah study. The commentary was to be user-friendly and was thus written in Ladino or Judaeo-Spanish, the Jewish language spoken by the Sephardic Jews in Turkey. The book was divided according to the weekly Torah portion ("Parashat hashevua"); Rabbi Culi explains each chapter in detail according to the Midrash and Talmud, as well as discussing the relevant "Halacha" as based on the "Shulchan Aruch" and "Mishneh Torah".
Me'am Lo'ez | Content
This is used in the translations made by the Ibn Tibbon family. (Original Jewish philosophical works were usually written in Arabic.) Another important influence was Maimonides, who developed a simple style based on Mishnaic Hebrew for use in his law code, the Mishneh Torah. Subsequent rabbinic literature is written in a blend between this style and the Aramaized Rabbinic Hebrew of the Talmud.
Hebrew language | Medieval Hebrew
In 2001 Richard Elliott Friedman released his "Commentary on the Torah", featuring a new translation intended to "reflect more closely the words of the Hebrew" rather than "the translators' judgments of what the original Hebrew says."
Jewish English Bible translations | Richard Elliott Friedman
Early translations into Latin—the Vetus Latina—were ad hoc conversions of parts of the Septuagint. With Saint Jerome in the 4th century CE came the Vulgate Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible.
Torah | Latin
The translation attempts in all cases to present the original meaning of the text in a highly aesthetic form. The translation is not a word-for-word translation and is described by its publisher as being "in the spirit of Saadia".
Jewish English Bible translations | New JPS (1985)
The English translations, by Rosenberg, include a translation of the Biblical text, Rashi's commentary, and a summary of rabbinic and modern commentaries.
Jewish English Bible translations | Judaica Press
English Bible translation has been common among Christians, particularly since the 16th-century Reformation, producing dozens of modern translations and versions in English. But equivalent translation efforts have been less widespread among Jews. This is partially due to the fact that English became a major spoken language among Jews only in the era since the Holocaust. Before then, even Jews in English-speaking countries were still part of an immigrant culture to a large extent, which meant that they could either understand the Hebrew Bible in its original language to a certain degree or, if they required a translation, were still not fully comfortable in English.
Jewish English Bible translations | Background
The book contains Hebrew and Aramaic phrases which were copied to Hebrew letters by Newton, such as the phrase: "ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד" (English: "Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom for all eternity"). A Latin translation appears alongside the Hebrew and Aramaic phrases, together with additional explanations which are taken from the book "On Hebrew Abbreviations" by the Christian Hebraist, Johannes Buxtorf. The manuscript contains references to a variety of sources, including the Old Testament, the Midrash (interpreting biblical stories) of the sophos Hillel and Shammai, the Talmud, the Zohar, and Targum Jonathan. The dimension of the manuscript is 31 x 20 centimeters.
Notes on the Jewish Temple | Description
The encoded message from the author is that a Jew never stops learning Torah — when one finishes, one must start anew again. This message was appropriately chosen for Shavuot, since this holiday commemorates the Jews accepting the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. The language of the poem is Aramaic, – "terse, difficult Aramaic" —or even "never intelligible". Some prayerbooks, especially those intended for use in Israel, provide a running translation from the now arcane Aramaic into Hebrew.
Akdamut | Structure
There are numerous Biblical translations in Yiddish because it constituted the very beginning of its literature along with other the religious texts such as the Talmud. Scholars explained that this can be attributed to the fact that the Bible is a popular book among the Jewish communities in Germany and surrounding European countries and it was also a reference for the early education of young Jews there. There were different translation style such as the so-called Ashkenazi literary tradition, more popularly known as "taytsh-khumesh", which translated the Bible literally. Here, the words in the Hebrew original were translated into their Yiddish counterparts.
Bible translations into Yiddish | Translations
Orthodox and many other Jews do not believe that the revealed Torah consists solely of its written contents, but of its interpretations as well. The study of Torah (in its widest sense, to include both poetry, narrative, and law, and both the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud) is in Judaism itself a sacred act of central importance. For the sages of the Mishnah and Talmud, and for their successors today, the study of Torah was therefore not merely a means to learn the contents of God's revelation, but an end in itself. According to the Talmud, In Judaism, "the study of Torah can be a means of experiencing God".
Judaism | Rabbinic hermeneutics
The Septuagint (reputedly a product of Hellenistic Jewish scholarship) and other Greek documents translated , "Yehudi" and the Aramaic "" using the Koine Greek term "Ioudaios" (; pl. "Ioudaioi"), which had lost the 'h' sound. The Latin term, following the Greek version, is "Iudaeus", and from these sources the term passed to other European languages. The Old French "giu", earlier "juieu", had elided (dropped) the letter "d" from the Latin "Iudaeus". The Middle English word "Jew" derives from Old English where the word is attested as early as 1000 in various forms, such as "Iudeas", "Gyu", "Giu", "Iuu", "Iuw", "Iew".
Jew (word) | Development in European languages
A traditional translation of this kind is known as a "sharħ" (plural "shurūħ"), from the Arabic word for "explanation". These translations were generally used for teaching purposes rather than in the synagogue, and many of them were printed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Bible translations into Arabic | Jewish
The Torah is viewed by some as the literal word of God, dictated to Moses. According to the 12th-century Jewish scholar Maimonides, "The Torah that we have today is the one dictated to Moses by God". The Prophets, such as Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Jonah, are said to have heard and reported the word of God, while the Writings (the category that includes books such as Psalms, Lamentations and Chronicles) "were excluded from the prophetic collection because their inspiration appeared to be human rather than Divine". However, "In the broadest sense, the Scriptures taken as a whole, and subsequently the totality of Jewish spiritual teaching, fall within the connotation of God's word." Many modern Jewish scholars have an accommodating view of the nature of the Torah, not necessarily viewing it as strictly internally consistent.
Internal consistency of the Bible | Jewish
This began sometime in the 2nd or 3rd century BC, with the first portion of the Hebrew Bible, the Torah, being translated into Koine Greek. Over the next century, other books were translated (or composed) as well. This translation became known as the Septuagint and was widely used by Greek-speaking Jews, and later by Christians. It differs somewhat from the later standardized Hebrew (Masoretic Text). This translation was promoted by way of a legend that seventy separate translators all produced identical texts. The Latin Vulgate by Jerome was based upon the Hebrew for those books of the Bible preserved in the Jewish canon (as reflected in the Masoretic Text), and on the Greek text for the rest.
Biblical languages | Language of the Hebrew Bible
According to Rabbinic Judaism, the Oral Torah () was given to Moses with the Torah at Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb as an exposition to the latter. The accumulated traditions of the Oral Law, expounded by scholars in each generation from Moses onward, is considered as the necessary basis for the interpretation, and often for the reading, of the Written Law. Jews sometimes refer to this as the Masorah (Hebrew: ), roughly translated as tradition, though that word is often used in a narrower sense to mean traditions concerning the editing and reading of the Biblical text (see Masoretic Text).
Mishnah | The Mishnah and the Hebrew Bible
The Jews who lived in Egypt had originally immigrated from the Southern Levant. The Jews absorbed Greek, the dominant language of Egypt at the time, and heavily mixed it with Hebrew. The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures, appeared and was written by seventy Jewish Translators who were compelled to create the translation by Ptolemy II. That is confirmed by historian Flavius Josephus, who writes that Ptolemy, desirous to collect every book in the habitable earth, applied Demetrius Phalereus to the task of organizing an effort with the Jewish high priests to translate the Jewish books of the Law for his library.
Ptolemaic Kingdom | Jews
An English translation of all three volumes, with notes, essays and appendices, was translated and edited by Rabbi Gordon Tucker, entitled "Heavenly Torah: As Refracted Through the Generations". In its own right it can be the subject of intense study and analysis, and provides insight into the relationship between God and Man beyond the world of Judaism and for all Monotheism.
Abraham Joshua Heschel | "Torah min HaShamayim" (1962)
The New Jewish Publication Society translation of the Hebrew Bible is the second translation published by the Jewish Publication Society (JPS), superseding its 1917 translation. It is a completely fresh translation into modern English, independent of the earlier translation or any other existing one. Current editions of this version refer to it as "The Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation." Originally known by the abbreviation “NJV” (New Jewish Version), it is now styled as “NJPS.” The translation follows the Hebrew or Masoretic text scrupulously, taking a conservative approach regarding conjectural emendations: It avoids them completely for the Torah, but mentions them occasionally in footnotes for Nevi'im and Ketuvim.
New Jewish Publication Society of America Tanakh | History
One of the earliest known translations of the first five books of Moses from the Hebrew into Greek was the Septuagint. This is a Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible that was used by Greek speakers. This Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures dates from the 3rd century BCE, originally associated with Hellenistic Judaism. It contains both a translation of the Hebrew and additional and variant material. Later translations into Greek include seven or more other versions. These do not survive, except as fragments, and include those by Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion.
Torah | Greek
Moses Mendelssohn (a.k.a. Moses ben Menahem-Mendel and Moses Dessau; 1729–86) translated part of the Torah into German, which was published in Amsterdam in 1778. The translation was honored by some Jews and Protestants, while some Jews banned it. The whole Pentateuch and Psalms was published in 1783, and was appreciated even in Christian circles. His version of the Song of Solomon was posthumously published in 1788.
Bible translations into German | Mendelssohn
Rabbinic Judaism maintains that the books of the Tanakh were transmitted in parallel with an oral tradition, as relayed by God to Moses and from him handed on to the scholarly and other religious leaders of each generation. Thus, in Judaism, the "Written Instruction" ("Torah she-bi-khtav" תורה שבכתב) comprises the Torah and the rest of the Tanakh; the "Oral Instruction" ("Torah she-be'al peh" תורה שבעל פה) was ultimately recorded in the Talmud (lit. "Learning") and Midrashim (lit. "Interpretations"). The interpretation of the Oral Torah is thus considered as the authoritative reading of the Written Torah. Further, Halakha (lit. "The Path", frequently translated as "Jewish Law") is based on a written instruction together with an oral instruction.
Oral law | In Judaism
As a result of this gap, two types of Jews were created – those who accepted rabbinic literature and all that it implies, and those in the west who remained biblical Jews without the oral law that developed in the east. Also the eastern Jews (i.e. in the Land of Israel and eastward in the direction of Babylonia) who did not accept the Rabbis had the potential to accept them (because they knew Aramaic and Hebrew, in contrast to the western Jews who practically could not communicate because they lacked the knowledge of these languages). Rabbinic literature, such as the Mishnah, the Talmud and the Midrashim, penetrated into Western Europe only in the 8th and 9th centuries.
Doron Mendels | Zweierlei Diaspora. Zur Spaltung der antiken jüdischen Welt
The Hebrew Bible was translated from Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic into Jewish Koine Greek; the Targum translations into Aramaic were also generated during this era, both due to the decline of knowledge of Hebrew. Jews based their faith and religious practice on the Torah, five books said to have been given by God to Moses. The three prominent religious parties were the Pharisees, the Essenes, and the Sadducees. Together these parties represented only a small fraction of the population. Most Jews looked forward to a time that God would deliver them from their pagan rulers, possibly through war against the Romans.
Jesus | Judea and Galilee in the 1st century
Most Modern Orthodox Jews will agree that, while certain laws within the Oral Law were given to Moses, most of the Talmudic laws were derived organically by the Rabbis of the Mishnaic and Talmudic eras.
Jewish principles of faith | Oral Torah
Rabbinic tradition maintains that God conveyed not only the words of the Torah, but the meaning of the Torah. God gave rules as to how the laws were to be understood and implemented, and these were passed down as an oral tradition. This oral law was passed down from generation to generation and ultimately written down almost 2,000 years later in the Mishna and the two Talmuds. For Reform Jews, the prophecy of Moses was not the highest degree of prophecy; rather it was the first in a long chain of progressive revelations in which mankind gradually began to understand the will of God better and better.
Jewish principles of faith | Moses and the Torah
Some critics have said that this approach sometimes results in an English rendering that is as much an explanation as it is a translation. In this regard, one critic likened the ArtScroll volumes to "non-literal" targumim, which interpreted as well as translated the Bible.
Jewish English Bible translations | ArtScroll Tanach series
The Torah is not a document of mystery which must have its innate meaning revealed by a minority, but it is instead a document from which law must be created through the human activity of debate and consensus. Rabbinic literature was capable of recognizing differing opinions as having a degree of legitimacy (Yer. Ber. 3b), yet the community remains united and the ruling which is ultimately followed comes through proper jurisprudence. As such, Rabbi Eliezer's miraculous appeals represent a differing legal theory and were outside of proper jurisprudence which meant that they would not be followed. Instead the Jewish community followed the ruling of the majority in this issue and in others.
The Oven of Akhnai | Story
This was the second translation published by the Jewish Publication Society of America (JPS), superseding its 1917 version. It is a fresh translation into modern English, independent of the earlier translation or any other existing one. Current editions of this version refer to it as "The Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation." Originally known by the abbreviation “NJV” (New Jewish Version), it is now styled as “NJPS.” The translation follows the Hebrew or Masoretic text scrupulously, taking a conservative approach regarding conjectural emendations: It avoids them completely for the Torah, but mentions them occasionally in footnotes for Nevi'im and Ketuvim. Attested variants from other ancient versions are also mentioned in footnotes, even for the Torah, in places where the editors thought they might shed light on difficult passages in the masoretic text.
Harold Louis Ginsberg | Biography
The translation, which appeared in 1917, is heavily indebted to the Revised Version and American Standard Version. It differs from them in many passages where Jewish and Christian interpretations differ, notably in , where it has "young woman" as opposed to the word "virgin" which is used in most Christian Bibles. The translation was initiated in 1892 by the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the organization of Reform rabbis, and the original intention was to assign different books of the Bible to individual rabbis and scholars. A committee of editors would ensure quality and consistency. It became clear after several years that this method was hard to implement, and after more than a decade only the Book of Psalms had been sent to press.
Jewish Publication Society of America Version | Earlier translations
Other ancient Jewish translations, such as the Aramaic Targums, conform closely to the Masoretic Text, and all medieval and modern Jewish translations are based upon the same. Christian translations also tend to be based upon the Hebrew, though some denominations prefer the Septuagint (or may cite variant readings from both). Bible translations incorporating modern textual criticism usually begin with the Masoretic Text, but also take into account possible variants from all available ancient versions.
Biblical languages | Language of the Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible was mainly written in Biblical Hebrew, with some portions (notably in Daniel and Ezra) in Biblical Aramaic. From the 6th century to the 10th century AD, Jewish scholars, today known as Masoretes, compared the text of all known biblical manuscripts in an effort to create a unified, standardized text. A series of highly similar texts eventually emerged, and any of these texts are known as Masoretic Texts (MT). The Masoretes also added vowel points (called niqqud) to the text, since the original text contained only consonants. This sometimes required the selection of an interpretation; since some words differ only in their vowels their meaning can vary in accordance with the vowels chosen.
Bible translations | Hebrew Bible
Reflecting on the contribution of the Amoraim and Tanaim to contemporary Judaism, Professor Jacob Neusner observed: To study the Written Torah and the Oral Torah in light of each other is thus also to study "how" to study the word of God. In the study of Torah, the sages formulated and followed various logical and hermeneutical principles. According to David Stern, all Rabbinic hermeneutics rest on two basic axioms: These two principles make possible a great variety of interpretations. According to the Talmud, Observant Jews thus view the Torah as dynamic, because it contains within it a host of interpretations.
Judaism | Rabbinic hermeneutics
Jewish languages are the various languages and dialects that developed in Jewish communities in the diaspora. The original Jewish language is Hebrew, supplanted as the primary vernacular by Aramaic following the Babylonian exile. Jewish languages feature a syncretism of indigenous Hebrew and Judeo-Aramaic with the languages of the local non-Jewish population.
Jewish languages | Introduction
In 1976 Mesorah Publications, an Orthodox publisher, began publishing a series of bilingual Hebrew–English books of the Bible under its ArtScroll imprint. The "ArtScroll Tanach" series includes introductions to each book and a running commentary based on classic rabbinic interpretation. The Torah volumes were collected, revised, and published in a lone Hebrew–English bilingual volume as the "Stone Edition of the Chumash" (1993) with a short commentary in English. This "Chumash" also includes haftarot, Targum, and Rashi. The whole Tanach was published as the "Stone Edition of the Tanach" (1996). The English translation in the ArtScroll series relies heavily on the interpretation of Rashi and other traditional sources and religious law.
Jewish English Bible translations | ArtScroll Tanach series
In 1845, Leeser published his own Hebrew-English edition of the "Torah" in five volumes. It was the first such translation in the United States, and became the standard Bible for English-speaking Jews during the nineteenth century.
Isaac Leeser | Publisher
According to Rabbinic tradition, all valid interpretations of the written Torah were revealed to Moses at Sinai in oral form, and handed down from teacher to pupil (The oral revelation is in effect coextensive with the Talmud itself). When different rabbis forwarded conflicting interpretations, they sometimes appealed to hermeneutic principles to legitimize their arguments; some rabbis claim that these principles were themselves revealed by God to Moses at Sinai.
Judaism | Rabbinic hermeneutics
In 1951, Menachem Mendel Kasher translated the book of Genesis and his commentary, "Torah SheBaal Peh".
Jewish English Bible translations | Menachem Mendel Kasher
Furthermore, works of rabbinic literature (such as the Talmud) typically receive less attention than the Tanakh. Before the Enlightenment, virtually all Jews believed that the Torah was dictated to Moses by God. Since many parts of the Torah, specifically the laws and commandments, are written in unspecific terms, they also believed that Moses received an interpretation of the Torah that was transmitted through the generations in oral form till it was finally put in writing in the Mishnah and later, in greater detail, the Talmud. After the Enlightenment, many Jews began to participate in wider European society, where they engaged in study related to critical methods of textual analysis, including both lower and higher criticism, the modern historical method, hermeneutics, and fields relevant to Bible study such as Near Eastern archaeology and linguistics.
Torah study | Torah study by various Jewish movements
"The Living Torah" is a 1981 translation of the Torah by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. It was and remains a highly popular translation, and was reissued in a Hebrew-English version with "haftarot" for synagogue use. Kaplan had the following goals for his translation, which were arguably absent from previous English translations: Kaplan's work has been hailed as one of the best English translations of the Torah, next to Rabbi Hirsch's translation, because of his inclusion of the rabbinic elucidation of the text. Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, a prominent legal decider for the Orthodox community, is reported to have said that the translation is so good that if one is unable to read the Targum Onkelos, which is written in Aramaic, one can fulfill Shnayim mikra ve-echad targum, the obligatory weekly reading of the Torah twice in Hebrew and once with translation, with "The Living Torah"'s translation.
The Living Torah and Nach | "The Living Torah"
The English word Jew derives via the Anglo-French "Iuw" from the Old French forms "Giu" and "Juieu", which had elided (dropped) the letter "d" from the Medieval Latin form "Iudaeus", which, like the Greek "Ioudaioi" it derives from, meant both Jews and Judeans / "of Judea". However, most other European languages retained the letter "d" in the word for Jew; e.g. Danish and Norwegian "jøde", Dutch "jood", German "Jude", Italian "giudeo", Spanish "judío" etc. The distinction of translation of "Yehudim" in Biblical Hebrew between "Judeans", and "Jews" is relevant in English translations of the Bible.
Ioudaios | Language comparison
Jewish translations follow the Masoretic Text, and are usually published in bilingual editions with the Hebrew text facing the English translation. The translations often reflect traditional Jewish exegesis of the Bible. As translations of the Masoretic Text, Jewish translations contain neither the apocrypha nor the Christian New Testament.
Modern English Bible translations | Masoretic Text / Jewish translations
The Talmud holds that the Torah was written by Moses, with the exception of the last eight verses of Deuteronomy, describing his death and burial, being written by Joshua. Alternatively, Rashi quotes from the Talmud that, "God spoke them, and Moses wrote them with tears". The Mishnah includes the divine origin of the Torah as an essential tenet of Judaism. According to Jewish tradition, the Torah was recompiled by Ezra during Second Temple period. By contrast, the modern scholarly consensus rejects Mosaic authorship, and affirms that the Torah has multiple authors and that its composition took place over centuries. The precise process by which the Torah was composed, the number of authors involved, and the date of each author remain hotly contested, however.
Torah | Composition
The 3rd century BCE is supported for the Torah translation by a number of factors, including its Greek being representative of early Koine Greek, citations beginning as early as the 2nd century BCE, and early manuscripts datable to the 2nd century. After the Torah, other books were translated over the next two to three centuries. It is unclear which was translated when, or where; some may have been translated twice (into different versions), and then revised. The quality and style of the translators varied considerably from book to book, from a literal translation to paraphrasing to an interpretative style. The translation process of the Septuagint and from the Septuagint into other versions can be divided into several stages: the Greek text was produced within the social environment of Hellenistic Judaism, and completed by 132 BCE.
Septuagint | History
Exodus 20:7–9a (8-10a): is variously translated:
Jewish English Bible translations | An example verse
Mikra refers to the written Torah, Mishnah refers to the complementary oral Torah (the concise and precise laws dictating how the written Torah's commandments are achieved) and Talmud refers to comprehension of the oral and written law's unity and contemplation of the laws. The term "Talmud" used here is a method of study and is not to be confused by the later compilations by the same name. In keeping with this tradition, Jews established their own schools or hired private tutors for their children until the end of the 18th century. Schools were housed in annexes or separate buildings close to the synagogue.
Jewish education | History
Perhaps the first Orthodox translation into contemporary English was "The Living Torah" by Aryeh Kaplan which was published in 1981 by Moznaim Publishing. After Kaplan's death in 1983, "The Living Nach" was translated in the same style by various authors. "The Living Torah" is available online. Kaplan's translation is influenced by traditional rabbinic interpretation and religious law, an approach followed by many later Orthodox translators. It also reflects Kaplan's interest in Jewish mysticism. "The Living Torah" is also notable for its use of contemporary, colloquial English. For example, it reverses the usual distinction between "God" and "Lord", noting that in modern English "God" is more appropriate for a proper name.
Jewish English Bible translations | Living Torah and Nach
Torah (; , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") has a range of meanings. It can most specifically mean the first five books (Pentateuch or five books of Moses) of the Hebrew Bible. This is commonly known as the Written Torah. It can also mean the continued narrative from all the 24 books, from the Book of Genesis to the end of the Tanakh (Chronicles). If in bound book form, it is called "Chumash", and is usually printed with the rabbinic commentaries (""). If meant for liturgic purposes, it takes the form of a Torah scroll ("Sefer Torah"), which contains strictly the five books of Moses.
Torah | Introduction
The "Kitzur Shulchan Aruch" has been translated into English several times. Hyman E. Goldin's translation was published in 1961 with an attempt to eliminate errors and improve upon previous translations, making it "more comprehensible to scholar and layperson alike." Goldin's translation bore the English title "Code of Jewish Law", and it is thought that this title added to the popularity of the translated book, although the title is misleading. The 1980s and 90s saw the publication of two modernized translations, which included cross references similar to those in contemporary Hebrew editions as above: in 1987 Metsudah Publications released a translation by Rabbi Avrohom Davis, and in 1991 Moznaim Publishing released a translation by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger.
Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (book) | Translations
It was thus forbidden to write and publish the Oral Torah. Jewish tradition identifies the unbroken historical chain of individuals who were entrusted with passing down the Oral Law from Moses to the early rabbinic period: "Moses received the Torah and handed it down to Joshua; Joshua to the Elders; the Elders to the prophets; and the prophets handed it down to the men of the Great Assembly." Similarly, Maimonides provides a generation by generation account of the names of all those in the direct line that transmitted this tradition, beginning with Moses up until Ravina and Rav Ashi, the rabbis who compiled the Babylonian Talmud.
Oral Torah | Divine source and transmission
According to Rabbinic Judaism, the Oral Torah or Oral Law (, lit. "Torah that is on the mouth") represents those laws, statutes, and legal interpretations that were not recorded in the Five Books of Moses, the "Written Torah" (, lit. "Torah that is in writing"), but nonetheless are regarded by Orthodox Jews as prescriptive and given at the same time. This holistic Jewish code of conduct encompasses a wide swathe of rituals, worship practices, Godman and interpersonal relationships, from dietary laws to Sabbath and festival observance to marital relations, agricultural practices, and civil claims and damages. According to Jewish tradition, the Oral Torah was passed down orally in an unbroken chain from generation to generation until its contents were finally committed to writing following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, when Jewish civilization was faced with an existential threat, by virtue of the dispersion of the Jewish people.
Oral Torah | Introduction
Bible translations into Hebrew primarily refers to translations of the New Testament of the Christian Bible into the Hebrew language, from the original Koine Greek or an intermediate translation. There is less need to translate the Jewish Tanakh (or Christian Old Testament) from the original Biblical Hebrew, because it is closely intelligible to Modern Hebrew speakers. There are more translations of the small number of Tanakh passages preserved in the more distantly related biblical Aramaic language. There are also Hebrew translations of Biblical apocrypha.
Bible translations into Hebrew | Introduction
A French translation appeared 1850 in Paris in Hermann Ewerbeck's book "Qu'est-ce que la bible d'après la nouvelle philosophie allemande?" ("What is the Bible according to the new German philosophy?"). In 1879, historian Heinrich von Treitschke published an article "Unsere Aussichten" ("Our Prospects"), in which he demanded that the Jews should assimilate to German culture, and described Jewish immigrants as a danger for Germany. This article would stir a controversy, to which the newspaper "Sozialdemokrat", edited by Eduard Bernstein, reacted by republishing almost the entire second part of "Zur Judenfrage" in June and July 1881.
On the Jewish Question | History of essay publication
Thirty-one times in the Quran Jews are referred to as "people of the book." However before the rise of Islam, during Biblical times, Levitical scribes redacted and canonized the book of books. In the transition from what has been called "text to tradition," Efforts are made to try to reconstruct the archival repositories for these ancient textual collections in addition to sifrei Yichusin (genealogical texts). The Babylonian Talmud Baba Batra 14b-14b describes the order of biblical books. Indeed Rashi himself comments on the mishnaic statement, "Moses received the Torah from Sinai" by noting since the text does not say "ha-torah" (the written torah) but Torah (in general) this refers to both the written torah (24 books of the Old Testament) and the oral torah, which in Rabbinic theology are co-terminous, as suggested by Soloveitchik who notes a recent trend in the Artscroll generation to eclipse oral transmission with written translations.
People of the Book | Judaism
The "Me'am Loez" quickly became extremely popular in the Jewish communities of Turkey, Spain, Morocco and Egypt. With the decline of Ladino after the Holocaust, various translations were produced, and the work can still be found in many Orthodox synagogues to this day. In 1967, a Hebrew translation, "Yalkut Me'am Lo'ez", was produced by Rabbi Shmuel Kravitzer. The first English translation, the "Torah Anthology", was written (primarily) by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. This translation made use of both Yerushalmi's Hebrew translation as well as Ladino manuscripts—which Kaplan checked against Yerushalmi's translation. The resulting work introduced Me'am Lo'ez to the broader Ashkenazi world.
Me'am Lo'ez | Translations
Closeness with the God of Israel is through a study of His [[Torah]], and adherence to its [[mitzvot]] (divine laws). In traditional Judaism, God established a special [[Covenant (Israel)|covenant]] with a people, the people of Israel, at [[Mount Sinai]], giving the [[613 mitzvot|Jewish commandments]]. Torah comprises the written [[Pentateuch]] and the transcribed [[Oral Torah|oral tradition]], further developed through the generations. The Jewish people are intended as "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" and a "[[Light Unto the Nations|light to the Nations]]", influencing the other peoples to keep their own religio-ethical [[Seven Laws of Noah]]. The messianic era is seen as the perfection of this dual path to God.
Meaning of life | Judaism
Scholars of antiquity and the early middle ages do know about the canonization process of the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) and the redaction processes of the Talmudim and Midrashim. Thus the interplay between written text and orality is essential in trying to reconstruct the textual collections of Jewish texts in the middle ages and modernity. Rabbinic tradition has demonstrated a reverence, respect, and love for sacred divinely revealed "text," both written and oral in the process of the chain of transmission (the masorah). Indeed the metaphor of the book is marshaled in Talmudic Tractate Rosh Hashanah, that on Rosh Hashanah the fate of each person for the year is written, on Yom Kippur sealed, and on Hoshanah Rabbah the angels of the heavenly court deliver the verdict to God's archive.
People of the Book | Judaism
Hebrew is the liturgical language of Judaism (termed "lashon ha-kodesh", "the holy tongue"), the language in which most of the Hebrew scriptures (Tanakh) were composed, and the daily speech of the Jewish people for centuries. By the 5th century BCE, Aramaic, a closely related tongue, joined Hebrew as the spoken language in Judea. By the 3rd century BCE, some Jews of the diaspora were speaking Greek. Others, such as in the Jewish communities of Babylonia, were speaking Hebrew and Aramaic, the languages of the Babylonian Talmud. These languages were also used by the Jews of Israel at that time. For centuries, Jews worldwide have spoken the local or dominant languages of the regions they migrated to, often developing distinctive dialectal forms or branches that became independent languages.
Jews | Languages
Due to the conditions of exilic Jewry, the rabbinic leadership decided to permit the Oral Torah to be transcribed in writing and disseminated. The verse is interpreted to mean that "It is better that one letter of the Torah [the verse forbidding the writing down of the Oral Torah] should be uprooted than that the whole of the Torah be forgotten." ("Gittin" 60a-b, Elon "Jewish Law" 5:1, Louis Jacobs, p. 133 trans.) In the modern period, the dramatic character of the verse again enters the stage. The verse is among those utilized to justify rabbinic innovations in halakhah (Elon "Jewish Law" 14:3, 14:5).
It is time to work for the Lord | History
Originally, Jewish scholarship was oral and transferred from one generation to the next. Rabbis expounded and debated the Torah (the written Torah expressed in the Hebrew Bible) and discussed the Tanakh without the benefit of written works (other than the Biblical books themselves), though some may have made private notes (""), for example, of court decisions. This situation changed drastically, mainly as the result of the destruction of the Jewish commonwealth and the Second Temple in the year 70 and the consequent upheaval of Jewish social and legal norms. As the rabbis were required to face a new reality—mainly Judaism without a Temple (to serve as the center of teaching and study) and Judea, the Roman province, without at least partial autonomy—there was a flurry of legal discourse and the old system of oral scholarship could not be maintained.
Talmud | History
Yiddish is the Judaeo-German language developed by Ashkenazi Jews who migrated to Central Europe. Ladino is the Judaeo-Spanish language developed by Sephardic Jews who migrated to the Iberian peninsula. Due to many factors, including the impact of the Holocaust on European Jewry, the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries, and widespread emigration from other Jewish communities around the world, ancient and distinct Jewish languages of several communities, including Judaeo-Georgian, Judaeo-Arabic, Judaeo-Berber, Krymchak, Judaeo-Malayalam and many others, have largely fallen out of use. For over sixteen centuries Hebrew was used almost exclusively as a liturgical language, and as the language in which most books had been written on Judaism, with a few speaking only Hebrew on the Sabbath.
Jews | Languages
The infinite potential of meaning in the Torah, as in the "Ein Sof", is reflected in the symbol of the two trees of the Garden of Eden; the Torah of the Tree of Knowledge is the external, finite Halachic Torah, enclothed within which the mystics perceive the unlimited infinite plurality of meanings of the Torah of the Tree of Life. In Lurianic terms, each of the 600,000 root souls of Israel find their own interpretation in Torah, as "God, the Torah and Israel are all One". As early as the 1st century BCE Jews believed that the Torah and other canonical texts contained encoded messages and hidden meanings.
Kabbalah | Linguistic mysticism and the mystical Torah
The Oral Torah consists of interpretations and amplifications which according to rabbinic tradition have been handed down from generation to generation and are now embodied in the Talmud and Midrash. Rabbinic tradition's understanding is that all of the teachings found in the Torah (both written and oral) were given by God through the prophet Moses, some at Mount Sinai and others at the Tabernacle, and all the teachings were written down by Moses, which resulted in the Torah that exists today. According to the Midrash, the Torah was created prior to the creation of the world, and was used as the blueprint for Creation.
Torah | Introduction
The first known English translation of the Mishneh Torah was made in 1832 by Herman Hedwig Bernard, professor of Hebrew at Cambridge University. Bernard's work is entitled ""The Main Principles of the Creed and Ethics of the Jews Exhibited in Selections from the Yad Hachazakah of Maimonides, with A Literal English Translation, Copious Illustrations from the Talmud, &c."". Bernard's work includes a glossary of words and concepts which appear in the Mishneh Torah. The 1888 work "Dat Vadin" by Rabbi Moses Frankel, published in Odessa, is a Russian Language summary of the Mishne Torah. In 1944, Philip Birnbaum published an excerpted translation published as "Maimonides' Mishneh Torah: Yad Hazakah".
Mishneh Torah | Translations