President Rivlin Hosts Event Marking 70 Years of the Talmudic Encyclopedia

President Reuven Rivlin on Monday 23 Teves, in his official residence, hosted an event to mark the 70th anniversary of the Talmudic Encyclopedia. During the event, the Director of the Talmudic Encyclopedia Rabbi Prof. Avraham Steinberg presented President Rivlin with a special volume of the Talmudic Encyclopedia. The President thanked Professor Steinberg and noted that as a 6-year-old child he received the first edition of the Talmudic Encyclopedia.

The Talmudic Encyclopedia project was initiated 70 years ago by the late Rabbi Meir Bar Ilan and the late Rabbi Shlomo Zevin. Thirty-six volumes of the encyclopedia had been published to date, containing more than 1,300 detailed entries. The Talmudic Encyclopedia was currently run by Rabbi Prof. Avraham Steinberg, a doctor and an Israel Prize laureate.

President Rivlin began his remarks by saying, “For dozens of generations, the Talmud has been the beating Jewish heart – apart from the bible it is perhaps the most influential text to have shaped the character, life, and mind of the Jewish people, as well as influencing word philosophy.”

The President went on to note the complexity of the Talmud and the importance of its accessibility to the public, as the Talmudic Encyclopedia ensured. President Rivlin said, “The Talmud’s main dogma is that life is like an infinite Beis Medrash – made up of questions; arguments-pro and arguments-against; dialogues; and a deep understanding that ‘these and those are the words of the living G-d’. The truth is in the multiple views and opinions, and the ability to learn from all mankind. Unfortunately, and perhaps due to this inexhaustible depth, for the majority of the population the Talmud remains sealed and locked. The Talmud, which is an ‘endless sea’ of data, continues to remain abstruse. For this purpose the Talmudic Encyclopedia was established. The internal language, spoken among the sages throughout the ages gets a clear and more orderly face – a face that combines modern thinking alongside Talmudic and Halachic literature.”

The President reiterated that the great challenge of our time was to make the Talmud accessible to all walks of life in Israel, and said, “Any Jewish girls and a boys growing up in Israel deserve to be exposed to this Talmudic treasure.” The President added, “The great revolution that you’re taking part in, is reaching all the people of the nation, and not just the Torah students and the scholars. And that is your power. I want to congratulate all the partners in this important project, and to ask you to continue to light and build, work hard, thoroughly and continuously in order to finish the work that our great leaders began.”

The President turned to Prof. Steinberg and asked that work be undertaken to make the Talmud even more accessible by creating a concise volume. The President said, “I know that you are working on the Internet, and through other means to make the Talmud more accessible and I would like you to consider preparing a small encyclopedia, in one concise volume, that will be easily available to each and every person. It should be a volume by which each youth in Israel today could encounter the endless wisdom of the Talmud. I want to thank you for your wonderful work.”

Rabbi Steinberg spoke at the event and said, “This is one of the most important enterprises for Israel and the preservation of Jewish tradition. I hope that in less than a decade we will complete editing the encyclopedia, which we have worked on for the last 70 years. We come to the end of an era in which all the volumes will be prepared and I hope that every Jewish home in Israel and abroad will have the encyclopedia.”

Chief Rabbi David Lau Shlita also spoke at the event and said, “The Talmudic Encyclopedia has the greatest virtue of the Talmud itself – learning and connecting. The Talmud is shared and connects us all and has the special ability which can be found in any value, no matter where the interpreter is from, a special common ground called the Torah. The Jewish people was dispersed 2000 years ago, throughout the world. Once we got were, we discovered that we all have the Torah in common and that the differences are insignificant. What connected the people as one is the Talmud, which engaged Jewish scholars both in the East and the West. The Encyclopedia assured everyone’s ability to learn, understand, educate and revert back to the origins of the Talmud and understand it.”

Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Shlita, also addressed the event and said, “The Encyclopedia has done a great thing and whoever reads it will learn and become familiar even with the Talmudic specifications which appear within it. It helps us all – children in school, in Yeshiva, adults of all ages. Rabbi Zevin, one of the founders of this project, had the ability to summarize entire topics into a few paragraphs. That is talent! The founders of this enterprise worked a great deal. They spread the word of the Torah around the world. It is impossible to live without this book. It is a credit to many.”