Maimonides' Introduction to the Talmud: A Translation of Maimonides Introduction to His Commentary on the Mishna With Complete Original Hebrew Text

by Zvi Lampel (Translator)

This lucid and elegant English translation of Maimonides' introductory work to the Talmud has become a classic. Here Maimonides explains the origins, aims, methodology and spirit of the Talmud and delineates all the Rabbinic sages of the period. He covers such fundamental issues as the powers of the Rabbis to add to the original laws of the Torah, why dissensions from the accepted rulings of the Jewish law were permanently recorded in the Talmud, and the criteria for the determination of a true prophet. This edition features annotations, charts, indexes and a glossary, as well as Maimonides' complete original Hebrew text.

Essential reading for any student of the Talmud!

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

Reviews

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

The translator states that his very unusual transliteration style is intended to ensure that novices to the subject matter will pronounce the given Hebrew terms with a correct Ashkenazi accent, which he purports to be the most correct way to do so. In truth I would expect the result to be some hilarious mispronunciations by those novices.

Otherwise, the translation seems fine and the author's notes are useful. Maimonides's own words are of course a brilliant explanation of the fundamentals of the Oral Law, with some special treatment on the relevance of aggadic midrash and an explanation of how some disagreements came about in the Jewish chain of tradition.