Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz seen in a 1988 photo taken in Jerusalem. Steinsaltz, a renowned Judaism scholar died on August 7, 2020 in Jerusalem from pneumonia at the age of 83. He was born in 1937 in what was then the British mandate of Palestine, to a secular family. His father, an atheist, was nevertheless, intolerant of ignorant atheists, and determined that his son have a solid Jewish education. By the time Steinsaltz studied at Hebrew University he was enamored with mathematics, physics, and chemistry. He thought of all his courses, mathematics had the closest affinity to religious studies because of the precision, reasoning, and elegance of expression. At the age of 30 he undertook a decades-long task of translating the Babylonian Talmud, vast texts, written in Aramaic in what is now Iraq, between the years 50 and 500. The Talmud consists of Jewish legal and ritual knowledge as well as commentary, but Steinsaltz translated them into modern Hebrew and English, and did so in a style that made them more accessible to a wider Jewish readership. They have now been translated into Russian and French as well. In raising the level of knowledge and consciousness, his goal was to `Let my people know,` to paraphrase Moses. Steinsaltz was also a prolific writer, authoring 60 books on diverse subjects, even including nature. For his singular contributions he was awarded the Israel Prize in 1988, the highest civilian award his country can bestow.
|
