The Steinsaltz Talmud Reference Guide
I just had to look up something in The Talmud-The Steinsaltz Edition: A Reference Guide. Luckily I was given one as a gift a number of years ago, but does anyone know why this hasn’t been reprinted? Used copies are selling for around $70 to $150 or more. While published by Random House, the copyright is held by The Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications.
February 13th, 2008 at 1:24 am
As far as I can tell, the Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications has little interest in making money. Their decision to produce a CD-ROM version of the Hebrew Steinzalts edition of the Talmud was genius. But their pricing was outrageous.
February 14th, 2008 at 1:25 am
Actually, that volume was remaindered (and at one point was going for $5 — and even were given to Jason Aronson’s publisher house (now defunct, alas) for distribution at a low price.
Then Random House released it in paperback, and it still didn’t spell.
And that’s a pity, because no matter what one things of Steinsaltz (and his subtle Chabad references), the reference volume was uniformly regarded as outstanding. Even Neusner says nice things about it.
So, Random House has it OOP. Now, for me, the tragedy was that only four tractates were translated in the Random House series — which pretty much sealed its fate in the English speaking world — the Artscroll became the defacto standard.
March 1st, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Does anybody use artscroll as a “de facto standard” when quoting Bavli in translation?