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•
Is Steinsaltz A Heretic?
HAIM SHAPIRO
Special to The Jewish News
SALE $49,
and $69, Reg. $55 and $79. Our
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0
n the surface, work
is continuing as
usual in the small
stone building in Jerusalem
that houses Adin Steinsaltz's
Israel Institute for Talmudic
Publications. But the
members of the staff clearly
feel that, following the recent
massive verbal attack on
their patron by Israel's ultra-
Orthodox community, they
are in a state of siege.
This feeling, they quickly
add, is not shared by Rabbi
Steinsaltz himself. If
anything, they note, he has
intensified his work on the
popular editions of the
Babylonian and Jerusalem
Talmuds that have made him
famous. The staff, however,
has placed a protective ring
around their 'beleaguered
leader, shielding him from
journalists.
The attack had been
building up for a few months,
but it rose to the surface a
several weeks ago, when Rab-
bi Eliezer Schach, head of
Bnai Brak's influential
Ponevezh Yeshivah, issued a
ban on all of Rabbi Stein-
saltz's works. The ban was
Rabbi Steinsaltz:
based on what Rabbi Schach
Trying to get on with his work.
considered to be heretical
views in three of Rabbi Stein-
saltz's books, Biblical Images,
interviews, he has talked of
Women in the Bible and The
his leftist upbringing, on the
Essential Talmud,
fact that he had read Marx
all
available in English. The - and Freud before he ever
main objections were to Rab-
opened a page of Talmud. Un-
bi Steinsaltz's description of
til now, one of his greatest
the Biblical hero, Samson, as
assets has been his apparent
"a young thug," and to the
ability to bridge several
Song of Deborah as "blood-
worlds with apparent ease.
thirsty?' Rabbi Schach added
But the ban on his works
that all the works of anyone
seemed to be cutting him off
who had written as Rabbi
from the world of ultra-
Steinsaltz had, must be
Orthodoxy, while his own
shunned.
retraction seemed to limit his
Rabbi Schach's ban follow-
freedom in the academic
world.
ed a more limited denuncia-
tion by the rabbinical court of
According to those around
Jerusalem's Eda Haredit.
him, Rabbi Steinsaltz himself
That body had condemned
sees the episode as a minor
the three books in question,
distraction in his major
undertaking, which is to
but had not extended its ban
to Rabbi Steinsaltz's other
bring the world of Talmud to
works, such as the Steinsaltz
those for whom it has former-
Talmud, his opus magnum.
ly been closed.
In reply to the latest ban,
He has been doing this by
Rabbi Steinsaltz issued a
producing a new edition of the
public apology, admitting his
Talmud — vocalized, • punc-
error, advising the public not
tuated, translated into
to use the offending books
Hebrew and with a new com-
and offering to return the
mentary. So far, 20 volumes of
purchase price to anyone who
the Babylonian Talmud and
brought these books back to
one volume of the Jerusalem
him.
Talmud have appeared, the
The entire episode, and par-
product of some 20 years of
work.
ticularly the retraction, seem-
ed bizarre, to say the least, in
About half a million
connection with a personali-
volumes have been sold in
ty who numbers among his
Israel, North and South
friends such figures as Giulio
America and Europe. The
-
SALE $349,
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chairs $129, Reg. $195.
SALE $549, Reg. $690. Our modular
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10 "111111rm
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SALE $299, Reg. $375. Computer
SALE $349, Reg. $450. Leather
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center in white, oak or teak.
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1989
VISA'
0011 FAM ► Ly
SUGGESTS 11-IAT
MEMORIAL
CONTRIBUTIONS
BE MADE
TO -THE
AMERICAN
CANCER
fsoctEry66
Andreotti, Daniel Moynihan,
Conor Cruise O'Brien and Sir
Isaiah Berlin, and who has
been a resident scholar at
Yale and at the Princeton In-
stitute for Advanced Study
and a recipient of the Israel
Prize.
In articles about him in
Time
and
Newsweek
magazines, The New York
Times and The Washington
Post, Rabbi Steinsaltz has
been heralded as a genius,
perhaps the greatest figure
since Rashi in elucidating the
mysteries of the Talmud. In
•
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