Adin Steinsaltz: The Man Who Made the Talmud Accessible

Opening the Locked Library

For most of Jewish history, the Talmud was a locked library. Its pages were dense with unpunctuated Aramaic text, its arguments required years of training to follow, and its references assumed a body of knowledge that only full-time scholars possessed. The average Jew — even one with a solid Jewish education — could not open a volume of Talmud and read it independently.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (1937–2020) changed that. Over forty-five years, he translated, punctuated, vocalized, and commented on the entire Babylonian Talmud — all 2,711 double-sided pages. It was the most ambitious project in Jewish publishing since the printing of the Talmud itself in the sixteenth century, and it opened the gates of Talmud study to millions who had been locked out.

A Secular Genius Turned Rabbi

Steinsaltz was born Adin Even-Israel on August 11, 1937, in Jerusalem, to secular parents. His father was a communist intellectual; the household was culturally Jewish but not observant. Young Adin was a prodigy — he earned his bachelor’s degree at sixteen, studied physics and mathematics at Hebrew University, and seemed destined for an academic career in the sciences.

But something pulled him toward Torah. He became religiously observant as a young man, studied at yeshivot, and was ordained as a rabbi. His secular education — unusual in the rabbinic world — gave him a distinctive perspective: he understood how non-specialists read texts, what they needed to know, and where they got lost.

At twenty-three, he became the youngest school principal in Israel’s history. But his true calling was already forming: he wanted to make the Talmud readable.

The 45-Year Project

In 1965, Steinsaltz published the first volume of his Hebrew Talmud translation. The format was revolutionary:

Vocalization: He added vowels to the consonantal text, making pronunciation possible for non-experts.

Punctuation: He broke the dense, run-on text into sentences and paragraphs.

Translation: He provided a flowing modern Hebrew translation of the Aramaic, printed alongside the original.

Commentary: He wrote a running commentary explaining context, terminology, and background — who is speaking, what they are arguing about, and why it matters.

Illustrations: He included diagrams, maps, and images to clarify references to plants, animals, buildings, and rituals.

The project took forty-five years to complete. The final volume was published in 2010. The full set runs to dozens of volumes and represents one of the most sustained individual scholarly achievements in modern history.

The English Edition

In partnership with Koren Publishers, Steinsaltz’s work was adapted into an English edition — the Koren-Steinsaltz Talmud — which includes the original Aramaic text, Steinsaltz’s Hebrew translation, English translation, commentary, and supplementary material. This edition has become the standard English Talmud for students, study groups, and the Daf Yomi (daily page) global study cycle.

For the first time, an English speaker with no Aramaic and no prior Talmud training could pick up a volume and study independently. The democratization of Talmud study that Steinsaltz envisioned had been achieved.

The Rebbe’s Influence

Steinsaltz had a close relationship with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who encouraged his Talmud project from its earliest stages. The Rebbe’s conviction that Torah learning should be accessible to every Jew aligned perfectly with Steinsaltz’s mission. Steinsaltz’s later involvement with Chabad institutions reflected this connection.

Beyond the Talmud

Steinsaltz was not only a Talmud translator. He wrote over sixty books on Jewish theology, mysticism, prayer, and philosophy. His works on Kabbalah and Hasidic thought made esoteric teachings accessible to general audiences. His book The Thirteen Petalled Rose is one of the most widely read introductions to Jewish mysticism.

He founded educational institutions in Israel, Russia, and the United States, and was instrumental in reviving Jewish learning in the former Soviet Union after the fall of communism.

Legacy

Rabbi Steinsaltz died on August 7, 2020, at eighty-three. He was once asked to summarize his life’s work. He said: “I never had any grand idea of what my own thing is about. All I wanted was to be able to learn one more page of Talmud.”

That modesty disguised an achievement of staggering ambition: he took the most complex, most important, and most inaccessible text in Judaism and gave it to the world. Because of Steinsaltz, the Talmud is no longer a locked library. The door is open. All you need to do is walk in.