Presence

Menachem Butler points to the NY Times article about the presentation of a complete translation of the Schottenstein edition of the Talmud (aka, the Artscroll Gemara) to the Library of Congress.

 There are a few interesting tidbits in this article. The money quote, which is also the title of this post, is from R. Adin Steinsaltz (oh how I wish it were from R. Nosson Scherman; it would have been so perfect): "My idea was that I'm trying to substitute a book for a living teacher." I believe a link to Rupture and Reconstruction is in order. And that's all I have to say about that.

The other interesting question that is raised is the nature of the translation done by Artscroll. I'm not an expert in the academic translation of ancient texts by any measure (although I took a class in college...), but I would guess that the method used by Artscroll would not meet the Standards and Practices statutes of, for lack of a better term, academic scholarly translations. The Artscroll translation is not, in essence, a translation so much as an interpretation. Artscroll stays true to the current accepted meaning of the text, rather than investigating and translating the linguistic usage in the cultural/historical context of the Talmud into a contemporary vernacular. Additionally, there is little in the way of current knowledge from extra-Talmudic source incorporated into the commentary, other than the somewhat confused but well-intentioned geographic musings of 11th century French rabbis who happen to think Babylonia is upside down (cf. Rashi, 4th perek of Kiddushin).

The question which the article, and pretty much everyone else, fail to ask is how this affects, augments or decreases the "authenticity" of this translation to the reader, particularly if he resides outside the community in which it was produced and draws influence from. Are there other organizations performing the type of translation/interpretation on ancient texts? How does the academic community view such works (not that they set the bar, but as a comparison)? If you have answers, please let me know. It does occur to me that this style of translation might be considered, or be more akin to, the process that the Gemara itself goes through when attempting to understand the statements of the Mishna, in which case, the project takes on an even greater level of significance in terms of the tradition of the Oral Law.

Either way, you've got to love the picture of R. Nosson Scherman with a Steinsaltz Gemara.