Izzy´s eBook Library - The Babylonian Talmud - Tractate Berakot by A Cohen

The Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Berakot
Subtitle: translated into English for the first time, with introduction, commentary, glossary and indices
Author: Cohen, A. (Abraham), 1887-
Publisher: Cambridge [Eng.] : The University press
Year: 1921
Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT
Language: English
Call number: srlf_ucla:LAGE-3153602
Digitizing sponsor: MSN
Book contributor: University of California Libraries
Source: Archive.org

This book has an editable web page on Open Library.

The difficulty of making the Talmud intelligible to the general reader is very great indeed. It is sometimes said that it defies translation. Certain it is that a bald, literal rendering would not convey its meaning. This is due principally to the fact that the G e mdra is not a literary composition, but a compilation of precis notes which were intended to be amplified and explained by oral teaching. The Talmud re-echoes the Schools of Palestine and Babylon and has been preserved in the Jewish Schools of subsequent generations. The translator is therefore compelled to fill up gaps to obtain the proper sequence of thought, and for this purpose I have resorted to the use of square brackets to mark off what is not in the text. I have endeavoured to keep as close to the original as possible, so that the student may be helped who wishes to read the Tractate by the aid of the translation. In the notes I have deemed it necessary to include the kind of comment with which the teacher would furnish his pupil. Although abundance of footnotes is distracting, it could not be avoided in the present work without sacrificing necessary guidance. But the warning must be uttered that no translation, however excellent, and no Commentary, however lucid, can make the Talmud easy reading. The reasoning is usually so acute and the style so concise, that to follow the drift of a discussion demands the closest attention.

(from the foreword)