Book of Legends/Sefer Ha-Aggadah: Legends from the Talmud and Midrash
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| Book of Legends/Sefer Ha-Aggadah: Legends from the Talmud and Midrash | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The first complete English translation of the Hebrew classic Sefer Ha-Aggadah brings to the English-speaking world the greatest and best-loved anthology of classical Rabbinic literature ever compiled. First published in Odessa in 1908-11, it was recognized immediately as a masterwork in its own right, and reprinted numerous times in Israel.
The Hebrew poet Hayim Nahman Bialik and the renowned editor Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, the architects of this masterful compendium, selected hundreds of texts from the Talmud and midrashic literature and arranged them thematically, in order to provide their contemporaries with easy access to the national literary heritage of the Jewish people -- the texts of Rabbinic Judaism that remain at the heart of Jewish literacy today. Bialik and Ravnitzky chose Aggadah -- the non-legal portions of the Talmud and Midrash -- for their anthology. Loosely translated as "legends", Aggadah includes the genres of biblical exegesis, stories about biblical characters, the lives of the Talmudic era sages and their contemporary history, parables, proverbs, and folklore. A captivating melange of wisdom and piety, fantasy and satire, Aggadah is the expressive medium of the Jewish creative genius. The arrangement of this compendium reflects the theological concerns of the Rabbinic sages: the role of Israel and the nations; God, good and evil; human relations; the world of nature; and the art of healing. Here, the reader who wants to explore traditional Jewish views on a particular subject is treated to a selection of relevant texts at his fingertips but will soon become immersed in a way of thinking, exploring, and questioning that is the hallmark of Jewish inquiry. "Whatever the imagination can invent is found in the Aggadah," wrote the historian Leopold Zunz, "its purpose always being to teach man the ways of God." The Book of Legends/Sefer Ha-Aggadah, now available in william Braude's superbly annotated translation, enables modern Jews to experience firsthand the richness and excitement of their cultural inheritance. |
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| Reader Reviews Below Sorted by Newest First | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 08-24-07 | 5 | 0\1 |
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This is a beautiful work of scholarship and literature. It is for those with spiritual/religious interests, especially Jewish, but not only Jewish. It presents the colorful and evocative stories of these ancient writings, without the theology or the commandments. Anyone who cares about myth and legend would find it deeply rewarding, I think. It is a touching and triumphant labor of love by the scholar who translated it into English.
(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-01-04 09:28:39 EST)
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| 08-23-07 | 5 | 1\2 |
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This is a beautiful work of scholarship and literature. It is for those with spiritual/religious interests, especially Jewish, but not only Jewish. It presents the colorful and evocative stories of these ancient writings, without the theology or the commandments. Anyone who cares about myth and legend would find it deeply rewarding, I think. It is a touching and triumphant labor of love by the scholar who translated it into English.
(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-03-05 08:38:35 EST)
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| 11-10-06 | 5 | (NA) |
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This book is great. For anyone curious about Judaism, It is informative and easy to navigate.
(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-05-08 10:14:43 EST)
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| 11-09-06 | 5 | (NA) |
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This book is great. For anyone curious about Judaism, It is informative and easy to navigate.
(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-02-09 16:58:59 EST)
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| 07-28-06 | 5 | (NA) |
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The written records of spoken traditions of the Jewish past gives enlightenment to present understanding of the wisdom of those who have gone before. The book is not a factual account of history but that of the thoughts of the past and some beliefs that have developed into what we believe today.
(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-07-10 06:38:36 EST)
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| 11-05-05 | 5 | 1\1 |
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This is a truly great event, not just a book. Now, anyone can get in touch with their ancestors. Curious kinds of people will be fascinated by this publication. The main themes of philosophy are all inside this book that is a legend in its own write. But - more than philosophy - there is so much heart in here it is hard to imagine.
outzens zen. (Review Data Last Updated: 2007-07-10 06:38:36 EST)
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| 02-09-05 | 5 | 3\3 |
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Bialik and Ravnitsky monumental editing work selected the aggadic or story portion of the Gemara, and organized them in accordance with themes. They succeed in making the Gemara come alive for many who would otherwise not know it. Their work came at a transition time when many Jews were leaving Traditional learning. Essentially Bialik had a program for educating Jews in the sources, in the Tradition so that they would be fully part of despite there not having learned in the Yeshiva world.
This English translation should widen the circle of those who study and learn this work. I would add that there is another English translation of parts of this work. It is done by my late teacher and friend Rabbi Chaim Pearl whose retelling of legends of the sages is unmatched in its clarity and insight. (Review Data Last Updated: 2007-07-10 06:38:36 EST)
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| 06-15-04 | 5 | 4\4 |
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No other collection of rabbinic writings concerning the sages, their ethics, and their stories reaches the breadth or depth of this collection. This book is not meant to be read cover to cover but to be perused and explored bit by bit. This reference work has endured for over 100 years as Sefer HaAggada in Hebrew and captures the same enduring quality in the English.
(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-07-10 06:38:36 EST)
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| 11-20-02 | 5 | 4\5 |
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In our overly scientific day and age, which has greatly influenced how we approach the Sacred, specifically Sacred texts, this book fills in the lacunae of the void.
In this book can be found the rabbinical answers to the nagging questions found in the Torah, questions that still linger today but which tend to be filled in with more historical/'scientific' answers than stories that lift the spirit. Are these stories to be found in this book 'true'? To ask the question misses the point. They elevate the spirit and lift us out of the mundane and bring back the art of telling the story to reveal deeper insights into the mysteries of life. The rabbis were curious and inquisitive souls and what we have here is a compendium of the diverse answers they often gave. Some of the stories are fantastical, others whimsical and others simply bizarre, but they never cease to captivate and never cease to enlighten. A vital resource for any library. (Review Data Last Updated: 2007-07-10 06:38:36 EST)
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