Is there life after Talmud?
Ask Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, esteemed scholar, educator and commentator, and the answer would likely be a resounding, “Don’t be ridiculous.”
Steinsaltz has already earned immortality in the Jewish world with his monumental translation of the Talmud, an endeavor that took him decades to complete. Known as the Steinsaltz Edition, the multi-volume bestseller has been translated into Russian, Spanish and English, and is arguably the Talmud of choice across the globe.
But that was then, and this is now. The rabbi’s newest project is volume 3 of his groundbreaking commentary on the Tanya, the classic work of Kabbalah and Chassidism, now in English. For scholars of Jewish religious text, this is akin to the release of an eighth Harry Potter book.
Of course, for Steinsaltz, the Tanya contains a lot more magic.
“It’s a tough book,” the rabbi said from New York while on a national speaking tour. “And not only intellectually. When you read it at first, you don’t see how demanding it is, but read it a second time and you see it makes all kinds of broad demands on the reader. There is fire under it.”
That speaking tour brings Steinsaltz, 70, to the Bay Area, for a pair of local appearances in San Francisco and Palo Alto.
Written in 1797 by Lithuanian-born Rabbi Schneur Zalman (also known as the Alter Rebbe), the Tanya is a kind of guidebook for living a virtuous Jewish life, as well as a disquisition on Kabbalah. With this work Zalman created one of the few extensive writings undertaken during the days of classical Chassidism (most others are compilations of lecture notes).
In this latest edition Steinsaltz dissects chapters 27-37 of the Tanya line-by-line, sometimes word-by-word. “What I try to do,” he says, “is take the contents and hopefully make it yield more to those who read it now. It’s not really a commentary, but a bridge to the contemporary reader.”
He crosses that bridge using contemporary references. For example, to explain the Tanya’s take on evil, Steinsaltz uses the metaphor of a virus and its stripped-down genetic code. In expounding on God’s glory, he refers to the spatial trickery of artist M.C. Escher to show how sometimes up can be down and down can be up.
Naturally, Steinsaltz greatly admires the Alter Rebbe, who was a disciple of Chassidism’s founder Yisroel ben Eliezer (better known as the Baal Shem Tov).
“Zalman was a person who had bouts of external ecstasy,” Steinsaltz says, “yet he had a side of really rational thinking. [The Tanya] was very meticulously edited. He once told somebody he sat for a week pondering whether to add a “‘vav’ or not.”
As Steinsaltz shares those meticulous habits, it makes his large body of work all the more amazing. In addition to the Talmud and the Tanya, he has written some 60 books, including his famous exploration of Kabballah, “The Thirteen Petaled Rose,” as well as volumes on Jewish mysticism, Torah, the Pirke Avot (in Chinese) and even his own Passover Haggadah.
A recipient of the Israel Prize, Steinsaltz was born in Jerusalem to secular parents, going on to study physics and chemistry at the Hebrew University. He soon turned his eye for scholarship to traditional Judaism. Today he oversees a worldwide learning network headquartered at his Aleph Society in Jerusalem.
Though a deeply observant Jew, Steinsaltz retains a measure of skepticism, a handy trait when undertaking any scholarly inquiry.
“Some people believe in religion, some in atheism,” Steinsaltz says. “Both are believers. If you’re a believer you are stuck where you are. But what happens if you are a skeptic? You try to find answers. You begin to search. A little fish discovers there’s a big ocean.”
Once this North American tour ends, Steinsaltz will return home, where new projects and a long conga line of students await him. No one can accuse the rabbi of easing into retirement, not when there’s so much more Jewish learning to attend to.
Says Steinsaltz: “If you find a way to make the day stretch to 40 hours, notify me.”
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz will speak 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 5 at the JCC of San Francisco, 3200 California St., S.F. This event is presented in partnership with Chabad of S.F. Tickets: $8-$10. Info: (415) 292-1200 or www.jccsf.org. He will also speak 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 6 at Kresge Auditorium on the Stanford University Campus in Palo Alto. This event is co-sponsored by the Albert L. Schultz JCC and Hillel of Stanford. Tickets: $18. Info: (650) 852-3501 or www.paloaltojcc.org.