His last name most often is followed by "Edition of the Talmud," his monumental project of translating and reinterpreting that collection of early authoritative writings that form the basis of Judaism. He has written about Kabbalah ("The Thirteen Petalled Rose"), zoology and theology.
He also is leader of Israel's recently reconstituted Sanhedrin, or Jewish legal tribunal, only the second of its kind in the past 1,600 years.
Jewish scholar is in city to discuss book on Tanya
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz has written 60 books, established schools in Israel and the former Soviet Union, received the Israel Prize — that nation’s highest honor — and been called by Time magazine a “once-in-a-millennium scholar.”
His last name most often is followed by “Edition of the Talmud,” his monumental project of translating and reinterpreting that collection of early authoritative writings that form the basis of Judaism. He has written about Kabbalah (“The Thirteen Petalled Rose”), zoology and theology.
He also is leader of Israel’s recently reconstituted Sanhedrin, or Jewish legal tribunal, only the second of its kind in the past 1,600 years.
He will be in Pittsburgh tonight to speak at 8 p.m. at Squirrel Hill’s Lubavitch Center about his most recent book, the second volume of “Learning From the Tanya,” his definitive commentary on the moral and mystical teachings of the classic Kabbalistic, or Jewish mysticism, work.
The Tanya was written more than 200 years ago by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, a small town in imperial Russia. Its publication was during the time when the Hasidic movement was spreading through Eastern Europe and the area now called Belarus. Hasidism strives for consciousness of one’s inner essence in relation to Torah, man and divinity.
Rabbi Steinsaltz describes it as a self-improvement book, a work that reveals the root causes of human failings and provides comprehensive solutions.
“Non-Jews may be bewildered by Tanya,” the rabbi said in a phone interview from New York, “but some of the basic notions are notions people can apply to themselves. Most people are doomed to a life of effort and struggling. [But] people usually want that after some time, all their problems will be solved.
“The Tanya says the chances of achieving it are practically nil. What you have is a challenge. It’s not a sweetness-and-light message. It’s a different type of glory to keep on struggling. There is a lot of sunshine. There is not eternal sunshine.”
Rabbi Steinsaltz’s participation in the 71-member Sanhedrin has been a different type of struggle.
For one, its re-emergence has been treated more like a curiosity in Israel than a revolutionary judicial court. In March, for example, the Sanhedrin declared that the plan for disengagement from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank violated Torah law and was null and void. The disengagement proceeded, however, during the summer.
Some scholars argue that Talmudic teachings require that the court, which ideally would be Judaism’s top legal assembly, not be reconstituted until the Jewish messiah arrives.
