Having trouble viewing this email? Click here July 4, 2022 – 5 Tamuz 5782

A new piece has been added to the mosaic that is starting to take shape on the instigation of the memorandum of understanding for the Talmud Translation, which was signed in Rome in 2011, under the auspices of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, between the Italian Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Education, University and Research, the National Research Council, Union of the Italian Jewish Communities, and Italian Rabbinical College. 
After Rosh Hashanah, the first tractate whose translation was completed, and then returned to the Italian audience of Berakhot, Ta’anit, Kiddushin, Hagigah e Beitza, it is now the time of Megillah (Esther scroll). This is also the seventh tractate to be printed, curated by Rabbi Michael Ascoli. “If reading rules exist, it means that there is a scripture to read from. It may sound obvious, but it was not at all for the Megillah”, he points out in an introductory text which already offers us valuable insights.  
After all, the tractate disseminates a multitude of them. “For example, in the fourth chapter, which is dedicated to the halakhot for the ceremony at the synagogue”, suggests the Rabbi, who works in Haifa as an engineer and previously was the assistant of the Chief Rabbi in Rome and minister of the Community of Modena. “A very interesting topic - he continues – also thinking to the very particular period that we have just experienced. In fact, with the emergence of Covid, at least in Israel, ceremonies were transferred to the courtyards, to the streets, or to outdoors spaces. Among so many critical issues, there is a positive element to consider: the fact that the tefillah is now something which is even more publicly available. Now, as the emergency has passed, it is right that prayer should come back to the synagogues. Places with their own holiness, “small sanctuaries” as we were taught. But with the challenge to remain as welcoming as we have been until recently. A difficult period that, at least I hope, should have taught us something”. 
The second tractate is curated by Rabbi Ascoli. “An exciting and empowering challenge”, he talks about his involvement in this challenge. He is also excited about the plurality that marks it, with many professionals called to make their own contribution and to work as a team”. A one-of-a-kind translation project. “Question, answer, objection, reply. An organized material yield which follows one of the basic premises stated at the beginning. As for the schematization of some pieces: reproductions and synthesis in tabular form are not found in other translations and are perfectly in line with the Italian method to approach and study texts”. A method, as the Rabbi reminds us, “that has always been methodical and rigorous”. Then, a translation, “useful for those who don’t understand the original text, but also for those who understand it and can have a greater understanding than before”. 
Other tractates are in the works in recent months by a team of almost 70 scholars among expert translators, translators in training, instructors, content and editorial reviewers, supported by a team of ten IT experts and by an administrative staff of two units. The president of the union for the Talmud translation is rabbi Riccardo di Segni, the Rome Chief Rabbi, while his director is Clelia Piperno. The tractates are published by the publisher Giuntina.  
 
Translation by Erika Centazzo, revised by Maria Cianciuolo, students at the Secondary School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, interns at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities – Pagine Ebraiche. 

By Rabbi Michael Ascoli 

In the book The tractate of Megillah concerns mainly the rules of public reading and writing of the biblical Book of Esther, the most known among the Megillot or scrolls of Tanakh, also known by definition as “Megillah”. If reading rules exist, it means that there is a scripture to read from. It may seem obvious, but it was not at all for the Megillah. In fact, a very interesting passage can be found in which " They said: Esther sent to the Sages: Write me for future generations and canonize my book as part of the Bible.” (7a) The acceptance of the Sages, the passage continues, did not occur without obstacles, so much so that the dispute over the inclusion of Esther’s Megillah in the biblical canon continued until the time of the Masters of the Mishna. 
In our passage we can find such different opinions to the point of extending the discussion to other Megillot as well. This may explain why the tractate opens precisely with the rules concerning the public reading of Esther’s Megillah, establishing evidently its inclusion in the biblical canon. Similarly, it may explain why the reading of the Megillah receives so much space where the other rules of Purim - feast, exchange of food and gifts to the poor - have much less (practically none if we consider the Mishna without the Gemara). 
Once it was established that the Megillah is part of the biblical canon, it was necessary to point out that its status, like that of all the other texts of the Tanakh that are not part of the Torah, is nevertheless different from that of the books of the Torah. It is perhaps in this light that the teachings regarding the sewing of the different sheets of parchment that make up the scroll of the Torah and the Megillah, respectively, can be read, and even certain rules such as the lawfulness of reading the Megillah while seated or other rules. 
A similar topic to that of the inclusion of the Megillah in the biblical canon, and therefore the obligation to read it, is the problem of the translation of biblical texts, both regarding the translation into Aramaic that was done orally for the benefit of the participants at public readings, and with regard to the lawfulness of translating the biblical texts into other languages. 
Regarding the first issue, we can find in our tractate a list of passages that should not be translated in public, and some not even read; on the second issue, however, there is an interesting tradition concerning the origin of the translation of the Torah so-called "of the Seventy": the scholars in charge of the work, "in the heart of each of whom the Lord, blessed be He, put His counsel", deliberately changed the translation of some passages from the original text for reasons of expediency. 
Thus, the problem of translating is an ancient issue, as is the special status accorded by some Masters to Greek, namely the language of world culture. The tractate is one of the shortest and relatively easy in the Talmud. The first chapter, which by length represents more than half of the entire tractate, opens by establishing the days on which the Megillah is to be read. There is here a peculiarity: Purim is the only festivity in the Jewish calendar whose celebration is prescribed at different times depending on location.

Translation by Maria Cianciuolo, revised by Erika Centazzo, students at the Secondary School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, interns at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities – Pagine Ebraiche. 

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Le dernier livre de Daniel Mendelsohn, "Trois anneaux : un conte d'exils" (Flammarion), est un vrai chef-d'œuvre. Un livre si lié aux deux précédents (Les Disparus, 2007 ; Une Odyssée, 2017) qui on peut penser qu'il s'agit d'une œuvre unique, un commentaire qui se développe sur lui-même. Ici la réflexion se déroule autour de la stratégie préférée de cet auteur qui me fascine de plus en plus chaque jour : la digression. Avec la distinction nécessaire, je trouve que Mendelsohn est le Perec du troisième millénaire. Il oscille entre le roman, l'essai philosophique, la réflexion sur le potentiel de l'écriture "après Auschwitz (dans son cas, après Belzec)", sur la vie "mode d'emploi". Mais attention au titre, les trois anneaux ne font pas référence à Lessing, aussi mentionné, mais à trois digressions biographiques, l'une plus belle que l'autre : trois anneaux d'or, on pourrait dire pour souligner la valeur. Trois vies, dont on nous donne le mode d'emploi : Erich Auerbach, qui écrit son chef-d’œuvre à Istanbul, exilé de l’Allemagne ; François Fenelon, qui publie une suite ingénieuse de l'Odyssée ; et un autre exilé, W. G. Sebald, dont ses narrations désordonnées explorent le thème de la nostalgie, de l'exil et du voyage.
 
*Social historian of ideas

Traduction d’Alice Pugliese, révisée par Erika Centazzo, étudiantes à l’École Supérieure de Langues Modernes pour les Interprètes et les Traducteurs de l’Université de Trieste, stagiaires dans le bureau du journal de l’Union des communautés juives italiennes – Pagine Ebraiche. 

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La France est le pays dont la communauté juive se sent le moins en sécurité, en dépit des actions menées par l’État, selon un index portant sur 12 pays européens publié mardi dans le cadre d’une rencontre organisée par l’Association juive européenne (EJA).
Cet index de la «qualité de vie juive», réalisé à partir de sondages et études, croise quatre ensembles de données : le sentiment de sécurité ressenti par la communauté juive, l’attitude de la population vis-à-vis des Juifs et d’Israël, l’antisémitisme et enfin la «performance du gouvernement» (statistiques sur les incidents itualatio, lieux de mémoire de l’Holocauste, budget itual à la sécurité des sites juifs, liberté de culte et itualation des pratiques juives itua que la circoncision et l’abattage itual, etc…). 

*Cet article a été originellement publié sur Le Figaro le 27 juin 2022.

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