Reply To: Is Midrash Rabbah translated by Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman kosher?

Home Forums Seforim, Books, & Reading Is Midrash Rabbah translated by Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman kosher? Reply To: Is Midrash Rabbah translated by Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman kosher?

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ylavon
Participant

This Midrash translation is part of the Soncino series of translations. About kashrus it’s hard to say anything. The Soncino group were graduates of “Jews’ College of London,” definitely not yeshivah-grade people. They kept Shabbos, but ….

The big problem is competence, or rather their total lack of it. They had only the most superficial knowledge of their texts, only the most rudimentary learning skills, only the vaguest notion of what Chazal were trying to teach. You certainly will not get an accurate idea of the Midrash from this work.

For that matter, given the tremendous depth and subtlety of Midrash, and its close relation to Hebrew grammar and orthography (from which midrashim are derived), even I, a veteran yeshivah scholar and moreh tzedek in my town, would not agree to attempt a translation.

I am a multi-lingual translator of some fifty years’ experience, most of it spent dealing with sefarim. After all these years, my only advice to everyone is, “Learn Hebrew, no matter how hard it is for you, and never use a translation.” There is a reason the Torah was given in leshon hakodesh — the same reason the world was created with it. Learn your native language and don’t compromise.