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ArtScroll is an imprint of translations, books and commentaries from an Orthodox Jewish, more specifically a Haredi, perspective published by Mesorah Publications, Ltd., a publishing company based in Brooklyn, New York. Its general editors are Rabbis Nosson Scherman and Meir Zlotowitz.
Primary publications
ArtScroll publishes books on a variety of Jewish subjects. The best known is probably an annotated Hebrew-English siddur ("prayerbook") (the best-selling The ArtScroll Siddur), its Torah translation and commentary, a series of translations and commentaries on books of the of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), and an English translation and elucidation of the Babylonian Talmud. Other publications include works on Jewish Law, and novels and factual works based on Jewish life or history. Over 800 books have been published to date.
According to the ArtScroll Web site, their "classics", or cornerstone publications that they hold in high regard, are:
- The Schottenstein Edition Talmud (elucidated below)
- The Safra Edition French Talmud (a French version of the above)
- The Stone Edition Humash
- The Stone Edition Tanakh
- The Rubin Edition Prophets (A Stone Chumash - style publication for The Prophets segment of the Hebrew Bible)
- The Sapirstein Edition Rashi
- The Yad Avraham Mishnah Series
- The ArtScroll Complete Siddur (more below) and their companions
- The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Prayer Book Series
- The Kestenbaum Edition Tikkun (a book used for practicing the Torah reading)
Works in progress
- The Schottenstein Edition of the Jerusalem Talmud
- Ramban on Chumash
- Midrash Rabbah
- Ein Yaakov
Popular acceptance
Mesorah Publications received widespread acclaim in response to their ArtScroll line of prayerbooks, starting with The Complete ArtScroll Siddur, Ed. Nosson Scherman, 1984. This work immediately gained wide acceptance in the Orthodox Jewish community, and within a few years became the best-selling Hebrew-English siddur (prayerbook) in the United States. It featured beautiful layout and editing, and offered the reader detailed notes and instructions on most of the prayers. Versions of this prayerbook were then produced for the High Holidays, and the three pilgrimage festivals Passover, Sukkot and Shavuot.
In 1993 Mesorah Publications published The Chumash: The Stone Edition, a Torah translation and commentary arranged for liturgical use. It became popularly known as The ArtScroll Chumash, and has since became the best-selling English-Hebrew Torah translation and commentary in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries. To a lesser degree, it has some usage in the non-Orthodox Jewish community. Although they are not used as the official Torah commentaries by any non-Orthodox synagogues, many Reform and Conservative Jews have purchased copies.
Schottenstein Edition Talmud
Mesorah has a line of Mishnah translations and commentaries, and followed up with a line of Babylonian Talmud translations and commentaries, The Schottenstein Edition of The Talmud Bavli ("Babylonian Talmud"). These have received widespread acclaim throughout the Orthodox community, and are also used by many non-Orthodox Jews. In late 2004, the final volume was published, giving a 73 volume English edition of the entire Talmud, only the second complete translation of the Talmud into English (the other being the Soncino Talmud published in the United Kingdom during the mid-twentieth century).
The total cost of the project is estimated to have cost US$21 million, most of which was contributed by private donors and foundations. Some volumes have up to 2 million copies in distribution, while more recent volumes have only 90,000 copies currently printed. A completed set was dedicated on February 9, 2005, to the Library of Congress, and the siyum ("completion ") was held on March 15, 2005, the 13th yahrzeit of Jerome Schottenstein, at the New York Hilton.
The first volume, Tractate Makkoth, was published in 1990, and dedicated by Mr. and Mrs. Marcos Katz. Jerome Schottenstein was introduced to the publication committee shortly thereafter. He began by donating funds for the project in memory of his parents Ephraim and Anna Schottenstein one volume at a time, and later decided to back the entire project. When Jerome passed away, his children and widow, Geraldine, rededicated the project to his memory in addition to those of his parents. The goal of the project was to, "open the doors of the Talmud and welcome its people inside."
The text generally consists of two side-by-side pages: one of the Aramaic/Hebrew Vilna Edition text, and the corresponding page consists of an English translation. The English translation has a bolded literal translation of the Talmud's text, but also includes un-bolded text clarifying the literal translation. (The original Talmud's text is often very unclear, referring to places, times, people, and laws that it does not explain. The un-bolded text explains these situations to name a few. The text of the Talmud also contains few prepositions, articles, etc. The un-bolded text also takes the liberty of inserting these parts of speech.) The result is an English text that reads in full sentences with full explanations, while allowing the reader to distinguish between direct translation and a more liberal approach to the translation. (This also results in one page of the Vilna Talmud requiring several pages of English translation.) Below the English translation appear extensive notes including diagrams from sources ancient to modern.
Mesorah and the Schottenstein family have also begun a Hebrew version of the commentary to the Babylonian Talmud of benefit to yeshiva students who use mainly Hebrew and to Israeli scholars, since in Israel Hebrew is the national language, and have planned an English translation of the Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud) as well, only the second such translation in existence .
Editorial policy
Works published by Mesorah under this imprint adhere to a perspective appealing to most Orthodox Jews, but especially to Orthodox Jews who have come from less religious backgrounds, but are returning to the faith. Due to difficulties in making certain books for the diverse customs of Sephardic Jewry, most of the prayer books are geared to the Ashkenazic custom. In more recent years, Artscroll has collaborated with Sephardic community leaders in an attempt to bridge this gap. Examples of this include a Sephardic Haggadah published by Artscroll, written by Sephardic Rabbi Eli Mansour, and the book Aleppo, about a prominent Sephardic community in Syria.
In translations and commentaries, ArtScroll works with the traditional framework of Halakha (Jewish law) accepting midrashic accounts in a serious fashion and at times literally, and generally disregard (and occasionally disagree with) textual criticism, in line with its Haredi perspective.
Criticism
This line of books has come under extensive criticism from many scholars (both Orthodox and non-Orthodox) on a number of points:
- Midrash sources are at times represented as factual and/or historical, even those which have traditionally been interpreted as being potentially allegorical or metaphorical.
- Non-Orthodox scholars and a few Orthodox scholars note that ArtScroll deliberately ignores all facets of modern critical historical scholarship from the last 200 years.
- Some biographies of important Jewish figures include photos that have been modified to conform to stereotypical images of Haredi Jews.
- The translation of many texts, especially the Hebrew and Aramaic in both the liturgies and the non-liturgical works (e.g. the Tanakh and the Talmud), are occasionally so literal they lose much of the flavor of the original text.
- Halakhic citations in ArtScroll's works tend to reflect the normative practice of the right wing of American Orthodox Jewry, and the popular series is even believed by some to have influenced the recent rightward move of Orthodox Judaism in the world. "Halakha according to Rabbi ArtScroll" is a term used jokingly by many non-Orthodox and Modern Orthodox Jews when referring to the rulings cited throughout the series.
- The Torah translation has been criticised by a few Modern Orthodox scholars, e.g. B. Barry Levy, and by some non-Orthodox scholars, for mis-translating the text. The dispute comes about because the editors at Mesorah Publications consciously attempted not to present a straight translation of the text, but rather to smooth out differences between the plain meaning of the text and later interpretations of the text by medieval biblical commentators such as Rashi. Other alleged motivations for mistranslations include the above-mentioned aversion of modern critical historical scholarship. An example of this is their Stone edition Chumash translating the Ten Commandment's "אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים" "other gods," as "the gods of others" (which would be "אֱלֹהֵי אֲחֵרִים"). Critics claim that translations like these are done to cover up what modern scholarship considers evidence of monolatrism in early Israelite religion.
It is important to note, however, that the ArtScroll library is explicitly sectarian, and is not meant to represent a measured scholarly view. ArtScroll does not make the statement that the positions its editors favor represent the only legitimate ways of ruling on a halakhic issue or rendering a text.
In much of the Haredi and Modern Orthodox community, Mesorah Publications is credited with spurring a movement that is "modernizing" and arguably saving Orthodox (and by religious and demographic extension, American) Jewry. Now, several Orthodox Jewish publishers publish with similar typefaces, outlooks, etc. Artscroll's influence extended to the non-Orthodox movements as well. A new siddur and commentary published by Conservative Judaism's Rabbinical Assembly, Or Hadash, was noticeably inspired by Artscroll.
Bibliography
- Rabbi B. Barry Levy. "Our Torah, Your Torah and Their Torah: An Evaluation of the ArtScroll phenomenon.". In: "Truth and Compassion: Essays on Religion in Judaism", Ed. H. Joseph et al. Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1983.
- B. Barry Levy. "Judge Not a Book By Its Cover". Tradition 19(1)(Spring 1981): 89-95 and an exchange of letters in Tradition 1982;20:370-375.
- Jacob J. Schacter, "Facing the Truths of History" Torah u-Madda Journal 8 (1998-1999): 200-276 (PDF file).
- Jacob J. Schacter, "Haskalah, Secular Studies, and the close of the Yeshiva in Volozhin in 1892" Torah u-Madda Journal