The scientific organization and comprehensive exposition in accessible form of the Talmud has a twofold importance for us Jews. It is important in the first place that the high cultural values of the Talmud should not be lost to modern minds among the Jewish people nor to science, but should operate further as a living force. In the second place, the Talmud must be made an open book to the world, in order to cut the ground from under certain malevolent attacks, of anti-Semitic origin, which borrow countenance from the obscurity and inaccessibility of certain passages in the Talmud.
He probably had a Soncino. ;-)
ReplyDeleteFrud had a french translation of the Zohar so your suggestion is not far fetched
ReplyDeleteEinstein in 1920's had an assistant who helped him with math and whom he paid out of his own pocket. This man was Yaakov Gromer and in his youth he was a student of R Hayim the Brisker Rav. A pretty amazing story, you can google his name for details.
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