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Each month the journal Sh’ma posts three or four essays from the print publication. To read all of the essays—which create a “conversation-in-print”—click on “New Subscription” above. In the December issue of Sh’ma, we’ve invited scholars and other writers to think about how various classical Jewish texts as well as some of their own work begins and concludes, and how they get from one point to the next. We open with Charlotte Fonrobert musing on how she lives within the seemingly odd meanderings of the Talmud; elsewhere Norman Cohen reflects on the Bible’s ending and how different Judaism might have been had it ended with Joshua; Jane Kanarek looks at siyyum, the ritual of ending the study of a talmudic tractate; David Nimmer reflects on copyright protection; Adam Kirsch on saying something new about Disraeli; and two essays address the critical role commentary plays in writing and interpretation. Other writers explore similar questions in the context of other forms of cultural creation – how visual arts and contemporary expression serve as ways of engaging Jewish text. As writers—and readers—know, few books begin quite as emphatically as the Bible, and few canonic texts start and end with the inconclusiveness of the Talmud, where the “final word is left unsaid.” All writers and readers recognize how significant beginnings and endings are; how determinative these markers can become. If you want the full issue, please order a subscription HERE. Writing the Jewish ConversationCharlotte Fonrobert: To this day, I am grappling with trying to understand the magic attraction that the talmudic text exerted on me during my first encounter as a Protestant seminary student. Norman Cohen: Why does the Torah end with the death of Moses rather than the culmination of the Israelites’ journey from slavery to the land? Furthermore, why leave the people at the end of Deuteronomy bereft of their leader Moses, upon whom they depended throughout the 40 years in the desert, fragile and lacking confidence as they prepare to enter Canaan to do battle with “giants”? Jane Kanarek: The celebration marking the conclusion of studying a talmudic tractate has come to be known as a “siyyum,” a completion. Because this celebrates such deep engagement with our ongoing interpretive tradition, should we widen our conception of which books are appropriate to celebrate through a festive meal? Michael Carasik: As the creator, translator, and editor of the Commentators’ Bible series, I try to hide in plain sight. As a translator, I am not merely standing between the Torah and its English-speaking readers; I’m also standing between those readers and the eleven commentators who are trying to be only slightly less transparent. |
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