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Jewish Books - Artscroll

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Primary publications

ArtScroll publishes books on a variety of Jewish subjects. The best known is probably an annotated Hebrew-English siddur ("prayer book") (the best-selling The ArtScroll Siddur), its Torah translation and commentary, a series of translations and commentaries on books 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
• 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)

Popular acceptance

Mesorah Publications received widespread acclaim in response to their ArtScroll line of prayer books, 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 (prayer book) 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 prayer book 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 [celebration]") 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 died, 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 .