{"collection":"Judaism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/jud/bar/index.htm","path":"jud/bar/index.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/jud/bar/index.htm","text":"...The decisions for the Sabbath, peace-offerings, and trespasses,\nare as mountains hanging on a hair; because the verse is small but\nthe decisions are many. Jurisprudence, and the Temple service,\ncleanness and uncleanness, and illegal connections, have their\nown foundations; they, they are the body of the law.--Feast Offerings, I, 8\n(p. 170).\nThis is one of the first substantial abridged translations of the Talmud,\npublished in the latter half of the nineteenth century.\nBarclay, a sympathetic Christian, states in the Preface\nthat he studied the Talmud with learned Rabbis during a ten-year's\nresidence in the Holy land.\nThe task of translating the Talmud, which takes up more shelf space than\nthe Britannica, would be daunting, and is probably beyond what\none person is capable of in a lifetime.\nSo early solo translators such as Barclay had to prioritize.\nWhile Rodkinson translated the entirety of the\nFestivals and Jurisprudence sections of the Talmud, including the commentary,\nBarclay took a more representative approach.\nHe translated the Mishna (primary text)\nof seventeen tracts across the entire span of the Talmud,\nas well as a commentary on the Tabernacle.\nThis includes a number of tracts not in the Rodkinson translation, specifically,\nBlessings, Sabbatical Year, Daily Sacrifice, Measurements, Leprosy, and Hands.\nOthers, particularly Fathers and Sanhedrin\nare also available in multiple translations at sacred-texts.\nThe final feature of this book is\na detailed plan of the Temple complex with\nextensive architectural notes.\nBarclay does a straightforward translation of each text, and keeps his\npersonal opinions to a few footnotes.\nThis is a meaningful and significant modern Talmud translation, and has\nbeen cited many times in other works, although seldom seen.\nPRODUCTION NOTES: I obtained a used ex-libris\ncopy of this long out-of-print book,\nbut the paper had become so brittle that it literally was\nfalling apart as I scanned it.\nI only debind books as a last resort, but there was no other way in this case.\nI had to carefully remove each page from the binding,\nusing a ruler and a box cutter, and place it onto the scanner by hand.\nThis added a substantial amount of time to the project.\n--J.B. Hare, April 8, 2008.","title":"The Talmud Index","type":"page"}