Paris Mayor Given Steinsaltz Talmud, Praises Rabbi As Doctor of the Faith

Seven and a half centuries after King Louis IX ordered all copies of the Talmud burned, the mayor of Paris was presented last week with the first French edition of the Steinsaltz Talmud.

At a ceremony attended by Chief Rabbi Rene Samuel Sirat and other French rabbis, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz gave the first volume of the French translation of the Talmud to Mayor Jacques Chirac.

The mayor, in turn, gave Steinsaltz the Medal of Paris.

During his speech, Chirac told the audience, “There is in the Talmud a particularly striking scene: The greatest of all prophets, Moses, listens to the teaching of the illustrious Rabbi Akiva and is astonished when he hears comments that he himself, the master par excellence, did not know.

“One cannot express in a better way the idea that the Talmud is an everlasting re-reading of the unfathomable Torah of Moses by qualified scholars,” the mayor said.

He called Steinsaltz “one of those doctors of the faith who, thanks to their intelligence, knowledge and wisdom enlighten the path of the Jewish people.”

In a reference to one of the greatest of all Jewish commentators, Chirac told Steinsaltz, “You are regarded as one of the leading rabbinical figures of this century and the worthy successor of Rashi of Troyes.”

The French version of the Steinsaltz Talmud is published by Jean-Claude Lattes with the help of the Fonds Social Juif Unifie, or the United Jewish Social Fund.

According to the bookshop Le Bibliophane, which is located in the ancient Jewish quarter of Paris, the first 150 available copies of the French edition of the Steinsaltz Talmud were sold out in a couple of hours.

The French version opens with the tractate Ketubot, or marriage contracts, and Steinsaltz’s handbook to the Talmud.