One of the biggest joys I have as the publisher of The Jewish Link is the opportunity to meet, speak with and build relationships with Jewish leaders and incredible personalities from all over the world. This past Sunday, I had the privilege of sitting with Rabbi Dr. Avraham Steinberg (HaRav Steinberg), on the heels of his busy weekend where he served as the scholar in residence at Teaneck’s Cong. Bnai Yeshurun and delivered four well-attended talks/shiurim on topics ranging from modern genetics and war according to halacha to his interactions with gedolei hador on medicine and halacha.
I first became aware of HaRav Steinberg’s work nearly 30 years ago when I was learning at YU/RIETS in the mid-1990s. I heard a shiur by Dr. Fred Rosner (a leading Jewish medical ethics professor and renowned doctor who later translated HaRav Steinberg’s seven-volume Encyclopedia Hilchatit Refuit from Hebrew into English as the Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics). Throughout the shiur, Dr. Rosner repeatedly mentioned HaRav Steinberg’s thinking and opinions on the halachic topic of the shiur (I believe it was the halachic definition of brain death). Dr. Rosner’s high praise and clear affection for his knowledge and erudition made a deep impression on me back then and I resolved to learn more about him. And as the years went by, I don’t think there was a single shiur that I ever heard or listened to that touched upon the topics of Jewish medical ethics or some area of medicine and halacha that didn’t mention or quote HaRav Steinberg.
At the beginning of our interview, I noted that at the age of 77, HaRav Steinberg is still very much in the midst of a busy career. A practicing pediatric neurologist at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, the director of medical ethics at Shaare Zedek and the co-chairman of Israeli National Council on bioethics, he also happens to be a 1999 winner of the Israel Prize, among many other awards and accolades. His work has been published in literally hundreds of scientific and halachic journals, papers, seforim, etc.
The focus of our interview was on one of his more recent roles, and possibly the most challenging of all, as the director of Yad HaRav Herzog and the lead editor of the Encyclopedia Talmudit/Talmudic Encyclopedia. For those who don’t know, the Encyclopedia Talmudit is an encyclopedia in Hebrew that aims to summarize the halachic topics of the Talmud in alphabetical order. Each entry includes the opinions of the Geonim, Rishonim and Acharonim as well. (Note: I grew up in a home that had at least 10 of the bright yellow volumes of the Encyclopedia Talmudit and I was taught by my father and other rebbeim over the years that if one wanted to look up any major topic in Shas or halacha and wanted to get a relatively concise overview of where the major mekorot/sources were, one had to consult with the Encyclopedia
Talmudit.)
HaRav Steinberg gave me a brief history of the Encyclopedia Talmudit and explained to me why a project that began in the middle of World War II is still active and ongoing. The idea behind the Encyclopedia came from Rav Meir Bar Ilan, the son of the Netziv, who enlisted Rav Shlomo Yosef Zevin to prepare a list of 2,500 topics or entries. HaRav Steinberg noted as a testament to Rav Zevin’s genius that despite the passage of nearly 80 years, hardly any topics have been added to Rav Zevin’s initial list of 2,500. Work began in the war years and the first volume was published in 1946. As of today, just over 50 volumes have been produced and the printed volumes are up to the letter “nun” in alphabetical order.
As HaRav Steinberg explained to me, the research, editing and publishing process after Rav Meir Bar Ilan’s passing slowed considerably and while the first volumes had over 200 entries, the later volumes had as few as 30 entries and each volume took longer and longer to edit and publish, with publishing slowing from one per year to one every three years. Once he took over in 2006, he resolved to change and speed things up, with a goal of publishing two volumes per year, but it was not a simple process. By 2014, nearly 900 entries remained and HaRav Steinberg met with and was challenged by prominent philanthropists from Toronto, Dr. Dov and Nancy Friedberg, to finish all of the remaining entries within a 10 year period, ending in 2024. With the Friedbergs’ generous support, HaRav Steinberg added more staff and writers and made changes to how the editors and writers worked together—without losing out on quality—to be able to hit the goal of finishing in 2024.
He explained to me quite proudly that they are almost at the goal of finishing all 900 remaining entries and he estimates that there will be a total of around 80 volumes, once they are all published. However, the Friedbergs never committed to support the full Encyclopedia Talmudit budget and he and his chief development officer, Benny Gur, who was with us on Sunday, have been traveling the Jewish world to seek funds for dedicating additional volumes of the Encyclopedia Talmudit, for which a sponsorship costs in the $100,000 range to smaller mini-volumes or “otzars” on specific topics which are much less. In addition to the recent trip to Teaneck, he also recently spent a weekend in January in the Five Towns and is planning to come back to the New York/New Jersey area in the months ahead. He is actively looking for full partners—either individuals or shuls or communities—to help him achieve his goals in funding the expanding efforts of the Encyclopedia Talmudit. He emphasized to me that he was not only looking for gvirim and major philanthropists but also for support at all levels.
HaRav Steinberg and Mr. Gur then gifted me with the most recently published and timely special volume which is entitled “Milchama L’Or HaHalacha’’ and deals with the subject of war from a halachic perspective and offers material taken from the entries for “Milchama/War” and “Orchei Milchama” from the 49th volume. The sefer is dedicated in memory of Nachal Brigade commander Col. Jonathan Steinberg, who died in battle on Oct. 7. Three thousand of the seforim were published and donated by the Encyclopedia Talmudit to the IDF for the IDF rabbinate and officers to be able to have on hand and study as needed. HaRav Steinberg noted that he is looking for the funds to publish and donate thousands more throughout the country as well.
Before parting, I asked him about some of his interactions with the various gedolim when it came to the Encyclopedia Talmudit and he shared with me two anecdotes. In the first, he related meeting with Rav Berel Povarsky of Ponovezh who told him that he was happy to meet him as he disagreed with something written in the Encyclopedia Talmudit and wanted to discuss it. HaRav Steinberg felt this was a good thing. A second anecdote involved the late Rav Gershon Edelstein zt”l, who was happy to tell HaRav Steinberg that he owned every volume of the Encyclopedia and that he didn’t need to bring him the latest volume as a gift, since he bought it already. He also told HaRav Steinberg that the Encyclopedia Talmudit was critical in preparing for any shiur klali.
We also talked a bit about technology and the need for printed volumes in a digital age. He was proud to note that the Encyclopedia Talmudit is fully accessible on the primary current digital Torah reference libraries such as Otzar HaChochma and the Bar Ilan Responsa Judaic Library.
I left the meeting feeling a bit more knowledgeable and learned, I think, but more importantly, I left in absolute awe of all that HaRav Steinberg is doing in so many different spheres, and especially with the Encyclopedia Talmudit. He seems to have no plans or thoughts of retiring or slowing down. May Hashem give him only the strength to continue and achieve all of the goals that he has set for the Encyclopedia Talmudit and himself!
To learn more about the Encyclopedia Talmudit and its latest project or to be in touch with Rabbi Prof. Steinberg, visit tinyurl.com/24dh87al or contact Benny Gur at: [email protected] or 011-972-2-993-3996.
