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ArtScroll is an imprint
Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can refer to two different things:* It can mean a brand name under which a work is published. One single publishing company may have multiple imprints; the different imprints are used by the publisher to marketing the work to different demographic consumer market segment....
 of translations, books and commentaries from an Orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism is a Jewish denominations of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict constructionist and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim....
 perspective published by Mesorah Publications, Ltd., a publishing company based in Brooklyn, New York
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
. Its general editors are Rabbi
Rabbi

Rabbi , in Judaism, means a religious ?teacher?, or more literally, ?my great one?, when addressing any master. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ?great?, used in many senses, including the sense of a ?master? and apprentice, whence someone who is a distinguished ?teacher?....
s Nosson Scherman
Nosson Scherman

Rabbi Nosson Scherman is an United States Haredi Orthodox Judaism rabbi best known as the general editor for ArtScroll.He studied in Beth Medrash Elyon in Spring Valley, New York....
 and Meir Zlotowitz
Meir Zlotowitz

Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz is the founder of Artscroll Publications. He is also an author and editor of many Jewish books. His son, Ira Zlotowitz, is prominent in the field of commercial real estate, particularly in New York City....
.

Primary publications
ArtScroll publishes books on a variety of Jewish
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
 subjects.






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Artscroll Logo
ArtScroll is an imprint
Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can refer to two different things:* It can mean a brand name under which a work is published. One single publishing company may have multiple imprints; the different imprints are used by the publisher to marketing the work to different demographic consumer market segment....
 of translations, books and commentaries from an Orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism is a Jewish denominations of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict constructionist and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim....
 perspective published by Mesorah Publications, Ltd., a publishing company based in Brooklyn, New York
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
. Its general editors are Rabbi
Rabbi

Rabbi , in Judaism, means a religious ?teacher?, or more literally, ?my great one?, when addressing any master. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ?great?, used in many senses, including the sense of a ?master? and apprentice, whence someone who is a distinguished ?teacher?....
s Nosson Scherman
Nosson Scherman

Rabbi Nosson Scherman is an United States Haredi Orthodox Judaism rabbi best known as the general editor for ArtScroll.He studied in Beth Medrash Elyon in Spring Valley, New York....
 and Meir Zlotowitz
Meir Zlotowitz

Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz is the founder of Artscroll Publications. He is also an author and editor of many Jewish books. His son, Ira Zlotowitz, is prominent in the field of commercial real estate, particularly in New York City....
.

Primary publications


ArtScroll publishes books on a variety of Jewish
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
 subjects. The best known is probably an annotated Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
-English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 siddur
Siddur

A siddur is a Judaism prayer book, containing a set order of List of Jewish prayers and blessings. This article discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur, as we know it today has developed....
 ("prayerbook") (the best-selling The ArtScroll Siddur), its Torah
Torah

The term "Torah" , or Five Books of Moses or Pentateuch, refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding Halakha and ethical religious texts....
 translation and commentary, a series of translations and commentaries on books of the Tanach (Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible

The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic....
), and an English translation and elucidation of the Babylonian Talmud
Talmud

The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
. Other publications include works on Jewish Law
Halakha

Halakha ? also Hebrew transliteration Halocho and Halacha ? is the collective body of Judaism religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
, and novels and factual works based on Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish life or history. Over 800 books have been published to date.
Sapirstein Rashi
According to the ArtScroll Web site, their "classics", or cornerstone publications, are:
  • The Schottenstein Edition Talmud
    Talmud

    The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
     (elucidated below)
  • The Safra Edition French
    French language

    French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
     Talmud (a French version of the above)
  • The Stone Edition Chumash
    Humash

    Chumash is one of the Hebrew names for the Five Books of Moses, also known as the Pentateuch or Torah. The word comes from the Hebrew word for five, chamesh....
  • The Stone Edition Tanach
  • The Rubin Edition Prophets
    Nevi'im

    Nevi'im is the second of the three major sections in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, between the Torah and Ketuvim .Nevi'im is traditionally divided into two parts:...
     (A Stone Chumash - style publication for The Prophets segment of the Hebrew Bible)
  • The Sapirstein Edition Rashi
    Rashi

    Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, , better known by the acronym Rashi , , was a rabbi from France, famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, and Jewish commentaries on the Bible....
  • Ramban
    Ramban

    Ramban can refer to:*Ramban , town in Jammu*Nahmanides , Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman, Catalan rabbi, philosopher, physician, Kabbalist and biblical commentator...
     on Chumash
    Humash

    Chumash is one of the Hebrew names for the Five Books of Moses, also known as the Pentateuch or Torah. The word comes from the Hebrew word for five, chamesh....
  • The Yad Avraham Mishnah
    Mishnah

    The Mishnah or Mishna is a major work of Rabbinic literature, and the first major redaction into written form of Jewish oral traditions, called the Oral Torah....
     Series
  • The ArtScroll Complete Siddur
    Siddur

    A siddur is a Judaism prayer book, containing a set order of List of Jewish prayers and blessings. This article discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur, as we know it today has developed....
     (more below) and their companions
  • The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Prayer Book Series
  • The Kestenbaum Edition Tikkun
    Tikkun

    Tikkun is a Hebrew language word. It has several meanings, all of which are related to Judaism:*Tikkun Olam, the Jewish concept of "mending the world"...
     (a book used for practicing the Torah reading
    Torah reading

    Torah reading is a Judaism religion ritual that involves the public reading of a set of passages from a Sefer Torah. The term often refers to the entire ceremony of removing the Torah scroll from the ark , chanting the appropriate excerpt with special cantillation, and returning the scroll to the ark....
    )


Works in progress

  • The Schottenstein Edition of the Jerusalem Talmud
    Jerusalem Talmud

    The Jerusalem Talmud or Talmud Yerushalmi , often the Yerushalmi for short, is a collection of rabbi notes about the Jewish Oral law as detailed in the 2nd-century Mishnah....
     (partially published as of 2008)
  • Midrash
    Midrash

    Midrash is a Hebrew language term referring to the not exact, but comparative method of exegesis of Biblical texts, which is one of four methods cumulatively called Pardes ....
     Rabbah
  • Ein Yaakov
    Ein Yaakov

    Ein Yaakov is a compilation of all the Aggada material in the Talmud together with commentaries. Its introduction contains an account of the history of Talmudic censorship and the term Gemara....


Popular acceptance

Mesorah Publications received widespread acclaim in response to their ArtScroll line of prayerbooks, starting with The Complete ArtScroll Siddur, Ed. Nosson Scherman, 1984. This work immediately gained wide acceptance in the Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism is a Jewish denominations of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict constructionist and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim....
 Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish community, and within a few years became the best-selling Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
-English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 siddur
Siddur

A siddur is a Judaism prayer book, containing a set order of List of Jewish prayers and blessings. This article discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur, as we know it today has developed....
 (prayerbook) in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. It featured beautiful layout and editing, and offered the reader detailed notes and instructions on most of the prayers. Versions of this prayerbook were then produced for the High Holidays, and the three pilgrimage festivals Passover
Passover

Passover is a Jewish and Samaritan holy day and festival commemorating God sparing the Israelites when He killed the first born of Egypt, and is followed by the seven day Feast of the Unleavened Bread commemorating the Exodus from Ancient Egypt and the liberation of the Israelites from Judaism and slavery....
, Sukkot
Sukkot

Sukkot , is a Hebrew Bible pilgrimage Jewish holiday that occurs in autumn on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei . The holiday lasts seven days, including Chol Hamoed....
 and Shavuot
Shavuot

is a Jewish holiday that occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan . Shavuot commemorates the anniversary of the day Names of God in Judaism#In English gave the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai....
.

In 1993 Mesorah Publications published The Chumash: The Stone Edition, a Torah
Torah

The term "Torah" , or Five Books of Moses or Pentateuch, refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding Halakha and ethical religious texts....
 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
Reform Judaism

Reform Judaism refers to the spectrum of beliefs, practices and organizational infrastructure associated with Reform Judaism in Reform Judaism and in Reform Judaism ....
 and Conservative Jews have purchased copies.

Schottenstein Edition Talmud

Mesorah has a line of Mishnah
Mishnah

The Mishnah or Mishna is a major work of Rabbinic literature, and the first major redaction into written form of Jewish oral traditions, called the Oral Torah....
 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
Soncino Press

Soncino Press is a Jewish publishing company based in the United Kingdom that has published a variety of books of Jewish interest, most notably English translations and commentaries to the Talmud and Hebrew Bible....
 Talmud published in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 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
Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the de facto national library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books....
, and the siyum
Siyum

A siyum means the completion of any unit of Torah study, or book of the Mishnah or Talmud in Judaism. A siyum is usually followed by a celebratory meal, or seudat mitzvah, a meal in honor of a mitzvah, or commandment....
 (celebration at the "completion") was held on March 15, 2005, the 13th yahrzeit of Jerome Schottenstein, at the New York Hilton
New York City hotels

This article describes New York City hotels. Hotels are an important part of the tourism industry of New York City, New York....
.

The first volume, Tractate Makkos, was published in 1990, and dedicated by Mr. and Mrs. Marcos Katz. Jerome Schottenstein
Jerome Schottenstein

Jerome Schottenstein was an American-Jewish entrepreneur and philanthropist, founder of Schottenstein Stores Corp....
 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
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 Vilna
Vilnius

Vilnius is the largest city and the Capital of Lithuania, with a population of 555,613 as of 2008. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality....
 Edition text, and the corresponding page consists of an English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 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.

The clarifying English explanation and footnoted commentary in the Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud is based on the perspective of classical Jewish sources. The clarifying explanation is generally based on the viewpoint of Rashi
Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, , better known by the acronym Rashi , , was a rabbi from France, famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, and Jewish commentaries on the Bible....
, the medieval commentator who wrote the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud. The Schottenstein Edition does not include contemporary academic or critical scholarship.

Mesorah and the Schottenstein family have also begun a Hebrew version of the commentary to the Babylonian Talmud of benefit to yeshiva
Yeshiva

Yeshiva or yeshivah , or metivta or mesivta ) also frequently referred to as a Beth midrash, Talmudical Academy, Rabbinical Academy or Rabbinical School is an institution unique to classical Judaism for Torah study, the study of Talmud, Rabbinic literature and History of responsa....
 students who use mainly Hebrew and to Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
i scholars, since in Israel Hebrew is the national language, and have begun both an English and Hebrew translation of the Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud
Jerusalem Talmud

The Jerusalem Talmud or Talmud Yerushalmi , often the Yerushalmi for short, is a collection of rabbi notes about the Jewish Oral law as detailed in the 2nd-century Mishnah....
) as well, the former being only the second such translation in existence.

Editorial policy

Works published by Mesorah under this imprint adhere to a perspective appealing to most Orthodox Jews
Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism is a Jewish denominations of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict constructionist and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim....
, but especially to Orthodox Jews who have come from less religious backgrounds, but are returning
Baal teshuva

Baal teshuva or ba'al teshuvah , sometimes abbreviated to BT, is a term referring to a Jewish person who embraces Orthodox Jews. Baal teshuva literally means, "master of return", i.e., one who has Repentance in Judaism or "returned" to God....
 to the faith. Due to the makeup of the Jewish community in the USA, most of the prayer books are geared to the Ashkenazic
Ashkenazi Jews

File:Juden 1881.JPGAshkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish ethnic divisions of the Rhineland in the west of Germany....
 custom. In more recent years, Artscroll has collaborated with Sephardic community leaders in an attempt to bridge this gap. Examples of this include a Sephardic Haggadah published by Artscroll, written by Sephardic Rabbi Eli Mansour, and the book Aleppo
Aleppo

Aleppo is a city in northern Syria, capital of the Aleppo Governorate; the Governorate extends around the city for over 16,000 km? and has a population of 4,393,000, making it the largest Governorate in Syria by population....
, about a prominent Sephardic community in Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
.

In translations and commentaries, ArtScroll works with the traditional framework of Halakha
Halakha

Halakha ? also Hebrew transliteration Halocho and Halacha ? is the collective body of Judaism religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
 (Jewish law) accepting midrash
Midrash

Midrash is a Hebrew language term referring to the not exact, but comparative method of exegesis of Biblical texts, which is one of four methods cumulatively called Pardes ....
ic accounts in a historical fashion, and at times literally, and generally disregards (and occasionally disagrees with) textual criticism
Textual criticism

Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the Writing of manuscripts....
.

ArtScroll transliteration

The ArtScroll transliteration of Hebrew language
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 words for readers of the English language
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 generally uses Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Hebrew

Ashkenazi Hebrew is the pronunciation system for Biblical Hebrew language and Mishnaic Hebrew language favored for Liturgy use by Ashkenazi Judaism practice....
 consonants and Sefardi vowels.

The two major differences between the way Sefardi and Ashkenazi Hebrew dialects are transcribed are as follows:
  • the letter Tav
    Taw (letter)

    Taw or Tav is the twenty-second and last letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician language, Aramaic language, Hebrew language Tav and Arabic alphabet ....
     without a dagesh
    Dagesh

    The dagesh is a diacritic used in the Hebrew alphabet. It was added to the Hebrew language orthography at the same time as the Masoretic system of niqqud ....
     (emphasis point) is transcribed as [t] and [s] respectively
    • ArtScroll uses the latter
  • the vowel kamatz gadol
    Niqqud

    In Hebrew language orthography, niqqud or nikkud is the system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of consonants of the Hebrew alphabet....
    , is transcribed [a] and [o] respectively
    • ArtScroll uses the former


As such you would have the following transliterations:
AshkenaziSefardiArtScroll
BoruchBarukhBaruch
ShabbosShabbatShabbos (ArtScroll makes an exception due to widespread usage)
SuccosSuccotSuccos
AvrohomAvrahamAvraham
Akeidas YitzchokAkedat YitzhakAkeidas Yitzchak


Criticism

This line of books has come under criticism from some scholars (both Orthodox and non-Orthodox) on a number of points:

  • Their Tanach commentaries make no attempt to directly translate the text of the Tanach. Rather, the introductions to their Tanach commentaries state the medieval rabbinic commentators or midrash compilations that the editors favor, and then they write an English language text in accord with these interpretations, thus "removing surface difficulties". However, this method is the opposite of what most translators consider translation
    Translation

    Translation is the hermeneutics of the Meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an Dynamic and formal equivalence text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language....
    . In the introduction to Koheles: Ecclesiastes (ArtScroll Tanach Series), Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz writes:
As with the previously published books, we began with a new, free-flowing translation of the text - not always literal, but faithful to Rabbinic interpretation. Designed to be as readable as possible, the translation removed many of the "surface difficulties" dealt with by the Midrash, Rashi and Ibn Ezra, by incorporating their interpretations into the translation.

  • In their Tanach (Bible, "Old Testament") and in their siddur
    Siddur

    A siddur is a Judaism prayer book, containing a set order of List of Jewish prayers and blessings. This article discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur, as we know it today has developed....
    im and machzorim (which are used during prayer services), Shir HaShirim (the Song of Songs or Song of Solomon
    Song of Solomon

    The Song of Songs , is a book of the Hebrew Bible—Tanakh or Old Testament—one of the five The Five Scrolls . It is also known as the Song of Solomon or as Canticles, the latter from the shortened and anglicized Vulgate title Canticum Canticorum, "Song of Songs" in Latin language....
    , a poem describing the intimate relationship of a man and a woman) is translated following Rashi's
    Rashi

    Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, , better known by the acronym Rashi , , was a rabbi from France, famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, and Jewish commentaries on the Bible....
     commentary. This provides a non-literal metaphor
    Metaphor

    Metaphor is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. It is a figure of speech that compares two or more things without using the words "like" or "as." More generally, a metaphor describes a first subject as being or equal to a second object in some way....
    ic explanation in which the erotic elements have been eliminated. (in the one-volume Shir HaShirim a full literal translation is included.)


  • A large number of grammatical errors exist in their Bible and commentary translations, changing the meaning of these passages:


Diqduq (grammar) is anathema in many Jewish circles, but the translation and presentation of texts is, to a large extent, a philological activity and must be philologically accurate. Again, the Artscroll effort has not achieved a respectable level. There are dozens of cases where prepositions are misunderstood, where verb tenses are not perceived properly and where grammatical or linguistic terms are used incorrectly. Words are often vocalized incorrectly. These observations, it should be stressed, are not limited to the Bible text but refer to the talmudic, midrashic, targumic, medieval and modern works as well. Rabbinical passages are torn out of their contexts, presented in fragmentary form to enable distortion of their contents, emended to update their messages even though these new ideas were not expressed in the texts themselves, misvocalized, and mistranslated: i.e. misrepresented.


  • In the biographies of Rabbis Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin
    Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin

    File:Netziv.gifRabbi Rabbi Naphtali Tzvi Judah Berlin was the Rosh yeshiva of the Volozhin Yeshiva and author of several works of rabbinic literature in Lithuanian Jews....
     (the Netziv) and Shlomo Yosef Zevin, their Zionist
    Zionism

    Zionism is the international Jewish political movement that originally supported the reestablishment of a homeland for the Jewish People in Palestine....
     leanings were not reported (or under-represented). The Netziv is believed to have been much more tolerant towards secular studies by yeshiva
    Yeshiva

    Yeshiva or yeshivah , or metivta or mesivta ) also frequently referred to as a Beth midrash, Talmudical Academy, Rabbinical Academy or Rabbinical School is an institution unique to classical Judaism for Torah study, the study of Talmud, Rabbinic literature and History of responsa....
     students, a detail pointed out by Yeshiva University
    Yeshiva University

    Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a leading research institution, ranked 50th in the United States among national universities in 2008.....
     Rabbi Rabbi J.J. Schachter in a 1991 article; in this article, he warned of historical revisionism.


The ArtScroll library is sectarian, and is not meant to represent a secular historical view, but rather their interpretation of Haredi Orthodox view.

In much of the Haredi and Modern Orthodox community, Mesorah Publications is credited with spurring a movement that is allowing classical Judaism to be relevant to modern Jewry, and saving Orthodox (and by religious and demographic extension, American) Jewry.

Since the advent of ArtScroll, a number of Jewish publishers have printed books and siddurim with similar typefaces and commentary, but with a different commentary and translation philosophy. Two new siddur commentaries published by Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism

Conservative Judaism is a modern Jewish denominations of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s....
's Rabbinical Assembly, Or Hadash
Siddur Sim Shalom

Siddur Sim Shalom may refer to any siddur in a family of Siddur, Jewish prayerbooks, and related commentaries on these siddurim, published by the Rabbinical Assembly and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism....
, were noticeably inspired by Artscroll.

Bibliography

  • Rabbi B. Barry Levy. "Our Torah, Your Torah and Their Torah: An Evaluation of the ArtScroll phenomenon.". In: "Truth and Compassion: Essays on Religion in Judaism", Ed. H. Joseph et al. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1983.
  • B. Barry Levy. "Judge Not a Book By Its Cover". Tradition 19(1)(Spring 1981): 89-95 and an exchange of letters in Tradition 1982;20:370-375.
  • Jacob J. Schacter, "Facing the Truths of History" Torah u-Madda Journal 8 (1998-1999): 200-276 ().
  • Jacob J. Schacter, "Haskalah, Secular Studies, and the close of the Yeshiva in Volozhin in 1892" Torah u-Madda Journal


External links