“Talmud, an Italian heritage”

“The scroll burns, but the letters fly away”; the plaque set some years ago in Campo de’ Fiori (Rome) reminds us about what happened there on the 9th of September 1553. About 50 years before Giordano Bruno (an Italian Dominican friar who was condemned by the Inquisition to be burnt on the stake because of his philosophical and cosmological theories), many Jewish books burnt on the stake on that day, especially pages of the Talmud.
Thus had commanded the then Cardinal Carafa, who was to become pope under the name of Paul IV. As is well known, the promulgation of the infamous bull “Cum nimis absurdum” and the institution of the Ghetto in Rome were among his first acts. The burning of the Talmud and the prohibition to study it in all the territories of the State of the Church have conditioned the life of Italian Jews for centuries. Rav Adin Steinsaltz z.l. argued that – due to this censorship – the study of the Talmud and consequently the observance of the precepts was significantly diminished in Jewish Rome (whose people arranged some subterfuges to bypass the papal prohibition).
Today, the Talmud is a living heritage, both in the Jewish world and in the rest of the Italian society. His status is attested by the ongoing translation project symbol of the collaboration between the national Jewish institutions, the government and CNR (National Research Council) started in 2011. A new tractate – the sixth one to be released to the press from the beginning of the collaboration – has recently added to those previously released. It is Betzà (Yom Tov, holiday), one of the “most technical, yet not less stimulating” warns Rabbi Gianfranco Di Segni, the curator.
Betzà explains the rules of public holidays and is divided into five chapters, the first of which – says the Rav, who is also coordinator of the translation for the entire project – “deals with the different opinion of the School of Shamma and the School of Hillel regarding the rules of Yom Tov, what is allowed or forbidden to do on holidays”. The debates between the two Schools continue in the second chapter, “related to the festivities and in particular to the food preparation for Shabbàt when Friday is a public holiday”. The third chapter deals with a different problem: “whether it is allowed to capture an animal (quadrupeds and fish) on the day of Yom Tov as the celebration requires and other rules related to food supply”. The fourth chapter “concerns the transport of food and drink and the use of wood for fire or other purposes”. The fifth chapter finally “discusses the rule according to which it is forbidden to cross the limit of the city on Shabbàt and Yom Tov and how to extend this limit in cases of need”.
Betzà, which is already in the hands of the Head of State Sergio Mattarella like all the previous volumes, is fundamental to understand what observance means in a Jewish perspective of which one often gets a mere echo. “As I’m talking about it, a great intellectual – who was not a Jew – comes to my mind: I am referring to Umberto Eco”, Rav Di Segni says. “In one of his Bustine di Minerva – an ironic, cultural feature on the Espresso, Eco explains how observing the rules of the Shabbat may seem unbearable, such as the one on the elevator set up according to the “Shabbat system” with automatic stops on each floor. A nerve-wracking situation for those who aren’t expecting it. Later, Eco understood that if precise rules aren’t set, people will inevitably violate them. He made a fitting comparison with diets: if you exceed, even slightly, the threshold of intake of fats or other substances that has been imposed will end up rising more and more. And your intentions to lose weight will fail. It is with this reasoning that Eco became a part of that spirit of observance that permeates Bethzà”. In the newly-published tractate, the Rav adds: “the narrative part is perhaps shorter compared to other tractates”. Nevertheless, “rather interesting passages” in this perspective aren’t missing. Among others, the following example is made: a Master is holding a lesson and his students progressively leave the room in groups to go home, lacking respect, even if their purpose is to observe the celebration. ”Nowadays, the fact that the audience is on the phone during lectures and conferences is no longer news. A problem of lack of listening that resembles the episode narrated in Bethzà. One case among many – remarks the Rav – that reminds us of the extreme relevance of the Talmud”.
A concept among the most scrutinized in Betzà is that of muqtzè (“set aside”). That is, all objects that cannot be touched or, more precisely, moved during the Shabbat and on public holidays. A norm that is learned from a passage of Isaiah: “If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath, from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words, 14then you will delight yourself in the Lord…”. Muqtzè are also the modern and invasive technologies that we use in everyday life and that are forbidden on Shabbat and public holidays: but if it were allowed to touch, for example, the mobile phone, it would be inevitable for almost anyone to violate the prohibition to use it. About a year was necessary for the curatorship of Betzà. “More or less, the average time required for such a work,” said Rav Gianfranco Di Segni, who simultaneously initiated the curatorship of another tractate, Shabbat, alongside with Rav Michele Ajò. Other tractates’ curatorships are also well underway: among those close to the publication, Meghillà, which is being dealt by Rav Michael Ascoli, and Sukkà, on which Rav Riccardo Di Segni is working. Two-three years: this is the average time required to bring a tractate from the beginning to the end of the editorial process through translation, revision by expert Talmudists and editing, review and levelling of the whole. “We are aware that this challenge takes many years to be achieved. But the road – concludes the Rav – is now well traced”.

Above, the cover of Betzà, the sixth tractate of Talmud translated into Italian.

Translated by Alida Caccia, student at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, intern at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities.