I heard in passing that since the artscroll have complete the volume of the Talmud Bavli into english that they are start working on Talmud Yersuhalmi into english.

I was wondering if anyone else have heard this?

yes i have
it will take a long time though

Translation of the Talmud Yerushalmi will be much more difficult as corrected text with commentary are only available for a few of the mesechot which are unique to the yerushalmi. To date, everyone who has done it has had to change the pagination and format(Poalei agudah, Ger Chasidim). The possible girsot for each page and resultant explanation are huge. I can't imagine that they could just photo offset the present printed text. But then I couldn't imagine that they would just copy the Vilna Shas complete with censored sections and incorrectly placed tosephot and rashis.

Aryeh Shore

quote:

Originally posted by laurence shore:
Translation of the Talmud Yerushalmi will be much more difficult as corrected text with commentary are only available for a few of the mesechot which are unique to the yerushalmi. To date, everyone who has done it has had to change the pagination and format(Poalei agudah, Ger Chasidim). The possible girsot for each page and resultant explanation are huge. I can't imagine that they could just photo offset the present printed text. But then I couldn't imagine that they would just copy the Vilna Shas complete with censored sections and incorrectly placed tosephot and rashis.

Aryeh Shore

The Vilna Shas has been used to learn with by generations of Jews. Let us not belittle it.

I would just like to point out that if you read how the vilna Shas was published at the end of mesechet nidah, you would see that the publishers of the vilna shas would have gone to any lengths to obtain the manuscripts we have today. They went to Leningrad, Oxford and the Vatican but they were severely limited in access to the Vatican MSs. They only had one person in Rome who could even read manuscripts.
Why respect the censors and keep the censored text?
However the argument that using the original text facilitates learning obvious has merit since it is popular.

Aryeh Shore

On any account if they do the job the did with the Bavli Talmud i am sure this Talmud as well will be a great addition to study from.

Aryeh, that may be one reason why one cannot pasken from the Talmud and thus one needs a rabbi....

There has always been a resistance to poskining from the codes, the Shulchan Aruch and the Mishneh Torah. Many poskim feel that there is no reason not to poskin from the gemara if the situation warrants. This is especially so for areas not covered explicitly in the Shulchan Aruch. After all the Talmud is the original material and the rest is derivative. When we get to the mitzvot which depend on living in Israel, it is especially useful to use the yerushalmi to poskin directly from.
As for Rabbis, very few Rabbi are or should be deciders of halacha. If it is a question found in the codes, then he can look it up better than you (or at least as well as you). If it is a question more complicated, then the handful of specialists in each topic needed are to be asked. (Like they use to say, being a musmach from lakewood meant they gave you R. Feinstein's personal number.)


Aryeh Shore