Zohar harakia
Phillip J. Caplan, author of a popular book on Jewish law for Jewish lay readers, has produced a new translation of the Zohar HaRakia. The original text was written by Rabbi Shimon ben Zemach Duran in the early sixteenth century, and functions to enumerate and comment on what became the classic 613 religious commandments for Jewish life. Caplan has done meticulous research to create an accurate text as well as correct errors that crept into some historical editions. This translation is dominated by a laudable concern for accuracy. When sentences are particularly incomprehensible in direct translation, the author avoids revising structure to create a meaningful English sentence, but may add the actual subject or object of the sentence in brackets so readers are not wholly lost. Occasional footnotes mark places in the text where the translator was confused by what the author meant, or there were possible errors in the original manuscript. There is a short glossary and a long citations index. Readers whose interest is in technical scholarship will be grateful. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Print Book, English, 2012
Academic Studies Press, Brighton, MA, 2012