Encyclopedia Talmudit

The Encyclopedia Talmudit (Hebrew: אנציקלופדיה תלמודית‎‎ entsiyklopediah talmudiyt) is a Hebrew language encyclopedia that aims to summarize the halakhic topics of the Talmud in alphabetical order. It began in 1942 and is still an active project as of 2016^[update], with 36 volumes (plus several index volumes) published so far. Over half of the project is complete, and it is hoped to finish it in the following decade with the publishing of thirty more volumes. An English translation, the Encyclopedia Talmudica began to be published in 1969. It is published by the Torah literature publishing group Yad HaRav Herzog^[], named for Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, in Jerusalem.

The project began on the initiative of Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan (Berlin) (1880–1949), the son of the Netziv. Bar-Ilan organized a group of notable editors. The purpose was to summarize all the Talmudic discussions and all the opinions of Rishonim and Acharonim in encyclopedia articles in alphabetical order.

The first edition of the first volume was published in 1947. This volume included 219 articles in an organized format of summaries. The same volume was reprinted three more times: in 1947, 1951, and 1955. After Bar-Ilan died in 1949, it was republished in a newly revised and expanded edition.

In 1947 Encyclopedia Talmudit won the city prize of Tel Aviv for Torah literature to honor the memory of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook.

Major Torah scholars, both Hasidim and Mitnagdim, supported the project. Supporters included Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, Rabbi Yochanan Sofer, and others.

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