In which country's households are you most likely to find a copy of the Talmud? Surprisingly, the answer is probably not Israel.
The country where the Talmud is ubiquitous, where it's quoted by sports stars & celebrities, where it's sold at station kiosks, is... SOUTH KOREA. 1/
Across all editions, the Talmud may be the single bestselling book title in Korea, behind only the Bible.
More than 800 different books, from more than 300 publishers, are returned when you search for “Talmud” in the National Digital Library of Korea. 2/
In 2011, the Korean Ambassador to Israel, was interviewed on Israeli TV. “I want to show you this,” he told the host. It was a paperback book with “Talmud” written in Korean and English on the cover, along with a cartoon sketch of a Biblical character with a robe & staff. 3/
"Each Korean family has at least one copy of the Talmud. Korean mothers want to know how so many Jewish people became geniuses." To the surprised host, he added, “23% of Nobel Prize winners are Jewish. Korean women want to know the secret. They found the secret in this book." 4/
The near obsessive importance attached to educating children in Korean culture, coupled with the belief that this is something that Jewish people in particular excel in, lies behind the seemingly limitless fascination with the Talmud in Korea. 5/
The version of the Talmud so widely popular in Korea is not really the multi-volume original work, but a popular distillation of Jewish wisdom loosely derived from it, originally compiled by a New York rabbi, Marvin Tokayer. 6/
As the newly qualified rabbi of a congregation in Queens, Marvin Tokayer sought a blessing from the famed Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Schneerson, the head of the Chabad movement. Rabbi Tokayer was not a “chabadnik,” but he had met the rebbe and admired him. 7/
According to Tokayer’s retelling, when he met the rebbe for the blessing, “he boxed me in a corner,” and said, “You’re going to Japan.” “I said, ‘What are you talking about? I just came to say hello.” 8/
But the rebbe apparently saw the worldly, college-educated rabbi as the perfect fit for the small but growing community of Jewish American professionals who had moved to Japan to capitalize on the country’s then booming economy. In 1968, Tokayer and his wife moved to Tokyo. 9/
At the prompting of a Japanese writer friend, who introduced him to a publisher, Tokayer prepared an accessible "non-denominational" summary of the wisdom of the Talmud for the Japanese market. The resulting book was written over three days. 10/
Tokayer's book included biographies of Talmudic rabbis, proverbs, puzzles, parables, Aesop’s Fables-like stories, legal issues, and Jewish ethics. Titled "5,000 Years of Jewish Wisdom: Secrets of the Talmud Scriptures" it received glowing reviews when was published in 1971. 11/
It has gone on to have more than seventy printings and sold about half a million copies in Japan. But its really success was still to come: in South Korea. 12/
Unofficial grey-market translations of Tokayer's Talmud first appeared for sale in South Korea in 1974. From there on, it became a remarkable local publishing phenomenon, appearing in both its original and many modified versions in countless editions. 13/
This thread was inspired by, and quotes from, the wonderful article by Ross Arbes published in the 2015 New Yorker, "How the Talmud Became a Best-Seller in South Korea". You can read the whole thing here: 14/
newyorker.com/books/page-tur…
For an excellent academic analysis of the Korean Talmud phenomenon, I can recommend Sarit Kattan Gribetz & Claire Kim's paper "The Talmud in Korea: A Study in the Reception of Rabbinic Literature" published in AJS Review in 2018 (login required). 15/
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More from @incunabula

2 Oct
THE CHINESE JESUS
A set of thirty Chinese Christian prints showing scenes from the Life of Jesus, likely printed at the Zikawei press in Shanghai, at the end of the 19th century. These posters were intended for use in missionary schools to promote teachings from the Bible. 1/
Six of the posters - two examples are shown here - have inset vignettes showing Chinese people as part of the biblical scene or associated tales. 2/
The remaining 24 posters depict scenes from Jesus’s life and ministry with Chinese subtitles. Generally all the figures, Jesus included, have clearly Chinese features. 3/
Read 6 tweets
6 Sep
European civilization is built on ham and cheese, which allowed protein to be stored throughout the icy winters.

Without this, urban societies in most of central Europe would simply not have been possible.

This is also why we have hardback books. Here's why. 1/ ImageImage
Cheese meant female sheep & cows were usually more valuable than male ones which were accordingly slaughtered young as they were not worth feeding through the winter. The skins of these young animals was used to make vellum, giving us the basic material of the European book. 2/ Image
Vellum tends to buckle & ripple, it doesn't lie absolutely flat like paper. So it was bound between heavy wooden boards to keep it flat - this is the origin of the hardback book, a book format - expensive, hard to make, & prone to damage - almost never seen outside Europe. 3/ Image
Read 48 tweets
5 Sep
An exquisite Syriac miniature Gospel manuscript, just 64 x 50 mm, likely written in Aleppo in the late 17th century.

144 folios of microscopic Syriac script in brown ink. Some titles in Hebrew, and two Arabic inscriptions at the beginning and end of the manuscript. 1/
The ms also contains a series of intriguing diagrammatic designs & carpet pages. Made up of 5 squares across and 7 squares high, these grids have been outlined in red ink. Inside most of the corners of the individual squares are small golden circles with black outlines. 2/
This manuscript has been in Europe since the 18th century. On the front pastedown is the armorial bookplate of the Rev. Sir George Lee (1767-1827), 6th (and last) Baron Hartwell, Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire. 3/
Read 7 tweets
3 Sep
On August 24, Norwegian police seized 100 cuneiform inscriptions and other antiquities from the collection of Martin Schøyen, apparently at the behest of the Iraqi government. Included is his "Tower of Babel" stele.
Morgenbladet report here (sub. needed):
morgenbladet.no/kultur/2021/09…
This is Schøyen MS 2063, the so-called "Tower of Babel" stele.
schoyencollection.com/history-collec…
It will be interesting to read more about this from other sources, and indeed to hear - as we likely will in due course - from Martin Schøyen himself. Norwegian press reports on Martin Schøyen are not infrequently slanted to present him & his collection in an unfavourable light.
Read 7 tweets
1 Sep
THE AFRICAN BOOK
Africa has the oldest and most diverse book culture of any continent. Here, in just 6 tweets, is why.

One of only 4 independent inventions of writing on earth - hieroglyphics - is African, as is the first surviving 'book': the Egyptian Book of the Dead. 1/6
The best preserved Roman writing tablets - by far - are all from Africa, as are ALL the earliest New Testament manuscripts on papyrus, and ALL the earliest surviving apocryphal Gospels. The New Testament is an African text. 2/6
The Arabic script was read and written by far more people in Africa than it ever was in the Middle East, and the great libraries at Timbuktu, Chinguetti, Ouadane and other Saharan oases are amongst the most important early manuscript repositories on earth. 3/6
Read 12 tweets
31 Aug
The answer is on your sandwich: central European civilization is built on ham and cheese, which allowed protein to be stored through the winter. 1/4
Cheese meant female sheep & cows were usually more valuable than male ones which were accordingly slaughtered young as they were not worth feeding through the winter. The skins of these young animals was used to make vellum, giving us the basic material of the European book. 2/4
Vellum tends to buckle & ripple, it doesn't lie absolutely flat like paper. So it was bound between heavy wooden boards to keep it flat - this is the origin of the hardback book, a book format - expensive, hard to make, & prone to damage - almost never seen outside Europe. 3/4
Read 38 tweets

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