Speaking the Hebrew in English - Translating the Tanakh with Prof. Will Lee and Jessica Sacks

We're just months away from the release of the brand new Magerman Edition Koren Tanakh with an all-new English translation by Rabbi Lord Sacks zt"l, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb shlit"a, and others.

We sat down with the literary editor of the Prophets and Writings (Nakh) sections, Prof. Will Lee (Associate Professor Emeritus) of Yeshiva University's English Faculty, and with Senior Translator, Jessica Sacks to talk about the challenges, surprises, and features of the new translation.

Prof. Lee talks about approaching the translation of the Hebrew Bible as an Ethical Humanist while retaining the Orthodox Jewish ideology of the translation. Why a translation of the core text of our faith needs a literary editor, and how working on the translation affected his own work as an English Literature professor and poetry lover.

Jessica Sacks, who featured on our memorial episode for her uncle, the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks zt"l, talks about her life-long dream to create a translation for the Tanakh that reflects the true poetry, drama, and music of the original Hebrew and, in so doing, how we can gain an even deeper understanding and forge a stronger connection to the text.

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