Programs: See schedule othe mesorah heritage foundation was created to respond to urgent needs that became apparent in the post-world war ii english-speaking world. These needs continue to exist and, if anything, have grown. They are twofold: (i) a large jewish public, including those with a yeshivah education, find it difficult to study classic jewish texts in the original hebrew or aramaic; and (ii) there is a growing number of people who wish to study the jewish classics, but have little or no knowledge 0f the languages in which they were written. Even people who speak modern hebrew fluently are not familiar with biblical and rabbinic hebrew or aramaic, the language of talmudic times and much post-talmudic literature. The mission of the mesorah heritage foundation is to select appropriate classic jewish works of religion, law, liturgy, culture, and scholarship that have previously been unavailable to the general public, or that have not been available with a thorough elucidation in the modern idiom. The foundation engages highly qualified scholars to translate, elucidate, and prepare the works for publication. Our goal is to make these works accessible to scholars, students, and laymen in a form that is authoritative and accurate, with literary grace, and pleasing aesthetics. The foundation also commissions, in english and other languages, manuscripts on jewish scholarship, law, ethics, liturgy, and history. To fulfill its mission and goals, the foundation engages scholars and editors 90-150 at any given time, to research, write, and prepare the works for publication. The foundation's crown jewels are 73-volume english and hebrew elucidations of the babylonian talmud. The late lord immanuel jakobovits, chief rabbi of the british commonwealth, described these editions of the talmud as "the greatest publishing project across the length and breadth of jewish history. " currently in progress is a french-language elucidation of the babylonian talmud. Also in progress is an unprecedented scholarly endeavor: 44-volume elucidations, in english and modern hebrew, of the jerusalem talmud. To lay and scholarly acclaim, this seminal work, which has been virtually a sealed book for nearly 1,400 years, is now being made accessible to modern readers. The foundation's volumes of the talmud have made it possible for many tens of thousands of people to engage in daily study. In 2012, 90,000 people filled metlife stadium to celebrate the completion of "daf yomi," the seven-and-a-half-year cycle of daily talmud study. Organizers of the event credited the foundation for enabling most of the attendees to study and understand the talmud, and to be active participants, instead of merely spectators. Also in progress are english and hebrew elucidations of the mishnah, which is the basis of the talmud. The foundation's works include translations and explanations of the sabbath, festival, and weekday prayer books in hebrew and english, and also in transliterated and interlinear versions. These prayer books have become standard in synagogues all over the world. The foundation's recent editions of the chumash, the five books of moses, in french, spanish, and modern hebrew versions, are enormously popular and are exposing new populations to the foundation's work. The foundation has enabled the publication of many volumes of hebrew scriptures, with translation and commentary,that are popular in schools, homes, and synagogues. The "early and later prophets" are complete and the "writings" are nearly complete; and an all hebrew-version with a wide array of classic commentators is nearing completion. The foundation has also prepared a one-volume english translation, with notes, of the entire 24 books of the hebrew scriptures. Other major classics, never before presented so thoroughly in english, are multi-volume treatments of midrash rabbah, sefer hachinuch, and kitzur shulchan aruch, and ramban on chumash. Several new projects are underway and others are in the pipeline. The foundation has given permission to a non-profit organization to publish braille editions of foundation books. There is no charge for this service; we feel privileged to provide this service to a community that currently has no access to such classic works. In recent years the foundation produced unprecedented digital apps for the entire talmud and the daily siddur/prayer book. It is currently finalizing an app for the entire hebrew scriptures as well as apps for many of its other classic works. Thanks to these digital apps, one can access more than a million cross-references spanning 2,000 years of hebrew, aramaic, and english scholarship, with just the tap of a finger. This is an example of the foundation's use of state-of-the-art technology to advance its mission of making scholarly works even more accessible to laymen, students, and scholars. The mesorah heritage foundation has enabled the publication of several hundred classic titles whose impact has been described as "a revolution" in jewish and scholarly life. While the foundation is proud of its accomplishments to date, and auspicious though this is, it is still only the beginning - for the work continues!
