Product Description

A classic and still standard resource, Marcus Jastrow's monumental dictionary remains unique in that it covers both the Hebrew and Aramaic languages in the literature of the rabbinic period. This indispensable dictionary of targumic and rabbinic literature includes thousands of entries in fully vocalized Hebrew and Aramaic, with references to the original texts, clear English definitions, and the full range of meanings and usages in the sources. It is organized alphabetically by actual form but includes also reference to a word's root, with abundant cross-references. Complete in one volume, in original largeprint format, sturdy binding, and with an index of Scriptural quotations, it is the most comprehensive single-volume dictionary available for reading early Jewish texts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #121099 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1736 pages

Customer Reviews

Venerable but showing its age
Marcus Jastrow made an inestimable contribution to the study of Jewish Aramaic. However, current reprints of this dictionary (including this Hendrickson one, which I own) suffer from the blurriness of letters that inevitably comes from copies photographed from earlier copies or from editions printed with very worn old plates.

While I know of no recent published dictionary that covers the Targumim, there is a very recent dictionary that covers Talmudic and Geonic literature, and incidentally contains much of the vocabulary of the Targumim. It is Michael Sokoloff's _A Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic_. See my review of it for more details. However, its price puts it out of the range of all but the most serious students. So for those not yet prepared to shell out well over $100, Jastrow's dictionary remains the alternative--and not a bad one.

I was surprised to see that one reviewer said that Jastrow lists words by root, because he does not, at least as most people count this. Nouns such as _mas.s.uth_ are listed alphabetically, not under the root _ns.'_. The reviewer must be referring to the fact that the various verb stems are all listed under the Peal/G stem. It is hard to imagine doing it any other way, and most people would not consider this detail alone grounds for saying that the dictionary is organized by roots. But whatever you understand by the phrase "organized by roots," now you know how Jastrow's dictionary is organized.

Good and Comprehensive
The Jastrow is a good reference piece. It describes the language of Aramaic very well, albeit dated (c. 1900s). There are much more recent additions, (cf. Hebrew University's Initiative). However, it is comparatively cheaper than its Hebrew University Counterpart. The Jastrow is a comprehensive treatment of Jewish-Aramaic. It does however, list according to Root, which makes finding forms difficult (especially for the beginner). It does however list a few examples, and references. Jastrow however is one of scholars of the reform movement (see the introduction). This makes the work not entirely reliable from an Orthodox perspective. It is however scholarly. The typeface is difficult to read, and the whole book needs serious updating and review.

This dictionary is an absolute must!

The Talmud is becoming the template for public law in the United States, it is clearly the civic right and the civic duty of every American to become intimately acquainted with the Talmud.







This dictionary is an absolute must for anyone learning Gemara or any other Aramaic works.






Not only is every possible definition given, Jastrow brings down numerous examples of the usage of each word, ensuring a firm grasp of each word's nuances.




The Talmud is the product of Israel, the land of the Bible, and of Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilisation.




The beginnings of Talmudic literature date back to the time of the Babylonian Exile in the sixth pre-Christian century, before the Roman Republic had yet come into existence.


When, a thousand years later, the Babylonian Talmud assumed final codified form in the year 500 after the Christian era, the Western Roman Empire had ceased to be.


That millenium opens with the downfall of Babylon as a world-power; it covers the rise, decline and fall of Persia, Greece and Rome; and it witnesses the spread of Christianity and the disappearance of Paganism in Western and Near Eastern lands.







The Babylonian Exile is a momentous period in the history of humanity - and especially so in that of Israel. During that Exile, Israel found itself.



It not only rediscovered the Torah and made it the rule of life, but under its influence new religious institutions, such as the synagogue, i.e., congregational worship without priest or ritual, came into existence - one of the most far-reaching spiritual achievements in the whole history of Religion.

At the re-establishment of the Jewish Commonwealth, Ezra the Sofer, or Scribe, in the year 444 B.C.E. formally proclaimed the Torah the civil and religious law of the new Commonwealth.



He brought with him all the oral traditions that were taught in the Exile, and he dealt with the new issues that confronted the struggling community in that same spirit which had created the synagogue.


His successors, called after him Soferim (Scribes'), otherwise
known as the `Men of the Great Assembly', continued his work. Their teachings and ordinances received the sanction of popular practice, and came to be looked upon as halachah, literally, `the trodden path', the clear religious guidance to the Israelite in the way he should go. When the Men of the Great Assembly were no more, the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem took their place. The delight of all those generations was in the Law of the Lord, and in His Law did they meditate day and night. When their exposition followed the verses of Scripture, it was called Midrash; and when such exposition followed the various precepts, it was known as Mishnah.

Academies arose for systematic cultivation of this New Learning, as well as for the assiduous gathering of the oral traditions current from times immemorial concerning the proper observance of the commandments of the Torah. This movement for the intensive study of Scripture did not pass unchallenged. The aristocratic and official element of the population - later known as the Sadducees - unhesitatingly declared every law that was not specifically written in the Torah to be a dangerous and reprehensible innovation.


The opposition of the Sadducees only gave an additional impetus to the spread of the Oral Law by the Scribes, later known as the Pharisees. What they sought was the full and inexhaustible revelation which God had made.

The knowledge of the contents of that revelation, they held, was to be found in the first Instance in the Written Text of the Pentateuch; but the revelation, the real Torah, was the meaning of that Written Text, the Divine thought therein disclosed, as unfolded in ever greater richness of detail by successive generations of devoted teachers.


`Apart from the direct intercourse of prayer,' says Herford, `the study of Torah was the way of closest approach to God; it might be called the Pharisaic form of the Beatific Vision. To study Torah was to think God's thoughts after Him, as Kepler said.