Customer Reviews

A Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic of the Talmudic and Geonic Periods (Publications of The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project)

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This excellent dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic is extremely well produced. It has large, clear type and a solid hard-cover binding. There are many cross-references between entries, as well as entries for variant spellings cross-referenced to the appropriate main entry. Headwords of entries are vocalized where possible, but sometimes there is no evidence to show the precise vocalization, so none is indicated.

This dictionary covers the following sources, according to the introduction: The Babylonian Talmud, Geonic Literature, Writings of Anan, Magical texts, Babylonian Masora. I have consulted it during my study of the Aramaic of Targums Jonathan and Onkelos, where it has proven quite helpful, although it does not include all the vocabulary of these latter works, which it does not set out to cover.

The main work still available that is somewhat comparable to this Sokoloff dictionary is Marcus Jastrow's A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, originally published in 1903. This venerable volume does include the vocabulary of the Targumim; however, its age is showing. On the one hand, it is available in editions far less expensive than Sokoloff's dictionary. On the other hand, modern reprints are of poor, at times illegible, quality, due to multiple generations of photographic reproduction. And of course, Sokoloff's work is able to include the results of the 99 years of research that separate his work from Jastrow's.

Sokoloff's research is particularly noticeable (at least to me, with my particular interests) in the area of etymology. He cites many Akkadian sources and many Syriac cognates. Jastrow does not include this important information, which often provides valuable insight into the meaning of words.

Sokoloff, like Jastrow, organizes his entries alphabetically according to whole words. I think this system is quite useful, especially for students not yet thoroughly steeped in the details of how to determine roots from derived forms that have thoroughly modified versions of these roots. However, some Semitists decry this, insisting that all entries should be listed strictly by root (as is done, for example, in the classic Brown-Driver-Briggs A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament). Whichever you prefer, you now know which system Sokoloff uses.

I considered getting this or the Jastrow. Without a doubt this is far better. I use this in conjuction with the green dictionary (Rabbi Melamed).