The Treatise Ta'anit of the Babylonian Talmud

TA"ANIT is the second in the series of"JPS Jewish Classics which the Society hasundertaken to republish.In the introduction to this volume theauthor writes: "What is needed today isa critical edition of the talmudic textbased on a minute collation of all theexisting manuscripts and early editions ofthe Talmud itself, as well as of the Mish-nah, Tosefta, the numerous halakic andhaggadic Midrashim, the Yerushairni andthe so-al1ed Minor Tractates; and, what isof equal importance, on a carefu! exami-nation of the extracts, quotations, andcritical data accumulated in the vast post-talmudic rabbinical literature from the timeof the Geonini onward, for which, too,manuscripts should, as far as possible, becompared. The text so prepared should beadequately translated and elucidated forthe benefit of a wider circle of readers, whoare not in a position to study theoriginal .