Pentateuch with Rashi's Commentary Translated into English

The Pentateuch with Rashi's Commentary Translated into English was first published in London from 1929 to 1934 and is a scholarly English language translation of the full text of the Written Torah and Rashi's commentary on it. The five-volume work was produced and annotated by Rev. M. Rosenbaum and Dr Abraham M. Silbermann in collaboration with A. Blashki and L. Joseph.^[1][2] The work has an extensive appendix of notes which display notable critical scholarship; the authors tackle difficult comments of Rashi. All the Hebrew text, including the Rashi, is in pointed non-Rashi font. The work is commonly known today as "Silberman's Rashi" (even though he was the second named co-author).

Title page of the Leviticus volume

Authors

Morris Rosenbaum (1871–1947) was a UK rabbi.^[3][4][5] Abraham Morris (or Moritz) Silbermann (1889–1939) studied in Berlin and had settled in England; he was known for his 1927 German and English dictionary of the Talmud, Midrash and Targum (co-authored with Baruch Krupnik) and he was the publishing director of Shapiro, Valentine & Co.^[6][7] Aaron Blashki and Louis Joseph were learned laymen^[8][9] from Sydney, New South Wales.

History

The work was first published by the East End Jewish publisher Shapiro, Valentine & Co: Genesis in 1929 and finally Deuteronomy in 1934. The volumes were printed in Wittenberg. The contemporary academic reviews were positive, even enthusiastic.^[10][11][12] The work is dedicated to Phillip Blashki and his wife Hannah.

The Silbermann family republished the work in collaboration with Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd in 1973.^[13] In 2012 the Rashi translation was translated from English into German.^[14]