Me'am Lo'ez

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Me'am Lo'ez (Hebrew: מעם לועז), initiated by Rabbi Yaakov Culi in 1730 is a commentary on the Tanakh written in Ladino and perhaps the greatest publication in that language. While Rabbi Culi had started the project he passed away only two years later after completing the book of Genesis and 2/3 of Exodus. Nonetheless, due to its mass popularity and extensive notes already written by Rabbi Culi, a decision was made to complete the commentaries. Rabbi Yitzhak Magriso completed Leviticus and Numbers and Rabbi Yitzhak Bechor Agruiti completed Deuteronomy (1770s) and Joshua. Rabbi Shmeul Yerushalmi continued the project further.

In 1967, a Hebrew translation was published and called Yalkut Me'am Lo'ez. The first translation of Me'am Lo'ez into English was written by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan and called Torah Anthology.

In Rabbi Culi's time, few individuals in Turkey were familiar with the Hebrew language and found the Torah to be an incomprehensible book. Rabbi Culi decided to change that reality and undertook a colossal task for himself - to write a compendium of the major fields of Torah study that would be user-friendly and written in Ladino, the Jewish dialect spoken by the Jews in Turkey.

The book was divided according to the weekly Torah portions (or Parshas) and Rabbi Culi explains in detail the Torah readings of every week according to the Midrash and Talmud.

Rabbi Culi writes in his introduction to the Me'am Loez that he personally guarantees that "everyone who reads the Me'am Loez every day will be able to answer in Heaven that he has learned the whole Torah, because all aspects of the Torah are covered on it (Me'am Loez)".

Rabbi Culi was also the editor and publisher of the Mishne La'melech, one of the most popular commentators of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah.

The Me'am Loez quickly became extremely popular in the Jewish communities of Turkey, Spain, Morocco and Egypt and today can still be found in many Orthodox synagogues around the world.


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