The Practical Talmud Dictionary (English and Hebrew Edition)

This dictionary is good for people who are already familiar with Hebrew or Aramaic grammar rules. If not, you should probably go with a different dictionary (personally I recommend the one by Melamed with the green cover). This is great to quickly look up words in the Gemara, and is one of the ones favored by my school. This is good for classroom and independent use. I personally have used this book continually over the last school year, and starting in the fall will begin an independent study, with the aid of this dictionary and a teacher.(P.S. I am not Mark Lebowitz--I'm his 17 year old daughter Dena)

I am 15 years old, and taking a beginner Gemarrah class at a Jewish high school. This book works as a guide for the key words, phrases, and expressions of the Gemarrah. It translates each word in a way which can be easily applied to the text in various contexts, and then goes on to explain how the word is used, and how it influences the structure and logic of the Gemarrah. It is important to note that this book is not a complete dictionary of every word in the Gemarrah, rather a guide for those who are starting out and need basic guidance. If you're looking for a complete dictionary, you'll want to go with the Jastrow, which you can either buy on amazon, or view online for free (just search "Jastrow" in Google and click on the first link).

I use this book almost every day because I'm a rabbinical student. Entries in Aramaic show translation into Hebrew and English, and vice versa for entries in Hebrew. The examples are usually helpful too. Occasionally he'll explain a phrase in a way that's not necessarily accurate for the text you're learning, but chances are it's accurate for other places in Talmud. It's a great resource.

Lives up to its name: it is a practical Talmud dictionary, very helpful, with citations to pages in the Bavli illustrating how terms and phrases are used supplementing the defintions in a very helpful fashion. An excellent value for the Talmud learner.

It helped me to understand various words & phrases of the Talmud that i hardly understood. It's written in a very good order so it's easy to find every word.

I enjoy it a great deal. It is of great help to me in trying to understand the Aramaic terms as I know Hebrew but Aramaic is quite different even if the words are similar.

good smaller dictionary

It should be noted that the print in this book is as tiny as the two volume edition of the OED, which came with a magnifying glass.

Thorough and does what it says it does.