Based on Rabbi Steinsaltz's original Hebrew commentary on the Talmud, the layout features side-by-side English/Aramaic translation, maps, diagrams, and explanatory notes.
The English-edition project was hailed by Commentary Magazine as "a landmark in making the text accessible to the millions of Jews whose native (and often only) tongue is English.
[8] The English Koren Talmud has been criticized as having inaccurate scientific information, such as identifying Ursa Major as a star and describing polycythemia vera as a disease causing excessive bleeding from the gums and from ordinary cuts.
"[12] Zalesch further argued that the Koren edition contains "non-research masquerading as valuable information" and that "Steinsaltz is your perpetually annoying seventh grade classmate, always quick with a brainy but irrelevant factoid.
[citation needed] The Hebrew edition of the Steinsaltz Talmud was the target of fierce opposition in much of the Orthodox world, with many leading Rabbis such as Elazar Shach, Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, and Eliezer Waldenberg harshly condemning it.