A book about faith and prayer by Israeli Rabbi Shalom Arush that is popular in Israel has recently been translated into Mandarin, a language spoken by 1.4 billion people worldwide.
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The Universal Garden of Emuna (Hebrew for "faith") was originally written by Arush in Hebrew and for an Israeli audience. Nevertheless, thanks to its universal message, it has since been translated into more than a dozen languages, including Portuguese, German, French, and Russian.
Arush is the founder of the Chut Shel Chessed religious learning institutions and is a member of the Breslov Hassidic movement, which was founded by Rabbi Nachman in the 18th century. Rabbi Nachman's grave in Uman is a popular pilgrimage site among Breslov followers who travel to the small Ukrainian city every Rosh Hashana.
The book attempts to answer a variety of life's questions: What is the purpose of life? How to achieve happiness? What is the proper way for a person to live? What does the future have in store for humanity? Will everything be good in the end?
Since The Universal Garden of Emuna was written in Hebrew and for an Israeli audience, the translation into Chinese posed quite a challenge for translator Noam Aurbach, who studied Hebrew and Talmud in China and has a doctorate in Asian studies.
Certain words and concepts that are common and well-known by Breslov followers and Israelis in general, did not only had to be translated but also explained, like the subject of family purity or hitbodedut, a common Breslov practice of secluding oneself for meditation and prayer to God.
"I worked on the translation with a Chinese translator named Eden for several years," Aurbach told Israel Hayom. "The process was lengthy and the text was proofread several times. Actually, the first person to read and proofread it was a Chiese convert to Judaism who immigrated to Israel and became a Breslov follower herself."
With regard to the translation challenges, Aurbach said, "There is a great debate in China over the translation of the word "God," a debate that has divided Chinese churches for years because each is loaded with meaning. We decided to translate "Creator of the World" [as God is referred to in The Universal Guide of Emuna] word for word."
According to Aurbach, the word "Torah" was not easy to translate either. One option was to translate it as "Bible," but that would also include the New Testament. Another option was to use the translation of "Five Books of Moses," but this term is most often used in China in scientific discourses on religion. The word "Torah" does exist in China as "Tou-la," but might not nececcarily imply, as it does in Hebrew, the study of Mishna, Gemara, commentary, and books on Jewish law in addition to the Pentateuch.
Such translation challenges resulted in a years-long translation process. In addition, designing and printing the book was no easy task either, as the book was written entirely in Chinese, but printed in Israel. As is known, in Israel, texts are written from left to right, whereas in Chinese, they are written vertically in columns going from top to bottom and ordered from right to left.
"The book speaks about teshuva [repentance or return] in the spirit of Breslov," Aurbach explained. "The language is very Jewish and Israeli, and it is understood by both secular and religious Israelis, but is foreign to someone who comes from a completely different background.
"The book speaks to a secular Israeli who is looking for his true self. It invites him to do teshuva, to return to what he is already familiar with, to return to his tradition. Directly translating such a book into Chinese, with no additions and explicitation, is not easy. It is challenging, and in my opinion, even precedent-setting, as there are almost no direct translations from Hebrew into Chinese, and certainly not of texts like this."
Nevertheless, despite Aurbach's hard work in making sure nothing got lost in translation, the book is unlikely to hit the Chinese markets any time soon.
"There is hostility towards religion in China," Aurbach explained. "Eden [the second translator] decided to remain anonymous for that reason. And from the time we started working on the translation, the situation has only gotten worse. We are not even planning to print or sell the book in China."
Instead, the book will be available for purchase in Israel and online.
With every translation of The Universal Garden of Emuna, the aim is to bring the knowledge of God to all corners of the world.
"During the lengthy process of translation, I sometimes wondered how such a specific [Breslov] text would present Judaism to a Chinese person who might have never heard about our religion," Aurbach said. "After all, there are so many ways to describe the foundations of Judaism, none of which have to include the unique Breslov concepts.
"I still do not have a good answer to that, other than simply acknowledging the fact that there are so many kinds of texts in the world that show so many different perspectives [of Judaism], and each one is worthy of being translated. Is it possible that the Chinese person will read this book and think that this is all there is to Judaism? Perhaps. But he might also become more interested and discover that Breslov is only a part of Judaism and not its entirety."
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