Editing ArtScroll (section)

== Critical reviews ==
* A large number of grammatical errors exist in their Bible and commentary translations, changing the meaning of these passages. B. Barry Levy alleged in 1981:<blockquote>''Dikduk'' (grammar) is anathema in many Jewish circles, but the translation and presentation of texts is, to a large extent, a [[Philology|philological]] activity and must be philologically accurate. The ArtScroll effort has not achieved a respectable level. There are dozens of cases where prepositions are misunderstood, where verb tenses are not perceived properly and where grammatical or linguistic terms are used incorrectly. Words are often vocalized incorrectly. These observations, it should be stressed, are not limited to the Bible text but refer to the talmudic, midrashic, targumic, medieval and modern works as well. Rabbinical passages are removed from their contexts, presented in fragmentary form thus distorting their contents, emended to update their messages even though these new ideas were not expressed in the texts themselves, misvocalized, and mistranslated: i.e. misrepresented.<ref>{{cite journal|first=B. Barry |last=Levy |title=Judge Not a Book By Its Cover |journal=Tradition |volume=19 |issue=1 |date=Spring 1981|pages=89&ndash;95}}</ref></blockquote>
* ArtScroll biographies have been criticized as providing incomplete and partial portrayals of Rabbinic figures. Notably, this is not disputed by ArtScroll. Rabbi Nosson Scherman stated that as it pertains to biographies the mission of ArtScroll "is to impart a positive message" without mentioning "disputes that can often become vitriolic."<ref>Scherman in an interview with Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter published in ''A Conversation with Rabbi Nosson Scherman On Chinuch'' (p. 66-73 in Ami Magazine, June 21, 2017), in which Frankfurter stated "[t]o be honest, I sometimes question ArtScroll's approach when it comes to certain things. One of these is the tendency to portray the commonality between ''gedolei Yisrael'' rather than their particular ''hashkafos'' [worldviews]. I grew up in a generation when people liked to debate what this ''gadol'' said versus what another one said. Today there's much more uniformity; everyone believes the same things in the same way." Upon responding "[o]ur role is not to discuss issues in current events. Our intention is to present the text," Frankfurter questioned Scherman: "Even when it comes to biographies and the like?" Scherman replied: "We include the opinions of whichever ''gadol'' is the subject of the biography, but we don't necessarily discuss dissenting views. We feel that our mission is to educate people and to be ''marbeh kevod shamayim'' [to increase honor of God]. We try to stay away from disputes that can often become vitriolic. Getting involved in such things is not our mission. Our mission is to impart a positive message."</ref>
* The commentary of [[Rashbam]] to the first chapter of Genesis<ref>ArtScroll omitted entire sections of Rashbam's commentary on Gen. 1:4, 1:5, 1:8, and 1:31. See [https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=40236&st=&pgnum=43 David Rosin, ''Perush Rashbam al Ha-Torah'' (Breslau, 1882), pp. 5-6, 9] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219052818/https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=40236&st=&pgnum=43 |date=February 19, 2015 }}</ref> in ArtScroll's ''Czuker Edition Hebrew Chumash Mikra'os Gedolos Sefer Bereishis'' (2014) has been censored. The missing passages are related to [[Rashbam]]'s interpretation of the phrase in Genesis 1:5, "and there was an evening, and there was a morning, one day." The Talmud<ref>Hulin 83a</ref> cites these words to support the [[halakhic]] view that the day begins at sundown. However, Rashbam takes a [[peshat]] (plain sense) approach, as he does throughout his commentary, reading the verse as follows: "There was an evening (at the conclusion of daytime) and a morning (at the end of night), one day"; that is, the day begins in the morning and lasts until the next daybreak.<ref>First identified by [[Marc B. Shapiro]] on [https://seforimblog.com/2015/01/artscrolls-response-and-my-comments/ Seforim Blog]. See also David S. Zinberg, [http://jstandard.com/content/item/an_inconvenient_text/ "An inconvenient text,"] ''The Jewish Standard'' (February 12, 2015)</ref> This comment of Rashbam was notably subject to sharp criticism by [[Abraham ibn Ezra|Ibn Ezra]] who placed a curse on any publishers who included this comment in their Chumash out of concern that the reading could cause a misinterpretation of Halacha and lead to Shabbat desecration. In their defense, ArtScroll points out that in standard Mikra'os Gedolos the entire commentary of Rashbam on the beginning of Bereishis is missing. When adding in from older manuscripts, they left out the exegeses to Genesis 1:5 because of questions to its authenticity.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Shapiro|first1=Marc B.|title=ArtScroll's Response and My Comments|url=https://seforimblog.com/2015/01/artscrolls-response-and-my-comments/|website=the Seforim Blog|publisher=the Seforim Blog|access-date=30 June 2019}}</ref>