An authoritative, influential compilation of rabbinic traditions and discussions about Jewish life and Laws, including worship, diet, purity, and social welfare. After the Mishnah of Rabbi Judah was compiled (c.200), it became itself an object of study by Jewish scholars in Palestine and Babylon; their commentary on it (the Gemara), together with the Mishnah, constitutes the Talmud, of which there were two versions: the Jerusalem or Palestinian Talmud (c.4th-c) and the longer Babylonian Talmud (c.500).
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The Talmud (Hebrew: תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah, which is the first written compendium of Judaism's Oral Law; The whole Talmud is traditionally also referred to as Shas (a Hebrew abbreviation of shishah sedarim, the "six orders" of the Mishnah).
Origins of the Talmud
Originally Jewish scholarship was oral.
The Mishna, unlike the Midrash, was only one record of the corpus of halakha (Tosefta is another), however, its topical organization became the framework of the Talmud as a whole. Also, the order of the tractates in the Talmud differs in some cases from that in the Mishnah;
| Zeraim (זרעים) | Moed (מועד) | Nashim (נשים) | Nezikin (נזיקין) | Kodashim (קדשים) | Tohorot (טהרות) |
| Berakhot · Pe'ah · Demai · Kil'ayim · Shevi'it · Terumot · Ma'aserot · Ma'aser Sheni · Hallah · Orlah · Bikkurim | Shabbat · Eruvin · Pesahim · Shekalim · Yoma · Sukkah · Beitzah · Rosh Hashanah · Ta'anit · Megillah · Mo'ed Katan · Hagigah | Yevamot · Ketubot · Nedarim · Nazir · Sotah · Gittin · Kiddushin | Bava Kamma · Bava Metzia · Bava Batra · Sanhedrin · Makkot · Shevu'ot · Eduyot · Avodah Zarah · Avot · Horayot | Zevahim · Menahot · Hullin · Bekhorot · Arakhin · Temurah · Keritot · Me'ilah · Tamid · Middot · Kinnim | Keilim · Oholot · Nega'im · Parah · Tohorot · Mikva'ot · Niddah · Makhshirin · Zavim · Tevul Yom · Yadayim · Uktzim |
Beraita
In addition to the Mishnah, other tannaitic works were recorded at about the same time or shortly thereafter.
Halakha and Aggadah
The Talmud contains a vast amount of material and touches on a great many subjects.
Talmud
The process of "Gemara" proceeded in the two major centres of Jewish Scholarship, Israel and Babylon. The Babylonian Talmud was compiled about the year 500 C.E., although it continued to be edited later. The word "Talmud", when used without qualification, usually refers to the Babylonian Talmud.
Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud)
The Gemara here is a synopsis of almost 200 years of analysis of the Mishna in the Academies in Israel (mainly Tiberias and Caesaria.) Due to the location of the Academies, the agricultural laws of the Land of Israel are discussed in great detail. It is referred to traditionally as the Talmud Yerushalmi (The Jerusalem Talmud) however, the name is a misnomer, as it was not written in Jerusalem. As such it is also known more accurately as the The Talmud of the land of Israel.
Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud)
Talmud Bavli (the "Babylonian Talmud") is comprised of the Mishnah and the Babylonian Gemara. Tradition ascribes the initial editing of the Babylonian Talmud to two Babylonian sages, Rav Ashi and Ravina. Traditionally, the rabbis who edited the talmud after the end of the Amoraic period are called the Saboraim or Rabanan Saborai. (See eras within Jewish law.)
Comparison of style and subject matter
There are significant differences between the two Talmud compilations. The language of the Jerusalem Talmud is a western Aramaic dialect which differs from that of the Babylonian.
The influence of the Babylonian Talmud has been far greater than that of the Yerushalmi. In the main, this is because the influence and prestige of the Jewish community of Israel steadily declined in contrast with the Babylonian community in the years after the redaction of the Talmud and continuing until the Gaonic era. Furthermore, the editing of the Babylonian talmud was superior to that of the Palestinian version, making it more accessible and readily usable.
Printing of the Talmud
The first complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud was printed in Italy by Daniel Bomberg during the 16th century. In 1835, a new edition of the Talmud was printed by the Menachem Romm of Vilna. Known as the Vilna Shas, this edition (and later ones printed by his widow and sons) have become an unofficial standard for Talmud editions.
A page number in the Talmud refers to a double-sided page, known as a daf; The referencing by daf is relatively recent and dates from the early Talmud printings of the 17th century. In the Vilna edition of the Talmud there are 5,894 folio pages.
Talmud commentary and study
The Talmud contains a great wealth of Jewish knowledge and from the time of its completion it became an essential and authoritative addition to Jewish literature.
The earliest talmud commentaries were written by the Gaonim (approximately 800-1000, C.E.). Although some direct commentaries on particular treatises are extant, our main knowledge of Gaonic era talmud scholarship comes from statements embedded in Geonic responsa which shed light on talmudic passages. After the death of Hai Gaon, however, the center of Talmud scholarship shifts to Europe and North Africa. Early commentators such as Rabbi Isaac Alfasi (North Africa, 1013-1103) attempted to extract and determine the binding legal opinions from the vast corpus of the talmud. It was intended to familiarize the public with the ethical parts of the Talmud and to dispute many of the accusations surrounding the contents of the Talmud.
Understanding the Talmud
The talmud is often cryptic and difficult to understand. These commentaries could be read with the text of the Talmud and would help explain the meaning of the text.
By far the most well known commentary on the Babylonian Talmud is that of Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, 1040-1105). The commentary is comprehensive, covering almost the entire Talmud. The tosafot are collected commentaries by various medieval Ashkenazic Rabbis on the Talmud. One of the main goals of the Tosafot is to explain and interpret contradictory statements in the talmud. Some of the more widely known are those of "Maharshal" (Solomon Luria), "Maharam" (Meir Lublin) and "Maharsha" (Samuel Edels)
Pilpul
Beginning in the sixteenth century a genre of talmud commentary was created in which very discreet or minor points of contradiction within the talmud were explained by using complicated logical explanations. Pilpul is considered a highly developed art form of talmud study. In response to pilpul, Talmud commentaries that did not use complicated logical arguments were referred to as being al derekh haPeshat (according to direct explanation).
Brisker method
In the late nineteenth century another trend in Talmud study arose. Brisker method involves the analysis of rabbinic arguments within the talmud or among the rishonim and explaining the differing opinions by placing them within a categorical structure. Most modern day Yeshivot study the Talmud using the Brisker method in some form.
Historical method
The Text of the Talmud has been subject to some level of critical scrutiny throughout its history. However, traditionally, the text of the Talmud has been viewed as static and as having a semi-canonical status. The Talmud like the rest of Judaism was scrutinized and questioned. As a result modern critical study of the Talmud was born.
Leaders of the Reform movement, such as Abraham Geiger and Samuel Holdheim, subjected the Talmud to severe scrutiny as part of an effort to break with traditional rabbinic Judaism. In reaction Orthodox leaders such as Moses Sofer became severely sensitive to any change and would reject any critical analysis of Talmud. Talmud study was caught in the great debate between Reformers and Orthodoxy. The Historical-Critical method of Talmud study. On the other hand, they believed that traditional Jewish sources, such as the Talmud, should be subject to academic inquiry and critical analysis.
In general, it may be said that advocates of the critical method of talmud study were willing to apply modern academic and scientific methods of research to Talmud study. Significantly, advocates of the historical method are willing to emmend the text of the talmud in order to answer difficulties in the text.
Talmud scholarship today
In Orthodox yeshivot the critical study of Talmud is still mostly avoided. Some trends within contemporary academic talmud scholarship are listed below.
Some scholars hold that there has been extensive editorial reshaping of the stories and statements within the Talmud. Some scholars hold that the Talmud has been extensively shaped by later editorial redaction, but that it contains sources which we can identify and describe with some level of reliability. Some scholars hold that many or most the statements and events described in the Talmud usually occurred more or less as described, and that they can be used as serious sources of historical study.Role of the Talmud in Judaism
The Talmud is the written record of an oral tradition. Not all Jews, in the past and present, have accepted the Talmud as having religious authority. It arose within two centuries of the completion of the Talmud. The central concept of Karaism is the rejection of the Oral Law, as embodied in the Talmud, in favor of a strict adherence to the Written Law only.
Reform Judaism
With the rise of Reform Judaism during the nineteenth century the authority of the Talmud was again questioned. The talmud was seen (together with the written law as well) as being a product of late antiquity and of having relevance merely as a historical document.
The Talmud in modern-day Judaism
See also How Halakha is viewed today;Orthodox Judaism continues to stress the importance of Talmud study and it is a central component of Yeshiva curriculum. The regular study of Talmud among laymen has been popularized by the Daf Yomi a daily course of talmud study initiated by Rabbi Meir Shapiro in 1923. Traditional Rabbinic education continues to lay heavy emphasis on the knowledge of Talmud. This is so even though Halakha is generally studied from the medieval codes and not directly from the Talmud.
Conservative Judaism similarly emphasises the study of Talmud within its religious and rabbinic education. Generally, however, the Talmud is studied as a historical source-text for Halakha.
Reform Judaism does not emphasize the study of Talmud to the same degree in their Hebrew schools, but they do teach it in their rabbinical seminaries; the world view of liberal Judaism rejects the idea of binding Jewish law, and uses the Talmud as a source of inspiration and moral instruction.
External attacks on the Talmud
The history of the Talmud reflects in part the history of Judaism persisting in a world of hostility and persecution. Almost at the very time that the Babylonian savoraim put the finishing touches to the redaction of the Talmud, the emperor Justinian issued his edict against the abolition of the Greek translation of the Bible in the service of the Synagogue. This edict, dictated by Christian zeal and anti-Jewish feeling, was the prelude to attacks on the Talmud, conceived in the same spirit, and beginning in the thirteenth century in France, where Talmudic study was then flourishing.
The charge against the Talmud brought by the convert Nicholas Donin led to the first public disputation between Jews and Christians and to the first burning of copies of the work (Paris, Place de Grève,1244). The Talmud was likewise the subject of a disputation at Barcelona in 1263 between Nahmanides (Rabbi Moses ben Nahman) and Pablo Christiani. This same Pablo Christiani made an attack on the Talmud which resulted in a papal bull against it and in the first censorship, which was undertaken at Barcelona by a commission of Dominicans, who ordered the cancellation of passages reprehensible from a Christian perspective (1264).
At the disputation of Tortosa in 1413, Geronimo de Santa Fé brought forward a number of accusations, including the fateful assertion that the condemnations of pagans and apostates found in the Talmud referred in reality to Christians. Two years later, Pope Martin V, who had convened this disputation, issued a bull (which was destined, however, to remain inoperative) forbidding the Jews to read the Talmud, and ordering the destruction of all copies of it.
An unexpected result of this affair was the complete printed edition of the Babylonian Talmud issued in 1520 by Daniel Bomberg at Venice, under the protection of a papal privilege. Three years later, in 1523, Bomberg published the first edition of the Palestinian Talmud. After thirty years the Vatican, which had first permitted the Talmud to appear in print, undertook a campaign of destruction against it. On New-Year's Day (September 9, 1553) the copies of the Talmud which had been confiscated in compliance with a decree of the Inquisition were burned at Rome; The Censorship of the Talmud and other Hebrew works was introduced by a papal bull issued in 1554; five years later the Talmud was included in the first Index Expurgatorius;
The first edition of the expurgated Talmud, on which most subsequent editions were based, appeared at Basel (1578-1581) with the omission of the entire treatise of 'Abodah Zarah and of passages considered inimical to Christianity, together with modifications of certain phrases. A fresh attack on the Talmud was decreed by Pope Gregory XIII (1575-85), and in 1593 Clement VIII renewed the old interdiction against reading or owning it. The increasing study of the Talmud in Poland led to the issue of a complete edition (Kraków, 1602-5), with a restoration of the original text; The last attack on the Talmud took place in Poland in 1757, when Bishop Dembowski, at the instigation of the Frankists, convened a public disputation at Kamenetz-Podolsk, and ordered all copies of the work found in his bishopric to be confiscated and burned by the hangman.
The external history of the Talmud includes also the literary attacks made upon it by Christian theologians after the Reformation, since these onslaughts on Judaism were directed primarily against that work, even though it was made a subject of study by the Christian theologians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1830, during a debate in the French Chamber of Peers regarding state recognition of the Jewish faith, Admiral Verhuell declared himself unable to forgive the Jews whom he had met during his travels throughout the world either for their refusal to recognize Jesus as the Messiah or for their possession of the Talmud. In the same year the Abbé Chiarini published at Paris a voluminous work entitled "Théorie du Judaïsme," in which he announced a translation of the Talmud, advocating for the first time a version which should make the work generally accessible, and thus serve for attacks on Judaism. The Talmud and the "Talmud Jew" thus became objects of anti-Semitic attacks, although, on the other hand, they were defended by many Christian students of the Talmud.
Despite the numerous mentions of Edom which may refer to Christendom, the Talmud makes little mention of Jesus directly or the early Christians. these quotes were long ago removed from the main text due to accusations that they referred to Jesus, and are no longer used in Talmud study. However, these removed quotes were preserved through rare printings of lists of errata, known as Hashmatot Hashass ("Omissions of the Talmud"). Some modern editions of the Talmud contain some or all of this material, either at the back of the book, in the margin, or in alternate print.
Charges of racism
Some groups and individuals consider that passages in the Talmud show that Judaism is inherently racist. Critics of these charges argue that the passages in question do not indicate inherent racism on the part of the Talmud (and Judaism), but rather mistranslation, falsification, and selective choice of quotes out of context, on the part of those making the charges. The Anti-Defamation League's report on this topic states:
By selectively citing various passages from the Talmud and Midrash, polemicists have sought to demonstrate that Judaism espouses hatred for non-Jews (and specifically for Christians), and
promotes obscenity, sexual perversion, and other immoral behavior. They are thus able to ignore Judaism's long history of social progress and paint it instead as a primitive and parochial
religion.
Those who attack the Talmud frequently cite ancient rabbinic sources without noting subsequent developments in Jewish thought, and without making a good-faith effort to consult with
contemporary Jewish authorities who can explain the role of these sources in normative Jewish thought and practice.
Rabbi Gil Student, a prolific author on the internet, exposes anti-Talmud accusations and writes:
Anti-Talmud accusations have a long history dating back to the 13th century when the associates of the Inquisition attempted to defame Jews and their religion [see Yitzchak Baer, A History of Jews in Christian Spain, vol. The early material compiled by hateful preachers like Raymond Martini and Nicholas Donin remain the basis of all subsequent accusations against the Talmud.
The Daf Yomi ("Daily Page")
Thousands of Jews worldwide participate in Daf Yomi - literally the daily page (of Talmud) - as part of a monumental program. With 2711 folios in the Talmud, one cycle takes about 7.5 years.
Translations
Translations of Talmud Bavli
There are four contemporary translations of the Talmud into English:
The Soncino Hebrew-English Talmud Isidore Epstein, Soncino Press. The Talmud of Babylonia. each Aramaic/Hebrew page of Talmud typically requires three English pages of translation. The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition Adin Steinsaltz, Random House (incomplete). This work is in fact a translation of Rabbi Steinsaltz' Hebrew language translation of and commentary on the entire Talmud.Translations of Talmud Yerushalmi
Talmud of the Land of Israel: A Preliminary Translation and Explanation Jacob Neusner, Tzvee Zahavy, others. This translation is the counterpart to Mesorah/Artscroll's Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud (i.e. Babylonian Talmud). Mesorah/Artscroll's website for the Schottenstein Edition of the Yerushalmi Talmud
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