The Talmud(Hebrew: תַּלְמוּד talmūd "instruction, learning", from a root lmd "teach, study")
is a central text of mainstream Judaism, in the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history.
is a central text of mainstream Judaism, in the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history.
The Talmud has two components:
the Mishnah (c. 200 CE),
the first written compendium of Judaism's Oral Law;
and
the Gemara (c. 500 CE),
a discussion of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Tanakh.The terms Talmud and Gemara are often used interchangeably.
The Gemara is the basis for all codes of rabbinic law and is much quoted in other rabbinic literature.
The whole Talmud is also traditionally referred to as Shas (ש"ס),
a Hebrew abbreviation of shisha sedarim,
the "six orders" of the Mishnah.
Oral Torah
The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud,
Tractate Berachot, folio 2a.
Originally, Jewish scholarship was oral.
Rabbis expounded and debated the law
(the written law expressed in the Hebrew Bible)
and discussed the Tanakh without the benefit of written works
(other than the Biblical books themselves)
,though some may have made private notes
(megillot setarim),
for example of court decisions.
This situation changed drastically, however, mainly as the result of the destruction of the Jewish commonwealth in the year 70 CE and the consequent upheaval of Jewish social and legal norms.As the Rabbis were required to
face a new reality—mainly
Judaism without a Temple
(to serve as the center of teaching and study)
and Judea without autonomy—there was a flurry of legal discourse and the old system of oral scholarship could not be maintained.
It is during this period that Rabbinic discourse began to be recorded in writing.
The earliest recorded oral law may have been of the midrashic form, in which halakhic discussion is structured as exegetical commentary on the Pentateuch.
But an alternative form, organized by subject matter instead of by biblical verse, became dominant about the year 200 C.E., whenRabbi Judah haNasi redacted the Mishnah (משנה).
The Oral Law was far from monolithic;
rather, it varied among various schools.The most famous two were the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel.
In general, all valid opinions, even the non-normative ones, were recorded in the Talmud.Talmud structure
The six orders
(sedarim, singular - seder)
of general subject matter the Talmud are divided into 60 or 63 tractates
(masekhtot, singular - masekhet)
of more focused subject compilations.
Each tractate is divided into chapters
(perakim, singular - perek),
517 in total, that are both numbered according to the Hebrew alphabet and given names, usually using the first one or two words in the first mishnah.
The perek may continue over several to tens of pages
(dafim, singular - daf; also known as blat)
of the Talmud, which are cited in English-language works with Arabic numerals, each side referred to as
Alef or Bet.
Each perek will contain several mishnayot with their accompanying exchanges that form the
"building-blocks"
of the Gemara;
the name for a passage of gemara is a sugya
(סוגיא; plural sugyot).
A sugya, including baraita or tosefta, will typically comprise a detailed proof-based elaboration of a Mishnaic statement, whether halakhic or aggadic.
A sugya may, and often does range widely off the subject of the mishnah.
The sugya is not punctuated in the conventional sense used in the English language, but by using specific expressions that help to divide the sugya into components, usually including a statement, a question on the statement, an answer, a proof for the answer or a refutation of the answer with its own proof.
In a given sugya, scriptural,
Tannaic and Amoraic statements are brought to support the various opinions.
In so doing, the Gemara will bring semantic disagreements between Tannaim and Amoraim
(often ascribing a view to an earlier authority as to how he may have answered a question),
and compare the Mishnaic views with passages from the Baraita.
Rarely are debates formally closed;
in many instances,
the final word determines the practical law, although there are many exceptions to this principle.
Mishnah
Main article: Mishnah
The Mishnah is a compilation of legal opinions and debates.
Statements in the Mishnah are typically terse, recording brief opinions of the rabbis debating a subject;or recording only an unattributed ruling, apparently representing a consensus view.
The rabbis recorded in the Mishnah are known as Tannaim.
Since it sequences its laws by subject matter instead of by biblical context, the Mishnah discusses individual subjects more thoroughly than the Midrash, and it includes a much broader selection of halakhic subjects than the Midrash.
The Mishnah's topical organization thus became the framework of the Talmud as a whole.But not every tractate in the Mishnah has a corresponding Gemara.
Also, the order of the tractates in the Talmud differs in some cases from that in the Mishnah
(see the discussion on each order).
Bavli and Yerushalmi
the Mishnah (c. 200 CE),
the first written compendium of Judaism's Oral Law;
and
the Gemara (c. 500 CE),
a discussion of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Tanakh.The terms Talmud and Gemara are often used interchangeably.
The Gemara is the basis for all codes of rabbinic law and is much quoted in other rabbinic literature.
The whole Talmud is also traditionally referred to as Shas (ש"ס),
a Hebrew abbreviation of shisha sedarim,
the "six orders" of the Mishnah.
Oral TorahThe first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud,
Tractate Berachot, folio 2a.
Originally, Jewish scholarship was oral.
Rabbis expounded and debated the law
(the written law expressed in the Hebrew Bible)
and discussed the Tanakh without the benefit of written works
(other than the Biblical books themselves)
,though some may have made private notes
(megillot setarim),
for example of court decisions.
This situation changed drastically, however, mainly as the result of the destruction of the Jewish commonwealth in the year 70 CE and the consequent upheaval of Jewish social and legal norms.As the Rabbis were required to
face a new reality—mainly
Judaism without a Temple
(to serve as the center of teaching and study)
and Judea without autonomy—there was a flurry of legal discourse and the old system of oral scholarship could not be maintained.
It is during this period that Rabbinic discourse began to be recorded in writing.
The earliest recorded oral law may have been of the midrashic form, in which halakhic discussion is structured as exegetical commentary on the Pentateuch.
But an alternative form, organized by subject matter instead of by biblical verse, became dominant about the year 200 C.E., whenRabbi Judah haNasi redacted the Mishnah (משנה).
The Oral Law was far from monolithic;
rather, it varied among various schools.The most famous two were the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel.
In general, all valid opinions, even the non-normative ones, were recorded in the Talmud.Talmud structure
The six orders (sedarim, singular - seder)
of general subject matter the Talmud are divided into 60 or 63 tractates
(masekhtot, singular - masekhet)
of more focused subject compilations.
Each tractate is divided into chapters
(perakim, singular - perek),
517 in total, that are both numbered according to the Hebrew alphabet and given names, usually using the first one or two words in the first mishnah.
The perek may continue over several to tens of pages
(dafim, singular - daf; also known as blat)
of the Talmud, which are cited in English-language works with Arabic numerals, each side referred to as
Alef or Bet.
Each perek will contain several mishnayot with their accompanying exchanges that form the"building-blocks"
of the Gemara;
the name for a passage of gemara is a sugya
(סוגיא; plural sugyot).
A sugya, including baraita or tosefta, will typically comprise a detailed proof-based elaboration of a Mishnaic statement, whether halakhic or aggadic.
A sugya may, and often does range widely off the subject of the mishnah.
The sugya is not punctuated in the conventional sense used in the English language, but by using specific expressions that help to divide the sugya into components, usually including a statement, a question on the statement, an answer, a proof for the answer or a refutation of the answer with its own proof.
In a given sugya, scriptural,
Tannaic and Amoraic statements are brought to support the various opinions.
In so doing, the Gemara will bring semantic disagreements between Tannaim and Amoraim
(often ascribing a view to an earlier authority as to how he may have answered a question),
and compare the Mishnaic views with passages from the Baraita.
Rarely are debates formally closed;
in many instances,
the final word determines the practical law, although there are many exceptions to this principle.
Mishnah
Main article: Mishnah
The Mishnah is a compilation of legal opinions and debates.
Statements in the Mishnah are typically terse, recording brief opinions of the rabbis debating a subject;or recording only an unattributed ruling, apparently representing a consensus view.
The rabbis recorded in the Mishnah are known as Tannaim.
Since it sequences its laws by subject matter instead of by biblical context, the Mishnah discusses individual subjects more thoroughly than the Midrash, and it includes a much broader selection of halakhic subjects than the Midrash.
The Mishnah's topical organization thus became the framework of the Talmud as a whole.But not every tractate in the Mishnah has a corresponding Gemara.
Also, the order of the tractates in the Talmud differs in some cases from that in the Mishnah
(see the discussion on each order).
Bavli and YerushalmiThe process of
"Gemara"
proceeded in the two major centers of Jewish scholarship, the
Land of Israel and Babylonia.
Correspondingly, two bodies of analysis developed, and two works of Talmud were created.
The older compilation is called the Jerusalem Talmud or the Talmud Yerushalmi.
It was compiled in the fourth century in Israel.
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)
Main article: Jerusalem Talmud
A page of a medieval Jerusalem Talmud manuscript, from the Cairo Genizah.
The Jerusalem Talmud, also known as the Palestinian Talmud, was one of the two compilations of Jewish religious teachings and commentary that was transmitted orally for centuries prior to its compilation by Jewish scholars in Israel.
It is a compilation of teachings of the schools of Tiberias, Sepphoris and Caesarea.
It is written largely in a western Aramaic dialect that differs from its Babylonian counterpart.This Talmud is a synopsis of the analysis of the Mishnah that was developed over the course of nearly 200 years by the Academies in Israel
(principally those of Tiberias and Caesaria.)
Because of their location, the sages of these Academies devoted considerable attention to analysis of the agricultural laws of the Land of Israel.
Traditionally, this Talmud was thought to have been redacted in about the year 350 C.E. by Rav Muna and Rav Yossi in the Land of Israel.
It is traditionally known as the Talmud Yerushalmi
("Jerusalem Talmud"),
but the name is a misnomer, as it was not prepared in Jerusalem.It has more accurately been called The Talmud of the Land of Israel.
It has also often been referred to as the Palestinian Talmud, especially in sources that predate the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Its final redaction probably belongs to the end of the fourth century, but the individual scholars who brought it to its present form cannot be fixed with assurance.
By this time Christianity had become the state religion of the Roman Empire and Jerusalem the holy city of Christendom.In 325 CE Constantine, the first Christian emperor, said
"let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd.”
This policy made a Jew an outcast and pauper.
The compilers of the Jerusalem Talmud consequently lacked the time to produce a work of the quality they had intended.
The text is evidently incomplete and is not easy to follow.
The apparent cessation of work on the Jerusalem Talmud in the fifth century has been associated with the decision of Theodosius II in 425 C.E. to suppress the Patriarchate and put an end to the practice of formal scholarly ordination.
Some modern scholars have questioned this connection:
for more detail see Jerusalem Talmud:
Place and date of composition.
Despite its incomplete state, the Jerusalem Talmud remains an indispensable source of knowledge of the development of the Jewish Law in Israel.
It was also an important resource in the study of the Babylonian Talmud by the Kairouan school of Hananel ben Hushiel and Nissim Gaon, with the result that opinions ultimately based on the Jerusalem Talmud found their way into both the Tosafot and the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides.
There are traditions that hold that in the Messianic Age the Jerusalem Talmud will have priority over the Babylonian.
This may be interpreted as meaning that, following the restoration of the Sanhedrin and the line of ordained scholars, the work will be completed and
"out of Zion shall go the Law,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem".
Accordingly, following the formation of the state of Israel there is some interest in restoring Eretz Yisrael traditions.
For example, Rabbi David Bar-Hayim of the Machon Shilo institute has issued a siddur reflecting Eretz Yisrael practice as found in the Jerusalem Talmud and other sources.
"Gemara"
proceeded in the two major centers of Jewish scholarship, the
Land of Israel and Babylonia.
Correspondingly, two bodies of analysis developed, and two works of Talmud were created.
The older compilation is called the Jerusalem Talmud or the Talmud Yerushalmi.
It was compiled in the fourth century in Israel.
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)
Main article: Jerusalem Talmud
A page of a medieval Jerusalem Talmud manuscript, from the Cairo Genizah.
The Jerusalem Talmud, also known as the Palestinian Talmud, was one of the two compilations of Jewish religious teachings and commentary that was transmitted orally for centuries prior to its compilation by Jewish scholars in Israel.
It is a compilation of teachings of the schools of Tiberias, Sepphoris and Caesarea.
It is written largely in a western Aramaic dialect that differs from its Babylonian counterpart.This Talmud is a synopsis of the analysis of the Mishnah that was developed over the course of nearly 200 years by the Academies in Israel
(principally those of Tiberias and Caesaria.)
Because of their location, the sages of these Academies devoted considerable attention to analysis of the agricultural laws of the Land of Israel.
Traditionally, this Talmud was thought to have been redacted in about the year 350 C.E. by Rav Muna and Rav Yossi in the Land of Israel.
It is traditionally known as the Talmud Yerushalmi
("Jerusalem Talmud"),
but the name is a misnomer, as it was not prepared in Jerusalem.It has more accurately been called The Talmud of the Land of Israel.
It has also often been referred to as the Palestinian Talmud, especially in sources that predate the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Its final redaction probably belongs to the end of the fourth century, but the individual scholars who brought it to its present form cannot be fixed with assurance.
By this time Christianity had become the state religion of the Roman Empire and Jerusalem the holy city of Christendom.In 325 CE Constantine, the first Christian emperor, said
"let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd.”
This policy made a Jew an outcast and pauper.The compilers of the Jerusalem Talmud consequently lacked the time to produce a work of the quality they had intended.
The text is evidently incomplete and is not easy to follow.
The apparent cessation of work on the Jerusalem Talmud in the fifth century has been associated with the decision of Theodosius II in 425 C.E. to suppress the Patriarchate and put an end to the practice of formal scholarly ordination.
Some modern scholars have questioned this connection:
for more detail see Jerusalem Talmud:
Place and date of composition.
Despite its incomplete state, the Jerusalem Talmud remains an indispensable source of knowledge of the development of the Jewish Law in Israel.
It was also an important resource in the study of the Babylonian Talmud by the Kairouan school of Hananel ben Hushiel and Nissim Gaon, with the result that opinions ultimately based on the Jerusalem Talmud found their way into both the Tosafot and the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides.
There are traditions that hold that in the Messianic Age the Jerusalem Talmud will have priority over the Babylonian.
This may be interpreted as meaning that, following the restoration of the Sanhedrin and the line of ordained scholars, the work will be completed and
"out of Zion shall go the Law,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem".Accordingly, following the formation of the state of Israel there is some interest in restoring Eretz Yisrael traditions.
For example, Rabbi David Bar-Hayim of the Machon Shilo institute has issued a siddur reflecting Eretz Yisrael practice as found in the Jerusalem Talmud and other sources.
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