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The Talmud (Hebrew: תַּלְמוּד, talmūd, meaning “study” or “teaching,” from the Hebrew root ל-מ-ד l-m-d, “to learn”) is one of the central works of Rabbinic Judaism. It is not a single book in the modern sense, but a vast collection of rabbinic discussions and teachings that interpret and explain the Oral Torah.
To understand the Talmud correctly, it is important to distinguish three levels of Jewish tradition:
Written Torah – the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh).
Oral Torah – interpretative traditions transmitted by the rabbis.
Talmud – the major work that records and discusses these traditions.
More specifically, the Talmud is composed of two main parts:
Mishnah (around the 2nd century CE)
Gemara (3rd–5th centuries CE)
The Mishnah is the first systematic written compilation of the Oral Torah.
The Gemara is the rabbinic commentary and discussion of the Mishnah.
Therefore:
Talmud = Mishnah + Gemara
Sometimes the word Talmud is used to refer only to the Gemara, but in its full sense it refers to both works together.
The Two Talmuds
There are two main versions of the Talmud, produced in different rabbinic centers:
Jerusalem Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi) – compiled in the rabbinic academies of the Land of Israel between the 4th and 5th centuries CE.
Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli) – compiled in the rabbinic academies of Babylonia between the 5th and 6th centuries CE.
The Babylonian Talmud is significantly larger and more complete, and in most cases when people refer simply to the “Talmud,” they mean the Babylonian Talmud.
In Jewish tradition the Talmud is also often called Shas (ש״ס), an abbreviation of shisha sedarim, meaning “the six orders,” referring to the structure of the Mishnah.
Structure and Content
The Talmud consists of 63 tractates, organized within the six orders of the Mishnah. In modern printed editions it exceeds 6,200 pages.
It is written in Rabbinic Hebrew and Babylonian Jewish Aramaic, and contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis who lived between the 1st and 5th centuries CE.
The subjects discussed are extremely broad and include:
Halakhah – Jewish law
biblical interpretation
ethics and morality
philosophy and theology
history and Jewish traditions
legal reasoning and practical case discussions
For this reason, the Talmud became the primary foundation of later Jewish law and rabbinic literature.
Historical Origin: The Transmission of the Oral Torah
After the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile (6th century BCE), preserving not only the written Torah but also the interpretative traditions that guided Jewish religious life became increasingly important.
These traditions were transmitted by the scribes (Soferim), the members of the Great Assembly, and later by the teachers of the Pharisaic schools and the yeshivot.
For centuries these teachings were preserved orally, until they were compiled in the Mishnah in the 2nd century CE. In the following centuries, rabbinic scholars analyzed, debated, and expanded this material; these discussions became the Gemara, and together with the Mishnah formed the Talmud.
The Talmud (Hebrew: תַּלְמוּד talmūd “instruction, learning”, from a root LMD “teach, study”) is a central text of Rabbinic Judaism. It is also traditionally referred to as Shas (ש״ס), a Hebrew abbreviation of shisha sedarim, the “six orders”, a reference to the six orders of the Mishnah. The term “Talmud” normally refers to the collection of writings named specifically the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli), although there is also an earlier collection known as the Jerusalem Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi) or Palestinian Talmud. When referring to post-biblical periods, namely those of the creation of the Talmud, the Talmudic academies and the Babylonian exilarchate, Jewish sources use the term “Babylonia” long after it had become obsolete in geopolitical terms.
The Talmud has two components; the Mishnah (Hebrew: משנה, c. 200 CE), a written compendium of Rabbinic Judaism’s Oral Torah; and the Gemara (c. 500 CE), an elucidation of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Hebrew Bible. “Talmud” translates literally as “instruction” in Hebrew, and the term may refer to either the Gemara alone, or the Mishnah and Gemara together.
The entire Talmud consists of 63 tractates, and in standard print is over 6,200 pages long. It is written in Tannaitic Hebrew and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis (dating from before the Common Era through the fifth century CE) on a variety of subjects, including Halakha (law), Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, lore and many other topics. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law, and is widely quoted in rabbinic literature.
History
Originally, Jewish scholarship was oral. Rabbis expounded and debated the Torah (the written Torah 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, mainly as the result of the destruction of the Jewish commonwealth and the Second Temple 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 at least partial 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 Torah 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 CE, when Rabbi Judah the Prince redacted the Mishnah (משנה).
The Oral Torah 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.
The oldest full manuscript of the Talmud, known as the Munich Talmud (Cod.hebr. 95), dates from 1342 and is available online.
Structure
The structure of the Talmud follows that of the Mishnah, in which six orders (sedarim; singular: seder) of general subject matter are divided into 60 or 63 tractates (masekhtot; singular: masekhet) of more focused subject compilations, though not all tractates have Gemara. 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. A perek may continue over several (up to tens of) pages. 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 cited to support the various opinions. In so doing, the Gemara will highlight 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 some instances, the final word determines the practical law, but in many instances the issue is left unresolved. There is a whole literature on the procedural principles to be used in settling the practical law when disagreements exist: see under #Logic and methodology below.
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 the 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.
Content and Structure
The Talmud is composed of several parts and explores every dimension of the existence of GOD, of Creation, of living beings, and of humanity.
| Order | Hebrew Name | Meaning | Tractates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zeraim | Seeds | Berakhot – BlessingsPeah – Corner of the FieldDemai – Doubtful ProduceKilaim – Mixed SpeciesShevi’it – Seventh YearTerumot – OfferingsMa’aserot – TithesMa’aser Sheni – Second TitheChallah – Dough OfferingOrlah – Uncircumcised TreesBikkurim – First Fruits |
| 2 | Moed | Festivals | Shabbat – SabbathEruvin – Boundaries / ConnectionsPesachim – Passover FestivalsShekalim – ShekelsYoma – The Day (Day of Atonement)Sukkot – Booths / TabernaclesBeitzah – Egg (Festival Laws)Rosh Hashanah – New YearTaanit – FastingMegillah – The ScrollMoed Katan – Minor FestivalChagigah – Festival Offering |
| 3 | Nashim | Women | Yevamot – Levirate MarriageKetubot – Marriage ContractsNedarim – VowsNazir – NaziriteSotah – Suspected AdulteressGittin – Divorce DocumentsKiddushin – Betrothal / Sanctification |
| 4 | Nezikin | Damages | Bava Kamma – First GateBava Metzia – Middle GateBava Batra – Last GateSanhedrin – Courts / JudiciaryMakkot – Stripes / PunishmentsShevuot – OathsEduyot – TestimoniesAvodah Zarah – IdolatryPirkei Avot – Sayings of the FathersHorayot – Judicial Decisions |
| 5 | Kodashim | Holy Things | Zevachim – Animal SacrificesMenachot – Grain OfferingsChullin – Ordinary / Profane ThingsBechorot – FirstbornArachin – ValuationsTemurah – SubstitutionKeritot – Spiritual ExcisionMe’ilah – Sacrilege / Misuse of Sacred ThingsTamid – Daily OfferingMiddot – Measurements (of the Temple)Kinnim – Bird Nests |
| 6 | Tehorot | Purifications | Kelim – VesselsOhalot – TentsNegaim – Plagues / LeprosyParah – Red HeiferTeharot – PuritiesMikvaot – Ritual BathsNiddah – Menstrual ImpurityMachshirim – Preparatory LiquidsZavim – Bodily DischargesTebul Yom – One Immersed During the DayYadayim – Hands (Purity Laws)Uktzin – Stalks / Fruit Stems |