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The Gemara (also transliteration Gemarah, or in Yiddish Gemore) comprises a collection of rabbinical analyses and commentaries on the Mishnah and presented in 63 books. The term is derived from the Aramaic word and rooted in the Semitic word (gamar), which means "to finish" or "complete". Initially, the Gemara was transmitted orally and not permitted to be written down. However, after Judah the Prince compiled the Mishnah around 200 CE, rabbis from Babylonia and the Land of Israel extensively studied the work. Their discussions were eventually documented in a series of books, which would come to be known as the Gemara. There are two versions of the Talmud: the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli) and the Jerusalem Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi). The Mishnah is virtually the same in two Talmuds; the Gemara is what differentiates the Babylonian Talmud from its Jerusalem counterpart.
The Babylonian Talmud, compiled by scholars in Babylonia around 500 CE and primarily from the academies of Sura, Pumbedita, and Nehardea, is the more commonly cited version when referring to the "Gemara" or "Talmud"; redaction of the Jerusalem Talmud was interrupted in the mid-fourth century when the Romans suppressed Jewish scholarship in Israel and most Talmudists fled to Babylon. As a result, the Bavli was more intensively edited, studied, and commented on. The main compilers of the Babylonian Talmud were Ravina II and Rav Ashi. The Jerusalem Talmud was compiled by Jewish scholars in the Land of Israel, primarily from the academies of Tiberias and Caesarea, around 350–400 CE.
The Talmud is organized into six sedarim, or "orders," which include Zeraim, Moed, Nashim, Nezikin, Kodshim, and Taharot.
In 1923, Polish Rabbi Meir Shapiro introduced a contemporary practice called "Daf Yomi," or "daily page," wherein participants study one page of the Talmud daily in cycles lasting seven and a half years each. This initiative ensures that both scholars and laypeople across the globe engage in the comprehensive study of the entire Talmud.
The rabbis of the Mishnah are known as Tannaim (sing. Tanna ). The rabbis of the Gemara are referred to as Amoraim (sing. Amora אמורא). The analysis of the Amoraim, recorded as gemara, is thus focused on clarifying the positions, views, and word choice of the Tannaim.
Because there are two Gemaras, as mentioned above, there are in fact two Talmuds: the Jerusalem Talmud (Hebrew: , "Talmud Yerushalmi"), and the Talmud (Hebrew: , "Talmud Bavli"), corresponding to the Jerusalem Gemara and the Babylonian Gemara; both share the same Mishnah. The Gemara is mostly written in Aramaic, the Jerusalem Gemara in Western Aramaic and the Babylonian in Eastern Aramaic, but both contain portions in Hebrew language. Sometimes the language changes in the middle of a story.
The Aramaic noun gemar (and gemara) was formed from the verb that means "learn." This substantive noun thus designates what was learned, and the learning transmitted to scholars by tradition, though it connotes in a more limited sense to exposition of the Mishnah. The word therefore gained currency as a designation of the Talmud. In the modern editions, the term gemara occurs frequently in this sense—but in nearly every case it was substituted at a later time for the objectionable word talmud, which was prohibited by the Christian censors. The only passage in which gemara occurs with the meaning of "Talmud" in the strict sense, and not censored, is Eruvin 32b, where it is used by Rav Nachman, a Babylonian amora (3rd C.). Later editions of the Talmud frequently substitute for the word "Gemara" the Aramaic abbreviation for "the six orders of the Mishnah," pronounced as "Shas," which has become a popular designation for the Babylonian Talmud.
The analysis of the Amoraim is generally focused on clarifying the positions, words and views of the Tannaim. These debates and exchanges form the "building-blocks" of the ; the name for such a passage of Gemara is a (; plural ). A will typically comprise a detailed logical argument elaboration of the . Every aspect of the text is treated as a subject of close investigation. This analysis is aimed at an exhaustive understanding of the full meaning.
In the Talmud, a is presented as a series of responsive hypothesis and questions – with the Talmudic text as a record of each step in the process of reasoning and derivation. The thus takes the form of a Dialectic (by contrast, the states posek – and often differences in opinion between the Tannaim. There is little dialogue). The disputants here are termed the (questioner, "one who raises a difficulty") and (answerer, "one who puts straight").
The records the semantics between Tannaim and Amoraim. Some of these debates were actually conducted by the Amoraim, though many of them are hypothetically reconstructed by the Talmud's redactors. (Often imputing a view to an earlier authority as to how he may have answered a question: "This is what Rabbi X could have argued ...") Only rarely are debates formally closed.
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