The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ( halakha) and Jewish theology.
The Talmud is a commentary on the Mishnah.
The word Talmud commonly refers to the Babylonian Talmud ( Talmud Bavli) and not the earlier Jerusalem Talmud ().[Jacob Neusner, The Talmud: What It Is and What It Says (2006). Rowman & Littlefield.]
Etymology
Talmud translates as "instruction, learning", from the
Semitic root lmd, meaning "teach, study".
The two Talmuds
In antiquity, the two major centres of Jewish scholarship were located in Galilee and Babylonia. A Talmud was compiled in each of these regional centres. The earlier of the two compilations took place in Galilee, either in the late fourth or early fifth century, and it came to be known as the
Jerusalem Talmud (or
Talmud Yerushalmi). Later on, and likely some time in the sixth century, the Babylonian Talmud was compiled (
Talmud Bavli). This later Talmud is usually what is being referred to when the word "Talmud" is used without qualification.
Traditions of the Jerusalem Talmud and its sages had a significant influence on the milieu out of which the Babylonian Talmud arose.
Jerusalem Talmud
The Jerusalem Talmud (
Talmud Yerushalmi) is known by several other names, including the Palestinian Talmud
(which is more accurate, as it was not compiled in Jerusalem), or the Talmuda de-Eretz Yisrael ("Talmud of the Land of Israel").
The Jerusalem Talmud was a written codification of oral tradition that had been circulating for centuries
[
] and represents a compilation of scholastic teachings and analyses on the
Mishnah (especially those concerning agricultural laws) found across regional centres of the Land of Israel now known as the Academies in Galilee (principally those of
Tiberias,
Sepphoris, and Caesarea). It is written largely in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, a Western Aramaic language that differs from its Babylonian counterpart.
The compilation was likely made between the late fourth to the first half of the fifth century.
Despite its incomplete state, the Jerusalem Talmud remains an indispensable source of knowledge of the development of the Jewish Law in the Holy Land. It was also an important primary source for the study of the Babylonian Talmud by the Kairouan school of Chananel ben Chushiel and Nissim ben Jacob, with the result that opinions ultimately based on the Jerusalem Talmud found their way into both the Tosafot and the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides. Ethical maxims contained in the Jerusalem Talmud are scattered and interspersed in the legal discussions throughout the several treatises, many of which differ from those in the Babylonian Talmud.[Mielziner, M. (Moses), Introduction to the Talmud (3rd edition), New York 1925, p. xx]
Babylonian Talmud
The Babylonian Talmud (
Talmud Bavli) consists of documents compiled over the period of
late antiquity (3rd to 6th centuries).
During this time, the most important of the Jewish centres in
Mesopotamia, a region called "
Babylonia" in Jewish sources (see Talmudic academies in Babylonia) and later known as
Iraq, were
Nehardea, Nisibis (modern
Nusaybin), Mahoza (al-Mada'in, just to the south of what is now
Baghdad),
Pumbedita (near present-day al Anbar Governorate), and the
Sura Academy, probably located about south of Baghdad.
The Babylonian Talmud comprises the culmination of centuries of analysis and dialectic surrounding the Mishnah in the Talmudic Academies in Babylonia. According to tradition, the foundations of this process of analysis were laid by Abba Arika (175–247), a disciple of Judah ha-Nasi. Tradition ascribes the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud in its present form to two Babylonian sages, Rav Ashi and Ravina II.[Nosson Dovid Rabinowich (ed), The Iggeres of Rav Sherira Gaon, Jerusalem 1988, pp. 79, 116] Rav Ashi was president of the Sura Academy from 375 to 427. In this time, he began the creation of the written Talmud, a written project passed onto and completed by Ravina, the final Amoraim expounder. Accordingly, the latest traditional date for the Talmud is often placed at 475, the year Ravina died. However, even on traditional views, a final redaction is still thought to have been made by the Savoraim ("reasoners", "considerers") in the sixth century.[Nosson Dovid Rabinowich (ed), The Iggeres of Rav Sherira Gaon, Jerusalem 1988, p. 116]
Comparison
Unlike the Western Aramaic dialect of the Jerusalem Talmud, the Babylonian Talmud has a Babylonian Aramaic dialect. The Jerusalem is also more fragmentary (and difficult to read) due to a less complete redactional process.
Discussions in the Babylonian Talmud are more discursive, rambling, rely more on anecdote and argumentation by syllogism and induction, whereas those in the Jerusalem Talmud are more factual and apply argumentation through logical deduction. The Babylonian Talmud is much longer, with about 2.5 million words in total. Proportionally, more Babylonian material is non-legal (
aggadah), constituting a third of its material, compared to a sixth of the Jerusalem.
The Babylonian Talmud has received significantly more interest and coverage from commentators.
[Encyclopaedia Judaica
]
Maimonides drew influence from both Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, although he favored the latter over the former when principles between them conflicted.
Neither covers the entire Mishnah. For example, the Babylonian commentary only covers 37 of 63 Mishnaic tractates. In particular:
-
The Jerusalem Talmud covers all the tractates of Zeraim, while the Babylonian Talmud covers only tractate Berachot. This might be because the agricultural concerns of Zeraim were not as notable in Babylonia.
-
Unlike the Babylonian Talmud, the Jerusalem Talmud does not cover the Mishnaic Kodashim, which deals with sacrificial rites and laws pertaining to the Second Temple. A good explanation for this is not available, although there is some evidence that a now-lost commentary on this text once existed in the Jerusalem Talmud.
-
In both Talmuds, only one tractate of Tohorot (ritual purity laws) is examined, that of the menstrual laws (Niddah).
Structure
The structure of the Talmud follows that of the Mishnah, divided into Six Orders (known as the
Shisha Sedarim, or
Shas) of general subject matter are divided into 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.
[Jacobs, Louis, Structure and form in the Babylonian Talmud, Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 2]
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 (literally, "repeaters", or "teachers"). These tannaim—rabbis of the second century CE—"who produced the Mishnah and other tannaic works, must be distinguished from the rabbis of the third to fifth centuries, known as amoraim (literally, "speakers"), who produced the two Talmudim and other amoraic works".
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.
Gemara
The Gemara constitutes the commentary portion of the Talmud. The Mishnah, and its commentary (the Gemara), together constitute the Talmud. This commentary arises from a longstanding tradition of rabbis analyzing, debating, and discussing the Mishnah ever since it had been published. The rabbis who participated in the process that produced this commentarial tradition are known as the
Amoraim.
Each discussion is presented in a self-contained, edited passage known as a
sugya.
Much of the Gemara is legal in nature. Each analysis begins with a Mishnaic legal statement. With each sugya, the statement may be analyzed and compared with other statements. This process can be framed as an exchange between two (often anonymous, possibly metaphorical) disputants, termed the makshan (questioner) and tartzan (answerer). Gemara also commonly tries to find the correct biblical basis for a given law in the Mishnah as well as the logical process that connects the biblical to the Mishnaic tradition. This process was known as talmud, long before the "Talmud" itself became a text.[e.g. Pirkei Avot 5.21: "five for the Torah, ten for Mishnah, thirteen for the commandments, fifteen for talmud".]
In addition, the Gemara contains a wide range of narratives, homiletical or exegetical passages, sayings, and other non-legal content, termed aggadah. A story told in a sugya of the Babylonian Talmud may draw upon the Mishnah, the Jerusalem Talmud, midrash, and other sources.
Baraita
The traditions that the Gemara comments on are not limited to what is found in the Mishnah, but the Baraita as well (a term that broadly designates
Oral Torah traditions that did not end up in the Mishnah). The
baraitot cited in the Gemara are often quotations from the
Tosefta (a tannaitic compendium of halakha parallel to the Mishnah) and the
Midrash halakha (specifically Mekhilta, Sifra and Sifre). Some
Baraita, however, are known only through traditions cited in the Gemara, and are not part of any other collection.
[David Halivni, Midrash, Mishnah, and Gemara: The Jewish Predilection for Justified Law (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), 93–101. ]
Minor tractates
In addition to the Six Orders, the Talmud contains a series of short treatises of a later date, usually printed at the end of Seder Nezikin. These are not divided into Mishnah and Gemara.
Language
The work is largely in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, although quotations in the
Gemara of the Mishnah, the
and
Tanakh appear in Mishnaic or Biblical Hebrew.
Some other dialects of Aramaic occur in quotations of other older works, like the
Megillat Taanit. The reason why earlier texts occur in Hebrew, and later texts in Aramaic, is because of the adoption of the latter (which was the spoken vernacular) by rabbinic circles during the period of the
Amoraim (rabbis cited in the Gemara) beginning around the year 200.
[Sáenz-Badillos, Ángel and John Elwolde. 1996. A history of the Hebrew language. pp. 170–171: "There is general agreement that two main periods of RH (Rabbinical Hebrew) can be distinguished. The first, which lasted until the close of the Tannaitic era (around 200 CE), is characterized by RH as a spoken language gradually developing into a literary medium in which the Mishnah, Tosefta, baraitot, and Tannaitic midrashim would be composed. The second stage begins with the Amoraim, and sees RH being replaced by Aramaic as the spoken vernacular, surviving only as a literary language. Then it continued to be used in later rabbinic writings until the 10th century in, for example, the Hebrew portions of the two Talmuds and in midrashic and haggadic literature."] A second Aramaic dialect is used in
Nedarim, Nazir, Temurah,
Keritot, and Me'ilah; the second is closer in style to the
Targum.
Manuscripts
The only complete manuscript of the Talmud, Munich Codex Hebraica 95, dates from 1342 (
view scan). Other manuscripts of the Talmud include:
-
Cairo Genizah fragments
-
Date: earliest ones from the late 7th or 8th century
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Context: earliest manuscript fragment of the Talmud of any kind
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Ms. Oxford 2673
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Date: 1123
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Context: Contains a significant portion of tractate Keritot; earliest Talmudic manuscript whose precise date is known
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Ms. Firenze 7
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Date: 1177
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Context: earliest Talmudic whose precise date is known and contains complete tractates
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MS JTS Rab. 15
-
Date: 1290
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Location: Spain
-
Bologna, Archivio di Stato Fr. ebr. 145
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Vatican 130
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Oxford Opp. 38 (368)
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Arras 889
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Vatican 114
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Vatican 140
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Bazzano, Archivio Storico Comunale Fr. ebr. 21
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Date: 12th–15th centuries
-
St. Petersburg, RNL Evr. I 187
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Date: 13th or 15th century
Dating
Premodern estimates
The Talmud itself (BM 86a) incorporates a statement that "
Ravina II and
Rav Ashi were the end of instruction". Likewise, Sherira ben Hanina writes that "instruction ended" with the death of
Ravina II in 811
Seleucid era (500 CE), and "the Talmud stopped with the end of instruction in the days of
Rabbah Jose (fl. 476-514)".
records that "in 811 SE (500 CE) Ravina the End of Instruction died, and the Talmud was stopped", and the same text is found in Codex Gaster 83.
Another medieval chronicle records that "On Wednesday, 13
Kislev, 811 SE (500 CE), Ravina the End of Instruction son of Rav Huna died, and the Talmud stopped."
Abraham ibn Daud gives 821 SE (510 CE) for the same event, and Joseph ibn Tzaddik writes that "
Maremar and Mar bar Rav Assi et al. completed the Babylonian Talmud . . . in 4265
Anno Mundi (505 CE)".
dated the Talmud's compilation to "400 years after the Destruction", which is 470 CE if taken as exact.
According to Moses da Rieti, "Ravina and Rav Ashi compiled the Talmud but they did not complete it, and Mar bar Rav Ashi and Mareimar et al. sealed it in the days of Rabbah Jose . . . he headed the academy for 38 years after succeeding Ravina, until 4274 AM (514 CE), and in his days the Babylonian Talmud was sealed, which was begun and largely redacted in the days of Rav Ashi and Ravina".
The Wikkuah, a description of the 1240 Disputation of Paris, records that Yechiel of Paris claimed that "the Talmud is 1,500 years old", which would put it in the 3rd century BCE. Pietro Capelli suggests that it must have been traditional among medieval Ashkenazic Jews to date the Talmud from its beginning instead of its completion. Later manuscripts of the Wikkuah adopt the usual system of dating it to the time of Ravina II. Nicholas Donin, by contrast, claimed that the Talmud was only composed "400 years" before, i.e. around 840 CE.
Modern estimates
A wide range of dates have been proposed for the Babylonian Talmud by historians.
The text was most likely completed, however, in the 6th century, or prior to the early Muslim conquests in the mid-7th century at the latest, on the basis that the Talmud lacks loanwords or syntax deriving from
Arabic. By comparison, Islamic-era rabbinic documents are heavily influenced by Arabic writing, convention, and loanwords, and rabbinic writings came to be exclusively written in Arabic by the 8th century.
Recently, it has been extensively argued that Talmud is an expression and product of Sasanian Empire culture,
Additional external evidence for a latest possible date for the composition of the Babylonian Talmud are uses of it by external sources such as Letter of Baboi ()[ On the precise date of Pirkoi's letter cf. I. Gafni, 'How Babylonia Became Zion: Shifting Identities in Late Antiquity', in: L.I. Levine and D.R. Schwartz (eds), Jewish Identities in Antiquity: Studies in Memory of Menahem Stern (Tübingen, 2009), p. 333 n. 2.] and chronicles like the Seder Tannaim veAmoraim (9th century) and the Iggeret of Rabbi Sherira Gaon (987).
In Jewish scholarship
From the time of its completion, the Talmud became integral to Jewish scholarship. A maxim in
Pirkei Avot advocates its study from the age of 15.
[As Pirkei Avot is a tractate of the Mishnah, and reached its final form centuries before the compilation of either Talmud, this refers to talmud as an activity rather than to any written compilation.]
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz writes that "If the Bible is the cornerstone of Judaism, then the Talmud is the central pillar ... No other work has had a comparable influence on the theory and practice of Jewish life, shaping influence on the theory and practice of Jewish life" and states:[Adin Steinsaltz, "Chapter 1: What is the Talmud?" in The Essential Talmud (2006). Basic Books: pp. 3-9.]
The following subsections outline some of the major areas of Talmudic study.
Legal interpretation
One area of Talmudic scholarship developed out of the need to ascertain the
Halakha (Jewish rabbinical law). Early commentators such as
Isaac Alfasi (North Africa, 1013–1103) attempted to extract and determine the binding legal opinions from the vast corpus of the Talmud. Alfasi's work was highly influential, attracted several commentaries in its own right and later served as a basis for the creation of halakhic codes. Another influential medieval Halakhic work following the order of the Babylonian Talmud, and to some extent modelled on Alfasi, was "the
Mordechai", a compilation by Mordechai ben Hillel ( 1250–1298). A third such work was that of Asher ben Yechiel (d. 1327). All these works and their commentaries are printed in the Vilna and many subsequent editions of the Talmud.
A 15th-century Spanish rabbi, Jacob ibn Habib (d. 1516), compiled the Ein Yaakov, which extracts nearly all the Aggadah material from the Talmud. It was intended to familiarize the public with the ethical parts of the Talmud and to dispute many of the accusations surrounding its contents.
Commentaries
Geonim-era (6th-11th centuries) commentaries have largely been lost, but are known to exist from partial quotations in later medieval and early modern texts. Because of this, it is known that now-lost commentaries on the Talmud were written by Paltoi Gaon, Sherira, Hai Gaon, and Saadya (though in this case, Saadiya is not likely to be the true author). Of these, the commentary of Paltoi ben Abaye (
c. 840) is the earliest. His son, Zemah ben Paltoi paraphrased and explained the passages which he quoted; and he composed, as an aid to the study of the Talmud, a lexicon which
Abraham Zacuto consulted in the fifteenth century.
Saadia Gaon is said to have composed commentaries on the Talmud, aside from his Arabic commentaries on the Mishnah.
The first surviving commentary on the entire Talmud is that of Chananel ben Chushiel. Many medieval authors also composed commentaries focusing on the content of specific tractates, including Nissim ben Jacob and Gershom ben Judah. The commentary of Rashi, covering most of the Talmud, has become a classic. Sections in the commentary covering a few tractates (Pes, BB and Mak) were completed by his students, especially Judah ben Nathan, and a sections dealing with specific tractates (Ned, Naz, Hor and MQ) of the commentary that appear in some print editions of Rashi's commentary today were not composed by him. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a genre of rabbinic literature emerged surrounding Rashi's commentary, with the purpose of supplementing it and addressing internal contradictions via the technique of pilpul. This genre of commentary is known as the Tosafot and focuses on specific passages instead of a running continuous commentary across the entire Talmud.
Many Talmudic passages are difficult to understand, sometimes owing to the use of Greek or Persian loanwords whose meaning had become obscure. A major area of Talmudic scholarship developed to explain these passages and words. Some early commentators such as Rabbenu Gershom of Mainz (10th century) and Rabbenu Ḥananel (early 11th century) produced running commentaries to various tractates. These commentaries could be read with the text of the Talmud and would help explain the meaning of the text. Another important work is the Sefer ha-Mafteaḥ (Book of the Key) by Nissim Gaon, which contains a preface explaining the different forms of Talmudic argumentation and then explains abbreviated passages in the Talmud by cross-referring to parallel passages where the same thought is expressed in full. Commentaries ( ḥiddushim) by Joseph ibn Migash on two tractates, Bava Batra and Shevuot, based on Ḥananel and Alfasi, also survive, as does a compilation by Zechariah Aghmati called Sefer ha-Ner.
The Tosafot are collected commentaries by various medieval Ashkenazic rabbis on the Talmud (known as Tosafists or Ba'alei Tosafot). One of the main goals of the Tosafot is to explain and interpret contradictory statements in the Talmud. Unlike Rashi, the Tosafot is not a running commentary, but rather comments on selected matters. Often the explanations of Tosafot differ from those of Rashi.[For a list see Ephraim Urbach, s.v. "Tosafot," in Encyclopedia of Religion.]
Over time, the approach of the Tosafists spread to other Jewish communities, particularly those in Spain. This led to the composition of many other commentaries in similar styles.
Among these are the commentaries of Nachmanides (Ramban), Solomon ben Adret (Rashba), Yom Tov of Seville (Ritva) and Nissim of Gerona (Ran); these are often titled “chiddush ...” (“ of ...”).
A comprehensive anthology consisting of extracts from all these is the Shitah Mekubezet of Bezalel Ashkenazi.
Other commentaries produced in Spain and Provence were not influenced by the Tosafist style. Two of the most significant of these are the Yad Ramah by rabbi Meir Abulafia and Bet Habechirah by rabbi Menachem Meiri, commonly referred to as "Meiri". While the Bet Habechirah is extant for all of Talmud, we only have the Yad Ramah for Tractates Sanhedrin, Baba Batra and Gittin. Like the commentaries of Ramban and the others, these are generally printed as independent works, though some Talmud editions include the Shitah Mekubezet in an abbreviated form.
In later centuries, focus partially shifted from direct Talmudic interpretation to the analysis of previously written Talmudic commentaries. Well known are "Maharshal" (Solomon Luria), "Maharam" (Meir Lublin) and "Maharsha" (Samuel Edels), which analyze Rashi and Tosafot together; other such commentaries include Ma'adanei Yom Tov by Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller, in turn a commentary on the Rosh (see below), and the glosses by Zvi Hirsch Chajes. These later commentaries are generally appended to the tractate.
Commentaries discussing the Halachik-legal content - outlined above - include "Rosh", "Rif" and "Mordechai"; these are now standard appendices to each volume. Rambam's Mishneh Torah is invariably studied alongside these three; although a code, and therefore not in the same order as the Talmud, the relevant location is identified via the "Ein Mishpat", following.
(A recent project, Halacha Brura, founded by Abraham Isaac Kook, presents the Talmud and a summary of the halachic codes side by side, so as to enable the "collation" of Talmud with resultant Halacha.[ It should not be confused with the halachic compendium of the same name by rabbi David Yosef.])
Found in almost all editions of the Talmud, is the "study-aid" consisting of the marginal notes Torah Or, Ein Mishpat Ner Mitzvah and Masoret ha-Shas by the Italian rabbi Joshua Boaz, which give references respectively: to the cited Biblical passages, to the relevant halachic codes ( Mishneh Torah, Tur, Shulchan Aruch, and Se'mag) and to related Talmudic passages.
Most editions of the Talmud include also the brief marginal notes by Akiva Eger under the name Gilyon ha-Shas, and textual notes by Joel Sirkes and the Vilna Gaon.
Pilpul
During the 15th and 16th centuries, a new intensive form of Talmud study arose. Complicated logical arguments were used to explain minor points of contradiction within the Talmud. The term
pilpul was applied to this type of study. Usage of
pilpul in this sense (that of "sharp analysis") harks back to the Talmudic era and refers to the intellectual sharpness this method demanded.
Pilpul practitioners posited that the Talmud could contain no redundancy or contradiction whatsoever. New categories and distinctions ( hillukim) were therefore created, resolving seeming contradictions within the Talmud by novel logical means.
In the Ashkenazi Jews world the founders of pilpul are generally considered to be Jacob Pollak (1460–1541) and Shalom Shachna. This kind of study reached its height in the 16th and 17th centuries when expertise in pilpulistic analysis was considered an art form and became a goal in and of itself within the yeshivot of Poland and Lithuania. But the popular new method of Talmud study was not without critics; already in the 15th century, the ethical tract Orhot Zaddikim ("Paths of the Righteous" in Hebrew) criticized pilpul for an overemphasis on intellectual acuity. Many 16th- and 17th-century rabbis were also critical of pilpul. Among them are Judah Loew ben Bezalel (the Maharal of Prague), Isaiah Horowitz, and Yair Bacharach.
By the 18th century, pilpul study waned. Other styles of learning such as that of the school of Elijah b. Solomon, the Vilna Gaon, became popular. The term "pilpul" was increasingly applied derogatorily to novellae deemed casuistic and hairsplitting. Authors referred to their own commentaries as "al derekh ha-peshat" (by the simple method)[ Al means on. Derekh mean path. PaShoot, the Hebrew root in ha-peshat, means simple. The prefix "ha-" means the. ] to contrast them with pilpul.[See Pilpul, Mordechai Breuer, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 16, 2nd Ed (2007), Macmillan Reference and H.H. Ben Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, pp. 627, 717.]
Sephardic approaches
Among
Sephardi Jews and
Italian Jews from the 15th century on, some authorities sought to apply the methods of Aristotelian logic, as reformulated by
Averroes.
[ Kol Melechet Higgayon, the Hebrew translation of Averroes' epitome of Aristotle's logical works, was widely studied in northern Italy, particularly Padua.] This method was first recorded, though without explicit reference to Aristotle, by
Isaac Campanton (d. Spain, 1463) in his
Darkhei ha-Talmud ("The Ways of the Talmud"),
[Boyarin, Sephardi Speculation (Hebrew) (Jerusalem 1989).] and is also found in the works of Moses Chaim Luzzatto.
[For a comprehensive treatment, see Ravitzky, below.]
According to the present-day Sephardi scholar José Faur, traditional Sephardic Talmud study could take place on any of three levels.[Faur is here describing the tradition of Damascus, though the approach in other places may have been similar.]
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The most basic level consists of literary analysis of the text without the help of commentaries, designed to bring out the tzurata di-shema'ta, i.e. the logical and narrative structure of the passage.
[Examples of lessons using this approach may be found here.]
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The intermediate level, iyyun (concentration), consists of study with the help of commentaries such as Rashi and the Tosafot, similar to that practiced among the Ashkenazi Jews.
[Cf. the distinction in the Ashkenazi yeshivah curriculum between beki'ut (basic familiarization) and 'iyyun (in-depth study).] Historically Sephardim studied the Tosefot ha-Rosh and the commentaries of Nahmanides in preference to the printed Tosafot.[David ben Judah Messer Leon, Kevod Ḥakhamim, cited by Zimmels, Ashkenazim and Sephardim, pp. 151, 154.] A method based on the study of Tosafot, and of Ashkenazi authorities such as Maharsha (Samuel Edels) and Maharshal (Solomon Luria), was introduced in late seventeenth century Tunisia by rabbis Abraham Hakohen (d. 1715) and Tsemaḥ Tsarfati (d. 1717) and perpetuated by rabbi Isaac Lumbroso[Chaim Joseph David Azulai, Shem Gedolim, cited Hirschberg, A History of the Jews in North Africa, pp. 125–126.] and is sometimes referred to as 'Iyyun Tunisa'i.[Joseph Ringel, "A Third Way: Iyyun Tunisai as a Traditional Critical Method of Talmud Study", Tradition 2013 46:3.]
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The highest level, halachah (Jewish law), consists of collating the opinions set out in the Talmud with those of the halachic codes such as the Mishneh Torah and the Shulchan Aruch, so as to study the Talmud as a source of law; the equivalent Ashkenazi approach is sometimes referred to as being "aliba dehilchasa".
Brisker method
In the late 19th century another trend in Talmud study arose. Hayyim Soloveitchik (1853–1918) of Brisk (Brest-Litovsk) developed and refined this style of study.
Brisker method involves a
analysis of rabbinic arguments within the Talmud or among the
Rishonim, explaining the differing opinions by placing them within a categorical structure. The Brisker method is highly analytical and is often criticized as being a modern-day version of
pilpul. Nevertheless, the influence of the Brisker method is great. Most modern-day Yeshivot study the Talmud using the Brisker method in some form. One feature of this method is the use of
Maimonides'
Mishneh Torah as a guide to Talmudic interpretation, as distinct from its use as a source of practical
halakha.
Rival methods were those of the Mir and .[For a humorous description of the different methods, see Gavriel Bechhofer's An Analysis of Darchei HaLimud (Methodologies of Talmud Study) Centering on a Cup of Tea.]
See and .
Textual criticism
Medieval era
The text of the Talmud has been subject to some level of critical scrutiny throughout its history. Rabbinic tradition holds that the people cited in both Talmuds did not have a hand in its writings; rather, their teachings were edited into a rough form around 450 CE (Talmud Yerushalmi) and 550 CE (Talmud Bavli.) The text of the Bavli especially was not firmly fixed at that time.
Gaonic responsa literature addresses this issue. Teshuvot Geonim Kadmonim, section 78, deals with mistaken biblical readings in the Talmud. This Gaonic responsum states:
In the early medieval era, Rashi already concluded that some statements in the extant text of the Talmud were insertions from later editors. On Shevuot 3b Rashi writes "A mistaken student wrote this in the margin of the Talmud, and copyists subsequently put it into the Gemara."
Early modern era
The emendations of
Yoel Sirkis and the Vilna Gaon are included in all standard editions of the Talmud, in the form of marginal glosses entitled
Hagahot ha-Bach and
Hagahot ha-Gra respectively; further emendations by
Solomon Luria are set out in commentary form at the back of each tractate. The Vilna Gaon's emendations were often based on his quest for internal consistency in the text rather than on manuscript evidence;
nevertheless many of the Gaon's emendations were later verified by textual critics, such as Solomon Schechter, who had
Cairo Genizah texts with which to compare our standard editions.
[Solomon Schechter, Studies in Judaism p. 92.]
Contemporary scholarship
In the 19th century, Raphael Nathan Nota Rabinovicz published a multi-volume work entitled
Dikdukei Soferim, showing textual variants from the Munich and other early manuscripts of the Talmud, and further variants are recorded in the Complete Israeli Talmud and
Gemara Shelemah editions (see Critical editions, above).
Today many more manuscripts have become available, in particular from the Cairo Geniza. The Academy of the Hebrew Language has prepared a text on CD-ROM for lexicographical purposes, containing the text of each tractate according to the manuscript it considers most reliable,[Introduction to Sokoloff, Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. The texts themselves may be found at http://maagarim.hebrew-academy.org.il/Pages/PMain.aspx.] and images of some of the older manuscripts may be found on the website of the National Library of Israel (formerly the Jewish National and University Library).[See under #Manuscripts and textual variants, below.]
Some trends within contemporary Talmud scholarship are listed below.
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Orthodox Judaism maintains that the oral Torah was revealed, in some form, together with the written Torah. As such, some adherents, most notably Samson Raphael Hirsch and his followers, resisted any effort to apply historical methods that imputed specific motives to the authors of the Talmud. Other major figures in Orthodoxy, however, took issue with Hirsch on this matter, most prominently David Tzvi Hoffmann
[See particularly his controversial dissertation, Mar Samuel, available at (German).] and Joseph Hirsch Dünner.
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Some scholars hold that there has been extensive editorial reshaping of the stories and statements within the Talmud. Lacking outside confirming texts, they hold that we cannot confirm the origin or date of most statements and laws, and that we can say little for certain about their authorship. In this view, the questions above are impossible to answer. See, for example, the works of Louis Jacobs and Shaye J.D. Cohen.
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Some scholars hold that the Talmud has been extensively shaped by later editorial redaction, but that it contains sources we can identify and describe with some level of reliability. In this view, sources can be identified by tracing the history and analyzing the geographical regions of origin. See, for example, the works of Lee I. Levine and David Kraemer.
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Some scholars hold that many or most of 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. In this view, historians do their best to tease out later editorial additions (itself a very difficult task) and skeptically view accounts of miracles, leaving behind a reliable historical text. See, for example, the works of Saul Lieberman, David Weiss Halivni, and Avraham Goldberg.
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Modern academic study attempts to separate the different "strata" within the text, to try to interpret each level on its own, and to identify the correlations between parallel versions of the same tradition. In recent years, the works of David Weiss Halivni and Shamma Friedman have suggested a paradigm shift in the understanding of the Talmud (Encyclopaedia Judaica 2nd ed. entry "Talmud, Babylonian"). The traditional understanding was to view the Talmud as a unified homogeneous work. While other scholars had also treated the Talmud as a multi-layered work, Halivni's innovation (primarily in the second volume of his Mekorot u-Mesorot) was to differentiate between the Amoraic statements, which are generally brief Halachic decisions or inquiries, and the writings of the later "Stammaitic" (or Saboraic) authors, which are characterised by a much longer analysis that often consists of lengthy dialectic discussion. The Jerusalem Talmud is very similar to the Babylonian Talmud minus Stammaitic activity (Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.), entry "Jerusalem Talmud"). Shamma Y. Friedman's Talmud Aruch on the sixth chapter of Bava Metzia (1996) is the first example of a complete analysis of a Talmudic text using this method. S. Wald has followed with works on Pesachim ch. 3 (2000) and Shabbat ch. 7 (2006). Further commentaries in this sense are being published by Friedman's "Society for the Interpretation of the Talmud".
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Some scholars are indeed using outside sources to help give historical and contextual understanding of certain areas of the Babylonian Talmud. See for example the works of Yaakov Elman
Translations
There are six contemporary translations of the Talmud into English:
Steinsaltz
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Adin Steinsaltz began his translation of the Babylonian Talmud into modern Hebrew (the original is mostly Aramaic with some Mishnaic Hebrew) in 1969 and completed it in 2010. (He also translated some tractates of the Jerusalem Talmud.) The Hebrew edition is printed in two formats: the original one in a new layout and the later one in the format of the traditional Vilna Talmud page; both are available in several sizes. The first attempt to translate the Steinsaltz edition into English was (Random House), which contains the original Hebrew-Aramaic text with punctuation and an English translation based on Steinsaltz' complete Hebrew language translation of and commentary on the entire Talmud. This edition began to be released in 1989 but was never completed; only four tractates were printed in 21 volumes, with a matching Reference Guide translated from a separate work of Steinsaltz. Portions of the Steinsaltz Talmud have also been translated into French, Russian, and other languages.
-
The Noé Edition of the Koren Talmud Bavli, published by Koren Publishers Jerusalem was launched in 2012. It has a new, modern English translation and the commentary of Adin Steinsaltz, and was praised for its "beautiful page" with "clean type".
[ "Queen for a Day", Tablet Magazine, 5 February 2013] From the right side cover (the front side of Hebrew and Aramaic books), edition has the traditional Vilna page with vowels and punctuation in the original Aramaic text. The Rashi commentary appears in Rashi script with vowels and punctuation. From the left side cover the edition features bilingual text with side-by-side English/Aramaic translation. The margins include color maps, illustrations and notes based on Adin Steinsaltz's Hebrew language translation and commentary of the Talmud. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb serves as the Editor-in-Chief. The entire set was completed in 42 volumes.
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In February 2017, the William Davidson Talmud was released to Sefaria.
Artscroll
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The Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud (Artscroll/Mesorah Publications), is 73 volumes,
[Maroon-colored] and a Hebrew translation edition.[Blue] In the translated editions, each English or Hebrew page faces the Aramaic/Hebrew page it translates. Each Aramaic/Hebrew page of Talmud typically requires three to six English or Hebrew pages of translation and notes. The Aramaic/Hebrew pages are printed in the traditional Vilna format, with a gray bar added that shows the section translated on the facing page. The facing pages provide an expanded paraphrase in English or Hebrew, with translation of the text shown in bold and explanations interspersed in normal type, along with extensive footnotes. Pages are numbered in the traditional way but with a superscript added, e.g. 12b4 is the fourth page translating the Vilna page 12b. Larger tractates require multiple volumes. The first volume was published in 1990, and the series was completed in 2004.
Soncino
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The Soncino Talmud (34 volumes, 1935–1948, with an additional index volume published in 1952 and a two-volume translation of the Minor Tractates later),
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In addition, a 7x5in travel or pocket edition
[64 volumes, including index and 'minor tractates'" ]
Other English translations
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The Talmud of Babylonia. An American Translation, Jacob Neusner, Tzvee Zahavy, others. Atlanta: 1984–1995: Scholars Press for Brown Judaic Studies. Complete.
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Rodkinson: Portions
[Jewish Encyclopedia article, http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6409-frumkin-israel-dob-bar, per Michael L. Rodkinson] of the Babylonian Talmud were translated by Michael L. Rodkinson (1903). It has been linked to online, for copyright reasons (initially it was the only freely available translation on the web), but this has been wholly superseded by the Soncino translation. (see below, under Full text resources).
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The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary, edited by Jacob Neusner
Translations into other languages
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The Extractiones de Talmud, a Latin translation of some 1,922 passages from the Talmud, was made in Paris in 1244–1245. It survives in two recensions. There is a critical edition of the sequential recension:
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A circa 1000 CE translation of (some parts of)
[the source reads "he translated into Arabic part of the six Orders of the Mishnah"] the Talmud to Arabic is mentioned in Sefer ha-Qabbalah. This version was commissioned by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah and was carried out by Joseph ibn Abitur.[ Jewish Encyclopedia article, per Joseph ibn Abitur]
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The Talmud was translated by Shimon Moyal into Arabic in 1909.
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In 2018 Muslim-majority Albania co-hosted an event at the United Nations with Catholic-majority Italy and Jewish-majority Israel celebrating the translation of the Talmud into Italian for the first time.
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In 2012, a first volume of the Talmud Bavli was published in Spanish by Tashema. It was translated in Jerusalem under the yeshiva directed by Rav Yaakov Benaim. It includes the translation and explanation of the Mishnah and Gemara, and the commentaries by Rashi and Tosafot. By 2023, 19 volumes have been published.
Index
"A widely accepted and accessible index"
was the goal driving several such projects.:
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Mafteah haTalmud (1910-1930). Breslau: D. Rotenberg. The individual work of . Only four volumes were released before the remainder was lost in manuscript during The Holocaust.
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Index Volume to the Soncino Talmud (1952). Soncino Press. 749 pages.
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Thesaurus Talmudis (1954-2004). 45 volumes covering the Bavli and 10 covering the Yerushalmi. Prepared by Chaim Josua Kasowski and sons.
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Subject Concordance to the Babylonian Talmud (1959). Ejnar Munksgaard. By Lazarus Goldschmidt, revised by Rafael Edelmann.
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Otzar Imrei Avot (1959-1961), Ruben Mass. 5 volumes. Prepared by Zevi Larinman.
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Michlul haMa'amarim (1960). Mossad Harav Kook. A three-volume index of the Bavli and Yerushalmi, containing more than 100,000 entries.
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Shevilei haTalmud (1996). Prepared by Uri Hain.
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HaMafteah (2011). Feldheim Publishers. Has over 30,000 entries.
Editions
Bomberg Talmud 1523
The first complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud was printed in Venice by
Daniel Bomberg 1520–23
with the support of Pope Leo X. In addition to the
Mishnah and
Gemara, Bomberg's edition contained the commentaries of
Rashi and
Tosafot. Almost all printings since Bomberg have followed the same pagination. Bomberg's edition was considered relatively free of censorship.
[Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin. The Censor, the Editor, and the Text: The Catholic Church and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon in the Sixteenth Century. Trans. Jackie Feldman. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. viii + 314 . p. 104]
Froben Talmud 1578
Ambrosius Frobenius collaborated with the scholar Israel Ben Daniel Sifroni from Italy. His most extensive work was a Talmud edition published, with great difficulty, in 1578–81.
Benveniste Talmud 1645
Following Ambrosius Frobenius's publication of most of the Talmud in installments in Basel, Immanuel Benveniste published the whole Talmud in installments in Amsterdam 1644–1648,
[Christiane Berkvens-Stevelinck Le Magasin De L'Univers – The Dutch Republic As the Centre of the European Book Trade (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History) ] Although according to Raphael Rabbinovicz the Benveniste Talmud may have been based on the
Lublin Talmud and included many of the censors' errors.
[Printing the Talmud: a history of the individual treatises p. 239, Marvin J. Heller (1999) "The Benveniste Talmud, according to Rabbinovicz, was based on the Lublin Talmud which included many of the censors' errors"] "It is noteworthy due to the inclusion of
Avodah Zarah, omitted due to Church censorship from several previous editions, and when printed, often lacking a title page.
Slavita Talmud 1795 and Vilna Talmud 1835
The edition of the Talmud published by the Szapira brothers in
Slavuta was published in 1817,
and it is particularly prized by many
of
Hasidic Judaism. In 1835, after a religious community copyright
["embroiled leading rabbis in Europe .. rival editions of the Talmud"] was nearly over,[the wording was that the sets printed could be sold. All full sets were sold, although individual volumes remained. The systems of dealers did not facilitate knowing exactly how many individual volumes were still in dealer hands.] and following an acrimonious dispute with the Szapira family, a new edition of the Talmud was printed by Menachem Romm of Vilnius.
Known as the Vilna Edition Shas, this edition (and later ones printed by his widow and sons, the Romm publishing house) has been used in the production of more recent editions of Talmud Bavli.
A page number in the Vilna Talmud refers to a double-sided page, known as a daf, or folio in English; each daf has two amudim labeled א and ב, sides A and B (recto and verso). The convention of referencing by daf is relatively recent and dates from the early Talmud printings of the 17th century, though the actual pagination goes back to the Bomberg edition. Earlier rabbinic literature generally refers to the tractate or chapters within a tractate (e.g. Berachot Chapter 1, ברכות פרק א׳). It sometimes also refers to the specific Mishnah in that chapter, where "Mishnah" is replaced with "Halakha", here meaning route, to "direct" the reader to the entry in the Gemara corresponding to that Mishna (e.g. Berachot Chapter 1 Halakha 1, ברכות פרק א׳ הלכה א׳, would refer to the first Mishnah of the first chapter in Tractate Berachot, and its corresponding entry in the Gemara). However, this form is nowadays more commonly (though not exclusively) used when referring to the Jerusalem Talmud. Nowadays, reference is usually made in format ''Tractate (e.g. Berachot 23b, ברכות כג ב׳). Increasingly, the symbols "." and ":" are used to indicate Recto and Verso, respectively (thus, e.g. Berachot 23:, :ברכות כג). These references always refer to the pagination of the Vilna Talmud.
Critical editions
The text of the Vilna editions is considered by scholars not to be uniformly reliable, and there have been a number of attempts to collate textual variants.
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In the late 19th century, Nathan Rabinowitz published a series of volumes called Dikduke Soferim showing textual variants from early manuscripts and printings.
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In 1960, work started on a new edition under the name of Gemara Shelemah (complete Gemara) under the editorship of Menachem Mendel Kasher: only the volume on the first part of tractate Pesachim appeared before the project was interrupted by his death. This edition contained a comprehensive set of textual variants and a few selected commentaries.
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Some thirteen volumes have been published by the Institute for the Complete Israeli Talmud (a division of Yad Harav Herzog), on lines similar to Rabinowitz, containing the text and a comprehensive set of textual variants (from manuscripts, early prints and citations in secondary literature) but no commentaries.
[Friedman, "Variant Readings in the Babylonian Talmud – A Methodological Study Marking the Appearance of 13 Volumes of the Institute for the Complete Israeli Talmud's Edition," Tarbiz 68 (1998).]
There have been critical editions of particular tractates (e.g. Henry Malter's edition of Ta'anit), but there is no modern critical edition of the whole Talmud. Modern editions such as those of the Oz ve-Hadar Institute correct misprints and restore passages that in earlier editions were modified or excised by censorship but do not attempt a comprehensive account of textual variants. One edition, by Yosef Amar,[Julius Joseph Price, The Yemenite ms. of Megilla (in the Library of Columbia university), 1916; Pesahim, 1913; Mo'ed Katon, 1920.]
Editions for a wider audience
A number of editions have been aimed at bringing the Talmud to a wider audience. Aside from the Steinsaltz and Artscroll/Schottenstein sets there are:
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The Metivta edition, published by the Oz ve-Hadar Institute. This contains the full text in the same format as the Vilna-based editions,
[The other Oz ve-Hadar editions are similar but without the explanation in modern Hebrew.]
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A previous project of the same kind, called Talmud El Am, "Talmud to the people", was published in Israel in the 1960s–80s. It contains Hebrew text, English translation and commentary by Arnost Zvi Ehrman, with short 'realia', marginal notes, often illustrated, written by experts in the field for the whole of Tractate Berakhot, 2 chapters of Bava Mezia and the halachic section of Qiddushin, chapter 1.
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Tuvia's Gemara Menukad:
[ includes vowels and punctuation ( Nekudot), including for Rashi and Tosafot.][ It also includes "all the abbreviations of that amud on the side of each page."]
Incomplete sets from prior centuries
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Amsterdam (1714, Proops Talmud and Marches/de Palasios Talmud): Two sets were begun in Amsterdam in 1714, a year in which "acrimonious disputes between publishers within and between cities" regarding reprint rights also began. The latter ran 1714–1717. Neither set was completed, although a third set was printed 1752–1765.
Other notable editions
Lazarus Goldschmidt published an edition from the "uncensored text" of the Babylonian Talmud with a German translation in 9 volumes (commenced Leipzig, 1897–1909, edition completed, following emigration to England in 1933, by 1936).[ The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia. Isaac Landman (1941) "His greatest work was the translation of the entire Babylonian Talmud into German, which, as it was made from the uncensored text and was the only complete translation in a European language, was of great value for students."]
Twelve volumes of the Babylonian Talmud were published by Mir Yeshiva refugees during the years 1942 thru 1946 while they were in Shanghai.[Gittin. Rest of inside coverpage Hebrew, but bottom has (in English) Jewish Bookstore, J. Geseng, Shanghai, 1942: ]
A Survivors' Talmud was published, encouraged by President Truman's "responsibility toward these victims of persecution" statement. The U.S. Army (despite "the acute shortage of paper in Germany") agreed to print "fifty copies of the Talmud, packaged into 16-volume sets" during 1947–1950.
In visual arts
In Carl Schleicher's paintings
Rabbis and Talmudists studying and debating Talmud abound in the art of Austrian painter Carl Schleicher (1825–1903); active in Vienna, especially –1871.
File:Carl Schleicher Jüdische Szene 1.jpg| Jewish Scene I
File:Carl Schleicher Jüdische Szene 2.jpg| Jewish Scene II
File:Carl Schleicher Eine Streitfrage aus dem Talmud.jpg| A Controversy Whatsoever on Talmud[See Schleicher's paintings at MutualArt.]
File:Carl Schleicher Beim Rabbi.jpg| At the Rabbi's
Jewish art and photography
File:Juden beim Talmudstudium Paris 19-20Jh.jpg| Jews studying Talmud, París,
File:Samuel Hirszenberg 'Szkoła talmudystów'.jpg|Samuel Hirszenberg, Talmudic School,
File:The Talmud students.jpg|Ephraim Moses Lilien, The Talmud Students, engraving, 1915
File:La dispute.jpg|Maurycy Trębacz, The Dispute,
File:Knesset Menora Salomo.jpg| Solomon's Haggadoth, bronze relief from the Knesset Menorah, Jerusalem, by Benno Elkan, 1956
File:Knesset Menorah P5200009 Hilel.JPG| Hilel's Teachings, bronze relief from the Knesset Menorah
File:Knesset Menorah Jochanan ben Sakkai.jpg| Jewish Mysticism: Jochanan ben Sakkai, bronze relief from the Knesset Menorah
File:Yemenite Jews studying Torah in Sana'a.jpg|Yemenite Jews studying Torah in Sana'a
Reception outside of Judaism
Christianity
The study of Talmud is not restricted to those of the Jewish religion and has attracted interest in other cultures. Christian scholars have long expressed an interest in the study of Talmud, which has helped illuminate their own scriptures. Talmud contains biblical exegesis and commentary on Tanakh that will often clarify elliptical and esoteric passages. The Talmud contains possible references to Jesus and his disciples, while the Christian canon makes mention of Talmudic figures and contains teachings that can be paralleled within the Talmud and Midrash. The Talmud provides cultural and historical context to the Gospel and the writings of the Apostles.
South Korea
South Koreans reportedly hope to emulate Jews' high academic standards by studying Jewish literature. Almost every household has a translated copy of a book they call "Talmud", which parents read to their children, and the book is part of the primary-school curriculum.
The first South Korean publication of 5,000 Years of Jewish Wisdom was in 1974, by Tae Zang publishing house. Many different editions followed in both Korea and China, often by black-market publishers. Between 2007 and 2009, Yong-soo Hyun of the Shema Yisrael Educational Institute published a 6-volume edition of the Korean Talmud, bringing together material from a variety of Tokayer's earlier books. He worked with Tokayer to correct errors and Tokayer is listed as the author. Tutoring centers based on this and other works called "Talmud" for both adults and children are popular in Korea and "Talmud" books (all based on Tokayer's works and not the original Talmud) are widely read and known.[
]
Iran
In 2012, then-Vice President of Iran, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, claimed that the Talmud was the cause of the spread of in the country.
Criticism
Historian Michael Levi Rodkinson, in his book The History of the Talmud, wrote that detractors of the Talmud, both during and subsequent to its formation, "have varied in their character, objects and actions" and the book documents a number of critics and persecutors, including Nicholas Donin, Johannes Pfefferkorn, Johann Andreas Eisenmenger, the Frankists, and August Rohling.[Rodkinson] Many attacks come from antisemitic sources such as Justinas Pranaitis, Elizabeth Dilling, or David Duke. Criticisms also arise from Christian, Muslim,[Lewis, Bernard, Semites and anti-Semites: an inquiry into conflict and prejudice, W.W. Norton & Company, 1999, p. 134][Johnson, Paul, A history of the Jews, HarperCollins, 1988, p. 577][ Arab attitudes to Israel, Yehoshafat Harkabi, pp. 248, 272] and Jewish sources,[Such as Uriel da Costa, Israel Shahak, and Baruch Kimmerling] as well as from atheists and skeptics.[Such as Christopher Hitchens and Denis Diderot] Accusations against the Talmud include alleged:[Hyam Maccoby, Judaism on Trial][ADL report The Talmud in Anti-Semitic Polemics , Anti-Defamation League][Gil Student – Rebuttals to criticisms of Talmud][Wilhelm Bacher, "Talmud", article in Jewish Encyclopedia, Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1901]
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Anti-Christian or anti-gentile content
[Fraade, pp. 144–146][Kimmerling, Baruch, "Images of Gentiles" (book review), Journal of Palestine Studies, April 1997, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 96–98][Siedman, p. 137][Cohn-Sherbok, p. 48]
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Absurd or sexually immoral content
[Steinsaltz, pp. 268–270]
-
Falsification of scripture
[See, for example, Uriel DaCosta, quoted by Nadler, p. 68][Cohn-Sherbok, p. 47][Wilhelm Bacher, "Talmud", article in Jewish Encyclopedia]
Defenders of the Talmud point out that many of these criticisms, particularly those in antisemitic sources, are based on quotations that are taken out of context, and thus misrepresent the meaning of the Talmud's text and its basic character as a detailed record of discussions that preserved statements by a variety of sages, and from which statements and opinions that were rejected were never edited out.
Middle Ages
At the very time that the savoraim put the finishing touches to the redaction of the Talmud, the emperor Justinian I issued his edict against deuterosis (doubling, repetition) of the Tanakh.[Nov. 146.1.2.] It is disputed whether, in this context, deuterosis means "Mishnah" or "Targum": in patristics literature, the word is used in both senses.
Full-scale attacks on the Talmud took place in the 13th century in France, where Talmudic study was then flourishing. In the 1230s Nicholas Donin, a Jewish convert to Christianity, pressed 35 charges against the Talmud to Pope Gregory IX by translating a series of allegedly blasphemous passages about Jesus, Mary or Christianity. There is a quoted Talmudic passage, for example, where a person named Yeshu who some people have claimed is Jesus of Nazareth is sent to Gehenna to be Tzoah Rotachat for eternity. Donin also selected an injunction of the Talmud that permits Jews to kill non-Jews. This led to the Disputation of Paris, which took place in 1240 at the court of Louis IX of France, where four rabbis, including Yechiel of Paris and Moses ben Jacob of Coucy, defended the Talmud against the accusations of Nicholas Donin. The translation of the Talmud from Aramaic to non-Jewish languages stripped Jewish discourse from its covering, something that was resented by Jews as a profound violation.[Rodkinson, pp. 66–69][Levy, p. 701] The burning of copies of the Talmud continued.[James Carroll Constantine's sword: the church and the Jews : a history]
The Talmud was likewise the subject of the Disputation of Barcelona in 1263 between Nahmanides and Christian converts in which they argued if Jesus was the messiah prophesized in Judaism, Pablo Christiani. This same Pablo Christiani made an attack on the Talmud that resulted in a papal bull against the Talmud and in the first censorship, which was undertaken at Barcelona by a commission of Dominican Order, who ordered the cancellation of passages deemed objectionable from a Christian perspective (1264).[Cohn-Sherbok, pp. 50–54][Maccoby]
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", "heathens", and "apostates" found in the Talmud were, in reality, veiled references to Christians. These assertions were denied by the Jewish community and its scholars, who contended that Judaic thought made a sharp distinction between those classified as heathen or pagan, being polytheistic, and those who acknowledge one true God (such as the Christians) even while worshipping the true monotheistic God incorrectly. Thus, Jews viewed Christians as misguided and in error, but not among the "heathens" or "pagans" discussed in the Talmud.
Both Pablo Christiani and Geronimo de Santa Fé, in addition to criticizing the Talmud, also regarded it as a source of authentic traditions, some of which could be used as arguments in favor of Christianity. Examples of such traditions were statements that the Messiah was born around the time of the destruction of the Temple and that the Messiah sat at the right hand of God.[Hyam Maccoby, op. cit.]
In 1415, Antipope Benedict XIII, who had convened the Tortosa disputation, issued a papal bull (which was destined, however, to remain inoperative) forbidding the Jews to read the Talmud, and ordering the destruction of all copies of it. Far more important were the charges made in the early part of the 16th century by the convert Johannes Pfefferkorn, the agent of the Dominicans. The result of these accusations was a struggle in which the emperor and the pope acted as judges, the advocate of the Jews being Johann Reuchlin, who was opposed by the obscurantists; and this controversy, which was carried on for the most part by means of pamphlets, became in the eyes of some a precursor of the Reformation.[Roth, Norman, Medieval Jewish civilization: an encyclopedia, Taylor & Francis, 2003, p. 83]
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.[Rodkinson, p. 98] Three years later, in 1523, Bomberg published the first edition of the Jerusalem Talmud. After thirty years the Vatican, which had first permitted the Talmud to appear in print, undertook a campaign of destruction against it. On the New Year, Rosh Hashanah (September 9, 1553) the copies of the Talmud confiscated in compliance with a decree of the Inquisition were burned at Rome, in Campo dei Fiori (auto de fé). Other burnings took place in other Italian cities, such as the one instigated by Joshua dei Cantori at Cremona in 1559. 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; and Pope Pius IV commanded, in 1565, that the Talmud be deprived of its very name. The convention of referring to the work as "Shas" ( shishah sidre Mishnah) instead of "Talmud" dates from this time.[Hastings, James. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Part 23, p. 186]
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, 1602–05), with a restoration of the original text; an edition containing, so far as known, only two treatises had previously been published at Lublin (1559–76). After an attack on the Talmud took place in Poland (in what is now Ukrainian territory) in 1757, when Bishop Dembowski, at the instigation of the Frankists, convened a public disputation at Kamieniec Podolski, and ordered all copies of the work found in his bishopric to be confiscated and burned.[Rodkinson, pp. 100–103] A "1735 edition of Moed Katan, printed in Frankfurt am Oder" is among those that survived from that era.[ "Situated on the Oder River, Three separate editions of the Talmud were printed there between 1697 and 1739."
]
The external history of the Talmud includes also the literary attacks made upon it by some Christian theologians after the Reformation since these onslaughts on Judaism were directed primarily against that work, the leading example being Eisenmenger's Entdecktes Judenthum (Judaism Unmasked) (1700).[Rodkinson, p. 105][Levy, p. 210][Boettcher, Susan R., "Entdecktes Judenthum", article in Levy, p. 210] In contrast, the Talmud was a subject of rather more sympathetic study by many Christian theologians, jurists and Orientalists from the Renaissance on, including Johann Reuchlin, John Selden, Petrus Cunaeus, John Lightfoot and Johannes Buxtorf father and son.[Berlin, George L., Defending the faith: nineteenth-century American Jewish writings on Christianity and Jesus, SUNY Press, 1989, p. 156]
19th century and after
The Vilna edition of the Talmud was subject to Russian government censorship, or self-censorship to meet government expectations, though this was less severe than some previous attempts: the title "Talmud" was retained and the tractate Avodah Zarah was included. Most modern editions are either copies of or closely based on the Vilna edition, and therefore still omit most of the disputed passages. Although they were not available for many generations, the removed sections of the Talmud, Rashi, Tosafot and Maharsha were preserved through rare printings of lists of errata, known as Chesronos Hashas ("Omissions of the Talmud").[ Chesronos Hashas ] Many of these censored portions were recovered from uncensored manuscripts in the Vatican Library. 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 its original location in the text.[, pp. 103–104 ]
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.[Rodkinson, pp. 109–114]
Further attacks from antisemitic sources include Justinas Pranaitis' (1892)[Levy, p. 564] and Elizabeth Dilling's The Plot Against Christianity (1964).[Jeansonne, Glen, Women of the Far Right: The Mothers' Movement and World War II, University of Chicago Press, 1997, pp. 168–169] The criticisms of the Talmud in many modern pamphlets and websites are often recognizable as verbatim quotations from one or other of these.
Historians Will Durant and Ariel Durant noted a lack of consistency between the many authors of the Talmud, with some tractates in the wrong order, or subjects dropped and resumed without reason. According to the Durants, the Talmud "is not the product of deliberation, it is the deliberation itself."
Contemporary accusations
The Internet is another source of criticism of the Talmud.[
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One such example concerns the line: "If a Jew be called upon to explain any part of the rabbinic books, he ought to give only a false explanation. One who transgresses this commandment will be put to death." This is alleged to be a quote from a book titled Libbre David (alternatively Livore David). No such book exists in the Talmud or elsewhere.[The Six Million Reconsidered: A Special Report by the Committee for Truth in History, p. 16 Historical Review Press, 1979]
See also
Notes
Citations
Works cited
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Nathan T. Lopes Cardozo The Infinite Chain: Torah, Masorah, and Man (Philipp Feldheim, 1989).
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(includes Samuel ha-Nagid's Mevo ha-Talmud, see next section)
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Zvi Hirsch Chajes Mevo Hatalmud, transl. Jacob Shachter: The Students' Guide Through The Talmud (Yashar Books, 2005).
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Fraade, Steven D, "Navigating the Anomalous: Non-Jews at the Intersection of Early Rabbinic Law and Narrative", in
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D. Landesman A Practical Guide to Torah Learning (Jason Aronson, 1995).
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Levy, Richard S., Antisemitism: a historical encyclopedia of prejudice and persecution, Volume 2, ABC-CLIO, 2005. See articles: "Talmud Trials", "Entdecktes Judenthum", "The Talmud Jew", "David Duke", "August Rohling", and "Johannes Pfefferkorn".
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A compendium of primary source materials, with commentary.
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Maimonides Introduction to the Mishneh Torah ( English translation )
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Maimonides Introduction to the Commentary on the Mishnah ( Hebrew Fulltext ), transl. Zvi Lampel (Judaica Press, 1998).
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Aaron Parry The Complete Idiot's Guide to The Talmud (Alpha Books, 2004).
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Rodkinson, Michael Levi, The history of the Talmud from the time of its formation, about 200 B.C., up to the present time, The Talmud Society, 1918
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Read more here. See also here.
Logic and methodology
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Samuel ha-Nagid, Mevo ha-Talmud
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Joseph ben Judah ibn Aknin, Mevo ha-Talmud
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Zerachiah Halevi, Sefer ha-Tzava
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Samson of Chinon, Sefer ha-Keritut
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Jacob Hagiz, Teḥillat Ḥochmah (included in most editions of Keritut)
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collective, ed. Abraham ibn Akra, Meharere Nemarim
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Joseph ibn Verga, She'erit Yosef
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Isaac Campanton, Darche ha-Talmud
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David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra, Kelale ha-Gemara
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Bezalel Ashkenazi, Kelale ha-Gemara
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Yeshu’ah b. Yosef ha-Levi, Halichot Olam
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Yisrael Ya'akov Algazi, Ar'a de-Rabbanan
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Serillo, Samuel, Kelale Shemuel
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Isaiah Horowitz, Shene Luchot ha-Berit (section on Torah she-be-al-Pe)
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Moses Chaim Luzzatto, Derech Tevunot, translated into English as The Ways of Reason, Feldheim 1988,
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same, Sefer ha-Higgayon, translated into English as The Book of Logic, Feldheim 1995,
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de Oliveira, Solomon, Darche Noam
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Malachi ha-Cohen, Yad Malachi
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Aryeh Leib HaCohen Heller, Shev Shema'tata
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Goitein, B., Kesef Nivhar
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Ezechia Bolaffi, Ben Zekunim vol. 1
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Moshe Amiel, Ha-Middot le-Ḥeqer ha-Halachah, vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3
Modern scholarly works
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Hanoch Albeck, Mavo la-talmudim
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Daniel Boyarin, Sephardi Speculation: A Study in Methods of Talmudic Interpretation (Hebrew), Machon Ben Zvi: Jerusalem, 1989
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Yaakov Elman, "Order, Sequence, and Selection: The Mishnah’s Anthological Choices,” in David Stern, ed. The Anthology in Jewish Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) 53–80
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Y.N. Epstein, Mevo-ot le-Sifrut haTalmudim
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Uziel Fuchs, Talmudam shel Geonim: yaḥasam shel geone Bavel lenosaḥ ha-Talmud ha-Bavli (The Geonic Talmud: the Attitude of Babylonian Geonim to the Text of the Babylonian Talmud): Jerusalem 2017
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David Weiss Halivni, Mekorot u-Mesorot (Jerusalem: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1982 on)
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Louis Jacobs, "How Much of the Babylonian Talmud is Pseudepigraphic?" Journal of Jewish Studies 28, No. 1 (1977), pp. 46–59
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Saul Lieberman, Hellenism in Jewish Palestine (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1950)
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Moses Mielziner, Introduction to the Talmud: repr. 1997, hardback , paperback
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Jacob Neusner, Sources and Traditions: Types of Compositions in the Talmud of Babylonia (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992).
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Aviram Ravitzky, Aristotelian Logic and Talmudic Methodology (Hebrew): Jerusalem 2009,
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Andrew Schumann, Talmudic Logic: (London: College Publications 2012),
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Hermann Strack and Stemberger, Günter, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash, tr. Markus Bockmuehl: repr. 1992, hardback , paperback
On individual tractates
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Moshe Benovitz, Berakhot chapter 1: Iggud le-Farshanut ha-Talmud (Hebrew, with English summary)
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Stephen Wald, Shabbat chapter 7: Iggud le-Farshanut ha-Talmud (Hebrew, with English summary)
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Aviad Stollman, Eruvin chapter 10: Iggud le-Farshanut ha-Talmud (Hebrew, with English summary)
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Aaron Amit, Pesachim chapter 4: Iggud le-Farshanut ha-Talmud (Hebrew, with English summary)
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Netanel Baadani, Sanhedrin chapter 5: Iggud le-Farshanut ha-Talmud (Hebrew, with English summary)
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Moshe Benovitz, Sukkah chapters 4–5: Iggud le-Farshanut ha-Talmud (Hebrew, with English summary)
Historical study
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Shalom Carmy (ed.) Modern Scholarship in the Study of Torah: Contributions and Limitations Jason Aronson, Inc.
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Richard Kalmin Sages, Stories, Authors and Editors in Rabbinic Babylonia Brown Judaic Studies
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David C. Kraemer, On the Reliability of Attributions in the Babylonian Talmud, Hebrew Union College Annual 60 (1989), pp. 175–90
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Lee Levine, Ma'amad ha-Hakhamim be-Eretz Yisrael (Jerusalem: Yad Yizhak Ben-Zvi, 1985), (=The Rabbinic Class of Roman Palestine in Late Antiquity)
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Saul Lieberman, Hellenism in Jewish Palestine (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1950)
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John W. McGinley, 'The Written' as the Vocation of Conceiving Jewishly.
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David Bigman, Finding A Home for Critical Talmud Study
Full text resources
External links
