20th Century Jewish Religious Thought: Original Essays on Critical Concepts, Movements, and Beliefs

Talmud

Tallllud Adin Steinsalz T he Talmud is the main (though not the only) work of the oral Torah (Torah she-be-al peh). It is second only to the written Torah, that is, the Bible, in its sanctity, and its impact upon the life of the Jewish people throughout the centuries has been no less than that of the Bible-if not greater. The Talmud, in the broad sense of the word, incorporates two different works: the Mishnah and the Talmud (or Gemara, lit., completion) proper. The Mishnah is a comprehensive collection of laws and regulations touching upon nearly every area of Jewish life. Its final redaction was performed about 200 C.E., in the Galilee region of Palestine, by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi. Even though its final editing took place at this time, it includes a great deal of earlier material, part of which was already set in its literary form during the last few centuries B.C.E. The Mishnah is the fullest crystallization of the oral Torah up to the date of its editing. Its language is the Hebrew of that generation, which differs somewhat in syntax, grammar, and vocabulary from biblical Hebrew. The Mishnah is divided into six main divisions or sedarim (lit., orders), 954 TALMUD each of which deals with a specific group of subjects, and these in turn are divided into a total of sixty-three tractates (masekhtot) of different sizes, each of which treats one central subject. Each tractate is further divided into a number of chapters, and each chapter into individual sections (mishnayot). Generally speaking, the Mishnah is arranged as a code of law, each mishnah constituting an individual point of law, expressed either in an abstract manner or, more typically, as an instruction on how to behave under given circumstances. Frequently, a number of different opinions are cited regarding the halakhah, without any clear conclusion; likewise, various opinions may be cited in the name of specific sages. Less frequently, there is also discussion of the different opinions cited, albeit in abbreviated form. While most of the material found in the Mishnah consists of normative statements of law, there are also occasional historical descriptions as well as ethical exhortations (such as the tractate Avot, which deals entirely with the field of ethics). The language of the Mishnah is one of very exact, but concise, legal terminology, which generally gives neither sources nor reasons for its decisions. The Talmud, in the narrow sense of the word, is the corpus of commentaries , discussions, and theoretical analyses of the teachings of the Mishnaic sages, but it goes far beyond the exegetical realm, both in the development of the legal system itself and in its penetrating analysis of the foundations and principles of that system. The Talmud itself consists of two different works: the Jerusalem Talmud, composed primarily of the teachings of the Palestinian sages and edited by a number of scholars in Tiberias and Caesarea around 400 C.E.; and the more important and influential Babylonian Talmud, which contains the teachings of the sages of Babylonia (that is, Mesopotamia), compiled by Rav Ashi and his disciples in Sura around the year 500 C.E. Even though the Talmud is arranged as a commentary to the Mishnah, it does not encompass all tractates of the Mishnah; for some tractates no Talmud was ever compiled , while for others the Talmud has been lost. The language of the Talmud is an Aramaic jargon, reflecting the dialects spoken by the Jews of Palestine and Babylonia over the course of many generations, mixed with many words and idioms taken from Hebrew, as well as a considerable number of Hebrew quotations from the teaching of the sages of the Mishnah. At first glance the Talmud appears to be an expanded commentary to the Mishnah; the sages of the Talmud are referred to as amoraim, a term literally meaning "translators." Indeed, a considerable portion of the Talmud does consist of textual and other exegeses of the Mishnah. However, in reality the Talmud is as old as the Mishnah itself, constituting the theoretical TALMUD 955 framework underlying the final rulings formulated in the Mishnah. Moreover , unlike the Mishnah, which is primarily a code of law whose primary purpose is to instruct the individual or the Jewish community how to act, ,the talmudic discussions are essentially theoretical and are directed toward clarifying the basic prinCiples of the law and the different schools...