Come and Hear™ to increase interfaith understanding http://www.come-and-hear.com This page has been cached from its original location to ensure availability for future students of Come and Hear™

| Trace your family history with Ancestry.com

Infoplease Home

Almanacs Atlas Dictionary Encyclopedia |  |

Daily Almanac Winter Holidays World United States History & Gov't Biography Sports Arts & Ent. Business º Society & Culture Health & Science
Fact Monster Kids' reference Info:Daily Fun facts Homework Center Newsletter You've got info! Help | Site Map

Encyclopedia

Talmud | [tal'mud] Pronunciation Key

Talmud [Aramaic from Heb.,=learning], in Judaism, vast compilation of the Oral Law with rabbinical elucidations, elaborations, and commentaries, in contradistinction to the Scriptures or Written Laws. The Talmud is the accepted authority for Orthodox Jews everywhere. Its two divisions are the Mishna or text of the Oral Law (in Hebrew) and the Gemara (in Aramaic), a commentary on the Mishna, which it supplements. The Mishna is divided into six Orders (Sedarim) and comprises 63 tractates (Massektoth), only 36 1/2 of which have a Gemara. The redaction of the Mishna was completed under the auspices of Juda ha-Nasi, c.A.D. 200, who collected and codified the legal material that had accumulated through the exposition of the Law by the Scribes (Soferim), particularly Hillel and Shammai, and its elaboration by the Tannaim of the 1st and 2d cent. A.D., particularly Akiba ben Joseph. The Gemara developed out of the interpretations of the Mishna by the Amoraim. Both the Palestinian and Babylonian schools produced Talmuds, known respectively as the Talmud Yerushalmi (compiled c.5th cent. A.D.) and the Talmud Babli (c.6th cent. A.D.). The Babylonian Talmud is longer and more comprehensive and sophisticated than the Talmud Yerushalmi. It became the authoritative work due in part to the predominance of Babylonian Jewry and the decline of the Palestinian community by the year 1000. The Talmud touches on a wide range of subjects, offering information and comment on astronomy, geography, historical lore, dom). The Babylonian Talmud is longer and more comprehensive and sophisticated than the Talmud Yerushalmi. It became the authoritative work due in part to the predominance of Babylonian Jewry and the decline of the Palestinian community by the year 1000. The Talmud touches on a wide range of subjects, offering information and comment on astronomy, geography, historical lore, domestic relations, and folklore. The legal sections of the Talmud are known as the halakah; the poetical digressions, illustrating the application of religious and ethical principles through parables, legends, allegories, tales, and anecdotes, constitute the Aggada. In the Middle Ages there arose a vast literature of commentaries on the Gemara—commentaries on those commentaries—and responsa (questions and answers); Rashi was one of the best-known commentators, and his commentaries are included in standard editions of the Talmud. In the Middle Ages thousands of Talmud manuscripts were destroyed by the Christians. The term Talmud is sometimes used to refer to the Gemara alone.

See The Babylonian Talmud (34 vol., tr. 1935–48); J. Goldin, The Living Talmud (1957, repr. 1964); H. L. Strack, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (1931, repr. 1969); C. G. Montefiore and H. Loewe, ed., A Rabbinic Anthology (1970); J. Neuser, Invitation to the Talmud (1973, repr. 1984); A. Steinsaltz, ed., The Talmud (Vol. I–XX, 1989–99) and The Essential Talmud (1992); D. H. Akenson, Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds (1999).

Talmon |  | Talon, Jean Baptiste

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 1994, 2000, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

Search Infoplease Info search tips
Search Biographies Bio search tips

About Us | Contact Us | Link to Infoplease | Add Infoplease search to your site
Privacy | Terms of Use | © 2000-2002 Family Education Network, Inc. All rights reserved