What Is the Talmud

The Talmud is a central text in Judaism. Broadly defined, it is a record of rabbinic arguments, debates and discussions surrounding the finer points of Halachah (Jewish law) but it also contains a great deal of Agadah (stories, legends, ETC) that is non-halachic. The Talmud is studied by Jews around the world and is the foundation for later compilations, or codes, of Jewish law.

After the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70 CE, Judaism underwent a dramatic shift, from a tradition which was centered around the Temple to a highly portible tradition which placed its emphasis upon Talmud Torah (study of the Torah and other texts) as well as tefilah (prayer). The codification of the Mishnah and later the two Talmudim—the Jerusalem, or Yerushalmi and the Babylonian, or Bavli were an integral component of this shift.

The Talmud is composed chiefly of two parts—the Mishnah, or corpus of rabbinic oral law which was codified by Judah the Prince around the 2nd century, C.E., and the Gemara, which is the commentary upon the Mishnah, composed and codified over the next several centuries. The Mishnah is divided into six orders or sederim which are further divided into tractates or Masechetot. Every conceivable legal matter is discussed in the Mishnah and Gemara, including agricultural law, civil law, laws pertaining to Shabbat and the festivals, laws pertaining to marriage and divorce, as well as laws governing other religious practices such as the proper times for prayer. Generally, the Gemara and a given Mishnah will begin by really delving into the meaning and application of the Mishnah, but it is often the case that other related matters will arise and the discussion will go in an entirely unexpected direction. Although the Talmud concerns itself chiefly with Jewish law, there is a great deal of Agadic literature as well, which include stories and customs.

The structure of a page or daf of Talmud is quite distinctive. In printed editions, the text of the Talmud is in the middle of the page and is surrounded by commentaries of many medieval sages, foremost amongst them being Rashi, or Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki who lived in France in the 11th century, CE. And is also deemed to be the Jewish Biblical commentator par excellence. The way in which pages are numbered is also quite distinctive. Each masechet or tractate begins on page two and each page has an Aleph and a bet side. Therefore, when you want to reference or cite something from the Talmud, you might say something like such-and-such can be found on Shabbat 22A.

Although we often think of the Talmud Bavli or Babylonian Talmud when we think of the Talmud, there are actually two Talmudim—the Yerushalmi or Jerusalem Talmud, composed in the Land of Israel and the Bavli or Babylonian Talmud, composed in modern day Iraq. The latter is deemed to be the more authoritative of the two, though interest and study of the former is increasing.

The corpus of rabbinic literature is not solely limited to the Talmudim, however. A work very similar in structure to the Mishnah and codified around the same time is the Tosefta which is widely studied but not considered authoritative in the same way. Throughout the Gemara, we see numerous citations of Baraitot, or rabbinic material which did not make it into the Mishnah.

One of the Talmud’s most unique aspects is its codification of a plurality of opinions. The Talmud is in essence a compilation of many debates amongst the rabbinic sages, and even when an opinion was not accepted as normative Halachah, it is nonetheless recorded.

There are very few women recorded in the Talmud as having taught the rabbis, but two women who stand out are Bruriah, wife of Rabbi Meir, an incredibly important sage and Yalta.
The Talmud is studied by Jews around the world. In the twentieth century, a program through which an individual or chavruta—study pair—could learn page of Talmud a day, called Daf Yomi was begun and is widely popular. Jews have and continue to gain a great deal of intellectual stimulation and spiritual sustenance from the Talmud.