Talmud

It has been suggested that this article be merged with Gemara. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2025.

The Talmud on display in the Jewish Museum of Switzerland brings together parts from the first two Talmud prints by Daniel Bomberg and Ambrosius Froben.[1]

The Talmud (/ˈtɑːlmʊd, -məd, ˈtæl-/; Hebrew: תַּלְמוּד, romanized: Talmūḏ, 'study' or 'learning') is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, and second in authority only to the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), the first five books of which form the Torah.[2][3][4] It is a primary source of Jewish law (הֲלָכָה, Halakha) and Jewish theology.[5][6][7][8] It consists of the part of the Oral Torah compiled in the Mishnah and its commentaries, the Gemara. It records the teachings, opinions and disagreements of thousands of rabbis and Torah scholars—collectively referred to as Chazal—on a variety of subjects, including Halakha, Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, and folklore among other topics. Until the Haskalah in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish culture in nearly all communities and foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews.[9]

Talmud is used interchangeably with Gemara.[a][10] The text is made up of 63 tractates, each covering one subject area. The Talmud is written in a combination of Aramaic and Hebrew.[11] Talmudic tradition emerged and was compiled between the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the Arab conquest in the early seventh century.[12] Traditionally, it is thought that the Talmud itself was compiled by Rav Ashi and Ravina II around 500 CE, although it is more likely that this happened in the middle of the sixth century.[13]

The word Talmud commonly refers to the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli), not the earlier Jerusalem Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi).[14] The Babylonian Talmud is the more extensive of the two and is considered the more authoritative.[15]

Talmud translates as "instruction, learning", from the Semitic root lmd, meaning "teach, study".[16]

In antiquity, the two major centres of Jewish scholarship were the Talmudic academies in Syria Palaestina 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 (Jewish Palestinian Aramaic: תַּלְמוּד יְרוּשַׁלְמִי, romanized: Talmud Yerushalmi). Later, and likely some time in the sixth century, the Babylonian Talmud was compiled (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: תַּלְמוּד בַּבְלִי, romanized: Talmud Bavli). The latter Talmud is usually what is meant when the word "Talmud" is used without qualification.[17] Traditions of the Jerusalem Talmud and its sages had a significant influence on the milieu out of which the Babylonian Talmud arose.[18][19]

A page of a medieval Jerusalem Talmud manuscript, from the Cairo Geniza

The Jerusalem Talmud is known by several other names, including the Palestinian Talmud (which is more accurate, given that it was not compiled in Jerusalem),[20] and the Talmud of the Land of Israel (Talmuda de-Eretz Yisrael or Talmud Eretz Yisrael).[21] The Jerusalem Talmud was a written codification of oral tradition that had been circulating for centuries,[22] representing a compilation of the Palestinian rabbis' teachings about and textual analyses of the Mishnah (especially those concerning agricultural laws) found across regional centres of the Land of Israel in the Galilee (principally those of Tiberias, Sepphoris, and Caesarea). It is written largely in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, a Western Aramaic language that differs from Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, its Babylonian counterpart.[23][24] The compilation was likely made between the late fourth to the first half of the fifth century.[25][26]

Despite its incomplete state, the Jerusalem Talmud remains an indispensable source for the study of the development of Halakha 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 being that opinions ultimately based on the Jerusalem Talmud found their way into the Tosafot and the Mishneh Torah by Maimonides. Ethical maxims in the Jerusalem Talmud are scattered and interspersed throughout the legal discussions of the several treatises, many of which differ from those in the Babylonian Talmud.[27]

A full set of the Babylonian Talmud

The Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli) consists of documents compiled over the period of late antiquity (3rd to 6th centuries).[28] During this period, the most important of the Mesopotamian Jewish centres of learning included the Talmudic academies in Babylonia, such as Nehardea, Nisibis (now Nusaybin), Mahoza (al-Mada'in, south of modern Baghdad), Pumbedita (near present-day al Anbar Governorate), and the Sura Academy, which was probably located about 60 km (37 mi) south of Baghdad.[29]

The Babylonian Talmud is the culmination of centuries of analysis and dialectic of the Mishnah and Hebrew Bible 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.[30] Rav Ashi was the president of the Sura Academy from 375 to 427. At this time, he began compiling the Talmud, a written project passed on and completed by Ravina II, the final Amoraic expounder of the Oral Torah. Traditionally, the latest year for the compilation of the Talmud is typically placed at 475, the year Ravina II died. However, even among those who hold traditional views, a final redaction is still thought to have been made by the Savoraim (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: סָבוֹרָאִים, lit. 'Reasoners') in the sixth century.[31][13]

Unlike the Western Aramaic dialect of the Jerusalem Talmud, the Babylonian Talmud uses a Babylonian Aramaic dialect. The Jerusalem is also more fragmentary (and difficult to read) due to an incomplete redaction process.[32] Discussions in the Babylonian Talmud are more discursive, rambling, and rely more heavily on anecdote and argumentation by syllogism and Inductive reasoning; those in the Jerusalem Talmud are more factual and apply argumentation through logical deductive reasoning. The Babylonian Talmud is much longer, with about 2.5 million words in total. Proportionally more of the Babylonian material is non-halakhic Aggadah (אַגָּדָה, 'legend'), constituting a third of its material, compared to a sixth of the Jerusalem.[33] The Babylonian Talmud has received significantly more interest and coverage from commentators.[34]

Maimonides drew influence from both Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, although he favored the latter over the former when principles between them conflicted.[35] As the Palestinian Jewish community declined in influence and the Babylonian community became the intellectual center of the Jewish diaspora, the Babylonian Talmud became the more widely accepted and popular version.[33] Whereas the Jerusalem Talmud only includes the opinions of Palestinian rabbis (the Ma'arava), the Babylonian Talmud also includes Babylonian authorities (in addition to later authorities because of its later date). As such, it is regarded as more comprehensive.[36][37]

Neither Talmud 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 Seder Zeraim, while the Babylonian Talmud covers only tractate Berakhot. This might be because the agricultural concerns discussed in Zeraim were not as important in Babylonia.[38] As the Jerusalem Talmud was produced in the Land of Israel, it consequently has a greater interest in Israelite geography.
• Unlike the Babylonian Talmud, the Jerusalem Talmud does not cover the Mishnaic Kodashim, which deals with sacrificial rites (קָרְבָּנוֹת, Korbānôt) and laws about the Jerusalem 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).

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.[39]

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".[40]

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.

The Gemara is broadly speaking a commentary on the Mishnah. This commentary arises from a longstanding tradition of rabbis analyzing, debating, and discussing the Mishnah—shakla v'tarya—ever since it was compiled. The rabbis who participated in the process that produced this commentarial tradition are known as the Amoraim.[41] Each discussion is presented in a self-contained, edited passage known as a sugya.[42]

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.[43]

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.[44]

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 baraitot, however, are known only through traditions cited in the Gemara, and are not part of any other collection.[45]

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.

The work is largely in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, although quotations in the Gemara of the Mishnah, the Baraitas and Tanakh appear in Mishnaic or Biblical Hebrew.[46] 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.[47] A second Aramaic dialect is used in Nedarim, Nazir, Temurah, Keritot, and Me'ilah; the second is closer in style to the Targum.[48]

The only complete manuscript of the Talmud, Munich Codex Hebraica 95, dates from 1342 (view scan). Other manuscripts of the Talmud include:[49]

• Cairo Genizah fragments[50]
  • Date: earliest ones from the late 7th or 8th century
  • Context: earliest manuscript fragment of the Talmud of any kind
• Ms. Oxford 2673[51]
  • Date: 1123
  • Context: Contains a significant portion of tractate Keritot; earliest Talmudic manuscript whose precise date is known
• Ms. Firenze 7
  • Date: 1177
  • Context: earliest Talmudic whose precise date is known and contains complete tractates
• MS JTS Rab. 15[52]
  • Date: 1290
  • Location: Spain
• Bologna, Archivio di Stato Fr. ebr. 145[49]
  • Date: 13th century
• Vatican 130[49]
  • Date: January 14, 1381
• Oxford Opp. 38 (368)[49]
  • Date: 14th century
• Arras 889[49]
  • Date: 14th century
• Vatican 114[53]
  • Date: 14th century
• Vatican 140[49]
  • Date: late 14th century
• Bazzano, Archivio Storico Comunale Fr. ebr. 21[49]
  • Date: 12th–15th centuries
• St. Petersburg, RNL Evr. I 187[49]
  • Date: 13th or 15th century

The Talmud itself (BM 86a) incorporates a statement that "Ravina and Rav Ashi were the end of instruction". Likewise, Sherira ben Hanina writes that "instruction ended" with the death of Ravina II in 811 SE (500 CE), and "the Talmud stopped with the end of instruction in the days of Rabbah Jose (fl. 476–514)".[30] Seder Olam Zutta 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.[54] 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."[54] Abraham ibn Daud gives 821 SE (510 CE) for the same event, and Joseph ibn Tzaddik writes that "Mareimar and Mar bar Rav Assi et al. completed the Babylonian Talmud ... in 4265 AM (505 CE)".[54] Nachmanides dated the Talmud's compilation to "400 years after the Destruction", which is 470 CE if taken as exact.[55] 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".[56]

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.[55]

A wide range of dates have been proposed for the Babylonian Talmud by historians.[57][58] 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,[59] 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.[60]

Recently,[when?] it has been extensively argued that Talmud is an expression and product of Sasanian culture,[61][62][63] as well as other Greek-Roman, Middle Persian, and Syriac sources up to the same period of time.[64] The contents of the text likely trace to this time regardless of the date of the final redaction/compilation.[65]

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 (c. 813)[66][67] and chronicles like the Seder Tannaim veAmoraim (9th century) and the Iggeret of Rabbi Sherira Gaon (987).[60] As for the earliest possible date of the Babylonian Talmud, it must post-date the early 5th century given its reliance on the Jerusalem Talmud.[68]

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.[69]

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:[70]

The Talmud is the repository of thousands of years of Jewish wisdom, and the oral law, which is as ancient and significant as the written law (the Torah) finds expression therein. It is a conglomerate of law, legend, and philosophy, a blend of unique logic and shrewd pragmatism, of history and science, anecdotes and humor ... Although its main objective is to interpret and comment on a book of law, it is, simultaneously, a work of art that goes beyond legislation and its practical application. And although the Talmud is, to this day, the primary source of Jewish law, it cannot be cited as an authority for purposes of ruling ...

Though based on the principles of tradition and the transmission of authority from generation to generation, it is unparalleled in its eagerness to question and reexamine convention and accepted views and to root out underlying causes. The talmudic method of discussion and demonstration tries to approximate mathematical precision, but without having recourse to mathematical or logical symbols.

... the Talmud is the embodiment of the great concept of mitzvat talmud Torah – the positive religious duty of studying Torah, of acquiring learning and wisdom, study which is its own end and reward.[70]

The following subsections outline some of the major areas of Talmudic study.

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 (c. 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 Aggadic 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.

Geonic-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).[71] 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.[72]

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.[73] 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.[74]

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.[75]

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.[72] Among the founders of the Tosafist school were Rabbeinu Tam, who was a grandson of Rashi, and, Rabbenu Tam's nephew, Isaac ben Samuel. The Tosafot commentaries were collected in different editions in the various schools. The benchmark collection of Tosafot for Northern France was that of Eliezer of Touques. The standard collection for Spain was Rabbenu Asher's Tosefot haRosh. The Tosafot that are printed in the standard Vilna edition of the Talmud are an edited version compiled from the various medieval collections, predominantly that of Touques.[76][full citation needed]

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 “Chiddushei ...” (“Novellae 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 Menahem haMeiri, 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.[77])

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.

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 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)[78] to contrast them with pilpul.[79][80][full citation needed]

Among Sephardi and Italian Jews from the 15th century on, some authorities sought to apply the methods of Aristotelian logic, as reformulated by Averroes.[81] 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"),[82] and is also found in the works of Moses Chaim Luzzatto.[83]

According to the present-day Sephardi scholar José Faur, traditional Sephardic Talmud study could take place on any of three levels.[84]

• 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.
• 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 Ashkenazim.[85] Historically Sephardim studied the Tosefot ha-Rosh and the commentaries of Nahmanides in preference to the printed Tosafot.[86] 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[87] and is sometimes referred to as 'Iyyun Tunisa'i.[88]
• 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.

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 reductionistic 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 Telz yeshivas.[89] See Chaim Rabinowitz § Telshe and Yeshiva Ohel Torah-Baranovich § Style of learning.

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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:

But you must examine carefully in every case when you feel uncertainty [as to the credibility of the text] – what is its source? Whether a scribal error? Or the superficiality of a second rate student who was not well versed? ... after the manner of many mistakes found among those superficial second-rate students, and certainly among those rural memorizers who were not familiar with the biblical text. And since they erred in the first place ... [they compounded the error.]

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."[b]

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;[90] 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.[91]

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,[92] 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).[93] The NLI, the Lieberman Institute (associated with the Jewish Theological Seminary of America), the Institute for the Complete Israeli Talmud (part of Yad Harav Herzog) and the Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society all maintain searchable websites on which the viewer can request variant manuscript readings of a given passage.[94]

Some trends within contemporary Talmud scholarship are listed below.

• 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[95] and Joseph Hirsch Dünner.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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".[96]
• 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[97] and of his student Shai Secunda,[98] which seek to place the Talmud in its Iranian context, for example by comparing it with contemporary Zoroastrian texts.

There are six contemporary translations of the Talmud into English:

• 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 The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition (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".[99] From the right side cover (the front side of Hebrew and Aramaic books), the Steinsaltz Talmud 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.
• In February 2017, the William Davidson Talmud was released to Sefaria.[100] This translation is a version of the Noé Steinsaltz edition above, which was released under a Creative Commons license.[101]

The Schottenstein Babylonian Talmud in a synagogue in Raanana, Israel

• The Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud (Artscroll/Mesorah Publications) is 73 volumes,[102] in an English translation edition (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.

• 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),[103][full citation needed][104] Isidore Epstein, Soncino Press. An 18 volume edition was published in 1961. Notes on each page provide additional background material. This translation[103][full citation needed] is published both in English and in a parallel text edition, in which each English page faces the Aramaic/Hebrew page. It is also available on CD-ROM. Complete.
• In addition, a 7×5in travel or pocket edition[105] was published in 1959. This edition opens from the left for English and the notes, and from the right for the Aramaic, which, unlike the other editions, does not use standard Vilna Talmud page; instead, another older edition is used, in which each standard Talmud page is divided in two.[106]

• The Talmud of Babylonia. An American Translation, Jacob Neusner, Tzvee Zahavy, others. Atlanta: 1984–1995: Scholars Press for Brown Judaic Studies. Complete.
• Rodkinson: Portions[107] 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).
• The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary, edited by Jacob Neusner[108] and translated by Jacob Neusner, Tzvee Zahavy, Alan Avery-Peck, B. Barry Levy, Martin S. Jaffe, and Peter Haas, Hendrickson; 22-volume set ed., 2011. It is a revision of The Talmud of Babylonia: An Academic Commentary, published by the University of South Florida Academic Commentary Series (1994–1999). Neusner gives commentary on transition in use langes from Biblical Aramaic to Biblical Hebrew. Neusner also gives references to Mishnah, Torah, and other classical works in Orthodox Judaism.

• The }: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• ^ "HIS 155 1.7 the Talmud | Henry Abramson". 19 November 2013.
• ^ Hatch, Trevan G. (2019). A stranger in Jerusalem: seeing Jesus as a Jew. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-5326-4671-3.
• ^ Cohen, Barak S. (2017). For Out of Babylonia Shall Come Torah and the Word of the Lord from Nehar Peqod: The Quest for Babylonian Tannaitic Traditions. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-34702-1.
• ^ Cohen, Barak Shlomo (2009). "In Quest of Babylonian Tannaitic Traditions: The Case of Tanna D'Bei Shmuel". AJS Review. 33 (2): 271–303. doi:10.1017/S036400940999002X. ISSN 1475-4541.
• ^ Moscovitz, Leib (January 12, 2021). "Palestinian Talmud/Yerushalmi". Oxford Bibliographies Online. doi:10.1093/OBO/9780199840731-0151. ISBN 978-0-19-984073-1. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
• ^ Schiffman, Lawrence (1991). From Text to Tradition: A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism. Ktav Publishing House. p. 227. ISBN 978-0-88125-372-6.
• ^ "Palestinian Talmud". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Retrieved August 4, 2010.
• ^ Levine, Baruch A. (2005). "Scholarly Dictionaries of Two Dialects of Jewish Aramaic". AJS Review. 29 (1): 131–144. doi:10.1017/S0364009405000073. JSTOR 4131813. S2CID 163069011.
• ^ Reynold Nicholson (2011). A Literary History of the Arabs. Project Gutenberg, with Fritz Ohrenschall, Turgut Dincer, Sania Ali Mirza. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
• ^ Amsler, Monika (2023). The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. p. 127. ISBN 978-1-009-29733-2.
• ^ Hezser, Catherine (2018). "The Creation of the Talmud Yerushalmi and Apophthegmata Patrum as Monuments to the Rabbinic and Monastic Movements in Early Byzantine Times". Jewish Studies Quarterly. 25 (4): 368–393. doi:10.1628/jsq-2018-0019. ISSN 0944-5706.
• ^ Mielziner, M. (Moses), Introduction to the Talmud (3rd edition), New York 1925, p. xx
• ^ "Talmud and Midrash (Judaism) / The making of the Talmuds: 3rd–6th century". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
• ^ Moshe Gil (2004). Jews in Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages. BRILL. p. 507. ISBN 9789004138827.
• ^ a b Nosson Dovid Rabinowich (ed), The Iggeres of Rav Sherira Gaon, Jerusalem 1988, pp. 79, 116
• ^ Nosson Dovid Rabinowich (ed), The Iggeres of Rav Sherira Gaon, Jerusalem 1988, p. 116
• ^ AM Gray (2005). Talmud in Exile: The Influence of Yerushalmi Avodah Zarah. Brown Judaic Studies. ISBN 978-1-93067-523-0.
• ^ a b Pasachoff, Naomi E.; Littman, Robert J. (2005). A concise history of the Jewish people. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-7425-4366-9.
• ^ Encyclopaedia Judaica Bavli and Yerushalmi – Similarities and Differences, Gale
• ^ Ben-Menahem, Hanina; Edrei, Arye; Hecht, Neil S., eds. (2024). Windows onto Jewish Legal Culture: Fourteen Exploratory Essays. Routledge. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-415-50049-4.
• ^ "Judaism: The Oral Law -Talmud & Mishna", Jewish Virtual Library
• ^ Joseph Telushkin (26 April 1991), Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-68808-506-7
• ^ Steinsaltz, Adin (1976). The Essential Talmud. BasicBooks, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-465-02063-8.[page needed]
• ^ Jacobs, Louis, Structure and form in the Babylonian Talmud, Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 2
• ^ Cohen, Shaye J. D. (January 2006). From the Maccabees to the Mishnah (Second ed.). Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-664-22743-2. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
• ^ Singer, Isidore; Adler, Cyrus (1916). The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Funk and Wagnalls. pp. 527–528.
• ^ Strack, Hermann L.; Stemberger, Günter; Bockmuehl, Markus N. A.; Strack, Hermann L. (1996). Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (2nd Fortress Press ed.). Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press. ISBN 978-0-8006-2524-5.
• ^ E.g. Pirkei Avot 5.21: "five for the Torah, ten for Mishnah, thirteen for the commandments, fifteen for talmud".
• ^ Rubenstein, Jeffrey L. (1999). Talmudic stories: narrative art, composition, and culture. Baltimore, Maryland; London: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-6146-8.
• ^ David Halivni, Midrash, Mishnah, and Gemara: The Jewish Predilection for Justified Law (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), 93–101. ISBN 9780674038158
• ^ "Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress: The Talmud". American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise.
• ^ 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."
• ^ "Keritot | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com.
• ^ a b c d e f g h Amsler, Monika (2023). The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. pp. 219–220. ISBN 978-1-009-29733-2.
• ^ Strack & Stemberger 1992, p. 140.
• ^ Strauch Schick, Shana (2021). Intention in Talmudic law: between thought and deed. The Brill Reference Library of Judaism. Leiden Boston (Mass.): Brill. p. 10. ISBN 978-90-04-43303-8.
• ^ Bickart, Noah (2022-10-21). The Scholastic Culture of the Babylonian Talmud. Gorgias Press. pp. 4, n. 14. doi:10.31826/9781463244668. ISBN 978-1-4632-4466-8.
• ^ Bickart, Noah (2022-10-21). The Scholastic Culture of the Babylonian Talmud. Gorgias Press. pp. 165–166. doi:10.31826/9781463244668. ISBN 978-1-4632-4466-8.
• ^ a b c Neubauer, Adolf (1887). Mediaeval Jewish Chronicles and Chronological Notes (in Hebrew). Clarendon Press.
• ^ a b Stemberger, Günter; Cordoni, Constanza; Langer, Gerhard (2016). Let the wise listen and add to their learning (Prov. 1:5): festschrift for Günter Stemberger on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Studia Judaica. Berlin; Boston, Massachusetts: De Gruyter. pp. 606–609. ISBN 978-3-11-044103-1.
• ^ Moses ben Isaac of Rieti (1851). Miqdash Me'at מקדש מעט (in Hebrew). J. Goldenthal. pp. 93r–93v.
• ^ The New Testament and rabbinic literature. Supplements to the journal for the study of Judaism. Leiden: Brill. 2010. p. 82. ISBN 978-90-04-17588-4.
• ^ Amsler, Monika (2023). The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. pp. 122–123. ISBN 978-1-009-29733-2.
• ^ Schiffman 2024, p. 138.
• ^ a b Amsler, Monika (2023). The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-009-29733-2.
• ^ Kiel, Yishai (2016). Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud: Christian and Sasanian contexts in late antiquity. New York City: Cambridge university press. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-107-15551-0.
• ^ Secunda, Shai (2014). The Iranian Talmud: reading the Bavli in its Sasanian context. Divinations: rereading late ancient religion. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-4570-7.
• ^ Secunda, Shai (2020). The Talmud's red fence: menstrual impurity and difference in Babylonian Judaism and its Sasanian context. Oxford, United Kingdom; New York City: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-885682-5. OCLC 1127664734.
• ^ Goldstone, Matthew (2019). "The Babylonian Talmud in its cultural context". Religion Compass. 13 (6) e12317. doi:10.1111/rec3.12317. ISSN 1749-8171.
• ^ Secunda, Shai (2016). "'This, but Also That': Historical, Methodological, and Theoretical Reflections on Irano-Talmudica". Jewish Quarterly Review. 106 (2): 236. doi:10.1353/jqr.2016.0013. ISSN 1553-0604.
• ^ Amsler, Monika (2023). The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. p. 128. ISBN 978-1-009-29733-2.
• ^ On the precise date of Pirkoi's letter, see Gafni, I. (2009). "How Babylonia Became Zion: Shifting Identities in Late Antiquity". In Levine, L. I.; Schwartz, D. R. (eds.). Jewish Identities in Antiquity: Studies in Memory of Menahem Stern. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. p. 333 n. 2.
• ^ Amsler, Monika (2023). The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. pp. 127–131. ISBN 978-1-009-29733-2.
• ^ 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.
• ^ a b Steinsaltz, Adin (2006). "Chapter 1: What is the Talmud?". The Essential Talmud. Basic Books. pp. 3–9.
• ^ Strack & Stemberger 2012, p. 217. sfn error: no target: CITEREFStrackStemberger2012 (help)
• ^ a b "Talmud Commentaries". Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2020-06-18.
• ^ Strack & Stemberger 2012, p. 218–219. sfn error: no target: CITEREFStrackStemberger2012 (help)
• ^ Strack & Stemberger 2012, p. 219–220. sfn error: no target: CITEREFStrackStemberger2012 (help)
• ^ ספר הנר – ברכות – אגמתי, זכריה בן יהודה – via HebrewBooks.org.
• ^ For a list see Ephraim Urbach, s.v. "Tosafot", in Encyclopedia of Religion.
• ^ Rav Avraham Yitzchok Ha-Cohen Kook (February 17, 2008). "A labor of great magnitude stands before us, to repair the break between the Talmudic deliberations and the halachic decisions ... to accustom students of the Gemara to correlate knowledge of all the halacha with its source and reason ..." Halacha Brura and Birur Halacha Institute. Retrieved 20 September 2010. It should not be confused with the halachic compendium of the same name by rabbi David Yosef.
• ^ Al means 'on'. Derekh mean 'path'. PaShoot, the Hebrew root in ha-peshat, means 'simple'. The prefix ha- means 'the'. "691 Kapah". Archived from the original on 2019-10-03. Retrieved 2019-10-03. According to the plain sense (ve-al derekh ha-peshat)[full citation needed]
• ^ Breuer, Mordechai (2007). "Pilpul". Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 16 (2nd ed.). Macmillan Reference.
• ^ Ben Sasson, H. H. A History of the Jewish People. pp. 627, 717.
• ^ Kol Melechet Higgayon, the Hebrew translation of Averroes' epitome of Aristotle's logical works, was widely studied in northern Italy, particularly Padua.
• ^ Boyarin, Sephardi Speculation (Hebrew) (Jerusalem 1989).
• ^ For a comprehensive treatment, see Ravitzky, below.
• ^ Faur is here describing the tradition of Damascus, though the approach in other places may have been similar.
• ^ Cf. the distinction in the Ashkenazi yeshivah curriculum between beki'ut (basic familiarization) and 'iyyun (in-depth study).
• ^ David ben Judah Messer Leon, Kevod Ḥakhamim, cited by Zimmels, Ashkenazim and Sephardim, pp. 151, 154.
• ^ Chaim Joseph David Azulai, Shem Gedolim, citing Hirschberg, A History of the Jews in North Africa, pp. 125–126.
• ^ Joseph Ringel, "A Third Way: Iyyun Tunisai as a Traditional Critical Method of Talmud Study", Tradition 2013 46:3.
• ^ 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".
• ^ Etkes, Immanuel (2002). The Gaon of Vilna. University of California Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-520-22394-3.
• ^ Solomon Schechter, Studies in Judaism p. 92.
• ^ "Introduction to Sokoloff". maagarim.hebrew-academy.org.il. Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic.
• ^ עיון בכתבי היד.
• ^ See under #Manuscripts and textual variants, below.
• ^ See particularly his controversial dissertation, Mar Samuel, available at archive.org (in German).
• ^ "Igud HaTalmud". www.talmudha-igud.org.il.
• ^ Elman, Yaacov (2012). Fine, Steven; Secunda, Shai (eds.). Shoshannat Yaakov: Jewish and Iranian Studies in Honor of Yaakov Elman. Brill Academic. ISBN 978-9004235441. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
• ^ Secunda, Shai (2013). The Iranian Talmud: Reading the Bavli in Its Sasanian Context. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0812245707. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
• ^ "Queen for a Day", Tablet Magazine, 5 February 2013
• ^ "Talmud (William Davidson)". sefaria.org. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
• ^ "With full Talmud translation, online library hopes to make sages accessible". jta.org. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 2017-02-07.
• ^ Berger, Joseph (February 10, 2005). "An English Talmud for Daily Readers and Debaters". The New York Times. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
• ^ a b "Halakhah.com Presents the Contents of the Babylonian Talmud". halakhah.com.
• ^ Farkas, David S. (29 August 2021). "In Praise of the Soncino Talmud". Retrieved July 11, 2022.
• ^ Heller, Marvin J. (2021). Essays on the Making of the Early Hebrew Book. Brill. p. 513. ISBN 9789004441163. However, in the Rebecca Bennet Publications (1959) Soncino edition of Shabbat and the Judaic and Socino Classics Library edition of that tractate the Ben Satda text appears in both the Hebrew and in the English translation, as well as in the Art Scroll Schottenstein edition of Shabbat.
• ^ 64 volumes, including index and 'minor tractates'. The Babylonian Talmud. New York: Rebecca Bennet. 1959. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
• ^ Herman Rosenthal; Judah David Eisenstein. "Frumkin, Israel Dob (Bär)". Jewish Encyclopedia.
• ^ Neusner, Jacob (2011). The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary (22-volume set ed.). Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson. ISBN 9781598565263.
• ^ The source reads "he translated into Arabic part of the six Orders of the Mishnah".
• ^ Abitur, Joseph Ben Isaac Ben Stans Ibn - Jewish Encyclopedia article, per Joseph ibn Abitur
• ^ Gribetz, Jonathan Marc (Fall 2010). "An Arabic-Zionist Talmud: Shimon Moyal's At-Talmud". Jewish Social Studies. 17 (1): 1–4. doi:10.2979/jewisocistud.17.1.1. JSTOR 10.2979/JEWISOCISTUD.17.1.1. S2CID 162749270.
• ^ Marlios, Itamar (19 May 2012). "Introducing: Talmud in Arabic". Ynetnews.
• ^ Marlios, Itamar (2012). "Arab translation of Talmud includes anti-Israeli messages". Ynetnews.
• ^ Schwartz, Penny (29 October 2018). "A Muslim country, Catholic country and Jewish country celebrate the Talmud together. No joke". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
• ^ Oster, Marcy (30 September 2018). "Muslim country, Catholic country, Jewish country celebrate Talmud at UN. No joke". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
• ^ "Proyecto | TaShema – El Talmud en Español | Jerusalem". Tashema (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-03-28.
• ^ "Shalom: Qué es Tashema". RTVE Play (in Spanish). 2013-05-19. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
• ^ a b Joseph Berger (December 18, 2011). "After 1,500 Years, an Index to the Talmud's Labyrinths, With Roots in the Bronx". The New York Times. Retrieved July 11, 2022.
• ^ "Guttmann, Michael | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
• ^ Soncino Babylonian Talmud. TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
• ^ The Babylonian Talmud / translated into English with notes, Index volume to the Soncino Talmud / compiled by Judah J. Slotki"
• ^ rivki. "מכלול המאמרים והפתגמים". מוסד הרב קוק (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2022-07-12.
• ^ "Bomberg, Daniel". jewishencyclopedia.com.
• ^ Bomberg, Daniel; Rozenṭal, E. (21 December 2018). The Talmud editions of Daniel Bomberg. Bomberg. OCLC 428012084.
• ^ "Treasure Trove". Tablet Magazine. 9 September 2009.
• ^ "Bomberg Babylonian Talmud Auctions for $9.3 Million". Tablet Magazine. 22 December 2015.
• ^ Dalin 2012, p. 25.
• ^ Gottheil & Broydé 1906.
• ^ Heller 2005, p. 73.
• ^ Amram 1909, p. 162.
• ^ Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin (2007). 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. ISBN 978-0-8122-4011-5. p. 104
• ^ Battegay, Caspar; Lubrich, Naomi (2018). Jewish Switzerland: 50 Objects Tell Their Stories (in German and English). Basel: Christoph Merian. pp. 54–57. ISBN 978-3-85616-847-6.
• ^ 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.
• ^ Marvin J. Heller (1999). Printing the Talmud: a history of the individual treatises. p. 239. "The Benveniste Talmud, according to Rabbinovicz, was based on the Lublin Talmud which included many of the censors' errors".
• ^ Heller, M. J. (2018). "Amsterdam: Benveniste Talmud". Printing the Talmud.
• ^ "A loan from the heart". Hamodia. February 12, 2015. Archived from the original on August 5, 2019. Retrieved June 25, 2019. ... a copy of the greatly valued Slavita Shas.
• ^ Teller, Hanoch (1985). Soul Survivors. New York City Publishing Company. pp. 185–203. ISBN 0-961-4772-0-2.
• ^ a b Heller, Marvin J. (May 28, 2018). "Approbations and Restrictions: Printing the Talmud in Eighteenth Century Amsterdam and Two Frankfurts".
• ^ "embroiled leading rabbis in Europe .. rival editions of the Talmud"
• ^ 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.[citation needed]
• ^ Friedman, Shamma (1998). כיצד מדקדקין? עיון בשינויי הגרסות של התלמוד הבבלי לרגל הופעת י"ג כרכים של 'דקדוקי סופרים השלם' [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 (in Hebrew). סח (68): 129–162. JSTOR 23600831.
• ^ Amar, Yosef. "Talmud Bavli be-niqqud Temani". Nosachteiman.co.il. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
• ^ Julius Joseph Price, The Yemenite ms. of Megilla (in the Library of Columbia university), 1916; Pesahim, 1913; Mo'ed Katon, 1920.
• ^ a b c Sarna, David E. Y. (February 2, 2017). "Studying Talmud: The Good, the Not-So-Good and How to Make Talmud More Accessible".
• ^ The other Oz ve-Hadar editions are similar but without the explanation in modern Hebrew.
• ^ "Making of the Gemara Menukad – Tuvias.com". www.monseyjudaica.com.
• ^ 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."[full citation needed]
• ^ a b Genauer, Eli. "When Books Can Speak: A Glimpse Into The World of Sefarim Collecting". Jewish Action (OU).
• ^ "Lot 96: Babylonian Talmud – Shanghai, 1942–1946 – Printed by Holocaust Refugees". Kedem Public Auction House Ltd. August 28, 2018.
• ^ Gittin. Rest of inside coverpage Hebrew, but bottom has (in English) Jewish Bookstore, J. Geseng, Shanghai, 1942: Eliezer, Sh.B. (October 29, 1999). "More on Holocaust Auctions on the Internet". The Jewish Press. p. 89.
• ^ Miller, Yvette Alt (April 19, 2020). "The Survivors' Talmud: When the US Army Printed the Talmud". Aish.com.
• ^ See Schleicher's paintings at MutualArt.
• ^ "Why Christians Should Study Torah and Talmud". Bridges for Peace. Retrieved July 3, 2006.}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
• ^ Hirschfield, Tzofia (2011-05-12). "Why Koreans study Talmud". Jewish World. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
• ^ Alper, Tim (May 5, 2011). "Why South Koreans are in love with Judaism". The Jewish Chronicle. Archived from the original on September 3, 2014. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
• ^ a b Ross Arbes (June 23, 2015). "How the Talmud Became a Best-Seller in South Korea". The New Yorker.
• ^ Erdbrink, Thomas (June 26, 2012). "Iran's Vice President Makes Anti-Semitic Speech at Forum". The New York Times.
• ^ a b Rodkinson
• ^ 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
• ^ Hyam Maccoby, Judaism on Trial
• ^ ADL report "The Talmud in Anti-Semitic Polemics", Anti-Defamation League. Archived 2010-08-05 at the Wayback Machine
• ^ Student, Gil – "Rebuttals to criticisms of Talmud"
• ^ Bacher, Wilhelm, "Talmud", article in Jewish Encyclopedia, Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1901
• ^ Fraade, pp. 144–146
• ^ Kimmerling, Baruch (1997-04-01). "Images of Gentiles". Journal of Palestine Studies. 26 (3): 96–98. doi:10.2307/2538163. ISSN 0377-919X. JSTOR 2538163.
• ^ Siedman, p. 137
• ^ Cohn-Sherbok, p. 48
• ^ Steinsaltz, pp. 268–270
• ^ See, for example, Uriel DaCosta, quoted by Nadler, p. 68
• ^ Cohn-Sherbok, p. 47
• ^ Wilhelm Bacher, "Talmud", article in Jewish Encyclopedia
• ^ Gillott, Hannah (2024-08-20). "What is the Talmud and why are online antisemites now turning on it?". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
• ^ Nov. 146.1.2.
• ^ Seidman, Naomi (February 15, 2010). Faithful Renderings: Jewish-Christian Difference and the Politics of Translation. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226745077 – via Google Books.
• ^ Rodkinson, pp. 66–69
• ^ Levy, p. 701
• ^ James Carroll Constantine's sword: the church and the Jews: a history
• ^ Cohn-Sherbok, pp. 50–54
• ^ a b c Maccoby 1993
• ^ Hyam Maccoby, op. cit.
• ^ Roth, Norman, Medieval Jewish civilization: an encyclopedia, Taylor & Francis, 2003, p. 83
• ^ Rodkinson, p. 98
• ^ a b Heller, Marvin J. (9 January 2013). Further Studies in the Making of the Early Hebrew Book. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-23461-1. Retrieved 28 September 2025.
• ^ a b c d Stow, Kenneth R. (1972). "The Burning of the Talmud in 1553, in the Light of Sixteenth Century Catholic Attitudes Toward the Talmud". Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance. 34 (3): 437–448. ISSN 0006-1999. JSTOR 20674961.
• ^ Hastings, James. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Part 23, p. 186
• ^ Rodkinson, pp. 100–103
• ^ Rodkinson, p. 105
• ^ Levy, p. 210
• ^ Boettcher, Susan R., "Entdecktes Judenthum", article in Levy, p. 210
• ^ Berlin, George L., Defending the faith: nineteenth-century American Jewish writings on Christianity and Jesus, SUNY Press, 1989, p. 156
• ^ Chesronos Hashas Archived 2008-10-02 at the Wayback Machine
• ^ The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition, pp. 103–104. See Heller, Marvin J. (1999). Printing the Talmud: a history of the individual treatises printed from 1700 to 1750. Basel: Brill Publishers. pp. 17, 166.
• ^ "Page:Archives israelites 1851 tome12.djvu/647". Wikisource.
• ^ "Chiarni, Luigi". Jewish Encyclopedia.
• ^ Rodkinson, pp. 109–114
• ^ Levy, p. 564
• ^ Jeansonne, Glen, Women of the Far Right: The Mothers' Movement and World War II, University of Chicago Press, 1997, pp. 168–169
• ^ a b Jones, Jeremy (June 1999). "Talmudic Terrors". Australia/Israel Review. Archived from the original on 2002-03-30. Retrieved 2008-06-12.
• ^ Durant, Will; Durant, Ariel (2011) [1950]. The Story of Civilization: The Age of Faith. Simon & Schuster. p. 388. ISBN 9781451647617.
• ^ "The Talmud in Anti-Semitic Polemics" (PDF) (Press release). Anti-Defamation League. February 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 5, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2010. By selectively citing various passages from the Talmud and Midrash, polemicists have sought to demonstrate that Judaism espouses hatred for non-Jews (and specifically for Christians), and promotes obscenity, sexual perversion, and other immoral behavior. To make these passages serve their purposes, these polemicists frequently mistranslate them or cite them out of context (wholesale fabrication of passages is not unknown). ... In distorting the normative meanings of rabbinic texts, anti-Talmud writers frequently remove passages from their textual and historical contexts. Even when they present their citations accurately, they judge the passages based on contemporary moral standards, ignoring the fact that the majority of these passages were composed close to two thousand years ago by people living in cultures radically different from our own. They are thus able to ignore Judaism's long history of social progress and paint it instead as a primitive and parochial religion. Those who attack the Talmud frequently cite ancient rabbinic sources without noting subsequent developments in Jewish thought, and without making a good-faith effort to consult with contemporary Jewish authorities who can explain the role of these sources in normative Jewish thought and practice.
• ^ Kominsky, Morris (1970). The hoaxers: plain liars, fancy liars, and damned liars. Boston: Branden Press. pp. 169–176. ISBN 978-08283-1288-2. LCCN 76109134. Libbre David 37. This is a complete fabrication. No such book exists in the Talmud or in the entire Jewish literature.
• ^ Hurley, Andrew J. (1991). Israel and the New World Order. Foundation for a New World Order, Santa Barbara: Fithian Press. ISBN 978-09318-3299-4.
• ^ William Grimstad (1979). The Six Million Reconsidered: A Special Report by the Committee for Truth in History. p. 16. Historical Review Press.
• ^ Blaschke, Olaf (2024). Memory in anti-Judaism and modern antisemitism German Catholic mentalities between 1870 and 1945 (1st ed.). Taylor and Francis.
• ^ Bravo López, Fernando (2011-07-01). "Continuity and change in anti-Jewish prejudice: the transmission of the anti-talmudic texts of Sixtus of Siena". Patterns of Prejudice. 45 (3): 225–240. doi:10.1080/0031322X.2011.585017. ISSN 0031-322X.
• ^ "Nuremberg - Document Viewer - Extract from an article on the Talmud, "the great Jewish book of crimes"". nuremberg.law.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
• ^ Showalter, Dennis E. (1983). "Letters to "Der Stürmer": The Mobilization of Hostility in the Weimar Republic". Modern Judaism. 3 (2): 173–187. doi:10.1093/mj/3.2.173. ISSN 0276-1114. JSTOR 1396079.
• ^ "Candace Owens urges audience read antisemitic book | The Jerusalem Post". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 2025-12-23. Retrieved 2025-12-23.