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TALMUD (tl'md). A collection of Jewish writings of the early Christian centuries. There is a Palestinian Talmud and a later, more authoritative, much longer Babylonian Talmud. Each consists of Mishnah and Gemara. Mishnah grew out of oral tradition, whose origin is obscure. The Mosaic Law did not cover all the needs of a developing society, and the defect was supplied by oral rabbinical decisions. When the Jewish leaders felt the need to preserve them, they wrote them down; later they felt a need for a commentary on them. This function the Gemara fulfills. The scope of the Talmud may be seen in the titles of the six parts of the Mishnah: Seeds, Relating to Agriculture; Feasts; Women and Marriage; Civil and Criminal Law; Sacrifices; Clean and Unclean Things and Their Purification.

The message of the great prophets of the 8th cent. b.c. made very clear that the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to the heathen Gentile nations and the impending captivity of Judah were the direct result of idolatry. The promised return of the children of Abraham to the land of the covenant was upon the condition that they seek Jehovah with their whole heart and repudiate the gods of the Canaanites (Jer 29:13). The gradual cessation of prophecy and the development of new and more complex social relationships both within and without Israel called for continuing progressive elaboration of the pentateuchal laws. The leaders and the generation which returned from Babylon in 538 b.c. were acutely aware of the necessity of assuring the continuation of Israels national obedience to the law of Moses. Ezra himself is styled as a scribe versed in the Law of Moses (Ezra 7:6 JPS). The popular desire to study and learn the law as expressed in Nehemiah 8:1-18, was such that the Great Synagogue as it was subsequently called, was thus founded. This historic development brought forth a new social institution among the Jews, the office and service of the Teacher of the Law, the rabbinate. In effect, the local synagogue was nothing more than a Torah study. In recent decades the general acceptance of elaborate fragmentary, literary, and documentary hypotheses concerning the origin and development of the OT, have been adopted by some Jewish scholars to explain the rise of the Talmud, but there is little evidence to support this construction. No doubt there were commentaries, legends and sagas about the patriarchs, some parts of which appeared in the later Apoc. and Pseudep. The notion that there had been a long-standing oral tradition handed down fr om generation to generation throughout the millennia of Jewish history only to be written down in the era of the Great Synagogue is without foundation. It is necessary to observe that there were many customs, rites and procedures which grew up among the Jews which are mentioned occasionally in the NT, and specifically enjoined in the DSS but not directly or definitely commanded in the OT. The Talmud itself assumes its early origin from great antiquity and Pirke Abhoth, I, 1 states that it is to be attributed to Moses at Sinai. Most important is the Talmudic position as a hedge about the sacred canon revealed by God. This maxim is supposed to have been stated by the scholars of the Great Synagogue to render sufficient insulation about the revealed moral and ceremonial commandments that Israel would never again lapse into ignorance and idolatry.

There is no doubt that the rise of the sect of the Pharisees (q.v.) initiated the writing and study of the Jewish traditions which led to the production of the Talmud. Josephus mentions that the Pharisees had passed on to the people certain regulations handed down by former generations and not recorded in the Laws of Moses (Jos. Antiq. XIII, 297, Loeb Lib. tr.). However this does not suggest that written records were involved. On the other hand, the elaborate rituals demanded by the Qumran sects Manual of Discipline (1QS), and the precise layout of the ceremonial bathing pool at Masada, tend to support the notion that it was during this period of the last cent. b.c. that the initial categories of the Talmud were being formed. The collection took two distinctive literary forms:

msh n, Heb. , derived from the verbal form, , H9101, to repeat, it is the oral conversation of the rabbis as they discussed the proper interpretation and course of action requisite upon Jews in regard to the Mosaic law. There is no presentation of evidence but a continual appeal to authority hallowed by age or scriptural foundation. Essentially then, the Mishna is a complex, verbal and continuous commentary, explaining but objective to the Torah of Moses. If the commentary produces legal instruction it is known as Halachah. Although the Mishnaic presentation of laws became dominant in Jewish teaching and its teachers or Tannaim (derived from Aram. , Those who hand down) were greatly reverenced, it grew up after the older and more specifically commentary mode had become established.

The Talmud or, more strictly speaking, the Mishna and Talmud, is divided into six major divisions or Orders (Aram. ), which are subdivided into Tractates (Aram. ), sixty-three in number, each of which is divided in turn into chapters (Aram. ), of varying length. Following are analyses of the major and minor divisions. Order Zeraiym (Aram. ), seeds.

(1) Tractate Beraoth (Aram. , Blessings). Chapters: 1. Time of recitation of the Sema prayer (Deut 6:4), position of the suppliant and benedictions. 2. The divisions of the Sema prayer and the praying voice. 3. Exemptions from praying the Sema. 4. Time of prayer and additional prayers. 5. Positions, specific and congregational prayers. 6. Blessings for vegetable foods and fruits. 7. Groups of people, types and numbers saying prayers and the prayers to be said. 8. Washing of hands and blessings at meals, the differences between Shammai and Hillel. 9. Miscellaneous occasions of prayers.

(2) Tractate Peah (Aram. , Corner of a field). Chapters: 1. The size of field corners, exemption from tithes. 2. Field corners and trees. 3. The size of fields necessary for field corners. 4. How the produce of field corners must be yielded. 5. Rights of the poor and forgotten produce. 6. Distinction of forgotten produce. 7. Olive trees and the rights of the poor in vineyards. 8. Determination of the poor and the length of their rights.

(3) Tractate Demaiy (Aram. , Uncertain [fruits]). Chapters: 1. The Demaiy tithe. 2. The strict Jew and who pays the Demaiy. 3. Who may reserve Demaiy. 4. Statements by individuals about Demaiy and how paid. 5. Rented fields, fields under certain exceptions. 6. Separating specific cases of tithes.

(4) Tractate Kilaiym (Aram. , Mixtures). Chapters: 1. Kilaiym defined. 2. The case of mixed grains. 3. Divisions of garden beds. 4. Kilaiym of vineyards. 5. Types of vines. 6. Extent of vines. 7. Kilaiym and animals. 8. Kilaiym in textiles.

(5) Tractate Sheviith (Aram. , The Sabbatical Year). Chapters: 1. Cultivation in the sixth year. 2. The seventh year and fallow fields. 3. Work about the fields. 4. Seventh year pruning. 5. Figs, leeks, and farm equipment. 6. The seventh year in various countries. 7. Seventh year rights. 8. Self productive fruits. 9. Sale and storage of fruits. 10. Release of debts.

(6) Tractate Terwuwmoth (Aram. , Heave Offering Oblation). Chapters: 1. Teruwmoth. 2. Substitution for anothers Teruwmoth. 3. Second Teruwmoth. 4. Quantity. 5. Restitution of Teruwmoth. 6. Intentional consumption of Teruwmoth. 7. Preparing. 8. Sowing the Teruwmoth. 9. Tasting. 10. Using the oil from Teruwmoth.

(7) Tractate Masserowth (Aram. , Tithes). Chapters: 1. Tithes of fruit, when due. 2. Exceptions. 3. Location of fruit for tithes. 4. Exemptions. 5. Untithable plants and seed.

(8) Tractate Maaser Sheniy (Aram. , Second Tithe). Chapters: 1. Disposal of the Maaser Sheniy. 2. Proceeds of the Maaser Sheniy. 3. Fruits in Jerusalem. 4. Proceeds and price. 5. Fourth year vineyards.

(9) Tractate allah (Aram. , H2705, Dough). Chapters: 1. Fruits. 2. Special cases. 3. Quantity. 4. Variations in allah.

(10) Tractate Orlah (Aram. , H6889, Forbidden). Chapters: 1. Subject trees. 2. Mixed fruits. 3. Colors and Fires.

(11) Tractate Bikuwriym (Aram. , H1137, First Fruits). Chapters: 1. Exceptions. 2. Differentiations. 3. Ceremonies. 4. Exceptional cases. Order Seder Moed (Aram. , High Holidays).

(12) Tractate Sabbath (Aram. , H8701, Sabbath Day). Chapters: 1. Work to be shunned, differences between Shammai and Hillel. 2. Lighting Sabbath evening lamp. 3. Ovens and cooking. 4. Covering of pots. 5. Leading of beasts. 6. Departure of men and women and dress. 7. Responsibility for breaking the Sabbath, thirty-nine types of work. 8. Measures of portable objects. 9. Impurity through carrying. 10. Throwing of objects. 11. Building, pruning, and writing. 12. Weaving, washing. 13. Miscellaneous labors. 14. Actions in fires. 15. Moving of containers. 16. Moving objects, people out of the way. 17. Circumcision. 18. Straining, cleaning and pressing. 19. Miscellaneous carrying. 20. Miscellaneous necessities. 21. Business arrangements and burials. 22. Those overtaken by darkness on a journey, actions permitted on the Sabbath.

(13) Tractate Eruwbiyn (Aram. , Incorporating). Chapters: 1. Entry ways. 2. Holiday or its evening. 3. Going beyond the Eruwbiyn (incorporated or extended), Sabbath limit. 4. Expanding the Eruwbiyn. 5. Further sub-divisons. 6. Still further subdivisions. 7. A yard. 8. Roofs. 9. Miscellaneous Sabbath laws.

(14) Tractate Pesaiym (Aram. , Passovers). Chapters: 1. Searching for leaven. 2. Disposal of leaven. 3. Leaven in its various forms passover cake and bitter herbs. 4. Work beforehand. 5. Killing and butchering the paschal lamb. 6. Passover labors supersede Sabbath prohibitions. 7. Methods for cooking the passover. 8. Persons permitted to partake. 9. Communities and persons unable to partake. 10. Unusual circumstances. 11. Order for eating the passover.

(15) Tractate Sheqaliym (Aram. , Shekels). Chapters: 1. Seating of moneychangers. 2. Exchanging money. 3. Removal of coins from the cache. 4. Spending the Temple tax. 5. Ecclesiastical offices. 6. Numerology of the number thirteen. 7. Possessions of unknown owners. 8. Miscellaneous difficulties.

(16) Tractate Yowma (Aram. , Day of Atonement). Chapters: 1. High priestly preparations. 2. Offerings and lot casting. 3. Preparing for the Atonement services. 4. The scapegoat. 5. Holy of Holies. 6. Expulsion of the scapegoat. 7. The high priests duties. 8. Fasting and forgivness.

(17) Tractate Suwkkah (Aram. , Feast of Booths/Tabernacles). Chapters: 1. Dimensions of the booths. 2. Exemptions. 3. Boughs to use as coverings. 4. Duration. 5. Division of offerings.

(18) Tractate Yowm owv (Aram. , Good Day, also known as Beyah, Egg). Chapters: 1. Partaking of eggs on holidays. 2. Sabbath meals. 3. Prohibited activities. 4. Time of the feasts. 5. Flute playing.

(19) Tractate Rosh ha-shanah (Aram. , New Year). Chapters: 1. When four New Years occur. 2. Questioning the witnesses to the new moon. 3. Groups of witnesses. 4. New Years falling on Sabbaths.

(20) Tractate Taaniyth (Aram. , Fasting). Chapters: 1. Prayers for rain. 2. Festival prayers. 3. Miscellaneous fasting regulations. 4. The twenty-four elders, their fastings.

(21) Tractate Megiyllah (Aram. , Scroll [of Esther]). Chapters: 1-4. The reading of Esther at Purim.

(22) Tractate Mowed Qaon (Aram. , Lesser Holidays). Chapters: 1-3. Halfdays or lesser feasts and their regulation.

(23) Tractate agiyga (Aram. , Festival Offering). Chapters: 1-3. Miscellaneous decisions about offerings. Order Seder Nashiym (Aram. , Women).

(24) Tractate Yebamowth (Aram. , Levirate Obligations). Chapters: 1-16. Acceptance and refusal of levirate obligation.

(25) Tractate Ketuwbowth (Aram. , Marriage Contracts). Chapters: 1-13. Marriage contracts and marriage duties.

(26) Tractate Nedariym (Aram. , Vows). Chapters: 1-11. Vows and annulments.

(27) Tractate Naziyr (Aram. , H5687, Nazirite Vow). Chapters: 1-9. Laws of the Nazirite vows.

(28) Tractate Sowah (Aram. , Defiled Woman). Chapters: 1-9. Expansions of Numbers 5:12-31.

(29) Tractate Giyiyn (Aram. , Bills of Divorce). Chapters: 1-9. Writing of bills of divorce.

(30) Tractate Qidduwshiyn (Aram. , Engagements). Chapters: 1-4. Manner of engagements. Order Seder Neziyqiyn (Aram. , Damages).

(31) Tractate Baba Qama (Aram. , First Gate). Chapters: 1-10. Damages, injuries, and indemnities.

(32) Tractate Baba Meiy' (Aram. , Middle Gate). Chapters: 1-10. Claims from trusts, buying, and selling.

(33) Tractate Baba Batra (Aram. , Last Gate). Chapters: 1-10. Real estate laws and regulations.

(34) Tractate Sanhedriyn (Aram. , Courts).

(35) Tractate Makkowth (Aram. , Lashes). Chapters: 1-3. Corporal punishment.

(36) Tractate Shebuwowth (Aram. , Oaths). Chapters: 1-8. Various types of oaths.

(37) Tractate Eduyowth (Aram. , Witnesses). Chapters: 1-8. Traditional legal sayings.

(38) Tractate Abowdah Zorah (Aram. , Idolatrous Worship). Chapters: 1-5. Idols and idol worshipers.

(39) Tractate Abowth (Aram. , Fathers). Chapters: 1-6. The sayings of the elders.

(40) Tractate Howrayowth (Aram. , Judgments). Chapters: 1-3. Rules for the making of judges decisions. Order Seder Qodoshiym (Aram. , Consecrated Things).

(41) Tractate Zebaiym (Aram. , Sacrifices). Chapters: 1-14. Sacrifices, offerings, and sprinklings.

(42) Tractate Menaowth (Aram. , Offerings [Mincha]). Chapters: 1-13. Cereal, meat, and drink offerings.

(43) Tractate uwliyn (Aram. , Unconsecrated Things). Chapters: 1-12. Unlawful animals, slaughtering.

(44) Tractate Bekowrowth (Aram. , First-born). Chapters: 1-9. Regulations of first-born animals and men.

(45) Tractate Erakiyn (Aram. , Estimates). Chapters: 1-9. Estimation of objects dedicated by vow.

(46) Tractate Temuwra (Aram. , H9455, Exchanges). Chapters: 1-7. Exchanges of dedicated objects.

(47) Tractate Keriytuwth (Aram. , Outcastings). Chapters: 1-7. Excommunication of sinners from the congregation.

(48) Tractate Meiylah (Aram. , Trespasses). Chapters: 1-6. Sacrilegious objects.

(49) Tractate Tamiyd (Aram. , H9458, Daily Offerings). Chapters: 1-7. Morning and evening sacrifices.

(50) Tractate Middowth (Aram. , Measurations). Chapters: 1-5. Descriptions of the Temple and its servants.

(51) Tractate Qenniym (Aram. , Nests [Birds]). Order Seder aharowth (Aram. , Purifications).

(52) Tractate Keliym (Aram. , Containers). Chapters: 1-30. The containers which convey impurity.

(53) Tractate Ohalowth (Aram. , Tents). Chapters: 1-18. Retention of impurity in dwellings.

(54) Tractate Negaiym (Aram. , Leprosies). Chapters: 1-14. Leprous men, garments, and dwellings.

(55) Tractate Parah (Aram. , Heifer). Chapters: 1-12. Red heifers for sacrifice.

(56) Tractate aharowth (Aram. , Purifications). Chapters: 1-10. Methods of purifications.

(57) Tractate Miqvoawth (Aram. , Ceremonial Waters). Chapters: 1-10. The ritual purification of the water.

(58) Tractate Niddah (Aram. , H5614, Separation of Women in Menstruation). Chapters: 1-10. Cleanliness of women before and after childbirth.

(59) Tractate Makshiyriyn (Aram. , Preparations). Chapters: 1-6. Liquids used for purification.

(60) Tractate Zabiym (Aram. , Excretions). Chapters: 1-5. Exudates of the body and their purification.

(61) Tractate ebuwl Yowm (Aram. , Dipping on [the Day]). Chapters: 1-4. Immersion on the day of impurity.

(62) Tractate Yadaiym (Aram. , Hands). Chapters: 1-4. Ritual washings.

(63) Tractate Uwqiyn (Aram. , Stalks of Fruit). Chapters: 1-3. Stalks of fruit conveying impurity.

The above outline follows that of H. Silverstone, A Guide to the Talmud (1942), which excludes the details of the minor tractates and their subdivisions. Any given section contains the earlier Mishna and the longer and much later Gemara. This organization gives the whole an elaborate and very complicated appearance which has necessitated the formulation of extensive indices and helps to locate similar passages.

Although frequently referred to as the Talmud Yerushalmi (Heb. ), this VS was the product of the Northern towns of Israel and their rabbinical schools and sages. It was hastily assembled and edited during the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Christian centuries and is about a third of the length of the Babylonian ed. From the original only, the Gemara of the first four Orders is extant. The language is a dialect known as Western Aram. and demonstrates the peculiarities of orthography and lexica clearly separating it from the Babylonian. The antiquity of its Halachah and the great age and Palestinian origin of the even more extensive Haggadic material render it invaluable for the study of the Rabbinate and the history of exegesis in the Judaism of this period. It is supposed to have been ed. by the Amoraim, Johanan ben Nappaha (c. a.d. 270), but material from later periods was incorporated and the closing date is set at c. a.d. 425 when the Tiberian School ended. The Babylonian Talmud developed in the areas under relative Jewish control in Mesopotamia. Its origins were partly Palestinian as many of its progenitors had studied in the schools of the Amoraim. The initiator of the Babylonian VS was Rab Abba Arika, the founder and head of the great Sura Academy. Following him in the 3rd Christian cent. were such eminent scholars and jurists as Mer Samuel, a member of the first group of Babylonian Amoraim. The third generation boasted such authorities as Abbaye (c. a.d. 300) and Raba (c. 340). In the time of Rabina bar Huna (c. a.d. 495) the period of Talmudic expansion came to a close. The work of the next group of scholars, the Saboraim, Aram. , redactors, brought the work to its full and extant form. The dialect of the Babylonian VS was an Eastern Aram. more fully in fluenced by Akkado-Babylonian and written with its own peculiarities of orthography and lexica. Of the sixty-three tracts, twenty-six lack the Babylonian Gemara. The initial mention of the whole of the written Babylonian Talmud was made in the 8th Christian cent. It is necessary to note that the completion of this vast amountnearly fifty volumesof detailed and succinct legal commentary at the beginning of the Dark Ages when the Rom. empire was dissolving into the inflexible discreteness of feudalism, gave to the Jews an intellectual treasure which helped them endure the Medieval period and survive to attend the coming of the Renaissance. Even under the spread and domination of Islam, the Talmud survived. In the W, however, the mystical frenzy which shook Europe after the collapse of the crusading spirit vented the wrath of Christendom upon the Jewish writings and there were numerous destructions of the Talmud and proscriptions against its study and publication. The Talmud became in the Late Middle Ages one of the few accurate sources of information about antiquity, and such scholars as Petaia of Ratisbon (a.d. 1140-1200) rediscovered the lost cities of antiquity through their intimate knowledge of the Talmud.

Soon after the compilation of a full Talmudic corpus, divergences in textual families must have appeared. Saadia ben Joseph (Gaon) who flourished in the 10th cent. a.d. stated frequent disagreements in the textual traditions. Unfortunately the Talmud is not presently represented by many truly ancient MSS. The only extant MSS of the whole of the Babylonian Talmud is that produced in a.d. 1343, presently in Munich. It was edited by H. L. Strack, Talmud Bab. codicis Hep. Monacensis 95 phototypice depictus (1912). The first printed ed. of both Palestinian and Babylonian Talmud were published by the Christian printerscholar, D. Bomberg, in Venice, 1523 and 1524 respectively. The only complete Palestinian Talmud MS is that in Leiden which has been edited by L. Ginsberg (1909). Numerous difficulties have beset the preparation of any complete variorum edd. as numerous censored portions were omitted during the periods of intense persecution of the Jews so as not to include anything which might be interpreted as anti-Christian. However, the most extensive edd. were those produced in Vilna beginning in 1886, and frequently reproduced with a large number of additional commentaries such as the additions of the Medieval French rabbis. Commentaries, introductions and special studies have appeared in vast numbers particularly from the large and erudite Jewish communities of E Germany, Poland and European Russia. With the tragic destruction of these centers of Hebraic scholarship, the centers of Jewish learning moved to the New World and thence to Israel. The mastery of the language, meaning, detail and sweep of the Talmud is a lifetime avocation. However, it is the most compact and continuous set of documents revealing the piety of a people extant in modern times.

Among the schools of European Jewry the Talmud represented the highest and most complete mastery and challenge to which the pious Jew could apply. The knowledge of the Talmud was held in higher esteem than that of the Scripture itself, which had become in the 19th cent. the special province of thoroughly anti-Jewish scholars. While the reconstruction of the rise of the OT text according to the theories of Graf-Kuenen-Wellhausen were eroding away confidence in the historicity of the OT orthodox and conservative Judaism found refuge in the Talmud. The age of romanticism found little to attract it in the bewildering rationalism and endless casuistry of the Talmud. In its place an overwhelmingly Kantian philosophy of Judaism has been developed. With the rise of the Jewish state of Israel, a new renaissance of Talmudic studies may be at hand. For the Christian scholar the Talmud offers first-hand insights into the state of Jewish religion and life in the 1st cent. and the development of that world view in later ages. Almost every mention and allusion to Jewish custom and culture found in the Gospel narratives can be discovered in detail in the Talmudic tradition or one of its manifold explanations. Of major importance in this last regard is the work of Strack and Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrash. The recovery of many new Talmudic fragments from excavations and the archeological reconstruction of many previously obscure eras of Israels history has necessitated fresh studies of both Mishnaic and Talmudic texts.

The bibliography of works on and about the Talmud is vast and involved. There are several good bibliographies available. The following are general works, editions, and helps: J. Levy, Neuhebrisches und chaldisches Wrterbuch, 4 vols. (1876-1889); M. Schwab, Le Talmud de Jrusalem traduit pour la premire fois (French tr.), 11 vols. (1878-1890); M. Jastrow, Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature, 2 vols. (1886-1903); L. Goldschmidt, Der Babylonische Talmud, 15 vols. (German tr.) (1897-1909); S. Krauss, Talmudische Archaeologie, 3 vols. (1910-1912); G. F. Dalman, Aramaisch-Neuhebrisches Handwrterbuch zu Targum, Talmud und Midrasch, 2nd. ed. (1933); G. F. Moore, Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era. Vol. I (1927); H. Malter, The Treatise Taanit of the Babylonian Talmud (1928); S. Zeitlin, Critical Edition of the Talmud, JQR XXI, Nos. 1 and 2 (1930), and numerous other articles in the same journal. H. L. Strack, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (1931); H. Danby, The Mishnah (1933); J. Kaplan, The Redaction of the Babylonian Talmud (1933); ed. I. Epstein, The Babylonian Talmud, Soncino Edition 36 vols. (1935-1948), a new edition of this standard Eng. tr. is appearing with facing page Aram. and Eng. texts; I. Herzog, Main Institutions of Jewish Law, 2 vols. (1936-1939); I. Epstein, Judaism (1939); H. L. Strack, Talmud, ISBE vol. V (1939), 2904-2907, with excellent bibliography of the older sources; L. Ginzberg, Commentary on the Palestinian Talmud, 3 vols. (1941).

(talmudh):

I. PRELIMINARY REMARKS AND VERBAL EXPLANATIONS

II. IMPORTANCE OF THE TALMUD

III. THE TRADITIONAL LAW UNTIL THE COMPOSITION OF THE MISHNA

IV. DIVISION AND CONTENTS OF THE MISHNA (AND THE TALMUD)

1. Zera`im, "Seeds"

2. Mo`edh, "Feasts"

3. Nashim, "Women"

4. Neziqin, "Damages"

5. Kodhashim, "Sacred Things"

6. Teharoth, "Clean Things"

V. THE PALESTINIAN TALMUD

VI. THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD

VII. THE NON-CANONICAL LITTLE TREATISES AND THE TOSEPHTA1. Treatises after the 4th Cedher

2. Seven Little Treatises

LITERATURE

The present writer is, for brevitys sake, under necessity to refer to his Einleitung in den Talmud, 4th edition, Leipzig, 1908. It is quoted here as Introduction.

There are very few books which are mentioned so often and yet are so little known as the Talmud. It is perhaps true that nobody can now be found, who, as did the Capuchin monk Henricus Seynensis, thinks that "Talmud" is the name of a rabbi. Yet a great deal of ignorance on this subject still prevails in many circles. Many are afraid to inform themselves, as this may be too difficult or too tedious; others (the anti-Semites) do not want correct information to be spread on this subject, because this would interfere seriously with their use of the Talmud as a means for their agitation against the Jews.

I. Preliminary Remarks and Verbal Explanations.

(1) Mishnah, "the oral doctrine and the study of it" (from shanah, "to repeat," "to learn," "to teach"), especially

(a) the whole of the oral law which had come into existence up to the end of the 2nd century AD;

(b) the whole of the teaching of one of the rabbis living during the first two centuries AD (tanna, plural tannaim);

(c) a single tenet;

(d) a collection of such tenets;

(e) above all, the collection made by Rabbi Jehudah (or Judah) ha-Nasi.

(2) Gemara, "the matter that is leaned" (from gemar, "to accomplish," "to learn"), denotes since the 9th century the collection of the discussions of the Amoraim, i.e. of the rabbis teaching from about 200 to 500 AD.

(3) Talmudh, "the studying" or "the teaching," was in older times used for the discussions of the Amoraim; now it means the Mishna with the discussions thereupon.

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