Talmud - what is it? The history and essence of the Talmud

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Today, every educated person knows that the Talmud is a multi-volume teaching, which is a collection of provisions of Judaism of a religious and legal nature in a debatable form around its primary source - the Mishnah. In other words, this fundamental great work is an orderly and measured record of the Oral Torah.

What is the Talmud?

It's no secret that literally translated from Hebrew, "talmud" is a teaching or instruction. This name is the primary source, which later received a second, no less famous name, and specifically - "Gemara". Therefore, the leitmotif of this scripture is the motivation of the Jewish peoples of absolutely all generations to learn and improve their spiritual world.

The style of writing the book is not easy, and the presentation is quite difficult to understand.

As for the language of writing, the Talmud is written in a variety of Aramaic dialects, combined with Hebrew and Biblical words, including Latin, Persian and Greek.

Contents and texts of the ancient teachings

The books of the Talmud contain noonly texts of legislative content, but also many interesting stories of a medical and historical nature. The interpretations of the Tanakh run like a red thread through the entire treatise, the predominant part of which is contained in the Torah.

Initially, this teaching of Jewish thinkers was not equipped with syntactic signs. Because of this, there was no visual opportunity to separate different paragraphs from each other, therefore, there was a difficulty in the process of reading, creating some discomfort for everyone comprehending the basics of science.

Historical roots and the era of the emergence of sacred teachings

Tractates of the Talmud in their extended interpretation were collected back in 210 AD, thanks to the efforts of Yehuda ha-Nasi. This collection was called the Mishna, which was later rewritten and interpreted by his followers.

The supporters of these actions were the Amorais, who created their own explanation of the ancient Mishna with the name "Gemara". The writing of this work was carried out simultaneously in two places, namely in Babylon and Palestine. Based on this, 2 editions were created: the Babylonian Talmud and its Jerusalem counterpart.

Interpretation of the ancient Talmud and its editions

It is necessary to state the indisputable and obvious fact that there is a rule to print all works with the preservation of the page numbering of the original source, which was published by the legendary Daniel Bromberg. Therefore, any interpretation of the Talmud retains the numbering, which is 2947 sheets ortwice as many pages. Therefore, if necessary, you can get a link to the necessary part of the Talmud.

For example, the very first edition of the Talmud, which existed on the territory of the Russian Empire, was the version of the Shapiro brothers in Slavuta. One of the editions of the Talmud was made by Lithuanian rabbis and dated 1880.

Talmud and Torah: what's the difference?

It is necessary to start by interpreting both editions in order to thoroughly understand their differences.

Talmud is primarily the work of great Jewish thinkers, which is a written record of the oral version of the Torah. It contains comments and judgments of great people. At the same time, the Jewish people are the interpreter and interpreter of the provisions found both in the Talmud and in the Torah. According to the fundamental concepts of the wisest people, which run like a red thread through both versions of publications, each representative of this nation should be engaged in the study of the Torah. That is, the Talmud develops the ability to learn and further develop their abilities.

Description of the Torah and its basic concepts

Torah is the most accurate and most reliable collection of the works of Moses, which exists both in printed and in handwritten form. It is the study of this Holy Scripture that is the leitmotif of Judaism. Among the tenets of Judaism, there are two commandments: to study the Torah for each of the Jews independently and to respect all its adherents. After all, it is important for everyone to set aside time to study the Torah. The original concept was the study of the Torah by men, butfor women, this work is not prohibited, but, on the contrary, any activity in this direction is welcome.

Forbidden Tenets of the Torah

The study of the Torah is strictly prohibited to representatives of any other nationalities, in addition to the Jews. But this taboo does not apply to the seven commandments for the descendants of Noah. The study of the most holy commandments and their passages is welcome, quotations from which are used in any literature. Also, the above taboo does not apply to those preparing to accept conversion.

Methods of studying the sacred ancient Jewish scriptures

In addition to the method of studying the Talmud or Torah, which is familiar to society, there are complex ways that combine quite interesting and effective practices.

Since the Talmud is a teaching, in order to achieve the best and most effective result, it must be comprehended in tandem with the Torah, in a pair of people, which ideally is two people. Such training has the rarest name of havruta. Due to the paired quantity, they complement each other and mutually interpret its content.

The second way is to comprehend the tenets of this Holy Scripture through interpretations. This method is called gematria. For example, thanks to this method, it is possible to replace words with numbers, while the number of characters must be identical to the original source.