Talmud, << TAL muhd, >> is a collection of Jewish religious and civil laws, together with scholarly interpretations of their meaning. The Talmud ranks second to the Bible as the most sacred and influential written work of the Jewish religion. Judaism considers the full-time study of the Talmud to be one of the most honorable occupations.
The Talmud consists of two parts, the Mishnah and the Gemara. The Mishnah is the written version of traditional Jewish oral law. Short passages of the Mishnah are followed by extremely thorough explanations, which make up the Gemara. The scholars who wrote the Gemara did not always agree in their interpretations of the Mishnah. As a result, the Gemara includes many debates on small details of Jewish law. It also discusses history and Jewish customs and includes Jewish folk tales.
The Talmud consists of 63 sections called tractates, which are divided into six orders. Each order deals with a different subject. For example, the order Nashim (Women) discusses marriage, divorce, and other matters that concern relationships between a man and a woman. The other orders cover agriculture, festivals, civil and criminal law, purity, and sacrificial worship.
According to Jewish tradition, the Mishnah and Gemara are based on the Oral Law, consisting of interpretations of the Bible that originated in the time of Moses, about 1250 B.C. These interpretations were memorized and handed down orally. The Mishnah’s contents were collected from about A.D. 70 to 200. The Gemara, which has two versions, was written between about 200 and 500. The Palestinian Gemara was completed about 425 and the Babylonian Gemara about 500. The Talmud laid the groundwork for all future Jewish observance.
See also Akiva ben Joseph .
