Talmud

The Talmud is a work wherein is deposited the bulk of the literacy labors of numerous Jewish scholars over a period of some 700 years, roughly speaking between 200 B.C.E. and 500 C.E The Talmud is extant in two recessions, Palestinian and Babylonian.

The word “Talmud” means primarily “study” or “Learning” and is employed in various senses. One refers to the opinions and teachings which disciples acquire from their predecessors in order to expound and explain them (Seder Tonna’im ve-Amora’im cf. Rashi to Suk. 28b ; BM 32 a-b, et al.)
It Bears meaning for instance in the statement “Be heedful in Talmud for unwitting error in Talmud is accounted a willful transgression” (Avot 4:13)
Another sense comprises the whole body of one’s learning ; e.g., “He From whom one has acquired the greater part of his Talmud is to be regarded as one’s teacher” (BM 33a).

A third meaning is in the technical phrase Talmud lomar, which is used to indicate a teaching derived from the exegesis To explain, interpret, fr. ex-the geisthai to lead – more at SEEK an explanation or critical inter operation of a text. of a biblical text. The word “Talmud” is most commonly used, however, to denote the body of teaching which comprises the commentary and discussions of the Amoraim on the Mishnah of R. Judah ha-Nasi Hebrew – the President

What is known as the Palestinian Talmud was composed shortly after 400C.E., whereas the Babylonian Talmud, always reffered to as the Talmud was put into shape about 500C.E.
From the point of view of literay form and structure, the Talmud may be described as a commentary upon the Mishnah of R. Judah The Patriarch, composed about 220 C.E. The Mishnah, became established very soon after it’s compilation as a book of authority in Palestine and Babylonia. In the celerated academies of these two countries, it became the official text book for instruction and was was debated, commented upon, and interpreted for three centuries.

Since the prime purpose of the redactors of the Talmud was to preserve the ancient discussions of the Mishnah, the body of the Talmud assumed the form of dialogue of the Amoraim, the official expositors of the law who flourished between 200-500 C.E.

The Numerous discussions between the Jewish and Roman sages recorded in the Talmud, are evidence of a great deal of intellectual relations between learned Jews and pagans, which must have had a stimulating effect on their thinking in many great ways.

The Talmud, for Jews, is not merely a great literary production, which it is. It is not merely a great fund of Jewish religious experience and wisdom accumulated throughout the course of the ages. The Talmud ranks next to the Sacred Scriptures in significance, as a source for religious insight, inspiration and practice, and will instruct the last generations of mankind.
Great stress has often been laid upon the rabbis as school men and scholastic, as adepts in casuistryA method or doctrine dealing with cases of conscience and the resolution of questions of right or wrong in conduct. and dialectica: discussion and reasoning by dialogue as a method of intellectual investigation. — b: the Platonic investigation of eternal ideals., which they certainly were. However, little note has been taken of them as sages moralists, exerting all their precious energy and intelligence to preserve the notions of justice and spiritually first propagated by Moses, and subsequently preached by Isaiah, Amos, Micah, Jeremiah, and other Hebrew Prophets.