The Talmud in One Article

The Talmud is the rabbinic literature that develops the Oral Torah into the Halacha and the worldview of normative Judaism.

By The Editors

The Fundamentals · 3 minute read

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Summary. The Talmud comprises the Mishnah (Hebrew, c. 200 CE) and the Gemara (Aramaic, c. 500 CE), organized into six orders and 63 tractates. There are two Talmuds — the Babylonian (Bavli, the authoritative one) and the Jerusalem (Yerushalmi). The Talmud is studied in chevruta (paired learning), is the engine of Halacha, and is the most distinctive intellectual product of the Jewish people. Daf Yomi — a page a day — is the standard contemporary practice; the cycle completes the entire Bavli in seven-and-a-half years.

Mishnah

Compiled by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi (“Rabbi”) around 200 CE in the Land of Israel, the Mishnah is the first written code of the Oral Torah. It is organized in six sedarim (orders): Zeraim (agriculture), Moed (festivals), Nashim (women and family law), Nezikin (damages), Kodashim (holy things), and Taharot (purities). The familiar tractates — Berachot, Shabbat, Pesachim, Yoma, Sukkah, Megillah, Bava Kamma, Sanhedrin, Avot — sit within these orders. The Mishnah is in Mishnaic Hebrew, terse and precise.

Gemara

The Gemara is the centuries-long rabbinic discussion of the Mishnah, conducted in the academies of Babylonia (the Bavli, compiled c. 500 CE) and the Land of Israel (the Yerushalmi, compiled c. 400 CE). It is in Aramaic with Hebrew quotations of biblical and Mishnaic material. The Babylonian Talmud is the more developed and is the authoritative one for Halachic decision-making. The Yerushalmi is the more elliptical and is studied especially for its insights into the Land of Israel and for the rulings preserved nowhere else.

How the Talmud Is Studied

Traditionally in chevruta, paired study, with a Rashi commentary on the inner side of the page and a Tosafot commentary on the outer side. The Vilna edition (printed 1880–1886) is the standard layout. The Steinsaltz edition and the ArtScroll Schottenstein edition both provide English translation and explanation; both are revolutionary in opening the Talmud to learners without a yeshiva background. Daf Yomi, the “page a day” program initiated in 1923 by Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Lublin, takes seven years and five months to complete the Bavli. The 14th cycle began January 2020 and the 15th will begin in 2027.

What the Talmud Is Not

The Talmud is not only a legal code; it is also aggadah (narrative, ethics, theology, folklore) interwoven with halacha (law). It is not a settled book to be read; it is a conversation to be entered. The arguments are preserved as arguments; the minority opinions are preserved alongside the majority; the unresolved questions are preserved as unresolved (the Aramaic teyku, “let the difficulty stand,” appears throughout). To learn Talmud is to learn how to think Jewishly.

Where Denominations Diverge

Talmud study is central to Orthodox education and increasingly significant in Conservative and Reform rabbinical training. The Reform movement’s historic ambivalence about Talmudic authority has shifted; the Conservative movement has long given Talmud serious place. The Yeshivat Maharat (Modern Orthodox women’s rabbinical school), the Pardes Institute, the Hadar Institute, and Yeshivat Hadar all teach intensive Talmud across the denominational spectrum.

Sources

Mishnah and Talmud Bavli, full corpus.

Adin Steinsaltz, The Essential Talmud and Reference Guide to the Talmud.

Aharon Steinsaltz, Introduction to the Talmud — English Full Size History, Personalities and Background.