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Talmud

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Contents   [hide]  1 Semi-protection 2 History 3 Structure 3.1 Mishnah 3.2 Baraita 3.3 Gemara 3.4 Halakha and Aggadah 3.5 Minor tractates 4 Bavli and Yerushalmi 4.1 Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud) 4.2 Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) 4.3 Comparison of style and subject matter 5 Language 6 Printing 6.1 Bomberg Talmud 1523 6.2 Benveniste Talmud 1645 6.3 Vilna Talmud, 1835 6.4 Goldschmidt Talmud 1897-1909, and German translation 6.5 Critical editions 6.6 Steinsaltz, Schottenstein, Metivta and Ehrman Talmuds 7 Talmud scholarship 7.1 Geonim 7.2 Halakhic and Aggadic extractions 7.3 Commentaries 7.4 Pilpul 7.5 Sephardic approaches 7.6 Brisker method 7.7 Critical method 7.7.1 Textual emendations 7.8 Historical analysis, and higher textual criticism 7.9 Contemporary scholarship 8 Role in Judaism 8.1 Sadducees 8.2 Karaism 8.3 Reform Judaism 8.4 Present day 9 Other Contexts 10 Criticism 10.1 Middle Ages 10.2 Nineteenth century and after 10.3 Contemporary accusations 11 Translations 11.1 Talmud Bavli 11.2 Talmud Yerushalmi 12 See also 13 Notes 14 References 14.1 Logic and methodology 14.2 Modern scholarly works 14.2.1 On individual tractates 14.3 Historical study 15 External links 15.1 General 15.2 Full text resources 15.3 Manuscripts 15.4 Layout 15.5 "Daf Yomi" program 15.6 Refutation of allegations concerning the Talmud 15.7 Audio

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Rabbinic Literature
Talmudic literature
Mishnah • Tosefta Jerusalem Talmud • Babylonian Talmud Minor tractates
Aggadic Midrash
—— Tannaitic —— Seder Olam Rabbah Alphabet of Akiba ben Joseph Baraita of the Forty-nine Rules Baraita on the Thirty-two Rules Baraita on Tabernacle Construction —— 400–600 —— Genesis Rabbah • Eichah Rabbah Pesikta de-Rav Kahana Esther Rabbah • Midrash Iyyov Leviticus Rabbah • Seder Olam Zutta Midrash Tanhuma • Megillat Antiochus —— 650–900 —— Avot of Rabbi Natan Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer Tanna Devei Eliyahu Alphabet of Ben-Sira Kohelet Rabbah • Canticles Rabbah Devarim Rabbah • Devarim Zutta Pesikta Rabbati • Midrash Shmuel Midrash Proverbs • Ruth Rabbah Baraita of Samuel • Targum sheni —— 900–1000 —— Ruth Zuta • Eichah Zuta Midrash Tehillim • Midrash Hashkem Exodus Rabbah • Canticles Zutta —— 1000–1200 —— Midrash Tadshe • Sefer haYashar —— Later —— Yalkut Shimoni • Yalkut Makiri Midrash Jonah • Ein Yaakov Midrash HaGadol • Numbers Rabbah Smaller midrashim
Rabbinic Targum
—— Torah —— Targum Onkelos Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Fragment Targum • Targum Neofiti —— Nevi'im —— Targum Jonathan —— Ketuvim —— Targum Tehillim • Targum Mishlei Targum Iyyov Targum to the Five Megillot Targum Sheni to Esther Targum to Chronicles
v   t   e

The Talmud (Hebrew: תַּלְמוּד talmūd "instruction, learning", from a root lmd "teach, study") is a central text of mainstream Judaism, considered second to the Torah. It is also traditionally referred to as Shas (ש״ס), a Hebrew abbreviation of shisha sedarim, the "six orders" of the Oral Law of Judaism. The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah (Hebrew: משנה, c. 200 CE), the first written compendium of Judaism's Oral Law, and the Gemara (c. 500 CE), an elucidation of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Hebrew Bible. The termsTalmud and Gemara are often used interchangeably.

The whole Talmud consists of 63 tractates, and in standard print is over 6,200 pages long. It is written in Tannaitic Hebrew and Aramaic. The Talmud contains the opinions of thousands of rabbis on a variety of subjects, including law, ethics, philosophy, customs, history, theology, lore and many other topics. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of rabbinic law and is much quoted in other rabbinic literature.

[edit]History

Main article: Oral Torah

The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, folio 2a.

Originally, Jewish scholarship was oral. Rabbis expounded and debated the law (the written law expressed in the Hebrew Bible) and discussed theTanakh without the benefit of written works (other than the Biblical books themselves), though some may have made private notes (megillot setarim), for example of court decisions. This situation changed drastically, however, mainly as the result of the destruction of the Jewish commonwealth and the Second Temple in the year 70 CE and the consequent upheaval of Jewish social and legal norms. As the Rabbis were required to face a new reality—mainly Judaism without a Temple (to serve as the center of teaching and study) and Judea without at least partial autonomy—there was a flurry of legal discourse and the old system of oral scholarship could not be maintained. It is during this period that Rabbinic discourse began to be recorded in writing.^[1][2] The earliest recorded oral law may have been of the midrashic form, in which halakhic discussion is structured as exegeticalcommentary on the Pentateuch. But an alternative form, organized by subject matter instead of by biblical verse, became dominant about the year 200 CE, when Rabbi Judah haNasi redacted the Mishnah (משנה).^{[citation needed]}

The Oral Law was far from monolithic; rather, it varied among various schools. The most famous two were the School of Shammai and the School ofHillel. In general, all valid opinions, even the non-normative ones, were recorded in the Talmud.^{[citation needed]}

The oldest full manuscript of the Talmud is from 1342, known as the Munich Talmud and was purchased in a hotly contested auction from New York based Christies by Tyndale House of the UK.

[edit]Structure

The six orders (sedarim; singular: seder) of general subject matter in the Talmud are divided into 60 or 63 tractates (masekhtot; singular: masekhet) of more focused subject compilations. Each tractate is divided into chapters (perakim; singular: perek), 517 in total, that are both numbered according to the Hebrew alphabet and given names, usually using the first one or two words in the first mishnah. The perek may continue over several (up to tens) of pages.^[3] Each perek will contain several mishnayot^[4] with their accompanying exchanges that form the "building-blocks" of the Gemara; the name for a passage of gemara is a sugya (סוגיא; plural sugyot). A sugya, including baraita or tosefta, will typically comprise a detailed proof-based elaboration of a Mishnaic statement, whether halakhic or aggadic. A sugya may, and often does, range widely off the subject of the mishnah. Thesugya is not punctuated in the conventional sense used in the English language, but by using specific expressions that help to divide the sugya into components, usually including a statement, a question on the statement, an answer, a proof for the answer or a refutation of the answer with its own proof.^{[citation needed]}

In a given sugya, scriptural, Tannaic and Amoraic statements are cited to support the various opinions. In so doing, the Gemara will highlight semantic disagreements between Tannaim and Amoraim (often ascribing a view to an earlier authority as to how he may have answered a question), and compare the Mishnaic views with passages from the Baraita. Rarely are debates formally closed; in some instances, the final word determines the practical law, but in many instances the issue is left unresolved. There is a whole literature on the procedural principles to be used in settling the practical law when disagreements exist: see under #Logic and methodology below.

[edit]Mishnah

Main article: Mishnah

The Mishnah is a compilation of legal opinions and debates. Statements in the Mishnah are typically terse, recording brief opinions of the rabbis debating a subject; or recording only an unattributed ruling, apparently representing a consensus view. The rabbis recorded in the Mishnah are known as Tannaim.[2]

Since it sequences its laws by subject matter instead of by biblical context, the Mishnah discusses individual subjects more thoroughly than the Midrash, and it includes a much broader selection of halakhic subjects than the Midrash. The Mishnah's topical organization thus became the framework of the Talmud as a whole. But not every tractate in the Mishnah has a corresponding talmud. Also, the order of the tractates in the Talmud differs in some cases from that in the Mishnah.

[hide] v   t   e The Six Orders of the Mishnah (ששה סדרי משנה) Zeraim (Seeds) (זרעים) Moed (Festival) (מועד) Nashim (Women) (נשים) Nezikin (Damages) (נזיקין) Kodashim (Holies) (קדשים) Tehorot (Purities) (טהרות) Berakhot   Pe'ah   Demai   Kil'ayim Shevi'it   Terumot   Ma'aserot Ma'aser Sheni   Hallah   Orlah Bikkurim Shabbat   Eruvin   Pesahim Shekalim   Yoma   Sukkah Beitzah   Rosh Hashanah   Ta'anit Megillah   Mo'ed Katan   Hagigah Yevamot   Ketubot   Nedarim Nazir   Sotah   Gittin   Kiddushin Bava Kamma   Bava Metzia Bava Batra   Sanhedrin   Makkot Shevu'ot   Eduyot   Avodah Zarah Avot   Horayot Zevahim   Menahot   Hullin Bekhorot   Arakhin   Temurah Keritot   Me'ilah   Tamid   Middot Kinnim Keilim   Oholot   Nega'im   Parah Tehorot   Mikva'ot   Niddah Makhshirin   Zavim   Tevul Yom Yadayim   Uktzim

[edit]Baraita

Main article: Baraita

In addition to the Mishnah, other tannaitic teachings were current at about the same time or shortly thereafter. The Gemara frequently refers to these tannaitic statements in order to compare them to those contained in the Mishnah and to support or refute the propositions of Amoraim. All such non-Mishnaic tannaitic sources are termed baraitot (lit. outside material, "Works external to the Mishnah"; sing. baraita ברייתא).

The baraitot cited in the Gemara are often quotations from the Tosefta (a tannaitic compendium of halakha parallel to the Mishnah) and the Halakhic Midrashim (specifically Mekhilta, Sifra and Sifre). Some baraitot, however, are known only through traditions cited in the Gemara, and are not part of any other collection.^{[citation needed]}

[edit]Gemara

Main article: Gemara

In the three centuries following the redaction of the Mishnah, rabbis throughout Palestine and Babylonia analyzed, debated, and discussed that work. These discussions form the Gemara (גמרא).Gemara means “completion” (from the Hebrew gamar גמר: "to complete") or "learning" ( from the Aramaic: "to study"). The Gemara mainly focuses on elucidating and elaborating the opinions of the Tannaim. The rabbis of the Gemara are known as Amoraim (sing. Amora אמורא).^{[citation needed]}

Much of the Gemara consists of legal analysis. The starting point for the analysis is usually a legal statement found in a Mishnah. The statement is then analyzed and compared with other statements used in different approaches to Biblical exegesis in rabbinic Judaism (or - simpler - interpretation of text in Torah study) exchanges between two (frequently anonymous and sometimes metaphorical) disputants, termed the makshan (questioner) and tartzan (answerer). Another important function of Gemara is to identify the correct Biblical basis for a given law presented in the Mishnah and the logical process connecting one with the other: this activity was known as talmud long before the existence of the "Talmud" as a text.^[5]

[edit]Halakha and Aggadah

The Talmud is a wide-ranging document that touches on a great many subjects. Traditionally Talmudic statements are classified into two broad categories, halakhic and aggadic statements. Halakhic statements directly relate to questions of Jewish law and practice (halakha). Aggadic statements are not legally related, but rather are exegetical, homiletical, ethical, or historical in nature.

[edit]Minor tractates

Main article: Minor tractate

In addition to the six Orders, the Talmud contains a series of short treatises of a later date, usually printed at the end of Seder Nezikin. These are not divided into Mishnah and Gemara.

[edit]Bavli and Yerushalmi

The process of "Gemara" proceeded in what were then the two major centers of Jewish scholarship, the Land of Israel and Babylonia. Correspondingly, two bodies of analysis developed, and two works of Talmud were created. The older compilation is called the Jerusalem Talmud or the Talmud Yerushalmi. It was compiled in the fourth century in Israel. The Babylonian Talmud was compiled about the year 500 CE, although it continued to be edited later. The word "Talmud", when used without qualification, usually refers to the Babylonian Talmud.

[edit]Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud)

Main article: Jerusalem Talmud

A page of a medieval Jerusalem Talmud manuscript, from the Cairo Genizah.

The Jerusalem Talmud was one of the two compilations of Jewish religious teachings and commentary that was transmitted orally for centuries prior to its compilation by Jewish scholars in Israel.^[6] It is a compilation of teachings of the schools of Tiberias, Sepphoris and Caesarea. It is written largely in a western Aramaic dialect that differs from its Babylonian counterpart.^{[citation needed]}

This Talmud is a synopsis of the analysis of the Mishnah that was developed over the course of nearly 200 years by the Academies in Israel (principally those of Tiberias and Caesarea.) Because of their location, the sages of these Academies devoted considerable attention to analysis of the agricultural laws of the Land of Israel. Traditionally, this Talmud was thought to have been redacted in about the year 350 CE by Rav Muna and Rav Yossi in the Land of Israel. It is traditionally known as the Talmud Yerushalmi ("Jerusalem Talmud"), but the name is a misnomer, as it was not prepared in Jerusalem. It has more accurately been called "The Talmud of the Land of Israel".^[7]

Its final redaction probably belongs to the end of the fourth century, but the individual scholars who brought it to its present form cannot be fixed with assurance. By this time Christianity had become the state religion of the Roman Empire and Jerusalem the holy city of Christendom. In 325 CE Constantine, the first self-proclaimed Christian emperor, said "let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd."^[8] This policy made a Jew an outcast and pauper. The compilers of the Jerusalem Talmud consequently lacked the time to produce a work of the quality they had intended. The text is evidently incomplete and is not easy to follow. The apparent cessation of work on the Jerusalem Talmud in the fifth century has been associated with the decision of Theodosius II in 425 CE to suppress the Patriarchate and put an end to the practice offormal scholarly ordination. Some modern scholars have questioned this connection: for more detail see Jerusalem Talmud: Place and date of composition.

Despite its incomplete state, the Jerusalem Talmud remains an indispensable source of knowledge of the development of the Jewish Law in Israel. It was also an important resource in the study of the Babylonian Talmud by the Kairouan school of Hananel ben Hushiel and Nissim Gaon, with the result that opinions ultimately based on the Jerusalem Talmud found their way into both theTosafot and the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides.

There are traditions that hold that in the Messianic Age the Jerusalem Talmud will have priority over the Babylonian. This may be interpreted as meaning that, following the restoration of theSanhedrin and the line of ordained scholars, the work will be completed and "out of Zion shall go the Law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem". Accordingly, following the formation of the modern State of Israel there is some interest in restoring Eretz Yisrael traditions. For example, Rabbi David Bar-Hayim of the Makhon Shilo institute has issued a siddur reflecting Eretz Yisraelpractice as found in the Jerusalem Talmud and other sources.

[edit]Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud)

A full set of the Babylonian Talmud.

The Talmud Bavli consists of documents compiled over the period of Late Antiquity (3rd to 5th centuries).^[9] The most important of the Jewish centres in Mesopotamia during this time were Nehardea, Nisibis, Mahoza, Pumbeditha and the Sura Academy.

Talmud Bavli (the "Babylonian Talmud") comprises the Mishnah and the Babylonian Gemara, the latter representing the culmination of more than 300 years of analysis of the Mishnah in the Babylonian Academies. The foundations of this process of analysis were laid byRab, a disciple of Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi. Tradition ascribes the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud in its present form to two Babylonian sages, Rav Ashi and Ravina. Rav Ashi was president of the Sura Academy from 375 to 427 CE. The work begun by Rav Ashi was completed by Ravina, who is traditionally regarded as the final Amoraic expounder. Accordingly, traditionalists argue that Ravina’s death in 499 CE is the latest possible date for the completion of the redaction of the Talmud. However, even on the most traditional view a few passages are regarded as the work of a group of rabbis who edited the Talmud after the end of the Amoraic period, known as theSaboraim or Rabbanan Savora'e (meaning "reasoners" or "considerers").

The question as to when the Gemara was finally put into its present form is not settled among modern scholars. Some, like Louis Jacobs, argue that the main body of the Gemara is not simple reportage of conversations, as it purports to be, but a highly elaborate structure contrived by the Saboraim, who must therefore be regarded as the real authors. On this view the text did not reach its final form until around 700. Some modern scholars use the term Stammaim (from the Hebrew Stam, meaning "closed", "vague" or "unattributed") for the authors of unattributed statements in the Gemara. (See eras within Jewish law.)

[edit]Comparison of style and subject matter

There are significant differences between the two Talmud compilations. The language of the Jerusalem Talmud is a western Aramaic dialect, which differs from the form of Aramaic in the Babylonian Talmud. The Talmud Yerushalmi is often fragmentary and difficult to read, even for experienced Talmudists. The redaction of the Talmud Bavli, on the other hand, is more careful and precise. The law as laid down in the two compilations is basically similar, except in emphasis and in minor details. The Jerusalem Talmud has not received much attention from commentators, and such traditional commentaries as exist are mostly concerned with comparing its teachings to those of the Talmud Bavli.

Neither the Jerusalem nor the Babylonian Talmud covers the entire Mishnah: for example, a Babylonian Gemara exists only for 37 out of the 63 tractates of the Mishnah. In particular:

• The Jerusalem Talmud covers all the tractates of Zeraim, while the Babylonian Talmud covers only tractate Berachot. The reason might be that most laws from the Orders Zeraim (agricultural laws limited to the land of Israel) had little practical relevance in Babylonia and were therefore not included.^[10] The Jerusalem Talmud has a greater focus on the Land of Israel and the Torah's agricultural laws pertaining to the land because it was written in the Land of Israel where the laws applied.
• The Jerusalem Talmud does not cover the Mishnaic order of Kodashim, which deals with sacrificial rites and laws pertaining to the Temple, while the Babylonian Talmud does cover it. It is not clear why this is, as the laws were not directly applicable in either country following the Temple's 70 CE destruction.
• In both Talmuds, only one tractate of Tehorot (ritual purity laws) is examined, that of the menstrual laws, Niddah.

The Babylonian Talmud records the opinions of the rabbis of Israel as well as of those of Babylonia, while the Jerusalem Talmud only seldom cites the Babylonian rabbis. The Babylonian version also contains the opinions of more generations because of its later date of completion. For both these reasons it is regarded as a more comprehensive collection of the opinions available. On the other hand, because of the centuries of redaction between the composition of the Jerusalem and the Babylonian Talmud, the opinions of early amoraim might be closer to their original form in the Jerusalem Talmud.

The influence of the Babylonian Talmud has been far greater than that of the Yerushalmi. In the main, this is because the influence and prestige of the Jewish community of Israel steadily declined in contrast with the Babylonian community in the years after the redaction of the Talmud and continuing until the Gaonic era. Furthermore, the editing of the Babylonian Talmud was superior to that of the Jerusalem version, making it more accessible and readily usable. According to Maimonides (whose life began almost a hundred years after the end of the Gaonic era), all Jewish communities during the Gaonic era formally accepted the Babylonian Talmud as binding upon themselves, and modern Jewish practice follows the Babylonian Talmud's conclusions on all areas in which the two Talmuds conflict.

[edit]Language

Of the two main components of the Babylonian Talmud, the Mishnah is written in Mishnaic Hebrew and the Gemara is written, with a few exceptions, in a characteristic dialect of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic.^[11] This difference in language is due to the long time period elapsing between the two compilations. During the period of the Tannaim (rabbis cited in the Mishna), the spokenvernacular of Jews in Judaea was a late form of Hebrew known as Rabbinic or Mishnaic Hebrew, whereas during the period of the Amoraim (rabbis cited in the Gemara), which began around 200 CE, the spoken vernacular was Aramaic. Hebrew continued to be used for the writing of religious texts, poetry, and so forth.^[12]

Since the Mishnah and all of the Baraitas and verses of Tanakh quoted and embedded in the Gemara are in Hebrew, Hebrew constitutes somewhat less than half of the text of the Talmud. The rest, including the discussions of the Amoraim and the overall framework of the Gemara, is in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. There are occasional quotations from older works in other dialects of Aramaic, such as Megillat Taanit.

[edit]Printing

[edit]Bomberg Talmud 1523

The first complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud was printed in Venice by Daniel Bomberg 1520-23. In addition to the Mishnah and Gemara, Bomberg's edition contained the commentaries ofRashi and Tosafot. Almost all printings since Bomberg have followed the same pagination. Bomberg's edition was considered relatively free of censorship.^[13]

[edit]Benveniste Talmud 1645

Following Ambrosius Frobenius's publication of most of the Talmud in installments in Basel, Immanuel Benveniste published the whole Talmud in installments in Amsterdam 1644-1648,^[14] Though according to Raphael Rabbinovicz the Benveniste Talmud may have been based on the Lublin Talmud and included many of the censors' errors.^[15]

[edit]Vilna Talmud, 1835

The edition of the Talmud published by the Szapira brothers in Slavuta in 1795 is particularly prized by many hasidic rebbes. In 1835, after an acrimonious dispute with the Szapira family, a new edition of the Talmud was printed by Menachem Romm of Vilna. Known as the Vilna Shas, this edition (and later ones printed by his widow and sons) has been used in the production of more recent editions of Talmud Bavli.

A page number in the Talmud refers to a double-sided page, known as a daf; each daf has two amudim labeled א and ב, sides A and B (Recto and Verso). The referencing by daf is relatively recent and dates from the early Talmud printings of the 17th century. Earlier rabbinic literature generally only refers to the tractate or chapters within a tractate. Nowadays, reference is made in format [Tractate daf a/b] (e.g. Berachot 23b). In the Vilna edition of the Talmud there are 5,894 folio pages.

[edit]Goldschmidt Talmud 1897-1909, and German translation

Lazarus Goldschmidt published an edition from the "uncensored text" of the Babylonian Talmud with a German translation in 9 vols. (commenced Leipzig, 1897–1909, edition completed, following emigration to England in 1933, by 1936).^[16]

[edit]Critical editions

The text of the Vilna editions is considered by scholars not to be uniformly reliable, and there have been a number of attempts to collate textual variants.

1. In the early twentieth century Nathan Rabinowitz published a series of volumes called Dikduke Soferim showing textual variants from early manuscripts and printings.
2. In 1960 work started on a new edition under the name of Gemara Shelemah (complete Gemara) under the editorship of Menachem Mendel Kasher: only the volume on the first part of tractate Pesachim appeared before the project was interrupted by his death. This edition contained a comprehensive set of textual variants and a few selected commentaries.
3. Some thirteen volumes have been published by the Institute for the Complete Israeli Talmud (a division of Mechon ha-Rav Herzog), on lines similar to Rabinowitz, containing the text and a comprehensive set of textual variants (from manuscripts, early prints and citations in secondary literature) but no commentaries.^[17]

There have been critical editions of particular tractates (e.g. Henry Malter's edition of Ta'anit), but there is no modern critical edition of the whole Talmud. Modern editions such as those of the Oz ve-Hadar Institute correct misprints and restore passages that in earlier editions were modified or excised by censorship but do not attempt a comprehensive account of textual variants. One edition, by Rabbi Yosef Amar,^[18] represents the Yemenite tradition, and takes the form of a photostatic reproduction of a Vilna-based print to which Yemenite vocalization and textual variants have been added by hand, together with printed introductory material. Collations of the Yemenite manuscripts of some tractates have been published by Columbia University.^[19]

[edit]Steinsaltz, Schottenstein, Metivta and Ehrman Talmuds

There have been four editions aimed at bringing the Talmud to a wider audience. One is the Steinsaltz Talmud, now published by Koren Publishers Jerusalem, which contains the text with punctuation, detailed explanations and a modern Hebrew translation. The Steinsaltz Edition is available in two formats: one with the traditional Vilna page and one without. It is available in Hebrew, English, French, Russian and other languages.

A second edition is the Schottenstein Talmud, published by ArtScroll.

A third is the Metivta edition, published by the Oz ve-Hadar Institute. This contains the full text in the same format as the Vilna-based editions, with a full explanation in modern Hebrew on facing pages as well as an improved version of the traditional commentaries.^[20]

A previous project of the same kind, called Talmud El Am, "Talmud to the people", was published in Israel in 1960s-80s. The Talmud El Am contains Hebrew text, English translation and commentary by Rabbi Dr A. Ehrman, with short 'realia', marginal notes, often illustrated, written by experts in the field for the whole of Tractate Berakhot, 2 chapters of Bava Mezia and the halachic section of Qiddushin, chapter 1.

[edit]Talmud scholarship

From the time of its completion, the Talmud became integral to Jewish scholarship. A maxim in Pirkei Avot advocates its study from the age of 15. This section outlines some of the major areas of Talmudic study.

[edit]Geonim

The earliest Talmud commentaries were written by the Geonim (approximately 800-1000, CE) in Babylonia. Although some direct commentaries on particular treatises are extant, our main knowledge of Gaonic era Talmud scholarship comes from statements embedded in Geonic responsa that shed light on Talmudic passages: these are arranged in the order of the Talmud in Levin'sOtzar ha-Geonim. Also important are practical abridgments of Jewish law such as Yehudai Gaon's Halachot Pesukot, Achai Gaon's Sheeltot and Simeon Kayyara's Halachot Gedolot. After the death of Hai Gaon, however, the center of Talmud scholarship shifts to Europe and North Africa.

[edit]Halakhic and Aggadic extractions

One area of Talmudic scholarship developed out of the need to ascertain the Halakha. Early commentators such as Rabbi Isaac Alfasi (North Africa, 1013–1103) attempted to extract and determine the binding legal opinions from the vast corpus of the Talmud. Alfasi's work was highly influential, attracted several commentaries in its own right and later served as a basis for the creation of halakhic codes. Another influential medieval Halakhic work following the order of the Babylonian Talmud, and to some extent modelled on Alfasi, was "the Mordechai", a compilation byMordechai ben Hillel (c. 1250–1298). A third such work was that of Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel (d. 1327). All these works and their commentaries are printed in the Vilna and many subsequent editions of the Talmud.

A fifteenth century Spanish rabbi, Jacob ibn Habib (d. 1516), composed the Ein Yaakov. Ein Yaakov (or En Ya'aqob) extracts nearly all the Aggadic material from the Talmud. It was intended to familiarize the public with the ethical parts of the Talmud and to dispute many of the accusations surrounding its contents.

[edit]Commentaries

Main article: Rabbinic literature

The Talmud is often cryptic and difficult to understand. Its language contains many Greek and Persian words that became obscure over time. A major area of Talmudic scholarship developed to explain these passages and words. Some early commentators such as Rabbenu Gershom of Mainz (10th c.) and Rabbenu Ḥananel (early 11th c.) produced running commentaries to various tractates. These commentaries could be read with the text of the Talmud and would help explain the meaning of the text. Another important work is the Sefer ha-Mafteaḥ (Book of the Key) byNissim Gaon, which contains a preface explaining the different forms of Talmudic argumentation and then explains abbreviated passages in the Talmud by cross-referring to parallel passages where the same thought is expressed in full. Commentaries (ḥiddushim) by Joseph ibn Migash on two tractates, Bava Batra and Shevuot, based on Ḥananel and Alfasi, also survive, as does a compilation by Zechariah Aghmati called Sefer ha-Ner.^[21] Using a different style, Rabbi Nathan b. Jechiel created a lexicon called the Arukh in the 11th century to help translate difficult words.

By far the best known commentary on the Babylonian Talmud is that of Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, 1040–1105). The commentary is comprehensive, covering almost the entire Talmud. Written as a running commentary, it provides a full explanation of the words, and explains the logical structure of each Talmudic passage. It is considered indispensable to students of the Talmud.

Medieval Ashkenazic Jewry produced another major commentary known as Tosafot ("additions" or "supplements"). The Tosafot are collected commentaries by various medieval Ashkenazic Rabbis on the Talmud (known as Tosafists). One of the main goals of the Tosafot is to explain and interpret contradictory statements in the Talmud. Unlike Rashi, the Tosafot is not a running commentary, but rather comments on selected matters. Often the explanations of Tosafot differ from those of Rashi.

Among the founders of the Tosafist school were Rabbi Jacob b. Meir (known as Rabbeinu Tam), who was a grandson of Rashi, and, Rabbenu Tam's nephew, Rabbi Isaac ben Samuel. The Tosafot commentaries were collected in different editions in the various schools. The benchmark collection of Tosafot for Northern France was that of R. Eliezer of Touques. The standard collection for Spain was that of Rabbenu Asher ("Tosafot Harosh"). The Tosafot that are printed in the standard Vilna edition of the Talmud are an edited version compiled from the various medieval collections, predominantly that of Touques.^[22]

Over time, the approach of the Tosafists spread to other Jewish communities, particularly those in Spain. This led to the composition of many other commentaries in similar styles. Among these are the commentaries of Nachmanides (Ramban), Solomon ben Adret (Rashba), Yom Tov of Seville (Ritva) and Nissim of Gerona (Ran). A comprehensive anthology consisting of extracts from all these is the Shittah Mekubbetzet of Bezalel Ashkenazi.

Other commentaries produced in Spain and Provence were not influenced by the Tosafist style. Two of the most significant of these are the Yad Ramah by Rabbi Meir Abulafia (uncle of the mysticAbraham Abulafia) and Bet Habechirah by Rabbi Menahem haMeiri, commonly referred to as "Meiri". While the Bet Habechirah is extant for all of Talmud, we only have the Yad Ramah for Tractates Sanhedrin, Baba Batra and Gittin. Like the commentaries of Ramban and the others, these are generally printed as independent works, though some Talmud editions include the Shittah Mekubbetzet in an abbreviated form.

In later centuries, focus partially shifted from direct Talmudic interpretation to the analysis of previously written Talmudic commentaries. These later commentaries include "Maharshal" (Solomon Luria), "Maharam" (Meir Lublin) and "Maharsha" (Samuel Edels), and are generally printed at the back of each tractate.

Another very useful study aid, found in almost all editions of the Talmud, consists of the marginal notes Torah Or, Ein Mishpat Ner Mitzvah and Masoret ha-Shas by the Italian rabbi Joshua Boaz, which give references respectively to the cited Biblical passages, to the relevant halachic codes and to related Talmudic passages.

Most editions of the Talmud include brief marginal notes by Akiva Eger under the name Gilyonot ha-Shas, and textual notes by Joel Sirkes and the Vilna Gaon (see Textual emendations below), on the page together with the text.

[edit]Pilpul

During the 15th and 16th centuries, a new intensive form of Talmud study arose. Complicated logical arguments were used to explain minor points of contradiction within the Talmud. The termpilpul was applied to this type of study. Usage of pilpul in this sense (that of "sharp analysis") harks back to the Talmudic era and refers to the intellectual sharpness this method demanded.

Pilpul practitioners posited that the Talmud could contain no redundancy or contradiction whatsoever. New categories and distinctions (hillukim) were therefore created, resolving seeming contradictions within the Talmud by novel logical means.

In the Ashkenazi world the founders of pilpul are generally considered to be Jacob Pollak (1460–1541) and Shalom Shachna. This kind of study reached its height in the 16th and 17th centuries when expertise in pilpulistic analysis was considered an art form and became a goal in and of itself within the yeshivot of Poland and Lithuania. But the popular new method of Talmud study was not without critics; already in the 15th century, the ethical tract Orhot Zaddikim ("Paths of the Righteous" in Hebrew) criticized pilpul for an overemphasis on intellectual acuity. Many 16th- and 17th-century rabbis were also critical of pilpul. Among them may be noted Judah Loew ben Bezalel (the Maharal of Prague), Isaiah Horowitz, and Yair Bacharach.

By the 18th century, pilpul study waned. Other styles of learning such as that of the school of Elijah b. Solomon, the Vilna Gaon, became popular. The term "pilpul" was increasingly applied derogatorily to novellae deemed casuistic and hairsplitting. Authors referred to their own commentaries as "al derekh ha-peshat" (by the simple method) to contrast them with pilpul.^[23]

[edit]Sephardic approaches

Among Sephardi and Italian Jews from the fifteenth century on, some authorities sought to apply the methods of Aristotelian logic, as reformulated by Averroes.^[24] This method was first recorded, though without explicit reference to Aristotle, by Isaac Campanton (d. Spain, 1463) in his Darkhei ha-Talmud ("The Ways of the Talmud"), and is also found in the works of Moses Chaim Luzzatto.^[25]

According to the present-day Sephardi scholar José Faur, traditional Sephardic Talmud study could take place on any of three levels.^[26] The most basic level consists of literary analysis of the text without the help of commentaries, designed to bring out the tzurata di-shema'ta, i.e. the logical and narrative structure of the passage.^[27] The intermediate level, 'iyyun (concentration), consists of study with the help of commentaries such as Rashi and the Tosafot, similar to that practised among the Ashkenazim (historically Sephardim studied the Tosefot ha-Rosh and the commentaries of Nahmanides in preference to the printed Tosafot). The highest level, halachah (law), consists of collating the opinions set out in the Talmud with those of the halachic codes such as the Mishneh Torah and the Shulchan Aruch, so as to study the Talmud as a source of law. (A project called Halacha Brura,^[28] founded by Abraham Isaac Kook, presents the Talmud and the halachic codes side by side in book form so as to enable this kind of collation.)

A somewhat similar distinction exists in the Ashkenazi yeshivah curriculum between beki'ut (basic familiarization) and 'iyyun (in-depth study).

Today most Sephardic yeshivot follow Lithuanian approaches such as the Brisker method: the traditional Sephardic methods are perpetuated informally by some individuals.

[edit]Brisker method

In the late nineteenth century another trend in Talmud study arose. Rabbi Hayyim Soloveitchik (1853–1918) of Brisk (Brest-Litovsk) developed and refined this style of study. Brisker methodinvolves a reductionistic analysis of rabbinic arguments within the Talmud or among the Rishonim, explaining the differing opinions by placing them within a categorical structure. The Brisker method is highly analytical and is often criticized as being a modern-day version of pilpul. Nevertheless, the influence of the Brisker method is great. Most modern day Yeshivot study the Talmud using the Brisker method in some form. One feature of this method is the use of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah as a guide to Talmudic interpretation, as distinct from its use as a source of practicalhalakha.

Rival methods were those of the Mir and Telz yeshivas.

[edit]Critical method

As a result of Jewish emancipation, Judaism underwent enormous upheaval and transformation during the nineteenth century. Modern methods of textual and historical analysis were applied to the Talmud.

[edit]Textual emendations

The text of the Talmud has been subject to some level of critical scrutiny throughout its history. Rabbinic tradition holds that the people cited in both Talmuds did not have a hand in its writings; rather, their teachings were edited into a rough form around 450 CE (Talmud Yerushalmi) and 550 CE (Talmud Bavli.) The text of the Bavli especially was not firmly fixed at that time.

The Gaonic responsa literature addresses this issue. Teshuvot Geonim Kadmonim, section 78, deals with mistaken biblical readings in the Talmud. This Gaonic responsum states:

"...But you must examine carefully in every case when you feel uncertainty [as to the credibility of the text] - what is its source? Whether a scribal error? Or the superficiality of a second rate student who was not well versed?....after the manner of many mistakes found among those superficial second-rate students, and certainly among those rural memorizers who were not familiar with the biblical text. And since they erred in the first place....[they compounded the error.]

—Teshuvot Geonim Kadmonim, Ed. Cassel, Berlin 1858, Photographic reprint Tel Aviv 1964, 23b.

In the early medieval era, Rashi concluded that some statements in the extant text of the Talmud were insertions from later editors. On Shevuot 3b Rashi writes "A mistaken student wrote this in the margin of the Talmud, and copyists {subsequently} put it into the Gemara."^[29]

The emendations of Yoel Sirkis and the Vilna Gaon are included in all standard editions of the Talmud, in the form of marginal glosses entitled Hagahot ha-Bach and Hagahot ha-Gra respectively; further emendations by Solomon Luria are set out in commentary form at the back of each tractate. The Vilna Gaon's emendations were often based on his quest for internal consistency in the text rather than on manuscript evidence;^[30] nevertheless many of the Gaon's emendations were later verified by textual critics, such as Solomon Schechter, who had Cairo Genizah texts with which to compare our standard editions.^[31]

In the nineteenth century Raphael Nathan Nota Rabinovicz published a multi-volume work entitled Dikdukei Soferim, showing textual variants from the Munich and other early manuscripts of the Talmud, and further variants are recorded in the Complete Israeli Talmud and Gemara Shelemah editions (see Printing, above).

Today many more manuscripts have become available, in particular from the Cairo Geniza. The Academy of the Hebrew Language has prepared a text on CD-ROM for lexicographical purposes, containing the text of each tractate according to the manuscript it considers most reliable, and the Lieberman Institute,^[32] associated with the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, maintains a searchable website in which it aims to include all manuscript readings.^[33] Images of some of the older manuscripts may be found on the website of the Jewish National and University Library.^[34]

Further variant readings can often be gleaned from citations in secondary literature such as commentaries, in particular those of Alfasi, Rabbenu Ḥananel and Aghmati, and sometimes the later Spanish commentators such as Nachmanides and Solomon ben Adret.

[edit]Historical analysis, and higher textual criticism

Historical study of the Talmud can be used to investigate a variety of concerns. One can ask questions such as: Do a given section's sources date from its editor's lifetime? To what extent does a section have earlier or later sources? Are Talmudic disputes distinguishable along theological or communal lines? In what ways do different sections derive from different schools of thought within early Judaism? Can these early sources be identified, and if so, how? Investigation of questions such as these are known as higher textual criticism. (The term "criticism", it should be noted, is a technical term denoting academic study.)

Religious scholars still debate the precise method by which the text of the Talmuds reached their final form. Many believe that the text was continuously smoothed over by the savoraim.

In the 1870s and 1880s Rabbi Raphael Natan Nata Rabbinovitz engaged in historical study of Talmud Bavli in his Diqduqei Soferim. Since then many Orthodox rabbis have approved of his work, including Rabbis Shlomo Kluger, Yoseph Shaul Ha-Levi Natanzohn, Yaaqov Ettlinger, Isaac Elhanan Spektor and Shimon Sofer.

During the early 19th century, leaders of the newly evolving Reform movement, such as Abraham Geiger and Samuel Holdheim, subjected the Talmud to severe scrutiny as part of an effort to break with traditional rabbinic Judaism. They insisted that the Talmud was entirely a work of evolution and development. This view was rejected as both academically incorrect, and religiously incorrect, by those who would become known as the Orthodox movement. Some Orthodox leaders such as Moses Sofer (the Chatam Sofer) became exquisitely sensitive to any change and rejected modern critical methods of Talmud study.

Some rabbis advocated a view of Talmudic study that they held to be in-between the Reformers and the Orthodox; these were the adherents of positive-historical Judaism, notably Nachman Krochmal and Zacharias Frankel. They described the Oral Torah as the result of a historical and exegetical process, emerging over time, through the application of authorized exegetical techniques, and more importantly, the subjective dispositions and personalities and current historical conditions, by learned sages. This was later developed more fully in the five volume work Dor Dor ve-Dorshav by Isaac Hirsch Weiss. (See Jay Harris Guiding the Perplexed in the Modern Age Ch. 5) Eventually their work came to be one of the formative parts of Conservative Judaism.

Another aspect of this movement is reflected in Graetz's History of the Jews. Graetz attempts to deduce the personality of the Pharisees based on the laws or aggadot that they cite, and show that their personalities influenced the laws they expounded.

The leader of Orthodox Jewry in Germany Samson Raphael Hirsch, while not rejecting the methods of scholarship in principle, hotly contested the findings of the Historical-Critical method. In a series of articles in his magazine Jeschurun (reprinted in Collected Writings Vol. 5) Hirsch reiterated the traditional view, and pointed out what he saw as numerous errors in the works of Graetz, Frankel and Geiger.

On the other hand, many of the nineteenth century's strongest critics of Reform, including strictly orthodox Rabbis such as Zvi Hirsch Chajes, utilized this new scientific method. The Orthodox Rabbinical seminary of Azriel Hildesheimer was founded on the idea of creating a "harmony between Judaism and science". Another Orthodox pioneer of scientific Talmud study was David Zvi Hoffman.

The Iraqi rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer notes that the text of the Gemara has had changes and additions, and contains statements not of the same origin as the original. See his Yehi Yosef(Jerusalem, 1991) p. 132 "This passage does not bear the signature of the editor of the Talmud!"

Orthodox scholar Daniel Sperber writes in "Legitimacy, of Necessity, of Scientific Disciplines" that many Orthodox sources have engaged in the historical (also called "scientific") study of the Talmud. As such, the divide today between Orthodoxy and Reform is not about whether the Talmud may be subjected to historical study, but rather about the theological and halakhic implications of such study.

[edit]Contemporary scholarship

Some trends within contemporary Talmud scholarship are listed below.

• Orthodox Judaism maintains that the oral law was revealed, in some form, together with the written law. As such, some adherents, most notably Samson Raphael Hirsch and his followers, resisted any effort to apply historical methods that imputed specific motives to the authors of the Talmud. Other major figures in Orthodoxy, however, took issue with Hirsch on this matter, most prominently David Tzvi Hoffmann.^[35]
• Some scholars hold that there has been extensive editorial reshaping of the stories and statements within the Talmud. Lacking outside confirming texts, they hold that we cannot confirm the origin or date of most statements and laws, and that we can say little for certain about their authorship. In this view, the questions above are impossible to answer. See, for example, the works of Louis Jacobs and Shaye J.D. Cohen.
• Some scholars hold that the Talmud has been extensively shaped by later editorial redaction, but that it contains sources we can identify and describe with some level of reliability. In this view, sources can be identified by tracing the history and analyzing the geographical regions of origin. See, for example, the works of Lee I. Levine and David Kraemer.
• Some scholars hold that many or most the statements and events described in the Talmud usually occurred more or less as described, and that they can be used as serious sources of historical study. In this view, historians do their best to tease out later editorial additions (itself a very difficult task) and skeptically view accounts of miracles, leaving behind a reliable historical text. See, for example, the works of Saul Lieberman, David Weiss Halivni, and Avraham Goldberg.
• Modern academic study attempts to separate the different "strata" within the text, to try to interpret each level on its own, and to identify the correlations between parallel versions of the same tradition. In recent years, the work of R. David Weiss Halivni and Dr. Shamma Friedman have suggested a paradigm shift in the understanding of the Talmud (Encyclopaedia Judaica 2nd ed. entry "Talmud, Babylonian"). The traditional understanding was to view the Talmud as a unified homogeneous work. While other scholars had also treated the Talmud as a multi-layered work, Dr. Halivni's innovation (primarily in the second volume of his Mekorot u-Mesorot) was to differentiate between the Amoraic statements, which are generally brief Halachic decisions or inquiries, and the writings of the later "Stammaitic" (or Saboraic) authors, which are characterised by a much longer analysis that often consists of lengthy dialectic discussion. It has been noted that the Jerusalem Talmud is in fact very similar to the Babylonian Talmud minus Stammaitic activity (Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.), entry "Jerusalem Talmud"). Shamma Y. Friedman's Talmud Aruch on the sixth chapter of Bava Metzia (1996) is the first example of a complete analysis of a Talmudic text using this method. S. Wald has followed with works on Pesachim ch. 3 (2000) and Shabbat ch. 7 (2006). Further commentaries in this sense are being published by Dr Friedman's "Society for the Interpretation of the Talmud".^[36]

[edit]Role in Judaism

The Talmud is the written record of an oral tradition. It became the basis for many rabbinic legal codes and customs, of which the most important are the Mishneh Torah and the Shulchan Aruch. Orthodox and, to a lesser extent, Conservative Judaism accept the Talmud as authoritative, while Reconstructionist and Reform Judaism do not. This section briefly outlines past and current movements and their view of the Talmud's role.

[edit]Sadducees

The Sadducees Jewish sect flourished during the Second Temple period. One of their main arguments with the Pharisees (later known as Rabbinic Judaism) was over their rejection of an Oral Law, and their denying a resurrection after death.

[edit]Karaism

Another movement that rejected the oral law was Karaism. It arose within two centuries of the completion of the Talmud. Karaism developed as a reaction against the Talmudic Judaism of Babylonia. The central concept of Karaism is the rejection of the Oral Torah, as embodied in the Talmud, in favor of a strict adherence to the Written Law only. This opposes the fundamentalRabbinic concept that the Oral Law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai together with the Written Law. Some later Karaites took a more moderate stance, allowing that some element of tradition (called sevel ha-yerushah, the burden of inheritance) is admissible in interpreting the Torah and that some authentic traditions are contained in the Mishnah and the Talmud, though these can never supersede the plain meaning of the Written Law.

[edit]Reform Judaism

With the rise of Reform Judaism, during the nineteenth century, the authority of the Talmud was again questioned. The Talmud was seen by Reform Jews as a product of late antiquity having relevance merely as a historical document. In some cases a similar view was taken of the written law as well, while others appeared to adopt a neo-Karaite "back to the Bible" approach, though often with greater emphasis on the prophetic than on the legal books.

[edit]Present day

See also Halakha: How Halakha is viewed today and Halakha: The sources and process of Halakha.

Orthodox Judaism continues to stress the importance of Talmud study and it is a central component of Yeshiva curriculum, in particular for those training to be Rabbis. This is so even thoughHalakha is generally studied from the medieval codes and not directly from the Talmud. Talmudic study amongst the laity is widespread in Orthodox Judaism, with daily or weekly Talmud study particularly common in Haredi Judaism and with Talmud study a central part of the curriculum in Orthodox Yeshivas and day schools. The regular study of Talmud among laymen has been popularized by the Daf Yomi, a daily course of Talmud study initiated by Rabbi Meir Shapiro in 1923; its 13th cycle of study began on August, 2012.

Conservative Judaism similarly emphasizes the study of Talmud within its religious and rabbinic education. Generally, however, the Talmud is studied as a historical source-text for Halakha. The Conservative approach to legal decision-making emphasizes placing classic texts and prior decisions in historical and cultural context, and examining the historical development of Halakha. This approach has resulted in greater practical flexibility than that of the Orthodox. Talmud study is part of the curriculum of Conservative parochial education at many Conservative day schools and an increase in Conservative day school enrollments has resulted in an increase in Talmud study as part of Conservative Jewish education among a minority of Conservative Jews. See also: The Conservative Jewish view of the Halakha.

Reform Judaism does not emphasize the study of Talmud to the same degree in their Hebrew schools, but they do teach it in their rabbinical seminaries; the world view of liberal Judaism rejects the idea of binding Jewish law, and uses the Talmud as a source of inspiration and moral instruction. Ownership and reading of the Talmud is not widespread among Reform and ReconstructionistJews, who usually place more emphasis on the study of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh.

[edit]Other Contexts

The study of Talmud is not restricted to those of the Jewish religion and has attracted interest in other cultures.

Christian scholars have long expressed an interest in the study of Talmud which has helped illuminate their own scriptures. Talmud contains biblical exegesis and commentary on Tanakh that will often clarify elliptical and esoteric passages. The Talmud contains possible references to Jesus Christ and his disciples, while the Christian canon makes mention of Talmudic figures and contains teachings that can be paralleled within the Talmud and Midrash. The Talmud provides cultural and historical context to the Gospel and the writings of the Apostles.^[37]

In South Korea, the Talmud is commonly read in the belief that it develops mental acuity and advances academic achievement. The Jewish traditional values expressed in the Talmud are also esteemed by the South Koreans.^[38]

[edit]Criticism

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Historian Michael Levi Rodkinson, in his book The History of the Talmud, wrote that detractors of the Talmud, both during and subsequent to its formation, "have varied in their character, objects and actions" and the book documents a number of critics and persecutors, including Nicholas Donin,Johannes Pfefferkorn, Johann Andreas Eisenmenger, the Frankists, and August Rohling.^[39] Many attacks come from allegedly- and actually-Christian sources such as Justinas Pranaitis, Elizabeth Dilling and David Duke^[40]. Criticisms also arise from Muslim sources,^[41][42][43] Jewish sources,^[44] and atheists and skeptics.^[45] Accusations against the Talmud include alleged:^{[39][46][47][48][49][50][51]}

1. Anti-Christian or anti-Gentile content^{[52][53][54][55]}
2. Absurd or sexually immoral content^[56]
3. Falsification of scripture^[57][58][59]

Many of these criticisms, particularly those by antisemitic critics, are (according to those such as Gil Student and Michael Gruda) based on quotations that are taken out of context, and thus misrepresent the meaning of the Talmud's text. Sometimes the misrepresentation is deliberate, and other times simply due to an inability to grasp the subtle and sometimes confusing narratives in the Talmud. Some quotations provided by antisemitic critics deliberately omit passages in order to generate quotes that appear to be offensive or insulting.^[60][61]

[edit]Middle Ages

The history of the Talmud reflects in part the history of Judaism persisting in a world of hostility and persecution. Almost at the very time that theBabylonian savoraim put the finishing touches to the redaction of the Talmud, the emperor Justinian issued his edict against deuterosis (doubling, repetition) of the Hebrew Bible.^[62] It is disputed whether, in this context, deuterosis means "Mishnah" or "Targum": in patristic literature, the word is used in both senses. This edict, dictated by Christian zeal and anti-Jewish feeling, was the prelude to attacks on the Talmud, conceived in the same spirit, and beginning in the thirteenth century in France, where Talmudic study was then flourishing.

The charge against the Talmud brought by the Christian convert Nicholas Donin led to the first public disputation between Jews^[63] and Christians and to the first burning of copies of the Talmud in Paris in 1242.^[64][65][66] The fire of copies of the Talmud continued.^[67]

The Talmud was likewise the subject of the Disputation of Barcelona in 1263 between Nahmanides (Rabbi Moses ben Nahman) and Christian convert, Pablo Christiani. This same Pablo Christiani made an attack on the Talmud that resulted in a papal bull against the Talmud and in the first censorship, which was undertaken at Barcelona by a commission of Dominicans, who ordered the cancellation of passages deemed objectionable from a Christian perspective (1264).^[68][69]

At the Disputation of Tortosa in 1413, Geronimo de Santa Fé brought forward a number of accusations, including the fateful assertion that the condemnations of "pagans," "heathens," and "apostates" found in the Talmud were in reality veiled references to Christians. These assertion were denied by the Jewish community and its scholars, who contended that Judaic thought made a sharp distinction between those classified as heathen or pagan, being polytheistic, and those who acknowledge one true God (such as the Christians) even while worshipping the true monotheistic God incorrectly. Thus, Jews viewed Christians as misguided and in error, but not among the "heathens" or "pagans" discussed in the Talmud.^[69]

Both Pablo Christiani and Geronimo de Santa Fé, in addition to criticizing the Talmud, also regarded it as a source of authentic traditions, some of which could be used as arguments in favour of Christianity. Examples of such traditions were statements that the Messiah was born around the time of the destruction of the Temple, and that the Messiah sat at the right hand of God.^[70]

In 1415, Pope Benedict XIII, who had convened the Tortosa disputation, issued a papal bull (which was destined, however, to remain inoperative) forbidding the Jews to read the Talmud, and ordering the destruction of all copies of it. Far more important were the charges made in the early part of the sixteenth century by the convert Johannes Pfefferkorn, the agent of the Dominicans. The result of these accusations was a struggle in which the emperor and the pope acted as judges, the advocate of the Jews being Johann Reuchlin, who was opposed by the obscurantists; and this controversy, which was carried on for the most part by means of pamphlets, became in the eyes of some a precursor of the Reformation.^[69][71]

An unexpected result of this affair was the complete printed edition of the Babylonian Talmud issued in 1520 by Daniel Bomberg at Venice, under the protection of a papal privilege.^[72] Three years later, in 1523, Bomberg published the first edition of the Jerusalem Talmud. After thirty years the Vatican, which had first permitted the Talmud to appear in print, undertook a campaign of destruction against it. On the New Year, Rosh Hashanah (September 9, 1553) the copies of the Talmud confiscated in compliance with a decree of the Inquisition were burned at Rome, in Campo dei Fiori (auto de fé). Other burnings took place in other Italian cities, such as the one instigated by Joshua dei Cantori at Cremona in 1559. Censorship of the Talmud and other Hebrew works was introduced by a papal bull issued in 1554; five years later the Talmud was included in the first Index Expurgatorius; and Pope Pius IV commanded, in 1565, that the Talmud be deprived of its very name. The convention of referring to the work as "Shas" (shishah sidre Mishnah) instead of "Talmud" dates from this time.^[73]

The first edition of the expurgated Talmud, on which most subsequent editions were based, appeared at Basel (1578–1581) with the omission of the entire treatise of 'Abodah Zarah and of passages considered inimical to Christianity, together with modifications of certain phrases. A fresh attack on the Talmud was decreed by Pope Gregory XIII (1575–85), and in 1593 Clement VIIIrenewed the old interdiction against reading or owning it.^{[citation needed]} The increasing study of the Talmud in Poland led to the issue of a complete edition (Kraków, 1602-5), with a restoration of the original text; an edition containing, so far as known, only two treatises had previously been published at Lublin (1559–76). In 1707 some copies of the Talmud were confiscated in the province of Brandenburg, but were restored to their owners by command of Frederick, the first king of Prussia.^{[citation needed]} A further attack on the Talmud took place in Poland (in what is now Ukrainian territory) in 1757, when Bishop Dembowski, at the instigation of the Frankists, convened a public disputation at Kamianets-Podilskyi, and ordered all copies of the work found in his bishopric to be confiscated and burned.^[74]

The external history of the Talmud includes also the literary attacks made upon it by some Christian theologians after the Reformation, since these onslaughts on Judaism were directed primarily against that work, the leading example being Eisenmenger's Entdecktes Judenthum (Judaism Unmasked) (1700).^[75][76][77] In contrast, the Talmud was a subject of rather more sympathetic study by many Christian theologians, jurists and Orientalists from the Renaissance on, including Johann Reuchlin, John Selden, Petrus Cunaeus, John Lightfoot and Johannes Buxtorf father andson.^[78]

[edit]Nineteenth century and after

The Vilna edition of the Talmud was subject to Russian government censorship, or self-censorship to meet government expectations, though this was less severe than some previous attempts: the title "Talmud" was retained and the tractate Avodah Zarah was included. Most modern editions are either copies of or closely based on the Vilna edition, and therefore still omit most of the disputed passages. Although they were not available for many generations, the removed sections of the Talmud, Rashi, Tosafot and Maharsha were preserved through rare printings of lists oferrata, known as Chesronos Hashas ("Omissions of the Talmud").^[79] Many of these censored portions were recovered ironically enough from uncensored manuscripts in the Vatican Library. Some modern editions of the Talmud contain some or all of this material, either at the back of the book, in the margin, or in its original location in the text.^[80]

In 1830, during a debate in the French Chamber of Peers regarding state recognition of the Jewish faith, Admiral Verhuell declared himself unable to forgive the Jews whom he had met during his travels throughout the world either for their refusal to recognize Jesus as the Messiah or for their possession of the Talmud.^{[citation needed]} In the same year the Abbé Chiarini published at Paris a voluminous work entitled "Théorie du Judaïsme," in which he announced a translation of the Talmud, advocating for the first time a version that would make the work generally accessible, and thus serve for attacks on Judaism.^{[citation needed]} In a like spirit nineteenth century anti-Semitic agitators often urged that a translation be made; and this demand was even brought before legislative bodies, as in Vienna. The Talmud and the "Talmud Jew" thus became objects of anti-Semitic attacks, for example in August Rohling's Der Talmudjude (1871), although, on the other hand, they were defended by many Christian students of the Talmud, notably Hermann Strack.^[81]

Further attacks from allegedly- and actually-anti-Semitic sources include Justinas Pranaitis' The Talmud Unmasked: The Secret Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians (1892)^[82] andElizabeth Dilling's The Plot against Christianity (1964).^[83] The criticisms of the Talmud in many modern pamphlets and websites are often recognisable as verbatim quotes from one or other of these.^{[citation needed]}

[edit]Contemporary accusations

Criticism of the Talmud is widespread, in great part through the Internet.^[84]

The Anti-Defamation League's report on this topic argues that antisemitic critics of the Talmud frequently use erroneous translations or selective quotations in order to distort the meaning of the Talmud's text, and sometimes fabricate passages. In addition, the attackers rarely provide full context of the quotations, and fail to provide contextual information about the culture that the Talmud was composed in, nearly 2,000 years ago.^[85]

Gil Student, a prolific Internet author, alleges that many antisemitic attacks on the Talmud are merely recycling discredited material that originated in the thirteenth century disputations, particularly from Raymond Marti and Nicholas Donin, and that the criticisms are based on quotations taken out of context, and are sometimes entirely fabricated.^[86]

[edit]Translations

[edit]Talmud Bavli

Part of a series of articles on
Editions of the Babylonian Talmud
Editions:[hide] Neusner Translation  ·Rodkinson Translation  · Schottenstein Edition  · Soncino Edition  · Steinsaltz Edition
v   t   e

There are five contemporary translations of the Talmud into English:

• The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition Adin Steinsaltz, Random House. This work is an English edition of Rabbi Steinsaltz' complete Hebrew language translation of and commentary on the entire Talmud. Incomplete.
• Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud, Mesorah Publications. In this translation, each English page faces the Aramaic/Hebrew page. The English pages are elucidated and heavily annotated; each Aramaic/Hebrew page of Talmud typically requires three English pages of translation. Complete.
• The Soncino Talmud, Isidore Epstein, Soncino Press. Notes on each page provide additional background material. This translation is published both on its own and in a parallel text edition, in which each English page faces the Aramaic/Hebrew page. It is available also on CD-ROM. Complete.
• The Talmud of Babylonia. An American Translation, Jacob Neusner, Tzvee Zahavy, others. Atlanta: 1984-1995: Scholars Press for Brown Judaic Studies. Complete.
• The Babylonian Talmud, translated by Michael L. Rodkinson. (1903, contains all of the tractates in the Orders of Mo'ed/Festivals andNezikin/Damages, plus some additional material related to these Orders.) This is inaccurate^{[citation needed]} and was wholly superseded by the Soncino translation: it is sometimes linked to from the internet because, for copyright reasons, it was until recently the only translation freely available on the Web (see below, under Full text resources).

[edit]Talmud Yerushalmi

• Talmud of the Land of Israel: A Preliminary Translation and Explanation Jacob Neusner, Tzvee Zahavy, others. University of Chicago Press. This translation uses a form-analytical presentation that makes the logical units of discourse easier to identify and follow. This work has received many positive reviews. However, some consider Neusner's translation methodology idiosyncratic. One volume was negatively reviewed by Saul Lieberman of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
• Schottenstein Edition of the Yerushalmi Talmud Mesorah/Artscroll. This translation is the counterpart to Mesorah/Artscroll's Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud (i.e. Babylonian Talmud).
• The Jerusalem Talmud ,Edition, Translation, and Commentary ,Ed. by Guggenheimer, Heinrich W. ,Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin, Germany
• German Edition, Übersetzung des Talmud Yerushalmi, Herausgegeben von Martin Hengel, Peter Schäfer, Hans-Jürgen Becker, Frowald Gil Hüttenmeister, Mohr&Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany

[edit]See also

Judaism portal

• Baraita
• Daf Yomi
• Ein Yaakov
• Hadran (Talmud)
• Minor Tractates
• Rashi
• Shass Pollak
• Siyum
• Siyum HaShas
• Talmudical hermeneutics

[edit]Notes

1. ^ See, Strack, Hermann, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash, Jewish Publication Society, 1945. pp.11-12. "[The Oral Law] was handed down by word of mouth during a long period...The first attempts to write down the traditional matter, there is reason to believe, date from the first half of the second post-Christian century." Strack theorizes that the growth of a Christian canon (the New Testament) was a factor that influenced the Rabbis to record the oral law in writing.
2. ^ The theory that the destruction of the Temple and subsequent upheaval led to the committing of Oral Law into writing was first explained in the Epistle of Sherira Gaon and often repeated. See, for example, Grayzel, A History of the Jews, Penguin Books, 1984, p. 193.
3. ^ For the meaning of "page" in this context see under #Printing.
4. ^ Jacobs, Louis, Structure and form in the Babylonian Talmud, Cambridge University Press, 1991, p.2
5. ^ e.g. Pirkei Avot 5.21: "five for the Torah, ten for Mishnah, thirteen for the commandments, fifteen for talmud".
6. ^ "Palestinian Talmud". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Retrieved August 4, 2010.
7. ^ The Yerushalmi--the Talmud of the land of Israel: an introduction, Jacob Neusner, J. Aronson, 1993
8. ^ Eusebius (circa 330 CE). "XVIII: He speaks of their Unanimity respecting the Feast of Easter, and against the Practice of the Jews". Vita Constantini. III. Retrieved June 21, 2009.
9. ^ "Early compilations » The making of the Talmuds: 3rd–6th century". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2008. Retrieved 2June 21, 2009.
10. ^ Steinsaltz, Adin (1976). The Essential Talmud. BasicBooks, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-465-02063-1.
11. ^ "Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress: The Talmud". American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise.
12. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Ángel and John Elwolde. 1996. A history of the Hebrew language. P.170-171: "There is general agreement that two main periods of RH (Rabbinical Hebrew) can be distinguished. The first, which lasted until the close of the Tannaitic era (around 200 CE), is characterized by RH as a spoken language gradually developing into a literary medium in which the Mishnah, Tosefta, baraitot, and Tannaitic midrashim would be composed. The second stage begins with the Amoraim, and sees RH being replaced by Aramaic as the spoken vernacular, surviving only as a literary language. Then it continued to be used in later rabbinic writings until the tenth century in, for example, the Hebrew portions of the two Talmuds and in midrashic and haggadic literature."
13. ^ Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin. The Censor, the Editor, and the Text: The Catholic Church and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon in the Sixteenth Century.Trans. Jackie Feldman. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. viii + 314 ISBN 978-0-8122-4011-5. p104
14. ^ Christiane Berkvens-Stevelinck Le Magasin De L'Univers - The Dutch Republic As the Centre of the European Book Trade (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History)
15. ^ Printing the Talmud: a history of the individual treatises p239 Marvin J. Heller - 1999 "The Benveniste Talmud, according to Rabbinovicz, was based on the Lublin Talmud which included many of the censors' errors"
16. ^ The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia Isaac Landman - 1941 "His greatest work was the translation of the entire Babylonian Talmud into German, which, as it was made from the uncensored text and was the only complete translation in a European language, was of great value for students."
17. ^ Friedman, “Variant Readings in the Babylonian Talmud — A Methodological Study Marking the Appearance of 13 Volumes of the Institute for the Complete Israeli Talmud’s Edition,” Tarbiz 68 (1998).
18. ^ Amar, Yosef. "Talmud Bavli be-niqqud Temani". Nosachteiman.co.il.
19. ^ Julius Joseph Price, The Yemenite ms. of Megilla (in the Library of Columbia university), 1916; Pesahim, 1913; Mo'ed Katon, 1920.
20. ^ The other Oz ve-Hadar editions are similar but without the explanation in modern Hebrew.
21. ^ Sefer ha-Ner on Berachot
22. ^ For a list see Ephraim Urbach, s.v. "Tosafot," in Encyclopedia of Religion.
23. ^ See Pilpul, Mordechai Breuer, in Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 16, 2nd Ed (2007), Macmillan Reference, USA and H.H. Ben Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, pp. 627, 717.
24. ^ Kol Melechet Higgayon, the Hebrew translation of Averroes' epitome of Aristotle's logical works, was widely studied in northern Italy, particularly Padua.
25. ^ For a comprehensive treatment, see Ravitzky, below.
26. ^ Faur is here describing the tradition of Damascus, though the approach in other places may have been similar.
27. ^ Examples of lessons using this approach may be found here.
28. ^ Rav Avraham Yitzchok Ha-Cohen Kook, zt"l, Late Chief Rabbi of Israel (February 17, 2008). "A labor of great magnitude stands before us, to repair the break between the Talmudic deliberations and the halachic decisions... to accustom students of the Gemara to correlate knowledge of all the halacha with its source and reason...". Halacha Brura and Birur Halacha Institute. Retrieved 20 September 2010. It should not be confused with the halachic compendium of the same name by Rabbi David Yosef.
29. ^ As Yonah Fraenkel shows in his book Darko Shel Rashi be-Ferusho la-Talmud ha-Bavli, one of Rashi's major accomplishments was textual emendation. Rabbenu Tam, Rashi's grandson and one of the central figures in the Tosafist academies, polemicizes against textual emendation in his less studied work Sefer ha-Yashar. However, the Tosafists, too, emended the Talmudic text (See e.g. Baba Kamma 83b s.v. af haka'ah ha'amurah or Gittin 32a s.v. mevutelet) as did many other medieval commentators (see e.g. R. Shlomo ben Aderet,Hiddushei ha-Rashb"a al ha-Sha"s to Baba Kamma 83b, or Rabbenu Nissim's commentary to Alfasi on Gittin 32a).
30. ^ Etkes, Immanuel (2002). The Gaon of Vilna. University of California Press. p. 16. ISBN 0-520-22394-2.
31. ^ Solomon Schechter, Studies in Judaism p.92.
32. ^ [1].
33. ^ Introduction to Sokoloff, Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic.
34. ^ Treasury of Talmudic Manuscripts, Jewish National and University Library.
35. ^ See particularly his controversial dissertation, Mar Samuel, available at archive.org(German).
36. ^ http://www.talmudha-igud.org.il/default.asp?lang=en
37. ^ "Why Christians Should Study Torah and Talmud". Bridges for Peace. Retrieved July 3, 2006.
38. ^ "Why Koreans study Talmud". Ynet. 05.12.11.
39. ^ ^a b Rodkinson
40. ^ Actual Christianity does not condone Anti Semitism. See the Jewish Virtual Library's "Anti Semitism Is Not Christian".
41. ^ Lewis, Bernard, Semites and anti-Semites: an inquiry into conflict and prejudice, W. W. Norton & Company, 1999, p. 134
42. ^ Johnson, Paul, A history of the Jews, HarperCollins, 1988, p. 577
43. ^ Arab attitudes to Israel, Yehoshafat Harkabi, p. 248, 272
44. ^ Such as Uriel da Costa, Israel Shahak, Nehemia Gordon, Yaron Yadan, and Baruch Kimmerling
45. ^ Such as Christopher Hitchens and Denis Diderot
46. ^ Hyam Maccoby, Judaism on Trial
47. ^ ADL report The Talmud in Anti-Semitic Polemics, Anti-Defamation League
48. ^ Student, Gil - Rebuttals to criticisms of Talmud
49. ^ Bacher, Wilhelm, "Talmud", article in Jewish Encyclopedia, Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1901
50. ^ Article online
51. ^ See especially sections "Attacks on the Talmud" at
52. ^ Fraade, pp. 144-146
53. ^ Kimmerling, Baruch, "Images of Gentiles" (book review), Journal of Palestine Studies, April 1997, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 96–98
54. ^ Siedman, p. 137
55. ^ Cohn-Sherbok, p. 48
56. ^ Steinsaltz, pp. 268-270
57. ^ See, for example, Uriel DaCosta, quoted by Nadler, p. 68
58. ^ Cohn-Sherbok, p. 47
59. ^ Wilhelm Bacher, "Talmud", article in Jewish Encyclopedia
60. ^ ADL report, p. 1-2
61. ^ For examples of some selective quoting and omissions, see:Responses to criticisms byGil Student:Responses to criticisms by Michael Gruda
62. ^ Nov. 146.1.2.
63. ^ The Jewish representatives included Rabbi Yechiel of Paris and Rabbi Moses ben Jacob of Coucy
64. ^ Rodkinson, pp 66–69
65. ^ Levy, p 701
66. ^ For a Hebrew account of the Paris Disputation, see Jehiel of Paris, "The Disputation of Jehiel of Paris" (Hebrew), in Collected Polemics and Disputations, ed. J. D. Eisenstein, Hebrew Publishing Company, 1922; Translated and reprinted by Hyam Maccoby in Judaism on Trial: Jewish-Christian Disputations in the Middle Ages, 1982
67. ^ James Carroll Constantine's sword: the church and the Jews : a history
68. ^ Cohn-Sherbok, pp 50-54
69. ^ ^a b c Maccoby
70. ^ Hyam Maccoby, op. cit.
71. ^ Roth, Norman, Medieval Jewish civilization: an encyclopedia, Taylor & Francis, 2003, p. 83
72. ^ Rodkinson, p 98
73. ^ Hastings, James. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Part 23, p 186
74. ^ Rodkinson, pp 100-103
75. ^ Rodkinson, p. 105
76. ^ Levy, p. 210
77. ^ Boettcher, Susan R., "Entdecktes Judenthum", article in Levy, p. 210
78. ^ Berlin, George L., Defending the faith: nineteenth-century American Jewish writings on Christianity and Jesus, SUNY Press, 1989, p 156
79. ^ Chesronos Hashas
80. ^ The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition, pp. 103-104 Heller, Marvin J. (1999). Printing the Talmud: a history of the individual treatises printed from 1700 to 1750. Basel: Brill Publishers. pp. 17, 166.
81. ^ Rodkinson, pp 109-114
82. ^ Levy, p 564
83. ^ Jeansonne, Glen, Women of the Far Right: The Mothers' Movement and World War II, University of Chicago Press, 1997, pp 168-169
84. ^ Jones, Jeremy (June 1999). "Talmudic Terrors". Australia/Israel Review. Retrieved 2008-06-12. "If any reader doubts the maliciousness, virulence and prevalence of such material in cyber-space, it is well worth a visit to the Internet site known as Talmud Expose (www.geocities.com/Athens/Cyprus/8815), in which Melbourne's David Maddison has performed the Herculean task of responding, one by one, to the hundreds of "anti-Talmud" quotes, lies and themes he has encountered on the Internet."
85. ^ "The Talmud in Anti-Semitic Polemics" (PDF) (Press release). Anti-Defamation League. February 2003. Retrieved September 16, 2010. "By selectively citing various passages from the Talmud and Midrash, polemicists have sought to demonstrate that Judaism espouses hatred for non-Jews and Christians (Jewish and gentile alike), and promotes obscenity, sexual perversion, and other immoral behavior. To make these passages serve their purposes, these polemicists frequently mistranslate them or cite them out of context (wholesale fabrication of passages is not unknown).…In distorting the normative meanings of rabbinic texts, anti-Talmud writers frequently remove passages from their textual and historical contexts. Even when they present their citations accurately, they judge the passages based on contemporary moral standards, ignoring the fact that the majority of these passages were composed close to two thousand years ago by people living in cultures radically different from our own. They are thus able to ignore Judaism's long history of social progress and paint it instead as a primitive and parochial religion. Those who attack the Talmud frequently cite ancient rabbinic sources without noting subsequent developments in Jewish thought, and without making a good-faith effort to consult with contemporary Jewish authorities who can explain the role of these sources in normative Jewish thought and practice."
86. ^ Student, Gil (2000). "The Real Truth About The Talmud". Retrieved September 16, 2010. "Anti-Talmud accusations have a long history dating back to the 13th century when the associates of the Inquisition attempted to defame Jews and their religion [see Yitzchak Baer, A History of Jews in Christian Spain, vol. I pp. 150-185]. The early material compiled by hateful preachers like Raymond Martini and Nicholas Donin remain the basis of all subsequent accusations against the Talmud. Some are true, most are false and based on quotations taken out of context, and some are total fabrications [see Baer, ch. 4 f. 54, 82 that it has been proven that Raymond Martini forged quotations]. On the Internet today we can find many of these old accusations being rehashed…"

[edit]References

• Nathan T. Lopes Cardozo The Infinite Chain: Torah, Masorah, and Man (Philipp Feldheim, 1989). ISBN 0-944070-15-9
• Aryeh Carmell (December 1986). Aiding Talmud study. Feldheim Publishers. ISBN 978-0-87306-428-6. Retrieved 29 August 2011. (includes Samuel ha-Nagid's Mevo ha-Talmud, see next section)
• Zvi Hirsch Chajes Mevo Hatalmud, transl. Jacob Shachter: The Students' Guide Through The Talmud (Yashar Books, 2005). ISBN 1-933143-05-3
• Dan Cohn-Sherbok (1994). Judaism and other faiths. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-10384-2. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
• Fraade, Steven D, "Navigating the Anomalous: Non-Jews at the Intersection of Early Rabbinic Law and Narrative", in Laurence Jay Silberstein; Robert L. Cohn (1 August 1994). The Other in Jewish thought and history: constructions of Jewish culture and identity. NYU Press. pp. 145–165. ISBN 978-0-8147-7990-3. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
• R. Travers Herford (15 February 2007). Christianity in Talmud and Midrash. KTAV Publishing House, Inc.. ISBN 978-0-88125-930-8. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
• D. Landesman A Practical Guide to Torah Learning (Jason Aronson, 1995). ISBN 1-56821-320-4
• Emmanuel Lévinas; Annette Aronowicz (February 1994). Nine Talmudic readings. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-20876-7. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
• Levy, Richard S., Antisemitism: a historical encyclopedia of prejudice and persecution, Volume 2, ABC-CLIO, 2005. See articles: "Talmud Trials", "Entdecktes Judenthum", "The Talmud Jew", "David Duke", "August Rohling", and "Johannes Pfefferkorn".
• Hyam Maccoby; Jehiel ben Joseph (of Paris) (1993). Judaism on trial: Jewish-Christian disputations in the Middle Ages. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 978-1-874774-16-7. Retrieved 29 August 2011. A compendium of primary source materials, with commentary.
• Maimonides Introduction to the Mishneh Torah (English translation)
• Maimonides Introduction to the Commentary on the Mishnah (Hebrew Fulltext), transl. Zvi Lampel (Judaica Press, 1998). ISBN 1-880582-28-7
• Aaron Parry The Complete Idiot's Guide to The Talmud (Alpha Books, 2004). ISBN 1-59257-202-2
• Rodkinson, Michael Levi, The history of the Talmud from the time of its formation, about 200 B.C., up to the present time, The Talmud Society, 1918
• Jonathan Rosen (25 October 2001). The Talmud and the Internet: A Journey Between Worlds. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8264-5534-5. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
• Adin Steinsaltz (11 September 2006). The essential Talmud. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-08273-5. Retrieved 29 August 2011. Read more here. See also here.
• Adin Steinsaltz The Talmud: A Reference Guide (Random House, 1996). ISBN 0-679-77367-3

[edit]Logic and methodology

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Talmud

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Talmud

• Samuel ha-Nagid, Mevo ha-Talmud
• Joseph ben Judah ibn Aknin, Mevo ha-Talmud
• Zerachiah Halevi, Sefer ha-Tzava
• Samson of Chinon, Sefer ha-Keritut
• Jacob Hagiz, Teḥillat Ḥochmah (included in most editions of Keritut)
• collective, ed. Abraham ibn Akra, Meharere Nemarim
• Joseph ibn Verga, She'erit Yosef
• Isaac Campanton, Darche ha-Talmud
• David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra, Kelale ha-Gemara
• Bezalel Ashkenazi, Kelale ha-Gemara
• Yeshu’ah b. Yosef ha-Levi, Halichot Olam
  • Joseph Caro, Kelale ha-Gemara (commentary on Halichot Olam)
  • Solomon Algazi, Yavin Shemu’ah (commentary on Halichot Olam)
• Yisrael Ya'akov Algazi, Ar'a de-Rabbanan
• Serillo, Samuel, Kelale Shemuel
• Horowitz, Isaiah, Shene Luchot ha-Berit (section on Torah she-be-al-Pe)
• Moses Chaim Luzzatto, Derech Tevunot, translated into English as The Ways of Reason, Feldheim 1988, ISBN 978-0-87306-495-8
  • same, Sefer ha-Higgayon, translated into English as The Book of Logic, Feldheim 1995, ISBN 978-0-87306-707-2
• de Oliveira, Solomon, Darche Noam
• Malachi ha-Cohen, Yad Malachi
• Aryeh Leib HaCohen Heller, Shev Shema'tata
• Goitein, B., Kesef Nivhar
• Ezechia Bolaffi, Ben Zekunim vol. 1
• Moshe Amiel, Ha-Middot le-Ḥeqer ha-Halachah, vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3

[edit]Modern scholarly works

• Y. N. Epstein, Mevo-ot le-Sifrut haTalmudim
• Hanoch Albeck, Mavo la-talmudim
• Louis Jacobs, "How Much of the Babylonian Talmud is Pseudepigraphic?" Journal of Jewish Studies 28, No. 1 (1977), pp. 46–59
• Saul Lieberman, Hellenism in Jewish Palestine (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1950)
• Jacob Neusner, Sources and Traditions: Types of Compositions in the Talmud of Babylonia (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992).
• David Weiss Halivni, Mekorot u-Mesorot (Jerusalem: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1982 on)
• Yaakov Elman, "Order, Sequence, and Selection: The Mishnah’s Anthological Choices,” in David Stern, ed. The Anthology in Jewish Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) 53-80
• Strack, Herman L. and Stemberger, Gunter, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash, tr. Markus Bockmuehl: repr. 1992, hardback ISBN 978-0-567-09509-1, paperback ISBN 978-0-8006-2524-5
• Moses Mielziner, Introduction to the Talmud: repr. 1997, hardback ISBN 978-0-8197-0156-5, paperback ISBN 978-0-8197-0015-5
• Aviram Ravitzky, Aristotelian Logic and Talmudic Methodology (Hebrew): Jerusalem 2009, ISBN 978-965-493-459-6

[edit]On individual tractates

• Moshe Benovitz, Berakhot chapter 1: Iggud le-Farshanut ha-Talmud (Hebrew, with English summary)
• Stephen Wald, Shabbat chapter 7: Iggud le-Farshanut ha-Talmud (Hebrew, with English summary)
• Aviad Stollman, Eruvin chapter 10: Iggud le-Farshanut ha-Talmud (Hebrew, with English summary)
• Aaron Amit, Pesachim chapter 4: Iggud le-Farshanut ha-Talmud (Hebrew, with English summary)

[edit]Historical study

• Shalom Carmy (Ed.) Modern Scholarship in the Study of Torah: Contributions and Limitations Jason Aronson, Inc.
• Richard Kalmin Sages, Stories, Authors and Editors in Rabbinic Babylonia Brown Judaic Studies
• David C. Kraemer, On the Reliability of Attributions in the Babylonian Talmud, Hebrew Union College Annual 60 (1989), pp. 175–90
• Lee Levine, Ma'amad ha-Hakhamim be-Eretz Yisrael (Jerusalem: Yad Yizhak Ben-Zvi, 1985), (=The Rabbinic Class of Roman Palestine in Late Antiquity)
• Saul Lieberman Hellenism in Jewish Palestine (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1950)
• John W. McGinley " 'The Written' as the Vocation of Conceiving Jewishly". ISBN 0-595-40488-X
• David Bigman, Finding A Home for Critical Talmud Study

[edit]External links

[edit]General

• Talmud, jewishencyclopedia.com
• Talmud Commentaries, jewishencyclopedia.com
• Jewish History: Talmud, aish.com
• Talmud/Mishnah/Gemara, jewishvirtuallibrary.org
• Jewish Law Research Guide, University of Miami Law Library
• A survey of rabbinic literature, Ohr Somayach
• Introduction To The Talmud For The Novice, Rabbi M. Taub
• Pshita, Talmud Study 2.0 (Hebrew)

[edit]Full text resources

• Talmud Bavli Soncino Translation (English). The Soncino Press translation of the Talmud Bavli in downloadable PDF format. Everything is present except for the index volume and the minor-tractates volumes.[3] About 63% of the translation is also available in the form of ordinary HTML webpages for those who prefer them.[4]
• Mishnah (Hebrew)
• Tosefta (Hebrew)
• Talmud Yerushalmi (Hebrew)
• Talmud Bavli (Hebrew)
• Full searchable Talmud on Snunit (Hebrew)
• The Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli) Complete English translation
• Rodkinson English translation See above, under #Translations of Talmud Bavli.
• Images of each page of the Babylonian Talmud (Hebrew)
• Tractate Megillah: .pdf download showing Yemenite vocalization

[edit]Manuscripts

• Treasury of Talmudic Manuscripts, Jewish National and University Library
• Lieberman Institute Search engine for readings in different manuscripts

[edit]Layout

• "A Page from the Babylonian Talmud" image map from Prof. Eliezer Segal

[edit]"Daf Yomi" program

• A general resource for Daf Yomi
• Point by point summary and discussion by daf
• Calendar for this Daf Yomi cycle
• Daf-A-Week: A project to study a daf per week

[edit]Refutation of allegations concerning the Talmud

• The Talmud in Anti-Semitic Polemics, Anti-Defamation League.
• The Real Truth about the Talmud
• Falsifiers of the Talmud

[edit]Audio

• Shiurim on the Talmud, mp3shiur.com
• MP3 Talmud Shiurim by Rav Nissan Kaplan of Mir Yeshiva, Jerusalem
• Tractate Sukkah by page, showing Yemenite vocalization and recordings of pronunciation

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C'mon, All: Vote!

Which should be my new Twitter avatar? If you don't vote (e.g., leave a comment) by the end of Yamim Kippurim (the 26th for Non Karaites; the 27th for Karaites and those who observe Yom Kippur for two days in the Diaspora), I'm--G-d willing--picking the picture that I like. 

Which Should Be My New Twitter Avatar?

Mountain View Seems To Like Me Quite A Bit

For example...

01:06:09 -- 1 hour 12 mins ago

    

Mountain View, California arrived from google.com on "The Nicole Factor: "Why did God create gay?" Real Yahoo.com Question With Real Answer" by searching for thenicolefactor.blogspot.com+why-did-god-create-gay-real-yahoocom.

01:02:03 -- 1 hour 17 mins ago

    

Cape Canaveral, Florida arrived from google.com on "The Nicole Factor: I'm Not An ABDL, But I Don't See Infantilism As Infantophilia...".

00:34:57 -- 1 hour 44 mins ago

    

Mountain View, California arrived from google.com on "The Nicole Factor: Why I'm Not Watching "The O'Reilly Factor" Tonight" by searching forthenicolefactor.blogspot.com+why-im-not-watching-oreilly-factor.

And he or she has been on my blog before, so I need to get back to blogging about other subjects as well as to continue writing my Stage32 submission--hmmm: can I have and also eat my cake?

"Why did God create gay?" Real Yahoo.com Question With Real Answer

This is a very-complicated question, but worth answering. Isaiah 45:7 reads: "I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.’" Romans 1:26-27 reads, "For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due." Furthermore, Romans 9 partly reads:

"14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”[f] 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”[g] 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

"19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?"

Even further, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 reads:

"7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Therefore: homosexuality seems to have been created for two main reasons:

1) As a hardening of hearts
2) As a thorn in the flesh

By the way, the Greek for "thorn in the flesh" is "skolops sarx"--as Strong's Concordance notes. So Paul, a Pharisee, may well have had a figurative thorn--viz. homosexuality. For Pharisees (P'rushim) such as Paul to be single was uncommon. The Talmud itself records only one case: "They said to Ben 'Azzai: Some preach well and act well, others act well but do not preach well; you. however, preach well but do not act well!74 Ben 'Azzai replied: But what shall I do, seeing that my soul is in love with the Torah; the world can be carried on by others." (Yevamot 63b)

Part 17 of My Stage32 Submission

While I'm waiting for Bill O'Reilly to come on KABC, I finally have--and have made--time to continue with the anecdotes about Pop-Pop--as I stated, you should see a clear picture emerging. By the way, how often do you get to follow the writer through his or her writing process as he or she is writing? As I'm telling my family story--and indeed, now it can be told (since, after all, Dad claims to he has nothing--or mostly nothing--to hide)--, I also want you to follow my day-to-day--or however-frequent--writing process. Of course, the editors are going to have a heck of a time and process with what I notice already has some inconsistencies in terms of writing style, etc..

Anyway, another anecdote--and one that proves that the family were not even just secular Polish-Lithuanian Catholics. By the way, what compelling reason would Aunt Mary have to lie--which I've asked Dad himself--about anything? Aunt Mary's--and likely Dad's and Uncle Gary's--first knowledge about God and Jesus:

"God damn it, Joan."

"Jesus Christ, Jack--the neighbors will think you're crazy."

And then came the closing of the blinds and chasing around the house. By the way--as I've discussed before--, Aunt Mary was not named for the Virgin Mary--she was named for her grandmothers, Mary Trudniak Czarnecki and Marysia "Mary" Rusnak Gaydos. Also, her name was "Mary Joan"--and Grandma (going against her and Pop-Pop's agreement) deceitfully slipped "Joan" onto the birth certificate--her name was originally going to be "Mary".

So much for Polish Lithuanian--and (in Grandma's case) Czechoslovakian--Catholics, huh? 

Part 16 Of My Stage32 Submission

As the old saying goes, "Now it can be told."--and in this case, I add that I frankly do not care how much trouble I get into. I talked to my dad recently--and yes, I am trying to reconcile with my dad--, and I sadly heard only accusations that Aunt Mary has "mental problems" and is actually angry that Pop-Pop did not preserve Great-Grandma's life with extreme measures. Nonetheless--if Dad is to be believed--, that medical records indicate that Great-Grandma was "bleeding from the rectum" only confirm that Aunt Mary wtanted exactly what Great-Grandma wanted--that is, for Great-Grandma to die at home as Great-Grandma herself requested.

As for Aunt Mary having mental problems, I can assure you that--based on other stories which I have heard and experiences that I have had--Aunt Mary has no mental problems whatsoever. As I stated, Great-Grandma Czarnecki's murder will become important when I jump back to how Pop-Pop treated others--and so I jump back.

By the way, Grandma laughed when telling the following anecdote. When she and Pop-Pop were dating--in the 1950s, when dating was much more exclusive than it is now--, Pop-Pop took someone else to a New Year's dance when Grandma could not go to the dance due to a curfew that her mom set. Why Grandma would, meanwhile, I do not know--whether she was nervous or hiding pain behind laughter, or actually thought that it was funny is left up to my best guess at this point. Nonetheless, it showed me that Pop-Pop would not bother to wait for his girl or just enjoy the time with friends instead of cheating on her.

As for another anecdote--besides the "those" anecdote--, I myself experienced this one:

Pop-Pop: "...and the Orientals--"

Dad: "Asians, Dad!"

Pop-Pop: "Anyway, the ASIANS..."

I do not buy that a former IRS Agent and Crypto Jew did not know better or just slipped up--after all, his brother Tony deliberately (as I found out later) deliberately moved away from Sugar Notch to (in part) escape the racism and lack of diversity there.

As for another self-experienced anecdote:

Pop-Pop: "There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq"

Dad: "The weapons were moved to Syria"

...

Dad: "You can't change history, Dad!"

Hold on for more anecdotes--and did I not tell you that Great-Grandma's murder is important in light of how Pop-Pop treats others? See if you can see a clear picture emerging. 

Is "Rosh HaShanah" Really Rosh HaShanah?

As Nehemiah Gordon explains on his website, today is actually Ha'Erev Teru'ah, not Rosh HaShanah. Firstly, Aviv (Nisan) begins HaShanah Chadashah whereas the "rabbis" (according to Hebrew4Christians) inverted "B'reshit" to mean "B'Chodesh l'Tishri" and make HaShanah Chadashah seem to begin in Tishri. Secondly, HaChodesh L'Tishri is to be sighted on the night of September 17, 2012 whereas the Chodesh L'Elul was cited August 19, 2012--viz., the day is presently Ha'Erev Teru'ah 5772, not Rosh HaShanah 5773.

Nonetheless, as I shared on Facebook:

In other words, today's actually 'Erev Teru'ah and tomorrow is Yom Teru'ah 5772 (if Nehemia Gordon cites HaChodesh l'Tishri). Nonetheless, L'Shanah Tovah to those who want to get a head start on Yom Teru'ah or what I call "Rosh-HaShanah l'Kesef"--viz. the Fiscal New Year--5773.

Via Elizabeth TylerDawn Rosenquist

I should have said "sighted", but a sighting cannot be confirmed without a citing. Anyway, L'Erev Teru'ah v'Erev HaShanah L'Kesef Tovah--and for those who are getting a head start, L'Shanah (L'Kesef) Tovah.

Part 15 of My Stage32 Submission

Where I last left off, I was relating the current Great Depression ("Recession") and the Pearl Harbor murders to the First Great Depression and the 9/11 attacks. Looking over some of what else I have written down as well, I am still trying to find a point where to restart writing--thus, I will jump forward to Great-Grandma Czarnecki's murder. Her murder will become important when I jump back to how Pop-Pop treated others.

I have written extensively about this. By the way, Pop-Pop would have gone after me if none of what I wrote down is true. Besides, I only received an e-mail which stated that my 93-year-old great-grandmother died--which indicated nothing unusual or out of the ordinary. I was not there to see firsthand what really happened--Aunt Mary was. In short, Aunt Mary saw second-degree, murder-malice-theory murder and Social Security Fraud happen.

You can judge for yourself, but here is what I wrote to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office and what the AG's office forwarded to the Luzerne County District Attorney:

"To Whom It May Concern:     

    I have decided to contact the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, Criminal Prosecutions Section per the February 12, 2007 death of Mary M. Trudnak Czarnecki. I am requesting an investigation into the death of the late Mrs. Czarnecki because I believe that for over three years, her son John "Jack" Gregory Czarnecki caused Mrs. Czarnecki (his mother) to die in the circumstances and situation in which he should have been immediately investigated at minimum for third- or second-degree murder/homicide with implied murder-malice theory, and a maximum of second- or first-degree murder/homicide with malicious intent.

    I understand the circumstances of Mrs. Czarnecki's death to have been mainly or solely caused by Mr. Jack Czarnecki (who, at the time, was given Power of Attorney over her), and have been told of the circumstances by a reliable and direct eyewitness-earwitness to the crime. The witness (and I am asking that for the time being, her name be protected. Anyway, the witness) is Mary Czarnecki Miskell; who was frequently with Mrs. Czarnecki at the time of Mrs. Czarnecki's death, at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.

    The situation concerning Mrs. Czarnecki's death began when Mrs. Czarnecki was, during an illness of gangrene, transported to Wilkes-Barre Hospital due to Mr. Jack Czarnecki's desire to rid her from his residence as she was dying and he had other plans besides looking after his ailing mother. As I summarize the situation for the time being as I understand it, Mrs. Czarnecki, 93, knew that she was dying and wanted to pass away at her son's Millersville, Anne Arundel County, Maryland home; but Mr. Czarnecki (70 at the time, now to be 74 on May 25, 2010), wanting to travel to Las Vegas and not honor the wishes of his mother, arranged to have her transported to Wilkes Barre General.

    At the hospital, Mrs. Czarnecki gave the delegation of Power of Attorney over her to Mr. James "Jim" Julian Czarnecki, Sr.. Due to circumstances beyond his control, Mr. Jim Czarnecki could not retain his delegation as Power of Attorney for his mother; and his brother Jack thus took over the delegation. Mr. Jack Czarnecki then arranged that his mother would have a surgery to have Mrs. Czarnecki's gangrene-infected limb (specifically, one of her legs) amputated and post-surgically discarded. Mrs. Czarnecki, obviously given the position that she was in, consented to the surgery but had to fight to have her amputated leg not discarded (since she intended to have the leg buried with her when she passed away).

    Mrs. Czarnecki, as aforementioned, passed away due to gangrene on February 12, 2007 at Wilkes Barre General Hospital.

    I am hoping, therefore, that the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, Criminal Prosecutions Section investigates the death of Mrs. Czarnecki and the circumstances of what I believe was the murder of Mrs. Czarnecki by her son Jack Czarnecki as soon as possible. I have notified the witness aforementioned, Mary Czarnecki Miskell, that I have made the request of an investigation to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office; and will (if and as necessary) either have Mary Miskell contact the party or parties to be involved in the prosecution of Mr. Czarnecki, or (with and only with her permission) provide her contact information to the aforementioned parties. Thank you for your time and work in seeking justice for Mary M. Trudnak Czarnecki...."

Here is the Social Security Death Record Index for proof of Social Security fraud--which I forgot to mention in the first letter--, by the way (I've since--to no avail--tried to get the case reopened.):

Name:	Mary Czarnecki
Last Residence:	21108  Millersville, Anne Arundel, Maryland
Born:	28 Jul 1913
Died:	12 Feb 2007
State (Year) SSN issued:	Pennsylvania (Before

Was Aunt Mary when I decided to write the letter? Absolutely not! She was afraid of Pop-Pop and she did not want any more trouble--but trouble did come when Pop-Pop, proving himself all the more guilty, called Aunt Mary's then husband--now ex husband--at his then workplace to yell at him after the Luzerne County District Attorney's Office called him.

By the way, I had no clue that Great-Grandma's middle name was "Theresa". Here is the obituary that Pop-Pop wrote for her (By the way, she had no great-great-grandchildren at that time--Dad's stepgranddaughter does not count as her great-great-granddaughter.):

Mary Czarnecki

February 12, 2007

Mary Czarnecki, 93, formerly of Freed Street, Sugar Notch, died Monday in the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.
Born in Ashley on July 28, 1913, she was the daughter of the late Michael and Anna Monka Trudnak. She was employed by several local garment factories, until her retirement. She was a member of Holy Family Church, Sugar Notch.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Anthony; son, Francis; sisters, Elizabeth, Anne, Rose and Sophie; brothers, Michael, John, Bernard, Frank, Joseph and Edward.
Surviving are sons, John Czarnecki and his wife, Joan, Millersville, MD; James Czarnecki and his wife, Ann, Fairless Hills, Pa.; Anthony Czarnecki and his wife, Mary Ellen, Jamesburg, NJ; 12 grandchildren; many great-grandchildren, one great-great granddaughter; numerous nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday at 11 a.m. from the George A. Strish Inc. Funeral Home, 105 N. Main St., Ashley, with a Mass of Christian Burial at 11:30 a.m. in Holy Family Church, with the Rev. Vincent Dang officiating. Interment will follow in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Hanover Township. Family and friends may call on Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. and on Saturday from 10 to 11 a.m.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Mary’s memory to the Little Flower Manor, 200 S. Meade St., Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702.

I Expect To Get Belittled and Persecuted, And...

I'll only stand up in a fight-back kind of way when necessary. Otherwise, I'll turn the other cheek. I can hold my own--after all, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13) While I might care about what you believe (since I don't want to say "I don't care what you believe", because I do care), there's nothing that I can do about what you believe--I've brought up 1 Corinthians 3:5-8. However, I care about when you're proselytizing and persecuting others.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated:



Even though I am a Messianic Jew, I intend to follow the example of the ger tzedek Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Update: When I saw this picture on Facebook, I had to explain:

It takes a different meaning for me--at least for this week. As a Messianic Jew, I was pretty persecuted. Not a few days later did I find a disturbing search result on my blog that indicates that Messianic Jews are being silenced at where I was persecuted. If only more people would speak up, that certain persecutor couldn't persecute us.

I'll Stay On The Threads, And...

I wanted to apologize for the way that I handled the situation re "Rabbi" Jason. While I'm leaving up the old post for reference, I do want to say that I let my nerves get too hit. I guess that I just don't like the intra-community persecution, especially from a "rabbi" who heads UMBC Hillel, doesn't believe in a Mashiach (when Tanakh presents the concept of a Mashiach--and especially Maimonides to present-day Jewish [Messianic and Non-Messianic Jewish] scholars codify the concept of a Mashiach), and apparently has made other Messianic Jews on campus feel uncomfortable (As I said, I don't like the search result "find messianic jews umbc"--that indicates to me that we either feel like we have to be silent on campus, or there's even a witch hunt going on.). If a Non-Messianic Jew without any kind of authority had persecuted me and/or someone else, I or we could blow the persecution off. But I'm talking about the "Rabbi" of UMBC Hillel with whom I chose to share that I'm Messianic and that I wouldn't proselytize.

Also, as far as Erik goes, I just used Erik as an example of a controversial topic in of himself--not to persecute or boogeyman him. Therefore, I'm just going to bury his comments--they're not worth reading or dignifying with a response.

Who I Am And Why I Stay Off Of the UMBC Threads

Let me state that, in full and unequivocal disclosure, I am a non-proselytizing type of Messianic Jewish Protestant of the (for a lack of better termage) Evangelical ("fundamentalist") strain. I'm also a conservative Republican. As far as I can read, the Bible tells me:
"Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. ⁷ So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. ⁸ Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor."
Now, firstly, do I care if you even believe in a Mashiach or Messiah? Yes; but what can I do about it? Do I, however, care if you persecute me and other Messianic Jews for believing in the Biblical and historical Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah? Yes. After all, we who are Messianic Jews at least believe in a Jewish man as Mashiach--and the concept of Mashiach is both in Tanakhand codified all the way from Maimonides to the present.
As for gentile Christians, I don't encourage persecuting them, either--nonetheless, you probably expect gentiles to be Christians and thus won't persecute them like some of you may be prone to persecute "meshumadim" and "koferim" like me. By the way, I am--as far as I can tell--well educated enough in my dad's people's history, etc. to know that I am considered a heretical apostate, soul stealer and destroyer, etc. by many--I've even been on the end of persecution, even by "Rabbi" Jason Klein (and I'll still keep "out[ing] [my]self", thank you; and to not eventually disclose that I am Messianic would've been as dishonest as stating that Jews For Jesus causes "havoc" and that--albeit implicitly as it was stated that--I am not Jewish. Again, by the way, I at least believe in the 12th Priniciple of Maimonides and a concept in Tanakh.).
By the way, I want to let Messianic Jews like myself know that we don't have to stay silent on campus--as long as we don't truly proselytize (which, according to Webster, is forcing, bribing, or otherwise coercively inducing conversion of any nature), we are okay. We can even share our faith if asked--that is not forcing, bribing, or inducing conversion (See Webster and 1 Corinthians 3:5-8). I apologize for not being more public about being persecuted when I chose to disclose that I'm a Mesianic Jew who promises not to proselytize--after all, I don't want people looking for "find messianic jews umbc" (as my FeedJit showed). I don't want Messianic Jews to feel forced into silence or even (G-d forbid that we'd be) witch hunted on campus. The same goes for other groups, by the way: as long as you're not proselytizing or persecuting anybody, laissez-faire. 
Especially given all of that and other factors, I know to stay away from these threads. Besides being at risk for being persecuted (including being accused of being a proselytizing, soul-stealing Nazi who's trying to destroy the Jewish people by converting everyone to Christianity in the way that my great-great-grandparents were converted into Roman Catholicism during the pogroms), I want to stay away from contentious and unnecessary debates about topics including--but not limited to--same-gender marriage, abortion, and Erik Walker.
In conclusion, you know who I am, where I stand, and that I'll let you be if you let me be. L'shalom tikatevu. 

In Case Wikipedia Deletes This...

Here's what Messianic Jews and gentile Christians alike have failed to take up in regards to Messianic prophecy--in other words, I (as far as I know) am the only Messianic Jew taking this up:

Psalm 112

Ironically, Messianic Jews and gentile Christians alike have failed to take up the following:

"Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, Who delights greatly in His commandments. 2 His descendants will be mighty on earth; The generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches will be in his house, And his righteousness endures forever. 4 Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness; He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. 5 A good man deals graciously and lends; He will guide his affairs with discretion. 6 Surely he will never be shaken; The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance. 7 He will not be afraid of evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. 8 His heart is established; He will not be afraid, Until he sees his desire upon his enemies. 9 He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever; His horn will be exalted with honor. 10 The wicked will see it and be grieved; He will gnash his teeth and melt away; The desire of the wicked shall perish."(NKJV)

Messianic Jews and Christians could easily argue that the psalm states, for example, "his righteousness endures forever", not "will endure forever", meaning that only God could fit the description of the one whose "righteousness endures forever." Furthermore, for instance, verse 2 ("His descendants will be mighty on earth; The generation of the upright will be blessed") could be connected to zerah (i.e., "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.") in Isaiah 53:10.

Therefore, especially in connecting Psalm 112 to Isaiah 53, one could argue that only Jesus fits the description of the Messiah. Furthermore, in light of that Messiah has to be God, one could connect Psalm 112 to Isaiah 43:11 ^[32] and Isaiah 45:21^[33].

By the way, be forewarned: if I did any more editing, I'd have to weed out much of the Anti-Messianic bias. 

UMBC, Messianic Jews Are Out There...

Keep looking. You'll find us--me, my sister, and so many others. By the way, don't be afraid: only meshumadim v'koferim (heretics and apostates) like "Rabbi" Jason Klein--the same Non-Messianic, Reconstructionist clergyman who implicity accused me of proselytizing for merely mentioning that I'm Messianic--will try to shut us up. I can assure you that you needn't worry about meshumadim who don't even believe in a personal Mashiach--since Reconstructionists don't. Most of the Non-Messianic Jews who I've met here are--even if they don't believe in a Mashiach--understand and will tolerate those who do. After all, a concept of a Mashiach is in Tanakh--which even our persecutors like Rev. Klein can't escape. If Rev. Klein gives you tsores, by the way, you tell him what I should have told him when I "out[ed] [my]self" as a Messianic Jew: "At least I believe in a Mashiach, and that a Jewish man is HaMashiach."

As a Messianic Jew, I am telling you to be unafraid to speak out--chazak v'amatz tov.

   

Baltimore, Maryland arrived from google.com on "The Nicole Factor: In Full Disclosure To My Non-Messianic Jewish Friends (e.g., UMBC Hillel and JSU)..." by searching for find messianic jews umbc.

Part 14 Of My Stage32 Submission

With this part, I want to be very careful--after all, September 11th is not something to exploit or merely connect to other events. Nonetheless, think about--if you will--September 11, 2001 and September 24, 2008--as if our economy needed any more pain (after all, human lives were already impacted and the financial center of global trade attacked on September 11th)! Then think about October 24, 1929 and December 7, 1941. In a--if you will--weird or strange way--which is hard to explain--, we have lived the reserve parallel of what my great-grandparents and grandparents lived.

In other words, we were attacked before our economy crashed--actually, twice (once in 1993 with the World Trade Center bombed, the second time with people murdered due to murderers who crashed planes with people in the World Trade Center--and I will not call the murderers "suicide bombers" or " jihadis" due to that there are real suicide victims and people fighting for real holy causes in violent ways).

My great-grandparents, on the other hand, saw their economy crash before they were attacked--and if one counts the J.P. Morgan bombing, they went through an attack-Depression-attack pattern. We went through an attack-attack-"Recession"--actually, "Depression"--pattern. Also oddly enough, the First Great Depression happened on Great-Granddad's 25th birthday--after which he had to go to a mental hospital (He had met Great-Grandma either before he left Sugar Notch for Wood River, Illinois or after he came back from Wood River--since they both worked in a silk mill at least in the 20s, whereas he may have been coal mining around the time that and after he went to Wood River.). September 11th, on the other hand, happened on a steprelative's 77th birthday--and he was suffering an unrelated mental problem--though the steprelative has nothing to do with this story but that he shares a creepy parallel with a man who saw a tragic event happen on his birthday. On another unrelated note, "December 7th" and "September 11th" kind of rhyme.

Meanwhile and anyway, my great-grandparents lived through the Depression--and Pop-Pop (as you may already know if you have been paying attention, Jack) and his brothers Francis "Red" Anthony and James "Jim" Julian Czarnecki were all born into the Depression. I sadly have nothing to tell about what they remember about the First Great Depression and Pearl Harbor--I am estranged from Pop-Pop and Granduncle Red died before I was born. As for Granduncle Jim, he was only two and probably could not tell me much--if anything--about the Depression--that is, he was only two when the Depression happened, and not even conceived when Pearl Harbor happened.

What I do know is that Great-Granddad was too old and too mentally unable to serve in World War Two, his brothers Edward "Ed" Leo, Joseph--aka, the wicked "Suzy"--, and Bernie all served. I have already discussed Great-Granduncle Bernie, and spare me if I'm repeating details--I'm discussing Great-Granduncle Bernie again.

Pfc. Bernard "Bernie" S. Czarnecki was born on March 15 (though his dad claimed that he was born on May 15), 1920 at the 203-207 Freed Street compound--although the Census indicates that 203 was being rented at the time, and he therefore was born at 205 or 207 Freed Street. Pfc. Bernie Czarnecki enlisted in the military on December 12, 1940 and was recorded as enlisting again on February 17, 1941. Pfc. Czarnecki served in the Army's 111th Infantry Division Medical Corp., in which he was attacked while he was in the battlefield. With a piece of shrapnel in his head and a botched operation to remove the shrapnel, he was discharged exactly five years after he enlisted. After dischargement, he lived the rest of his life in the Lebanon, Pennsylvania Veterans' Affairs Home and Hospital.

As stated, his widowed sister--Alexandria Alice Czarnecki Dombroski--took care of and set up a Social Security account for him. As also stated, Johnkie and Suzy cruelly took his--and their sister's--benefits when he died from his war wounds on July 16, 1963. Meanwhile, I once tried writing to the Department of Veterans' Affairs to get more information about him--and I was not next-of-kough for them to get any information. Pfc. Czarnecki also never even got a Purple Heart--much less someone to claim him as next of kin and preserve his memory in the past three generations.

Part 12 Of My Stage32 Submission

With college kicking my tuchus, I have not had time or energy to keep telling the family story. Incidentally, Rev. Klein was not at Shabbat tonight; so that helped. Meanwhile, I understand what my great-great-grandparents and great-granddad went through--just as they dreaded for anyone to find out that they were Jews and Crypto Non-Messianic Jews, I dreaded and (as I've done at most Shabbatot) kept my mouth shut lest anyone find out that I'm a Messianic Jew and act like Rev. Klein.

Nonetheless, their--that is, my great-great-great-grandparents' and great-granddad's deception--is not excused. Also, I will at least credit my great-great-great-grandparents for not becoming meshumad Catholics and for willing to die for their ethnoreligious background--they were Jews, Non-Messianic Jews, and sacrificers for their ethnicity and faith.

Meanwhile, I stated the following in regards to Great-Granduncle Bernie's story: "Nonetheless, it'll give you an idea for when I jump back to describe Great-Great-Grandma Czarnecki and her three like-mom-like-sons children: Great-Granddad, Great-Granduncle John "Johnkie" Felix Czarnecki, and Great-Granduncle Joseph "Suzy" Paschal Czarnecki. After all, particularly the latter two evily exploited Great-Granduncle Bernie and were especially like their mom in doing that--as devious and cunning as they could be."

For example, my great-great-grandparents lied to the naturalization authorities:

For one matter, Great-Granduncle Stanley was born on November 11, 1911; Great-Grandaunt Alexandria was born September 28, 1910; and other birthdates were fudged. 

As for Suzy, he was particularly devious--and Granduncle Tony described Suzy's wife as (if I recall correctly), "quiet but sneaky". For instance--as I expressed on Facebook:

"[I still think] about what Great-Granduncle Johnkie and Suzy did to Great-Granduncle Bernie: what they did to him is a shame, and no wonder Granduncle Tony recalled what he heard years later. Of course, given that Suzy used to spit on him and others while he'd talk to them, and Great-Grandma hocked a loogie on his sheets one time (which she bragged about to Mom, and I never connected that the neighbo

r was 205 Freed Street's Suzy Czarnecki until years later); how cruel and frustrating Great-Granduncle Suzy could be doesn't surprise me. After all, look how one of his disciples--Pop-Pop--turned out (Don't think that I'm reconciling with Pop-Pop any time soon, even though I reconciled with Dad.). Incidentally (as I learned later), Great-Grandma (having a Jewish mother, Anna Trudniak nee Monkova) did keep a Jewish custom--whenever some Jews say something that they don't like, find dirty, etc., they spit. Also, I wonder if Great-Grandma (though she was a Slovakian-speaking Anusit who knew Polish as well) knew any Yiddish curses--Great-Granduncle Suzy may have deserved a few.

"

As I stated, Great-Grandma did this[--that is, the tradition of spitting as described by Jewish Virtual Library, whose website I used on Facebook to explain what Great-Grandma did] to Great-Granduncle Suzy's sheets...and now that I think about it...what a nasty man (that is, Great-Granduncle Suzy for expressing his contempt for people by spitting deliberately while talking to them)."

Great-Granduncle Johnkie, meanwhile, owned a barber shop and lived in Dallas, Luzerne; so he couldn't do--although he tried to do what he could for--as much harm as Great-Granduncle Suzy did. In the next part, I'll explain how their mother was more like this, and how Great-Granddad became like his brothers and his mothers--in other words, I'll relevantly jump back.