View source for Talmud

{{short description|Central text of Rabbinic Judaism}}
{{about|the Babylonian Talmud|the Jerusalem Talmud|Jerusalem Talmud}}
{{redirect|Talmudic|text="Talmudic Aramaic" refers to the [[Jewish Babylonian Aramaic]] as found in the Talmud}}
{{pp|small=yes}}
{{Rabbinical Literature}}
{{Judaism |texts |width=22.0em}}
The '''Talmud''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|ɑ:|l|m|ʊ|d|,_|-|m|ə|d|,_|ˈ|t|æ|l|-}}; {{langx|he|{{Script/Hebrew|תַּלְמוּד}}|Talmūḏ|teaching}}) is, after the [[Hebrew Bible]], the central text of [[Rabbinic Judaism]] and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''[[halakha]]'') and [[Jewish theology]].<ref name="Steinsaltz">{{cite book |author-link=Adin Steinsaltz |last=Steinsaltz |first=Adin |chapter=What is the Talmud? |title=The Essential Talmud |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dLxFo4zNEMQC&q=%22primary+source+of+Jewish+law%22&pg=PT7 |edition= 30th anniversary |publisher=Basic Books |date=2009 |isbn=9780786735419}}</ref><ref name="Neusner">{{cite book |author-link=Jacob Neusner |last=Neusner |first=Jacob |title=The Formation of the Babylonian Talmud |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c-lKAwAAQBAJ&q=%22primary+source+for+Jewish+law%22&pg=PR9|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |date=2003 |page=ix |isbn=9781592442195}}</ref> Until the advent of [[modernity]], in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of [[Jewish culture|Jewish cultural life]] and was foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews.<ref name="Safrai">{{cite book |last=Safrai |first=S.|translator-last=Weidenfeld |translator-first=George |year=1969 |title=A History of the Jewish People |section=The Era of the Mishnah and Talmud (70–640) |editor-last=Ben-Sasson |editor-first=H.H.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2kSovzudhFUC&q=talmud+primary&pg=PA379 |publisher=Harvard University Press |publication-date=1976 |page=379 |isbn=9780674397316}}</ref>
Above all, the Talmud is a commentary on the [[Mishnah]], primarily written in [[Jewish Babylonian Aramaic]]. It contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of [[rabbi]]s on a variety of subjects, including [[halakha]], [[Jewish ethics]], [[Jewish philosophy|philosophy]], [[Jewish customs|customs]], [[Jewish history|history]], and [[Jewish folklore|folklore]], and many other topics.
The term ''Talmud'' normally refers to the collection of writings named specifically the '''Babylonian Talmud''' ({{transliteration|he|Talmud Bavli}}), compiled in the 5th century by [[Rav Ashi]] and [[Ravina II]]. There is also an earlier collection known as the [[Jerusalem Talmud]] ({{transliteration|he|Talmud Yerushalmi}}).<ref>{{cite book |last=Goldberg |first=Abraham |editor-last=Safrai |editor-first=Shmuel |chapter=The Palestinian Talmud |title=The Literature of the Jewish People in the Period of the Second Temple and the Talmud, Volume 3 The Literature of the Sages |pages=303–322 |publisher= Brill |year=1987 |doi=10.1163/9789004275133_008|isbn=9789004275133 }}</ref> It may also traditionally be called '''{{transliteration|he|Shas}}''' ({{lang|he|ש״ס}}), a [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] abbreviation of {{transliteration|he|shisha sedarim}}, or the "six orders" of the [[Mishnah]].
The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah ({{lang|he|משנה}}, {{circa}} 200 CE), a written [[compendium]] of the [[Oral Torah]]; and the [[Gemara]] ({{lang|he|גמרא}}, {{circa}} 500 CE), a [[Commentary (philology)|commentary]] of the Mishnah and related [[Tannaim|Tannaitic]] writings whose greater goal is to systematically understand the [[Tanakh|Hebrew Bible]]. Sometimes, the term "Talmud" is only used for the Gemara. As a whole, the traditions of the Talmud emerged in a literary tradition that occurred between the destruction of the [[Second Temple]] in 70 CE and the [[Arab conquest]] in the early seventh century.{{sfn|Safrai|1969|p=305, 307}}  In all, the Talmud is divided into 63 [[Masekhet|tractate]]s, with each tractate systematically discussing one general subject or theme. In the standard print of the Talmud (the [[Vilna Shas]]), the Talmud runs to a length of 2,711 double-sided [[Folio|folios]].<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |title=Italians, Helped by an App, Translate the Talmud |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/06/world/europe/italian-talmud-translation.html |date=April 6, 2016}}</ref>
==Etymology==
Talmud translates as "instruction, learning", from the [[Semitic root]] ''lmd'', meaning "teach, study".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://henryabramson.com/2013/11/19/his-155-1-7-the-talmud/|title = HIS 155 1.7 the Talmud &#124; Henry Abramson|date = 19 November 2013}}</ref>
==Oral pre-history==
{{Main|Oral Torah}}
[[File:Rashi's Talmud Commentary.jpg|thumb|right|An early printing of the Talmud ([[Ta'anit]] 9b); with commentary by [[Rashi]]]]
Originally, Jewish scholarship was [[Oral tradition|oral]] and transferred from one generation to the next. Rabbis expounded and debated the Torah (the written Torah expressed in the Hebrew Bible) and discussed the [[Tanakh]] without the benefit of written works (other than the Biblical books themselves), though some may have made private notes (''{{lang|he-Latn|megillot setarim}}''), for example, of court decisions.  This situation changed drastically due to the Roman destruction of the Jewish commonwealth and the [[Second Temple]] in the year 70 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 total Roman control over [[Judaea (Roman province)|Judaea]], 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.{{efn|See, Strack, Hermann, ''Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash'', Jewish Publication Society, 1945. pp. 11–12. "[The Oral Torah] 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 Torah in writing.}}{{efn|The theory that the destruction of the Temple and subsequent upheaval led to the committing of Oral Torah 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.}}
==The Two Talmuds==
In antiquity, the two major centres of Jewish scholarship were located in [[Talmudic Academies in Syria Palaestina|Galilee]] and [[Talmudic Academies in Babylonia|Babylonia]]. A Talmud was compiled in each of these regional centres. The earlier of the two compilations took place in Galilee, either in the late fourth or early fifth century, and it came to be known as the [[Jerusalem Talmud]] (or ''Talmud Yerushalmi''). Later on, and likely some time in the sixth century, the Babylonian Talmud was compiled. This later Talmud is usually what is being referred to when the word "Talmud" is used without qualification.
The two Talmuds were likely written independently of one another.<ref>"Talmud". ''A Concise Companion to the Jewish Religion''. Louis Jacobs. Oxford University Press, 1999, page 261</ref>
===Jerusalem Talmud===
{{Main|Jerusalem Talmud}}
[[File:Yerushalmi Talmud.jpg|thumb|A page of a medieval Jerusalem Talmud manuscript, from the [[Cairo Geniza]]]]
The Jerusalem Talmud (''Talmud Yerushalmi'') is known by several other names, including the Palestinian Talmud (which is more accurate, as it was not compiled in Jerusalem<ref>''The Yerushalmi – the Talmud of the land of Israel: an introduction'', Jacob Neusner, J. Aronson, 1993</ref>), or the {{Lang|he|Talmuda de-Eretz Yisrael}} ("Talmud of the Land of Israel"). Prior to being written down, it was transmitted orally for centuries<ref name = "Britannica">{{Cite encyclopedia
|url = http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/439785/Palestinian-Talmud
|title = Palestinian Talmud
|year = 2010
|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica
|access-date = August 4, 2010
}}
</ref> and represents a compilation of scholastic teachings and analyses on the [[Mishnah]] (especially those concerning agricultural laws) found across regional centres of the [[Land of Israel]] now known as the [[Talmudic Academies in Syria Palaestina|Academies in Galilee]] (principally those of [[Tiberias]], [[Sepphoris]], and [[Caesarea Maritima|Caesarea]]). It is written largely in [[Jewish Palestinian Aramaic]], a [[Western Aramaic languages|Western Aramaic language]] that differs from [[Jewish Babylonian Aramaic|its Babylonian counterpart]].<ref name = "JSTOR">{{Cite journal
|title = Scholarly Dictionaries of Two Dialects of Jewish Aramaic
|year = 2005
|journal=  AJS Review
|jstor = 4131813
|last1 = Levine
|first1 = Baruch A.
|volume = 29
|issue = 1
|pages = 131–144
|doi = 10.1017/S0364009405000073
|s2cid = 163069011
}}</ref><ref name = "Project Gutenberg">{{Cite book
|url = https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37985/37985-h/37985-h.htm
|title = A Literary History of the Arabs
|author = Reynold Nicholson
|year = 2011
|publisher = Project Gutenberg, with Fritz Ohrenschall, Turgut Dincer, Sania Ali Mirza
|access-date =  May 20, 2021}}</ref>
{{rquote|right|The eye and the heart are two abettors to the crime.|[[Chazal|Yitzhak ben Eleazar]], ''[[Jerusalem Talmud]]'' ([[Berakhot (Talmud)|Berakhot]] 1:5)}}
The final redaction of the text was in the late fourth or early fifth century, once [[Christianity]] had become the [[state religion]] of the [[Roman Empire]] and Jerusalem.
{{rquote|right|Just as wisdom has made a crown for one's head, so, too, humility has made a sole for one's foot.|[[Chazal|Yitzhak ben Eleazar]], ''[[Jerusalem Talmud]]'' ([[Shabbat (Talmud)|Shabbat]] 8b)}}
Despite its incomplete state, the Jerusalem Talmud remains an indispensable source of knowledge of the development of the Jewish Law in the Holy Land. It was also an important primary source for the study of the Babylonian Talmud by the [[Kairouan]] school of [[Chananel ben Chushiel]] and [[Nissim ben Jacob]], with the result that opinions ultimately based on the Jerusalem Talmud found their way into both the [[Tosafot]] and the [[Mishneh Torah]] of [[Maimonides]]. Ethical maxims contained in the Jerusalem Talmud are scattered and interspersed in the legal discussions throughout the several treatises, many of which differ from those in the Babylonian Talmud.<ref>Mielziner, M. (Moses), Introduction to the Talmud (3rd edition), New York 1925, p. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013247625;view=1up;seq=7 xx]</ref>
===Babylonian Talmud<!--'Babylonian Talmud' redirects here-->===
[[File:Talmud set.JPG|thumb|right|A full set of the Babylonian Talmud]]
The Babylonian Talmud (''Talmud Bavli'') consists of documents compiled over the period of [[late antiquity]] (3rd to 6th centuries).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title= Talmud and Midrash (Judaism) / The making of the Talmuds: 3rd–6th century |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |year= 2008 |url= http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/581644/Talmud-and-Midrash/34869/The-making-of-the-Talmuds-3rd-6th-century#ref=ref24372 |access-date= 28 October 2013}}</ref> During this time, the most important of the Jewish centres in [[Mesopotamia]], a region called "[[Babylonia]]" in Jewish sources (see [[Talmudic academies in Babylonia]]) and later known as [[Iraq]], were [[Nehardea]], Nisibis (modern [[Nusaybin]]), Mahoza ([[al-Mada'in]], just to the south of what is now [[Baghdad]]), [[Pumbedita]] (near present-day [[al Anbar Governorate]]), and the [[Sura Academy]], probably located about {{Cvt|60|km||abbr=}} south of Baghdad.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Moshe Gil]] |title= Jews in Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages |year= 2004 |page= 507 |publisher= BRILL |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=8vTTCwG0nKIC&pg=PA507 |isbn= 9789004138827}}</ref>
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 Talmudic Academies in Babylonia. The foundations of this process of analysis were laid by [[Abba Arika]] (175–247), a disciple of [[Judah ha-Nasi]]. Tradition ascribes the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud in its present form to two Babylonian sages, [[Rav Ashi]] and [[Ravina II]].<ref>Nosson Dovid Rabinowich (ed), ''[[The Iggeres of Rav Sherira Gaon]]'', Jerusalem 1988, pp. 79, 116</ref> Rav Ashi was president of the Sura Academy from 375 to 427. The work begun by Rav Ashi was completed by Ravina, who is traditionally regarded as the final [[Amoraim|Amoraic]] expounder. Accordingly, traditionalists argue that Ravina's death in 475<ref>Nosson Dovid Rabinowich (ed), ''[[The Iggeres of Rav Sherira Gaon]]'', Jerusalem 1988, p. 116</ref> 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 the ''[[Savoraim]]'' or ''Rabbanan Savora'e'' (meaning "reasoners" or "considerers").
===Comparison===
Unlike the Western Aramaic dialect of the Jerusalm Talmud, the Babylonian Talmud has a Babylonian Aramaic dialect. The Jerusalem is also more fragmentary (and difficult to read) due to a less complete [[Redaction criticism|redactional process]].<ref name="AZexile">{{cite book |author=AM Gray |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/75475 |title=Talmud in Exile: The Influence of Yerushalmi Avodah Zarah |publisher=Brown Judaic Studies |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-93067-523-0}}</ref> Legally, the two differ minimally. The Babylonian Talmud has received significantly more interest and coverage from commentators.<ref name=JVLTalJ>[[Encyclopaedia Judaica]]
{{citation |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/talmud-jerusalem
|publisher=[[Gale (publisher)|Gale]] |title=Bavli and Yerushalmi – Similarities and Differences}}</ref> This significantly greater influence is primarily because the 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. [[Maimonides]] claims that all Jewish communities in the Gaonic period formally accepted the Babylonian Talmud as binding, and that in any areas where the two Talmuds conflict, deference is given to the Babylonian opinion.
Neither covers the entire Mishnah. For example, the Babylonian commentary only covers 37 of 63 Mishnaic tractates. In particular:
* The Jerusalem Talmud covers all the tractates of [[Zeraim]], while the Babylonian Talmud covers only tractate [[Berakhot (tractate)|Berachot]]. This might be because the agricultural concerns of Zeraim were not as notable in Babylonia.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Essential Talmud |last=Steinsaltz |first=Adin |author-link=Adin Steinsaltz |isbn=978-0-465-02063-8 |year=1976 |publisher=BasicBooks, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers}}{{page needed|date=November 2019}}</ref> As the Jerusalem Talmud was produced in the Land of Israel, it consequently has a greater interest in Israelite geography.
* Unlike the Babylonian Talmud, the Jerusalem Talmud does not cover the Mishnaic [[Kodashim]], which deals with sacrificial rites and laws pertaining to the [[Second Temple|Temple]]. A good explanation for this is not available, although there is some evidence that a now-lost commentary on this text once existed in the Jerusalem Talmud.
* In both Talmuds, only one tractate of [[Tohorot]] (ritual purity laws) is examined, that of the menstrual laws ([[Niddah]]).
The Babylonian Talmud records the opinions of the rabbis of the ''Ma'arava'' (the West, meaning Israel) as well as of those of Babylonia, while the Jerusalem Talmud 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 more comprehensive.<ref>{{citation |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-oral-law-talmud-and-mishna
|website=[[Jewish Virtual Library]]  |title=Judaism: The Oral Law -Talmud & Mishna}}</ref><ref>{{citation |isbn=0-68808-506-7
|author=Joseph Telushkin
|title=Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History|date=26 April 1991
|publisher=HarperCollins
}}</ref>
==Structure==
The structure of the Talmud follows that of the Mishnah, in which six orders (''sedarim''; singular: ''seder'') of general subject matter are divided into 60 or 63 tractates (''masekhtot''; singular: ''[[masekhet]]'') of more focused subject compilations, though not all tractates have Gemara. 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. A ''perek'' may continue over several (up to tens of) [[#Printing|pages]]. Each ''perek'' will contain several ''mishnayot''.<ref>Jacobs, Louis, ''Structure and form in the Babylonian Talmud'', Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 2</ref>
===Mishnah===
{{Main|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 the [[Tannaim]] (literally, "repeaters", or "teachers"). These tannaim—rabbis of the second century CE--"who produced the Mishnah and other tannaic works, must be distinguished from the rabbis of the third to fifth centuries, known as amoraim (literally, "speakers"), who produced the two Talmudim and other amoraic works".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Shaye J. D. |title=From the Maccabees to the Mishnah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H5hLLIrh6n8C&q=206date=2006 |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |location=Louisville |isbn=978-0-664-22743-2 |page=206 |edition=Second |website=wjkbooks.com |date=January 2006 |access-date=9 November 2020}}</ref>
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 Gemara. Also, the order of the tractates in the Talmud differs in some cases from that in the ''Mishnah''.
{{mishnah|nocat}}
===Gemara===
{{Main|Gemara}}
The Gemara constitutes the commentary portion of the Talmud. The Mishnah, and its commentary (the Gemara), together constitute the Talmud. This commentary arises from a longstanding tradition of rabbis analyzing, debating, and discussing the Mishnah ever since it had been published. The rabbis who participated in the process that produced this commentarial tradition are known as the [[Amoraim]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=47o5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA528|title=The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day|last1=Singer|first1=Isidore|last2=Adler|first2=Cyrus|publisher=Funk and Wagnalls|year=1916|pages=527–528}}</ref> Each discussion is presented in a self-contained, edited passage known as a [[sugya]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Strack |first=Hermann L. |title=Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash |last2=Stemberger |first2=Günter |last3=Bockmuehl |first3=Markus N. A. |last4=Strack |first4=Hermann L. |date=1996 |publisher=Fortress Press |isbn=978-0-8006-2524-5 |edition=2. Fortress Press ed., with amendations and updates |location=Minneapolis, Minn}}</ref>
Much of the Gemara is legal in nature. Each analysis begins with a Mishnaic legal statement. With each sugya, the statement may be analyzed and compared with other statements. This process can be framed as an exchange between two (often anonymous, possibly metaphorical) disputants, termed the ''{{lang|tmr-Latn|makshan}}'' (questioner) and ''{{lang|tmr-Latn|tartzan}}'' (answerer). Gemara also commonly tries to find the correct biblical basis for a given law in the Mishnah as well as the logical process that connects the biblical to the Mishnaic tradition. This process was known as ''talmud'', long before the "Talmud" itself became a text.<ref>e.g. [[Pirkei Avot]] 5.21: "five for the Torah, ten for Mishnah, thirteen for the commandments, fifteen for ''talmud''".</ref>
In addition, the Gemara contains a wide range of narratives, homiletical or exegetical passages, sayings, and other non-legal content, termed [[aggadah]]. A story told in a sugya of the Babylonian Talmud may draw upon the Mishnah, the Jerusalem Talmud, midrash, and other sources.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rubenstein |first=Jeffrey L. |title=Talmudic stories: narrative art, composition, and culture |date=1999 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=978-0-8018-6146-8 |location=Baltimore, MD London}}</ref>
===Baraita===
{{Main|Baraita}}
The traditions that the Gemara comments on are not limited to what is found in the Mishnah, but the Baraita as well (a term that broadly designates [[Oral Torah]] traditions that did not end up in the Mishnah). The ''baraitot'' cited in the Gemara are often quotations from the [[Tosefta]] (a tannaitic compendium of halakha parallel to the Mishnah) and the [[Midrash halakha]] (specifically [[Midrash#Tannaitic|Mekhilta, Sifra and Sifre]]). Some [[Baraita|''baraitot'']], however, are known only through traditions cited in the Gemara, and are not part of any other collection.<ref>David Halivni, ''Midrash, Mishnah, and Gemara: The Jewish Predilection for Justified Law'' (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), 93–101. {{ISBN|9780674038158}}</ref>
===Minor tractates===
{{main|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.
==Language==
The work is largely in [[Jewish Babylonian Aramaic]], although quotations in the [[Gemara]] of the Mishnah, the [[Baraita]]s and [[Tanakh]] appear in Mishnaic or Biblical Hebrew.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress: The Talmud |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/loc/Talmud.html |publisher=American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise}}</ref> Some other dialects of Aramaic occur in quotations of other older works, like the [[Megillat Taanit]]. The reason why earlier texts occur in Hebrew, and later texts in Aramaic, is because of the adoption of the latter (which was the spoken vernacular) by rabbinic circles during the period of the [[Amoraim]] (rabbis cited in the Gemara) beginning around the year 200.<ref>Sáenz-Badillos, Ángel and John Elwolde. 1996. A history of the Hebrew language. pp. 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 10th century in, for example, the Hebrew portions of the two Talmuds and in midrashic and haggadic literature."</ref> A second Aramaic dialect is used in [[Nedarim]], [[Nazir (Talmud)|Nazir]], [[Temurah (Talmud)|Temurah]], [[Keritot]], and [[Me'ilah]]; the second is closer in style to the [[Targum]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Encyclopedia.com Keritot |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/keritot}}</ref>
== Manuscripts ==
The oldest full manuscript of the Talmud, known as the [[Munich Talmud]] (Codex Hebraicus 95), dates from 1342 and is available online.{{efn|At http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/bsb00003409/images/index.html}} Manuscripts of the Talmud are as follows:<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Amsler |first=Monika |title=The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge university press |isbn=978-1-009-29733-2 |location=Cambridge |pages=219–220}}</ref>
* Cairo Genizah fragments{{Sfn|Strack|Stemberger|1992|p=140}}
** Date: earliest ones from the late 7th or 8th century
** Context: earliest manuscript fragment of the Talmud of any kind
* Ms. Oxford 2673<ref>{{Cite book |last=Strauch Schick |first=Shana |title=Intention in Talmudic law: between thought and deed |date=2021 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-43303-8 |series=The Brill Reference Library of Judaism |location=Leiden Boston (Mass.) |pages=10}}</ref>
** Date: 1123
** Context: Contains a significant portion of tractate Keritot; earliest Talmudic manuscript whose precise date is known
* MS Kaufmann
** Date: late 11th to 12th century
* Ms. Firenze 7
** Date: 1177
** Context: earliest Talmudic whose precise date is known and contains complete tractates
* MS JTS Rab. 15<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bickart |first=Noah |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.31826/9781463244668 |title=The Scholastic Culture of the Babylonian Talmud |date=2022-10-21 |publisher=Gorgias Press |isbn=978-1-4632-4466-8 |pages=4, n. 14|doi=10.31826/9781463244668 }}</ref>
** Date: 1290
** Location: Spain
* Bologna,  Archivio di Stato Fr. ebr. 145<ref name=":2" />
** Date: 13th century
* Munich Talmud 95<ref name=":2" />
** Date: 1342
* Vatican 130<ref name=":2" />
** Date: January 14, 1381
* Oxford Opp. 38 (368)<ref name=":2" />
** Date: 14th century
* Arras 889<ref name=":2" />
** Date: 14th century
* Vatican 114<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bickart |first=Noah |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.31826/9781463244668 |title=The Scholastic Culture of the Babylonian Talmud |date=2022-10-21 |publisher=Gorgias Press |isbn=978-1-4632-4466-8 |pages=165–166|doi=10.31826/9781463244668 }}</ref>
** Date: 14th century
* Vatican 140<ref name=":2" />
** Date: late 14th century
* Bazzano, Archivio Storico Comunale Fr. ebr. 21<ref name=":2" />
** Date: 12th–15th centuries
* St. Petersburg, RNL Evr. I 187<ref name=":2" />
** Date: 13th or 15th century
* Cambridge T-S F1 (1) 31<ref name=":2" />
** Date: Medieval
* New York JTS ENA 3112.1<ref name=":2" />
== Dating ==
=== Medieval estimates ===
The exact date at which the Talmud was compiled appears to have been forgotten at least by the second half of the Middle Ages, when estimates between the 3rd century BCE to the 9th century CE are suggested in the ''Wikkuah'', a text that records the debates that took place in the [[Disputation of Paris]] (also known as the "Trial of the Talmud") which took place in 1240.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Stemberger |first1=Günter |title=Let the wise listen and add to their learning (Prov. 1:5): festschrift for Günter Stemberger on the occasion of his 75th birthday |last2=Cordoni |first2=Constanza |last3=Langer |first3=Gerhard |date=2016 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-044103-1 |series=Studia Judaica |location=Berlin Boston (Mass.) |pages=606–609}}</ref>
=== Contemporary estimates ===
A wide range of dates have been proposed for the Babylonian Talmud by historians.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The New Testament and rabbinic literature |date=2010 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-17588-4 |series=Supplements to the journal for the study of Judaism |location=Leiden |pages=82}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Amsler |first=Monika |title=The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge university press |isbn=978-1-009-29733-2 |location=Cambridge |pages=122–123}}</ref> The text was most likely completed, however, in the 6th century, or prior to the [[early Muslim conquests]] in 643–636 CE at the latest,{{Sfn|Schiffman|2024|p=138}} on the basis that the Talmud lacks loanwords or syntax deriving from [[Arabic]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Amsler |first=Monika |title=The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge university press |isbn=978-1-009-29733-2 |location=Cambridge |pages=123}}</ref> Recently, it has been extensively argued that Talmud is an expression and product of [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian]] culture,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kiel |first=Yishai |title=Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud: Christian and Sasanian contexts in late antiquity |date=2016 |publisher=Cambridge university press |isbn=978-1-107-15551-0 |location=New York (N.Y.) |pages=9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Secunda |first=Shai |title=The Iranian Talmud: reading the Bavli in its Sasanian context |date=2014 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-4570-7 |edition= |series=Divinations: rereading late ancient religion |location=Philadelphia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Secunda |first=Shai |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/on1127664734 |title=The Talmud's red fence: menstrual impurity and difference in Babylonian Judaism and its Sasanian context |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-885682-5 |edition= |location=Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY |oclc=on1127664734}}</ref> as well as other [[Greek language|Greek]]-[[Roman Empire|Roman]], [[Middle Persian]], and [[Syriac language|Syriac]] sources up to the same period of time.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goldstone |first=Matthew |date=2019 |title=The Babylonian Talmud in its cultural context |url=https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec3.12317 |journal=Religion Compass |language=en |volume=13 |issue=6 |doi=10.1111/rec3.12317 |issn=1749-8171}}</ref> The contents of the text likely trace to this time regardless of the date of the final redaction/compilation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Secunda |first=Shai |date=2016 |title=“This, but Also That”: Historical, Methodological, and Theoretical Reflections on Irano-Talmudica |url=https://www.academia.edu/37709046/Shai_Secunda_This_but_also_That_Historical_Methodological_and_Theoretical_Reflections_on_Talmudo_Iranica_Jewish_Quarterly_Review_106_2_Spring_2016_233_241 |journal=Jewish Quarterly Review |language=en |volume=106 |issue=2 |pages=236 |doi=10.1353/jqr.2016.0013 |issn=1553-0604}}</ref> Additional external evidence for a latest possible date for the composition of the Babylonian Talmud are the uses of it by external sources, including the ''Letter of Baboi'' (mid-8th century),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Amsler |first=Monika |title=The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge university press |isbn=978-1-009-29733-2 |location=Cambridge |pages=128}}</ref> ''Seder Tannaim veAmoraim'' (9th century) and a 10th-century letter by Sherira Gaon addressing the formation of the Babylonian Talmud.<ref name=":1" /> As for a lower boundary on the dating of the Babylonian Talmud, it must post-date the early 5th century given its reliance on the [[Jerusalem Talmud]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Amsler |first=Monika |title=The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge university press |isbn=978-1-009-29733-2 |location=Cambridge |pages=127–131}}</ref>
==In Jewish 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.<ref>As Pirkei Avot is a tractate of the Mishnah, and reached its final form centuries before the compilation of either Talmud, this refers to ''[[#Gemara|talmud]]'' as an activity rather than to any written compilation.</ref> This section outlines some of the major areas of Talmudic study.
===Legal interpretation===
One area of Talmudic scholarship developed out of the need to ascertain the [[Halakha]] (Jewish rabbinical law). Early commentators such as [[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 by [[Mordechai ben Hillel]] ({{circa}} 1250–1298). A third such work was that of [[Asher ben Yechiel]] (d. 1327). All these works and their commentaries are printed in the Vilna and many subsequent editions of the Talmud.
A 15th-century Spanish rabbi, [[Jacob ibn Habib]] (d. 1516), compiled the ''[[Ein Yaakov]]'', which extracts nearly all the [[Aggadah|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.
===Commentaries===
{{Main|Rabbinic literature}}
{{Further|Yeshiva#Talmud study}}
[[Geonim|Geonic]]-era (6th-11th centuries) commentaries have largely been lost, but are known to exist from partial quotations in later medieval and early modern texts. Because of this, it is known that now-lost commentaries on the Talmud were written by Paltoi Gaon, [[Sherira ben Hanina|Sherira]], [[Hai ben Sherira|Hai Gaon]], and Saadya (though in this case, Saadiya is not likely to be the true author).{{Sfn|Strack|Stemberger|2012|p=217}} Of these, the commentary of [[Paltoi ben Abaye]] (''c.'' 840) is the earliest. His son, [[Zemah ben Paltoi]] paraphrased and explained the passages which he quoted; and he composed, as an aid to the study of the Talmud, a lexicon which [[Abraham Zacuto]] consulted in the fifteenth century. [[Saadia Gaon]] is said to have composed commentaries on the Talmud, aside from his Arabic commentaries on the Mishnah.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Talmud Commentaries |website=JewishEncyclopedia.com|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14214-talmud-commentaries|access-date=2020-06-18}}</ref>
The first surviving commentary on the entire Talmud is that of [[Chananel ben Chushiel]]. Many medieval authors also composed commentaries focusing on the content of specific tractates, including [[Nissim ben Jacob]] and [[Gershom ben Judah]].{{Sfn|Strack|Stemberger|2012|p=218–219}} The commentary of [[Rashi]], covering most of the Talmud, has become a classic. Sections in the commentary covering a few tractates (Pes, BB and Mak) were completed by his students, especially [[Judah ben Nathan]], and a sections dealing with specific tractates (Ned, Naz, Hor and MQ) of the commentary that appear in some print editions of Rashi's commentary today were not composed by him. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a genre of rabbinic literature emerged surrounding Rashi's commentary, with the purpose of supplementing it and addressing internal contradictions via the technique of ''pilpul''. This genre of commentary is known as the [[Tosafot]] and focuses on specific passages instead of a running continuous commentary across the entire Talmud.{{Sfn|Strack|Stemberger|2012|p=219–220}}
Many Talmudic passages are difficult to understand, sometimes owing to the use of Greek or Persian loanwords whose meaning had become obscure. A major area of Talmudic scholarship developed to explain these passages and words. Some early commentators such as Rabbenu [[Gershom ben Judah|Gershom of Mainz]] (10th century) and [[Chananel ben Chushiel|Rabbenu Ḥananel]] (early 11th century) 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) by [[Nissim Ben Jacob|Nissim 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''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hebrewbooks.org/40633|title=HebrewBooks.org Sefer Detail: ספר הנר – ברכות – אגמתי, זכריה בן יהודה|website=hebrewbooks.org}}</ref>
The ''Tosafot'' are collected commentaries by various medieval Ashkenazic rabbis on the Talmud (known as ''[[Tosafists]]'' or ''Ba'alei Tosafot''). 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.<ref name=":0" />
Among the founders of the Tosafist school were [[Rabbeinu Tam]], who was a grandson of Rashi, and, Rabbenu Tam's nephew, [[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 [[Eliezer of Touques]]. The standard collection for Spain was [[Asher ben Jehiel|Rabbenu Asher]]'s ''Tosefot 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.<ref>For a list see Ephraim Urbach, s.v. "Tosafot," in ''Encyclopedia of Religion''.</ref>
A recent project, ''Halacha Brura'', founded by [[Abraham Isaac Kook]], presents the Talmud and a summary of the halachic codes side by side, so as to enable the "collation" of Talmud with resultant Halacha.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.halachabrura.org/ |title=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... |author=Rav Avraham Yitzchok Ha-Cohen Kook |date=February 17, 2008 |publisher=Halacha Brura and Birur Halacha Institute |access-date= 20 September 2010 }} It should not be confused with the halachic compendium of the same name by rabbi David Yosef.</ref>
===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 term ''[[pilpul]]'' 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 Jews|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 are [[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)<ref>''Al'' means on. ''Derekh'' mean path. PaShoot, the Hebrew root in ''ha-peshat'', means ''simple''. The prefix "ha-" means ''the''. {{cite web
|url=https://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/mishpat/kap.html
|title=691 Kapah
|quote=According to the plain sense (ve-al derekh ha-peshat)
|access-date=2019-10-03
|archive-date=2019-10-03
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003071413/https://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/mishpat/kap.html
|url-status=dead
}}</ref> to contrast them with pilpul.<ref>See ''Pilpul'', [[Mordechai Breuer]], in ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'', Vol. 16, 2nd Ed (2007), Macmillan Reference and H.H. Ben Sasson, ''A History of the Jewish People'', pp. 627, 717.</ref>
===Sephardic approaches===
Among [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardi]] and [[Italian Jews]] from the 15th century on, some authorities sought to apply the methods of [[Aristotelian logic]], as reformulated by [[Averroes]].<ref>''Kol Melechet Higgayon'', the Hebrew translation of Averroes' epitome of Aristotle's logical works, was widely studied in northern Italy, particularly [[Padua]].</ref> 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"),<ref>Boyarin, ''Sephardi Speculation'' (Hebrew) (Jerusalem 1989).</ref> and is also found in the works of [[Moses Chaim Luzzatto]].<ref>For a comprehensive treatment, see Ravitzky, below.</ref>
According to the present-day Sephardi scholar [[José Faur]], traditional Sephardic Talmud study could take place on any of three levels.<ref>Faur is here describing the tradition of Damascus, though the approach in other places may have been similar.</ref>
* 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.<ref>Examples of lessons using this approach may be found [http://www.moreshetsepharad.org/GEMARA.html here]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}.</ref>
* The intermediate level, ''iyyun'' (concentration), consists of study with the help of commentaries such as [[Rashi]] and the [[Tosafot]], similar to that practiced among the [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazim]].<ref>Cf. the distinction in the Ashkenazi yeshivah curriculum between ''beki'ut'' (basic familiarization) and'' 'iyyun'' (in-depth study).</ref> Historically Sephardim studied the ''Tosefot ha-Rosh'' and the commentaries of Nahmanides in preference to the printed Tosafot.<ref>[[David ben Judah Messer Leon]], ''Kevod Ḥakhamim'', cited by Zimmels, ''Ashkenazim and Sephardim'', pp. 151, 154.</ref> A method based on the study of Tosafot, and of Ashkenazi authorities such as ''[[Maharsha]]'' (Samuel Edels) and ''Maharshal'' ([[Solomon Luria]]), was introduced in late seventeenth century [[History of the Jews in Tunisia|Tunisia]] by rabbis Abraham Hakohen (d. 1715) and Tsemaḥ Tsarfati (d. 1717) and perpetuated by rabbi [[Isaac Lumbroso]]<ref>[[Chaim Joseph David Azulai]], ''Shem Gedolim'', cited Hirschberg, ''A History of the Jews in North Africa'', pp. 125–126.</ref> and is sometimes referred to as'' 'Iyyun Tunisa'i''.<ref>Joseph Ringel, "A Third Way: ''Iyyun Tunisai'' as a Traditional Critical Method of Talmud Study", ''Tradition'' 2013 46:3.</ref>
* The highest level, ''halachah'' (Jewish 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; the equivalent Ashkenazi approach is sometimes referred to as being "[[aliba dehilchasa]]".
===Brisker method===
In the late 19th century another trend in Talmud study arose. [[Chaim Soloveitchik|Hayyim Soloveitchik]] (1853–1918) of Brisk (Brest-Litovsk) developed and refined this style of study. [[Brisker method]] involves a [[reductionist]]ic 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 practical ''halakha''.
Rival methods were those of the [[Mir yeshiva (Poland)|Mir]] and [[Telz yeshiva]]s.<ref>For a humorous description of the different methods, see Gavriel Bechhofer's [http://www.aishdas.org/rygb/derachim.htm An Analysis of Darchei HaLimud (Methodologies of Talmud Study) Centering on a Cup of Tea].</ref>
See {{slink|Chaim Rabinowitz#Telshe}} and {{slink| Yeshiva Ohel Torah-Baranovich#Style of learning}}.
== Textual criticism ==
=== Medieval era ===
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.
Gaonic responsa literature addresses this issue. Teshuvot Geonim Kadmonim, section 78, deals with mistaken biblical readings in the Talmud.  This Gaonic responsum states:
{{blockquote|... 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 already 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."{{efn|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).}}
=== Early modern era ===
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;<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Gaon of Vilna |last=Etkes |first=Immanuel |year=2002 |publisher=University of California Press  |isbn=978-0-520-22394-3 |page=16 }}</ref> 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.<ref>Solomon Schechter, ''Studies in Judaism'' p. 92.</ref>
=== Contemporary scholarship ===
In the 19th 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 [[#Critical editions|Critical editions]], 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,<ref>Introduction to Sokoloff, ''Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic''. The texts themselves may be found at http://maagarim.hebrew-academy.org.il/Pages/PMain.aspx.</ref> and images of some of the older manuscripts may be found on the website of the [[National Library of Israel]] (formerly the Jewish National and University Library).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/hebrew/collections/jewish-collection/talmud/pages/default.aspx/ |title=עיון בכתבי היד }}</ref> The NLI, the Lieberman Institute (associated with the [[Jewish Theological Seminary of America]]), the Institute for the Complete Israeli Talmud (part of Yad Harav Herzog) and the Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society all maintain searchable websites on which the viewer can request variant manuscript readings of a given passage.<ref>See under [[#Manuscripts and textual variants]], below.</ref>
Some trends within contemporary Talmud scholarship are listed below.
* Orthodox Judaism maintains that the [[oral Torah]] was revealed, in some form, together with the written Torah. 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 Hoffman]]n.<ref>See particularly his controversial dissertation, ''Mar Samuel'', available at [[iarchive:MN41459ucmf_6|archive.org]] (German).</ref>
* 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 of 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 works of [[David Weiss Halivni]] and 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, 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. The Jerusalem Talmud is 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 Friedman's "Society for the Interpretation of the Talmud".<ref>{{cite web |title=Igud HaTalmud |url=http://www.talmudha-igud.org.il/default.asp?lang=en}}</ref>
* Some scholars are indeed using outside sources to help give historical and contextual understanding of certain areas of the Babylonian Talmud. See for example the works of Yaakov Elman<ref>{{cite book |author=Yaacov Elman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QdjGEVo0bVEC&q=shoshannat+yaakov |title=Shoshannat Yaakov: Jewish and Iranian Studies in Honor of Yaakov Elman |date=2012 |publisher=Brill Academic Pub Publishers |isbn=978-9004235441 |editor1=Steven Fine |access-date=11 November 2013 |editor2=Shai Secunda}}</ref> and of his student Shai Secunda,<ref>{{cite book |author=Shai Secunda |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TdFAAQAAQBAJ |title=The Iranian Talmud: Reading the Bavli in Its Sasanian Context |date=2013 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0812245707 |access-date=18 November 2013}}</ref> which seek to place the Talmud in its Iranian context, for example by comparing it with contemporary [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] texts.
==Translations==
{{Editions of the Talmud}}
There are six contemporary translations of the Talmud into English:
=== Steinsaltz ===
* [[Adin Steinsaltz]] began his translation of the Babylonian Talmud into modern Hebrew (the original is mostly Aramaic with some Mishnaic Hebrew) in 1969 and completed it in 2010. (He also translated some tractates of the Jerusalem Talmud.) The Hebrew edition is printed in two formats: the original one in a new layout and the later one in the format of the traditional Vilna Talmud page; both are available in several sizes. The first attempt to translate the Steinsaltz edition into English was ''[[The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition]]'' (Random House), which contains the original Hebrew-Aramaic text with punctuation and an English translation based on Steinsaltz' complete [[Hebrew language]] translation of and commentary on the entire Talmud. This edition began to be released in 1989 but was never completed; only four tractates were printed in 21 volumes, with a matching Reference Guide translated from a separate work of Steinsaltz. Portions of the Steinsaltz Talmud have also been translated into French, Russian, and other languages.
* The Noé Edition of the ''Koren Talmud Bavli'', published by [[Koren Publishers Jerusalem]] was launched in 2012. It has a new, modern English translation and the commentary of [[Adin Steinsaltz]], and was praised for its "beautiful page" with "clean type".<ref>[http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/123338/queen-for-a-day "Queen for a Day"], ''Tablet Magazine'', 5 February 2013</ref> From the right side cover (the front side of Hebrew and Aramaic books), [[The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition|the Steinsaltz Talmud]] edition has the traditional Vilna page with vowels and punctuation in the original Aramaic text. The [[Rashi]] commentary appears in [[Rashi script]] with vowels and punctuation. From the left side cover the edition features bilingual text with side-by-side English/Aramaic translation. The margins include color maps, illustrations and notes based on [[Adin Steinsaltz]]’s [[Hebrew language]] translation and commentary of the Talmud. [[Tzvi Hersh Weinreb]] serves as the Editor-in-Chief. The entire set was completed in 42 volumes.
*In February 2017, the ''William Davidson Talmud'' was released to [[Sefaria]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Talmud (William Davidson)|url=http://www.sefaria.org/texts/Talmud|website=sefaria.org
|access-date=4 June 2017}}</ref> This translation is a version of the Noé Steinsaltz edition above, which was released under [[creative commons]] license.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.jta.org/2017/02/07/news-opinion/united-states/with-full-talmud-translation-online-library-hopes-to-make-sages-accessible
|title=With full Talmud translation, online library hopes to make sages accessible |website=jta.org
|publisher=JTA ([[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]]) |date=2017-02-07}}</ref>
=== Artscroll ===
[[File:Schottenstein Edition of the Babylonian Talmud.jpg|thumb|The Schottenstein Babylonian Talmud in a synagogue in [[Raanana]], Israel]]
* The ''[[Schottenstein Edition of the Babylonian Talmud|Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud]]'' ([[Artscroll]]/Mesorah Publications), is 73 volumes,<ref>{{cite news
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/books/an-english-talmud-for-daily-readers-and-debaters.html
|title=An English Talmud for Daily Readers and Debaters
|author=Joseph Berger |work=The New York Times
|date=February 10, 2005 |access-date=July 12, 2022}}</ref> in an English translation edition<ref>Maroon-colored</ref> and a Hebrew translation edition.<ref>Blue</ref> In the translated editions, each English or Hebrew page faces the Aramaic/Hebrew page it translates. Each Aramaic/Hebrew page of Talmud typically requires three to six English or Hebrew pages of translation and notes. The Aramaic/Hebrew pages are printed in the traditional Vilna format, with a gray bar added that shows the section translated on the facing page. The facing pages provide an expanded paraphrase in English or Hebrew, with translation of the text shown in bold and explanations interspersed in normal type, along with extensive footnotes. Pages are numbered in the traditional way but with a superscript added, e.g. 12b<sup>4</sup> is the fourth page translating the Vilna page 12b. Larger tractates require multiple volumes. The first volume was published in 1990, and the series was completed in 2004.
=== Soncino ===
* [[Soncino Press#Soncino Talmud|''The Soncino Talmud'']] (34 volumes, 1935–1948, with an additional index volume published in 1952 and a two-volume translation of the Minor Tractates later),<ref>{{citation |url=https://halakhah.com/tcontents.html |title=Soncino Babylonian Talmud}}</ref><ref>{{citation |url=https://seforimblog.com/2021/08/in-praise-of-the-soncino-talmud |title=In Praise of the Soncino Talmud |author=David S Farkas |date=29 August 2021 |access-date=July 11, 2022}}</ref> [[Isidore Epstein]], Soncino Press. An 18 volume edition was published in 1961. Notes on each page provide additional background material. This translation: {{citation |title=Soncino Babylonian Talmud |url=https://halakhah.com/tcontents.html}} is published both in English and in a parallel text edition, in which each English page faces the Aramaic/Hebrew page. It is also available on CD-ROM. Complete.
*In addition, a 7x5in travel or pocket edition<ref>{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gyU9EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA513
|title=Essays on the Making of the Early Hebrew Book
|author=Marvin J. Heller  |year=2021  |page=513
|publisher=BRILL
|isbn=9789004441163
|quote=However, in the Rebecca Bennet Publications (1959) Soncino edition}}</ref> was published in 1959. This edition opens from the left for English and the notes, and from the right for the Aramaic, which, unlike the other editions, does not use standard Vilna Talmud page; instead, another older edition is used, in which each standard Talmud page is divided in two.<ref>64 volumes, including index and 'minor tractates'" {{citation |url=https://www.biblio.com/book/babylonian-talmud-64-volume-set-english/d/1017057179
|title=New York: Rebecca Bennet, 1959. Set of sixty-four volumes in English and Hebrew |access-date=August 22, 2022}}</ref>
=== Other English translations ===
* ''The Talmud of Babylonia. An American Translation'', [[Jacob Neusner]], Tzvee Zahavy, others. Atlanta: 1984–1995: Scholars Press for Brown Judaic Studies. Complete.
* ''Rodkinson'': Portions<ref>Jewish Encyclopedia article, http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6409-frumkin-israel-dob-bar, per [[Michael L. Rodkinson]]</ref> of the Babylonian Talmud  were translated by [[Michael L. Rodkinson]] (1903). It has been linked to online, for copyright reasons (initially it was the only freely available translation on the web), but [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Talmud_(Rodkinson) this] has been wholly superseded by the Soncino translation. (see below, under [[#Full text resources|Full text resources]]).
* The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary, edited by Jacob Neusner<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary|last=Neusner|first=Jacob|year=2011|publisher=Hendrickson Pub|isbn=9781598565263
|edition=22-Volume Set|location=Peabody, Mass|language=en}}</ref> and translated by Jacob Neusner, Tzvee Zahavy, Alan Avery-Peck, B. Barry Levy, Martin S. Jaffe, and Peter Haas, Hendrickson Pub; 22-Volume Set Ed., 2011. It is a revision of  "The Talmud of Babylonia: An Academic Commentary," published by the University of South Florida Academic Commentary Series (1994–1999). Neusner gives commentary on transition in use langes from Biblical Aramaic to Biblical Hebrew. Neusner also gives references to Mishnah, Torah, and other classical works in Orthodox Judaism.
=== Translations into other languages ===
*The ''[[Extractiones de Talmud]]'', a [[Latin]] translation of some 1,922 passages from the Talmud, was made in Paris in 1244–1245. It survives in two recensions. There is a [[critical edition]] of the sequential recension:
*{{cite book |title=Extractiones de Talmud per ordinem sequentialem |editor-first1=Ulisse |editor-last1=Cecini |editor-first2=Óscar Luis de la |editor-last2=Cruz Palma |series=Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 291 |year=2018 |publisher=Brepols}}
*A circa 1000 CE translation of (some parts of)<ref>the source reads "he translated into Arabic part of the six Orders of the Mishnah"</ref> the Talmud to Arabic is mentioned in [[Sefer ha-Qabbalah]]. This version was commissioned by the [[Fatimid]] Caliph [[Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah]] and was carried out by [[Joseph ibn Abitur]].<ref>[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/334-abitur-joseph-ben-isaac-ben-stans-ibn Jewish Encyclopedia article], per Joseph ibn Abitur</ref>
*The Talmud was translated by [[Shimon Moyal]] into Arabic in 1909.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Jonathan Marc Gribetz
|title=An Arabic-Zionist Talmud: Shimon Moyal's At-Talmud|journal=Jewish Social Studies|date=Fall 2010|volume=17
|pages=1–4|issue=1|doi=10.2979/JEWISOCISTUD.17.1.1|s2cid=162749270 |url=https://doi.org/10.2979/JEWISOCISTUD.17.1.1}}</ref> There is one translation of the Talmud into Arabic, published in 2012 in Jordan by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. The translation was carried out by a group of 90 Muslim and Christian scholars.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4229886,00.html|title=Introducing: Talmud in Arabic|date=19 May 2012|website=Ynetnews|last1=Marlios|first1=Itamar}}</ref> The introduction was characterized by Raquel Ukeles, Curator of the Israel National Library's Arabic collection, as "racist", but she considers the translation itself as "not bad".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4237798,00.html|title=Arab translation of Talmud includes anti-Israeli messages|newspaper=Ynetnews|year=2012|last1=Marlios|first1=Itamar}}</ref>
*In 2018 Muslim-majority [[Albania]] co-hosted an event at the United Nations with Catholic-majority Italy and Jewish-majority Israel celebrating the translation of the Talmud into Italian for the first time.<ref>{{cite web|last=Schwartz |first=Penny |url=https://www.jta.org/2018/09/29/united-states/muslim-country-catholic-country-jewish-country-celebrate-talmud-together-no-joke |title=A Muslim country, Catholic country and Jewish country celebrate the Talmud together. No joke.|publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|date=29 October 2018|access-date=2019-12-19}}</ref> Albanian UN Ambassador [[Besiana Kadare]] opined: “Projects like the Babylonian Talmud Translation open a new lane in intercultural and interfaith dialogue, bringing hope and understanding among people, the right tools to counter prejudice, stereotypical thinking and discrimination. By doing so, we think that we strengthen our social traditions, peace, stability — and we also counter violent extremist tendencies.”<ref>{{cite web|last=Oster |first=Marcy |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/muslim-country-catholic-country-jewish-country-celebrate-talmud-at-un-no-joke/ |title=Muslim country, Catholic country, Jewish country celebrate Talmud at UN. No joke |work=The Times of Israel |date=30 September 2018 |access-date=2019-12-19}}</ref>
*In 2012, a first volume of the Talmud Bavli was published in Spanish by Tashema. It was translated in Jerusalem under the yeshiva directed by Rav Yaakov Benaim. It includes the translation and explanation of the [[Mishnah]] and [[Gemara]], and the commentaries by [[Rashi]] and [[Tosafot]]. By 2023, 19 volumes have been published.<ref>{{Cite web |title=PROYECTO {{!}} TaShema – El Talmud en Español {{!}} Jerusalem |url=https://www.tashema.es/proyecto |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=Tashema |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Shalom: Qué es Tashema {{!}} RTVE Play |date=2013-05-19 |url=https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/shalom/shalom-que-es-tashema/1826508/ |access-date=2023-03-28 |language=es}}</ref>
==Index==
"A widely accepted and accessible index"<ref name=TIndex.NYT>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/nyregion/an-index-for-the-talmud-after-1500-years.html
|title=After 1,500 Years, an Index to the Talmud's Labyrinths, With Roots in the Bronx
|author=Joseph Berger |date=December 18, 2011 |access-date=July 11, 2022}}</ref> was the goal driving several such projects.:
* Michlul haMa'amarim, a three-volume index of the Bavli and Yerushalmi, containing more than 100,000 entries. Published by [[Mossad Harav Kook]] in 1960.<ref>{{Cite web |last=rivki |title=מכלול המאמרים והפתגמים |url=https://mosadharavkook.com/shop/מכלול-המאמרים-והפתגמים/ |access-date=2022-07-12 |website=מוסד הרב קוק |language=he-IL}}</ref>
* Soncino: covers the entire Talmud Bavli;<ref>{{citation |url=https://isaw.nyu.edu/publications/awol-index/html/www.halakhah.com/indexrst-html.html
|title=Soncino Babylonian Talmud. TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH}}</ref><ref>{{citation |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2188623
|title=The Babylonian Talmud / translated into English with notes
|quote=Index volume to the Soncino Talmud / compiled by Judah J. Slotki"}}</ref> released 1952; 749 pages
* HaMafteach ("the key"): released by [[Feldheim Publishers]] 2011, has over 30,000 entries.<ref name=TIndex.NYT/>
* Search-engines: [[Bar Ilan University]]'s ''Responsa Project'' CD/search-engine.<ref name=TIndex.NYT/>
==Editions==
===Bomberg Talmud 1523===
[[File:Talmud-Druck von Daniel Bomberg und Ambrosius Froben.jpg|thumb|The Talmud on display in the [[Jewish Museum of Switzerland]] brings together parts from the first two Talmud prints by [[Daniel Bomberg]] and [[Ambrosius Frobenius|Ambrosius Froben]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Catrina Langenegger on the Basel Talmud |date=13 October 2022 |url=https://www.juedisches-museum.ch/en/provenance-research-is-always-an-adventure/}}</ref> ]]
The first complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud was printed in Venice by [[Daniel Bomberg]] 1520–23<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3490-bomberg-daniel|title=Bomberg, Daniel|website=jewishencyclopedia.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Talmud editions of Daniel Bomberg|first1=Daniel|last1=Bomberg|first2=E|last2=Rozenṭal|date=21 December 2018|publisher=Bomberg|oclc = 428012084}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/15302/treasure-trove|title=Treasure Trove|date=9 September 2009|website=Tablet Magazine}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/196121/new-york-businessman-leon-black-buy-bomberg-babylonian-talmud-for-9-3-million|title=Bomberg Babylonian Talmud Auctions for $9.3 Million|date=22 December 2015|website=Tablet Magazine}}</ref> with the support of [[Pope Leo X]].{{sfn|Dalin|2012|p=25}}{{sfn|Gottheil|Broydé|1906}}{{sfn|Heller|2005|p=73}}{{sfn|Amram|1909|p=162}} In addition to the ''Mishnah'' and ''Gemara'', Bomberg's edition contained the commentaries of [[Rashi]] and [[Tosafot]]. Almost all printings since Bomberg have followed the same pagination. Bomberg's edition was considered relatively free of censorship.<ref>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}}. p. 104</ref>
=== Froben Talmud 1578 ===
Ambrosius Frobenius collaborated with the scholar Israel Ben Daniel Sifroni from Italy. His most extensive work was a Talmud edition published, with great difficulty, in 1578–81.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Battegay, Lubrich|first=Caspar, Naomi|title=Jewish Switzerland: 50 Objects Tell Their Stories|publisher=Christoph Merian|year=2018|isbn=978-3-85616-847-6|location=Basel|pages=54–57|language=de, en}}</ref>
===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,<ref>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) ''</ref> Although according to Raphael Rabbinovicz the Benveniste Talmud may have been based on the [[Lublin Talmud]] and included many of the censors' errors.<ref>Printing the Talmud: a history of the individual treatises p. 239, Marvin J. Heller (1999) "The Benveniste Talmud, according to Rabbinovicz, was based on the Lublin Talmud which included many of the censors' errors"</ref> "It is noteworthy due to the inclusion of ''Avodah Zarah'', omitted due to Church censorship from several previous editions, and when printed, often lacking a title page.<ref name=TalmudAmsterdamBen16>{{cite book
|title=Amsterdam: Benveniste Talmud in: Printing the Talmud
|year=2018  |author=MJ Heller}}</ref>
===Slavita Talmud 1795 and Vilna Talmud 1835===
The edition of the Talmud published by the Szapira brothers in [[Slavuta|Slavita]]<ref name=Modia.15>{{cite news
|newspaper=[[Hamodia]]
|date=February 12, 2015
|title=A loan from the heart
|quote=.. a copy of the greatly valued Slavita Shas.
|url=https://hamodia.com/2015/02/12/loan-heart/
|access-date=June 25, 2019
|archive-date=August 5, 2019
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805132255/https://hamodia.com/2015/02/12/loan-heart/
|url-status=dead
}}</ref> was published in 1817,<ref name=Tell.185>{{cite book  |title=Soul Survivors  |author=Hanoch Teller  |pages=[https://archive.org/details/soulsurvivorstru00tell/page/185 185–203]  |isbn=0-961-4772-0-2  |publisher=New York City Publishing Company  |url=https://archive.org/details/soulsurvivorstru00tell/page/185  |author-link=Hanoch Teller  |year=1985  }}</ref> and it is particularly prized by many [[rebbe]]s of [[Hasidic Judaism]]. In 1835, after a religious community copyright<ref name=Talmud.17xx/><ref>"embroiled leading rabbis in Europe .. rival editions of the Talmud"</ref> was nearly over,<ref>the wording was that the sets printed could be sold. All full sets were sold, although individual volumes remained. The systems of dealers did not facilitate knowing exactly how many individual volumes were still in dealer hands.</ref> and following an acrimonious dispute with the Szapira family, a new edition of the Talmud was printed by Menachem Romm of [[Vilnius|Vilna]].
Known as the ''[[Vilna Edition Shas]]'', this edition (and later ones printed by his widow and sons, the [[Romm publishing house]]) has been used in the production of more recent editions of Talmud Bavli.
A page number in the Vilna Talmud refers to a double-sided page, known as a ''daf'', or folio in English; each daf has two ''amudim'' labeled  {{lang|he|א}} and {{lang|he|ב}}, sides A and B ([[recto and verso]]). The convention of referencing by ''daf'' is relatively recent and dates from the early Talmud printings of the 17th century, though the actual pagination goes back to the Bomberg edition. Earlier [[rabbinic literature]] generally refers to the tractate or chapters within a tractate (e.g. Berachot Chapter 1, {{lang|he|ברכות פרק א׳}}). It sometimes also refers to the specific Mishnah in that chapter, where "Mishnah" is replaced with "Halakha", here meaning route, to "direct" the reader to the entry in the Gemara corresponding to that Mishna (e.g. Berachot Chapter 1 Halakha 1, {{lang|he|ברכות פרק א׳ הלכה א׳}}, would refer to the first Mishnah of the first chapter in Tractate Berachot, and its corresponding entry in the Gemara). However, this form is nowadays more commonly (though not exclusively) used when referring to the Jerusalem Talmud.  Nowadays, reference is usually made in format [''Tractate daf a/b''] (e.g. Berachot 23b, {{lang|he|ברכות כג ב׳}}). Increasingly, the symbols "." and ":" are used to indicate Recto and Verso, respectively (thus, e.g. Berachot 23:, {{lang|he|:ברכות כג}}). These references always refer to the pagination of the Vilna Talmud.
===Critical editions===
{{See also|Critical edition}}
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.
# In the late 19th century, Nathan Rabinowitz published a series of volumes called ''Dikduke Soferim'' showing textual variants from early manuscripts and printings.
# 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.
# Some thirteen volumes have been published by the Institute for the Complete Israeli Talmud (a division of Yad Harav 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.<ref>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).</ref>
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 Yosef Amar,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nosachteiman.co.il/?CategoryID=856&ArticleID=3022&Page=1 |title=Talmud Bavli be-niqqud Temani |author=Amar, Yosef |publisher=Nosachteiman.co.il |access-date=2010-05-21 |archive-date=2011-07-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717212402/http://www.nosachteiman.co.il/?CategoryID=856&ArticleID=3022&Page=1 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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.<ref>Julius Joseph Price, ''The Yemenite ms. of Megilla (in the Library of Columbia university)'', 1916; ''Pesahim'', 1913; ''Mo'ed Katon'', 1920.</ref>
===Editions for a wider audience===
A number of editions have been aimed at bringing the Talmud to a wider audience. Aside from the Steinsaltz and Artscroll/Schottenstein sets there are:
* The Metivta edition, published by the Oz ve-Hadar Institute. This contains the full text in the same format as the Vilna-based editions,<ref name=Talmud.Link2017>{{cite web
|url=https://jewishlink.news/features/16990-studying-talmud-the-good-the-not-so-good-and-how-to-make-talmud-more-accessible-3
|title=Studying Talmud: The Good, the Not-So-Good and How to Make Talmud More Accessible
|author=David E. Y. Sarna   |date=February 2, 2017}}</ref> with a full explanation in modern Hebrew on facing pages as well as an improved version of the traditional commentaries.<ref>The other Oz ve-Hadar editions are similar but without the explanation in modern Hebrew.</ref>
* A previous project of the same kind, called [[Arnost Zvi Ehrman#The Talmud El Am|Talmud El Am]], "Talmud to the people", was published in Israel in the 1960s–80s. It contains Hebrew text, English translation and commentary by [[Arnost Zvi 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.
* Tuvia's ''Gemara Menukad'':<ref name=Talmud.Link2017/> includes vowels and punctuation (''Nekudot''), including for Rashi and Tosafot.<ref name=Talmud.Link2017/> It also includes "all the abbreviations of that ''amud'' on the side of each page."<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://www.monseyjudaica.com/making-gemara-menukad
|title=Making of the Gemara Menukad}}</ref>
===Incomplete sets from prior centuries===
* '''Amsterdam''' (1714, ''Proops'' Talmud and ''Marches/de Palasios'' Talmud): Two sets were begun in Amsterdam in 1714, a year in which "acrimonious disputes between publishers within and between cities" regarding reprint rights also began. The latter ran 1714–1717. Neither set was completed, although a third set was printed 1752–1765.<ref name=Talmud.17xx>{{cite web
|url=https://seforimblog.com/2018/05/approbations-and-restrictions-printing
|title=Approbations and Restrictions: Printing the Talmud in Eighteenth Century Amsterdam and Two Frankfurts
|author=Marvin J. Heller |date=May 28, 2018}}</ref>
===Other notable editions===
[[Lazarus Goldschmidt]] published an edition from the "uncensored text" of the Babylonian Talmud with a German translation in 9 volumes (commenced Leipzig, 1897–1909, edition completed, following emigration to England in 1933, by 1936).<ref>''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."{{ISBN?}}</ref>
Twelve volumes of the Babylonian Talmud were published by Mir Yeshiva refugees during the years 1942 thru 1946 while they were in [[Shanghai]].<ref name=TalmudMoedKatan.OU>{{cite magazine
|magazine=[[Jewish Action]] (OU)
|url=https://jewishaction.com/jewish-world/history/when-books-can-speak-a-glimpse-into-the-world-of-sefarim-collecting
|title=When Books Can Speak: A Glimpse Into The World of Sefarim Collecting
|author=Eli Genauer}}</ref> The major tractates, one per volume, were: "Shabbat, Eruvin, Pesachim, Gittin, Kiddushin, Nazir, Sotah, Bava Kama, Sanhedrin, Makot, Shevuot, Avodah Zara"<ref name=Talmud.Shang>{{cite web
|url=https://www.auctionzip.com/auction-lot/Babylonian-Talmud-Shanghai,-1942-1946-Printed_2AD4E0F840
|title=Lot 96: Babylonian Talmud – Shanghai, 1942–1946 – Printed by Holocaust Refugees
|publisher=Kedem Public Auction House Ltd |date=August 28, 2018}}</ref> (with some volumes having, in addition, "Minor Tractates").<ref>Gittin. Rest of inside coverpage Hebrew, but bottom has (in English) Jewish Bookstore, J. Geseng, Shanghai, 1942: {{cite news |newspaper=[[The Jewish Press]]
|title=More on Holocaust Auctions on the Internet
|author=Sh.B. Eliezer |date=October 29, 1999 |page=89}}</ref>
A [[Survivors' Talmud]] was published, encouraged by President Truman's "responsibility toward these victims of persecution" statement. The U.S. Army (despite "the acute shortage of paper in Germany") agreed to print "fifty copies of the Talmud, packaged into 16-volume sets" during 1947–1950.<ref name=TalmudUSArmy.Aish>{{cite web
|url=https://www.aish.com/jw/s/The-Survivors-Talmud-When-the-US-Army-Printed-the-Talmud.html
|title=The Survivors' Talmud: When the US Army Printed the Talmud
|author=Dr. Yvette Alt Miller |date=April 19, 2020}}</ref> The plan was extended: 3,000 copies, in 19-volume sets.
== In visual arts ==
=== In Carl Schleicher's paintings ===
Rabbis and Talmudists studying and debating Talmud abound in the art of Austrian painter [[Carl Schleicher]] (1825–1903); active in Vienna, especially {{Circa|1859}}–1871.
<gallery widths="210" heights="180">
File:Carl Schleicher Jüdische Szene 1.jpg|''Jewish Scene I''
File:Carl Schleicher Jüdische Szene 2.jpg|''Jewish Scene II''
File:Carl Schleicher Eine Streitfrage aus dem Talmud.jpg|''A Controversy Whatsoever on Talmud''<ref>See Schleicher's paintings at [http://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Carl-Schleicher/3C265BD646F5426E/Artworks MutualArt].</ref>
File:Carl Schleicher Beim Rabbi.jpg|''At the Rabbi's''
</gallery>
=== Jewish art and photography ===
<gallery widths="210" heights="180">
File:Juden beim Talmudstudium Paris 19-20Jh.jpg|''Jews studying Talmud'', París, {{Circa|1880–1905}}
File:Samuel Hirszenberg 'Szkoła talmudystów'.jpg|Samuel Hirszenberg, ''Talmudic School'', {{Circa|1895–1908}}
File:The Talmud students.jpg|[[Ephraim Moses Lilien]], ''The Talmud Students'', engraving, 1915
File:La dispute.jpg|Maurycy Trębacz, ''The Dispute'', {{Circa|1920–1940}}
File:Knesset Menora Salomo.jpg|''Solomon's Haggadoth'', bronze relief from the Knesset Menorah, Jerusalem, by Benno Elkan, 1956
File:Knesset Menorah P5200009 Hilel.JPG|''Hilel's Teachings'', bronze relief from the Knesset Menorah
File:Knesset Menorah Jochanan ben Sakkai.jpg|''Jewish Mysticism: Jochanan ben Sakkai'', bronze relief from the Knesset Menorah
File:Yemenite Jews studying Torah in Sana'a.jpg|Yemenite Jews studying Torah in Sana'a
</gallery>
==Reception outside of Judaism==
=== Christianity ===
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]] and his disciples, while the [[Christian biblical canons|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 in the New Testament|Apostles]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Why Christians Should Study Torah and Talmud|url=http://www.bridgesforpeace.com/teaching-letter/article/why-christians-should-study-torah-and-talmud/|publisher=Bridges for Peace|access-date=July 3, 2006|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120720224747/http://www.bridgesforpeace.com/teaching-letter/article/why-christians-should-study-torah-and-talmud/|archive-date=July 20, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>
=== South Korea ===
South Koreans reportedly hope to emulate Jews' high academic standards by studying Jewish literature. Almost every household has a translated copy of a book they call "Talmud", which parents read to their children, and the book is part of the primary-school curriculum.<ref name="hirschfield20110512">{{cite news | url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4065672,00.html | title=Why Koreans study Talmud | work=Jewish World | date=2011-05-12 | access-date=27 June 2014 | author=Hirschfield, Tzofia}}</ref><ref name="alper20110512">{{cite news|url=http://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-features/48771/why-south-koreans-are-love-judaism|title=Why South Koreans are in love with Judaism|work=The Jewish Chronicle|date=May 5, 2011|access-date=27 June 2014|author=Alper, Tim|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903064029/https://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-features/48771/why-south-koreans-are-love-judaism|archive-date=September 3, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> The "Talmud" in this case is usually one of several possible volumes, the earliest translated into Korean from the Japanese.  The original Japanese books were created through the collaboration of Japanese writer [[Hideaki Kase]] and [[Marvin Tokayer]], an Orthodox American rabbi serving in Japan in the 1960s and 70s.  The first collaborative book was ''5,000 Years of Jewish Wisdom: Secrets of the Talmud Scriptures'', created over a three-day period in 1968 and published in 1971.  The book contains actual stories from the Talmud, proverbs, ethics, Jewish legal material, biographies of Talmudic rabbis, and personal stories about Tokayer and his family.  Tokayer and Kase published a number of other books on Jewish themes together in Japanese.<ref name=Arbes>{{cite magazine | url=http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-the-talmud-became-a-best-seller-in-south-korea | date=June 23, 2015 | title=How the Talmud Became a Best-Seller in South Korea | author=Ross Arbes | magazine=The New Yorker}}</ref>
The first South Korean publication of ''5,000 Years of Jewish Wisdom'' was in 1974, by Tae Zang publishing house.  Many different editions followed in both Korea and China, often by black-market publishers.  Between 2007 and 2009, Yong-soo Hyun of the Shema Yisrael Educational Institute published a 6-volume edition of the Korean Talmud, bringing together material from a variety of Tokayer's earlier books.  He worked with Tokayer to correct errors and Tokayer is listed as the author.  Tutoring centers based on this and other works called "Talmud" for both adults and children are popular in Korea and "Talmud" books (all based on Tokayer's works and not the original Talmud) are widely read and known.<ref name=Arbes/>
=== Iran ===
In 2012, then-Vice President of [[Iran]], [[Mohammad Reza Rahimi]], claimed that the Talmud was the cause of the spread of [[narcotic]]<nowiki/>s in the country.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Erdbrink |first=Thomas |date=2012 |title=Iran’s Vice President Makes Anti-Semitic Speech at Forum |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/27/world/middleeast/irans-vice-president-rahimi-makes-anti-semitic-speech.html |website=New York Times}}</ref>
==Criticism==
{{Criticism of religion sidebar}}
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 (Sabbateanism)|Frankists]], and [[August Rohling]].<ref name="Rodkinson">Rodkinson</ref> Many attacks come from antisemitic sources such as [[Justinas Pranaitis]], [[Elizabeth Dilling]], or [[David Duke]]. Criticisms also arise from Christian, Muslim,<ref>Lewis, Bernard, ''Semites and anti-Semites: an inquiry into conflict and prejudice'', W.W. Norton & Company, 1999, p. 134</ref><ref>Johnson, Paul, ''A history of the Jews'', HarperCollins, 1988, p. 577</ref><ref>''Arab attitudes to Israel'', Yehoshafat Harkabi, pp. 248, 272</ref> and Jewish sources,<ref>Such as [[Uriel da Costa]], [[Israel Shahak]], and [[Baruch Kimmerling]]</ref> as well as from atheists and skeptics.<ref>Such as [[Christopher Hitchens]] and [[Denis Diderot]]</ref> Accusations against the Talmud include alleged:<ref name="Rodkinson"/><ref>[[Hyam Maccoby]], ''Judaism on Trial''</ref><ref>ADL report [http://www.adl.org/presrele/asus_12/the_talmud.pdf The Talmud in Anti-Semitic Polemics] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100805220714/http://www.adl.org/presrele/asus_12/the_talmud.pdf |date=2010-08-05 }}, [[Anti-Defamation League]]</ref><ref>[[Gil Student|Student, Gil]] – [http://talmud.faithweb.com/ Rebuttals to criticisms of Talmud]</ref><ref>[[Wilhelm Bacher|Bacher, Wilhelm]], "Talmud", article in ''Jewish Encyclopedia'', Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1901</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=32&letter=T|title=Talmud|publisher=JewishEncyclopedia.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=32&letter=T&search=talmud#145|title=Talmud |publisher=JewishEncyclopedia.com}}</ref>
# Anti-Christian or anti-gentile content<ref>Fraade, pp. 144–146</ref><ref>[[Baruch Kimmerling|Kimmerling, Baruch]], "Images of Gentiles" (book review), ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', April 1997, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 96–98</ref><ref>Siedman, p. 137</ref><ref>Cohn-Sherbok, p. 48</ref>
# Absurd or sexually immoral content<ref>Steinsaltz, pp. 268–270</ref>
# Falsification of scripture<ref>See, for example, Uriel DaCosta, quoted by Nadler, p. 68</ref><ref>Cohn-Sherbok, p. 47</ref><ref>Wilhelm Bacher, "Talmud", article in ''Jewish Encyclopedia''</ref>
Defenders of the Talmud point out that many of these criticisms, particularly those in antisemitic sources, are based on quotations that are taken out of context, and thus misrepresent the meaning of the Talmud's text and its basic character as a detailed record of discussions that preserved statements by a variety of sages, and from which statements and opinions that were rejected were never edited out.
Sometimes the misrepresentation is deliberate, and other times simply due to an inability to grasp the subtle and sometimes confusing and multi-faceted narratives in the Talmud. Some quotations provided by critics deliberately omit passages in order to generate quotes that appear to be offensive or insulting.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Real Truth About The Talmud|url=http://talmud.faithweb.com/|access-date=2020-12-10|website=talmud.faithweb.com}}</ref><ref>ADL report, pp. 1–2</ref>
===Middle Ages===
At the very time that the [[Babylon]]ian ''[[savoraim]]'' put the finishing touches to the redaction of the Talmud, the [[emperor]] [[Justinian I|Justinian]] issued his edict against ''deuterosis'' (doubling, repetition) of the [[Tanakh|Hebrew Bible]].<ref>[[Novellae Constitutiones|Nov.]] 146.1.2.</ref> It is disputed whether, in this context, ''deuterosis'' means "Mishnah" or "[[Targum]]": in [[patristics|patristic]] literature, the word is used in both senses.
Full-scale attacks on the Talmud took place in the 13th century in France, where Talmudic study was then flourishing. In the 1230s [[Nicholas Donin]], a Jewish convert to Christianity, pressed 35 charges against the Talmud to [[Pope Gregory IX]] by translating a series of allegedly blasphemous passages about [[Jesus]], [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Mary]] or Christianity. There is a quoted Talmudic passage, for example, where a person named Yeshu who some people have claimed is [[Jesus in the Talmud|Jesus of Nazareth]] is sent to Gehenna to be [[Tzoah Rotachat|boiled in excrement]] for eternity. Donin also selected an injunction of the Talmud that permits Jews to kill non-Jews. This led to the [[Disputation of Paris]], which took place in 1240 at the court of [[Louis IX of France]], where four rabbis, including [[Yechiel of Paris]] and [[Moses ben Jacob of Coucy]], defended the Talmud against the accusations of Nicholas Donin. The translation of the Talmud from Aramaic to non-Jewish languages stripped Jewish discourse from its covering, something that was resented by Jews as a profound violation.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rZGx-bS3vcgC&q=disputation+of+paris&pg=PA137|title=Faithful Renderings: Jewish-Christian Difference and the Politics of Translation|first=Naomi|last=Seidman|date=February 15, 2010|publisher=University of Chicago Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9780226745077}}</ref> The Disputation of Paris led to the condemnation and the first burning of copies of the Talmud in Paris in 1242.<ref>Rodkinson, pp. 66–69</ref><ref>Levy, p. 701</ref>{{efn|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}} The burning of copies of the Talmud continued.<ref>James Carroll ''Constantine's sword: the church and the Jews : a history''</ref>
The Talmud was likewise the subject of the [[Disputation of Barcelona]] in 1263 between [[Nahmanides]] and Christian converts in which they argued if Jesus was the messiah prophesized in Judaism, [[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 [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]], who ordered the cancellation of passages deemed objectionable from a Christian perspective (1264).<ref>Cohn-Sherbok, pp. 50–54</ref><ref name="Maccoby">Maccoby</ref>
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 assertions 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.<ref name="Maccoby"/>
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 favor 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.<ref>[[Hyam Maccoby]], op. cit.</ref>
In 1415, [[Antipope 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 16th 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 [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]].<ref name="Maccoby"/><ref>Roth, Norman, ''Medieval Jewish civilization: an encyclopedia'', Taylor & Francis, 2003, p. 83</ref>
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.<ref>Rodkinson, p. 98</ref> 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.<ref>Hastings, James. ''Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Part 23'', p. 186</ref>
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 [[Pope Clement VIII|Clement VIII]] renewed the old interdiction against reading or owning it.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}} The increasing study of the Talmud in Poland led to the issue of a complete edition ([[Kraków]], 1602–05), 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). After an attack on the Talmud took place in Poland (in what is now Ukrainian territory) in 1757, when [[Mikolaj Dembowski|Bishop Dembowski]], at the instigation of the [[Frankists (Sabbateanism)|Frankists]], convened a public disputation at [[Kamieniec Podolski]], and ordered all copies of the work found in his bishopric to be confiscated and burned.<ref>Rodkinson, pp. 100–103</ref> A "1735 edition of Moed Katan, printed in Frankfurt am Oder" is among those that survived from that era.<ref name=TalmudMoedKatan.OU/> "Situated on the Oder River, Three separate editions of the Talmud were printed there between 1697 and 1739."
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 [[Johann Andreas Eisenmenger|Eisenmenger]]'s ''Entdecktes Judenthum'' (Judaism Unmasked) (1700).<ref>Rodkinson, p. 105</ref><ref>Levy, p. 210</ref><ref>Boettcher, Susan R., "Entdecktes Judenthum", article in Levy, p. 210</ref> 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 and [[Johannes Buxtorf II|son]].<ref>Berlin, George L., ''Defending the faith: nineteenth-century American Jewish writings on Christianity and Jesus'', SUNY Press, 1989, p. 156</ref>
===19th century and after===
The [[Vilna Edition Shas|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 of ''errata'', known as ''Chesronos Hashas'' ("Omissions of the Talmud").<ref>[http://www.dhengah.org/torah/chhashas.pdf Chesronos Hashas] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002041052/http://www.dhengah.org/torah/chhashas.pdf |date=2008-10-02 }}</ref> Many of these censored portions were recovered 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.<ref>[[The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition]], pp. 103–104 {{cite book |title=Printing the Talmud: a history of the individual treatises printed from 1700 to 1750 |last=Heller|first=Marvin J. |year=1999 |publisher=Brill Publishers |location=Basel |pages=17, 166 }}</ref>
In 1830, during a debate in the [[Chamber of Peers (France)|French Chamber of Peers]] regarding state recognition of the Jewish faith, Admiral [[Carel Hendrik Ver Huell|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Archives_israelites_1851_tome12.djvu/647|title=Page:Archives israelites 1851 tome12.djvu/647 |publisher=Wikisource}}</ref> In the same year the [[Luigi Chiarini (abbot)|Abbé Chiarini]] published 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: only two out of the projected six volumes of this translation appeared.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4319-chiarini-luigi|title=Chiarni, Luigi |publisher=JewishEncyclopedia.com}}</ref> In a like spirit 19th-century antisemitic 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 antisemitic 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]].<ref>Rodkinson, pp. 109–114</ref>
Further attacks from antisemitic sources include [[Justinas Pranaitis]]' ''[[The Talmud Unmasked|The Talmud Unmasked: The Secret Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians]]'' (1892)<ref>Levy, p. 564</ref> and [[Elizabeth Dilling]]'s ''The Plot Against Christianity'' (1964).<ref>Jeansonne, Glen, ''Women of the Far Right: The Mothers' Movement and World War II'', University of Chicago Press, 1997, pp. 168–169</ref> The criticisms of the Talmud in many modern pamphlets and websites are often recognizable as verbatim quotations from one or other of these.<ref name=Internet>{{Cite web |first=Jeremy |last=Jones |title=Talmudic Terrors |date=June 1999 |website=Australia/Israel Review |url=http://www.aijac.org.au/review/1999/246/talmudic.html|access-date=2008-06-12|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020330032614/http://www.aijac.org.au/review/1999/246/talmudic.html |archive-date=2002-03-30}}</ref>
Historians [[Will Durant|Will]] and [[Ariel Durant]] noted a lack of consistency between the many authors of the Talmud, with some tractates in the wrong order, or subjects dropped and resumed without reason. According to the Durants, the Talmud "is not the product of deliberation, it is the deliberation itself."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Durant|first1=Will|author-link1=Will Durant|last2=Durant|first2=Ariel|author-link2=Ariel Durant|title=The Story of Civilization: The Age of Faith|year=2011|orig-year=1950|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cusRoE1OJvEC&pg=PP388|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|isbn=9781451647617|page=388}}</ref>
===Contemporary accusations===
The Internet is another source of criticism of the Talmud.<ref name=Internet /> The [[Anti-Defamation League]]'s report on this topic states 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 critics rarely provide the 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.<ref name="ADL">{{cite press release
|publisher=[[Anti-Defamation League]]
|date=February 2003
|title=The Talmud in Anti-Semitic Polemics
|url=http://www.adl.org/presrele/asus_12/the_talmud.pdf
|access-date=September 16, 2010
|quote=By selectively citing various passages from the Talmud and [[Midrash]], polemicists have sought to demonstrate that Judaism espouses hatred for non-Jews (and specifically for Christians), 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.
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100805220714/http://www.adl.org/presrele/asus_12/the_talmud.pdf
|archive-date=August 5, 2010
}}
</ref>
One such example concerns the line: "If a Jew be called upon to explain any part of the rabbinic books, he ought to give only a false explanation. One who transgresses this commandment will be put to death." This is alleged to be a quote from a book titled ''Libbre David'' (alternatively ''Livore David''{{hsp}}). No such book exists in the Talmud or elsewhere.<ref>{{cite book
|last=Kominsky |first=Morris |author-link=Morris Kominsky
|title=The hoaxers: plain liars, fancy liars, and damned liars|date=1970 |publisher=Branden Press
|location=Boston |isbn=978-08283-1288-2 |lccn=76109134 |pages=169–176
|url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/van_hyning.html
|quote=Libbre David 37. This is a complete fabrication. No such book exists in the Talmud or in the entire Jewish literature.}}</ref> The title is assumed to be a corruption of ''Dibre David'', a work published in 1671.<ref>{{cite book|title=Israel and the New World Order|author=Andrew J. Hurley|publisher=Fithian Press|location=Foundation for a New World Order, Santa Barbara
|year=1991 |isbn=978-09318-3299-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/israelnewworldor00hurl}}</ref> Reference to the quote is found in an early [[Holocaust denial]] book, ''The Six Million Reconsidered'' by William Grimstad.<ref>The Six Million Reconsidered: A Special Report by the Committee for Truth in History, p. 16 [[Historical Review Press]], 1979</ref>
[[Gil Student]], Book Editor of the Orthodox Union's [[Jewish Action]] magazine, states that many attacks on the Talmud are merely recycling discredited material that originated in the 13th-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.<ref name = "Student">{{cite web |url = http://talmud.faithweb.com/articles/intro.html
|title=The Real Truth About The Talmud |first = Gil |last=Student |author-link = Gil Student
|year=2000  |access-date=September 16, 2010
|quote = 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...}}</ref>
==See also==
{{Portal|Judaism}}
* [[Hadran (Talmud)]]
* [[List of logical arguments in the Talmud]]
* [[List of Talmudic tractates]]
* [[Shas Pollak]]
* [[Siyum]]
* [[Siyum HaShas]]
* [[Talmudical hermeneutics]]
==References==
===Notes===
{{notelist}}
===Citations===
{{Reflist}}
===Works cited===
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924029498213#page/n187/mode/2up |title=The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy |last=Amram |first=David Werner |publisher=J.H. Greenstone |year=1909 |location=Philadelphia}}
* Nathan T. Lopes Cardozo ''The Infinite Chain: Torah, Masorah, and Man'' (Philipp Feldheim, 1989). {{ISBN|0-944070-15-9}}
* {{cite book |author=Aryeh Carmell |title=Aiding Talmud study |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rq-kVjTnlP0C |access-date=29 August 2011 |date=December 1986 |publisher=Feldheim Publishers |isbn=978-0-87306-428-6}} (includes Samuel ha-Nagid's ''Mevo ha-Talmud'', see next section)
* [[Zvi Hirsch Chajes]] ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110604115652/http://hebrewbooks.org/22253 Mevo Hatalmud]'', transl. Jacob Shachter: ''The Students' Guide Through The Talmud'' (Yashar Books, 2005). {{ISBN|1-933143-05-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Dalin |first=D.G. |title=The Myth of Hitler's Pope: Pope Pius XII And His Secret War Against Nazi Germany |publisher=Regnery Publishing |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-59698-185-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FnDoBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA25 |access-date=27 August 2017}}
* {{cite book |author=Dan Cohn-Sherbok |title=Judaism and other faiths |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YjSckdMCFWcC |access-date=29 August 2011 |year=1994 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-312-10384-2}}
* Fraade, Steven D, "Navigating the Anomalous: Non-Jews at the Intersection of Early Rabbinic Law and Narrative", in  {{cite book |author1=Laurence Jay Silberstein |author2=Robert L. Cohn |title=The Other in Jewish thought and history: constructions of Jewish culture and identity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Aawa_AqjINQC |access-date=29 August 2011 |date=1994 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-7990-3 |pages=145–165}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Gottheil |first1=Richard |last2=Broydé |first2=Isaac |year=1906 |article=Leo X. (Giovanni De Medici) |title=Jewish Encyclopedia |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9753-leo-x-giovanni-de-medici |access-date=27 August 2017}}
* {{cite journal |last=Heller |first=Marvin J |year=2005 |title=Earliest Printings of the Talmud: From Bomberg to Schottenstein |url=http://www.jewishhistory.com/PRINTINGTHETALMUD/essays/7.pdf |journal=Yeshiva University Museum |page=73 |access-date=2017-08-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160815204146/http://www.jewishhistory.com/PRINTINGTHETALMUD/essays/7.pdf |archive-date=2016-08-15 |url-status=dead}}
* {{cite book |author=R. Travers Herford |title=Christianity in Talmud and Midrash |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v2uXn-8ZB-oC |access-date=29 August 2011 |date=2007 |publisher=KTAV Publishing House, Inc. |isbn=978-0-88125-930-8}}
* D. Landesman ''A Practical Guide to Torah Learning'' ([[Jason Aronson]], 1995). {{ISBN|1-56821-320-4}}
* {{cite book |author1=Emmanuel Lévinas |author-link1=Emmanuel Levinas |author2=Annette Aronowicz |title=Nine Talmudic readings |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mT3VNPeVXuIC |access-date=29 August 2011 |date=1994 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-20876-7}}
* 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".
* {{cite book |author1=Hyam Maccoby |author-link1=Hyam Maccoby |author2=Jehiel ben Joseph (of Paris) |title=Judaism on trial: Jewish-Christian disputations in the Middle Ages |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hD1sQgAACAAJ |access-date=29 August 2011 |year=1993 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |isbn=978-1-874774-16-7}} A compendium of primary source materials, with commentary.
* Maimonides ''Introduction to the [[Mishneh Torah]]'' ([http://www.mechon-mamre.org/e/e0000.htm English translation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326034621/https://mechon-mamre.org/e/e0000.htm |date=2023-03-26 }})
* Maimonides ''Introduction to the [[Maimonides#Works and bibliography|Commentary on the Mishnah]]'' ([https://www.daat.ac.il/daat/mahshevt/hakdama/tohen-m-2.htm Hebrew Fulltext] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210509113350/http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/mahshevt/hakdama/tohen-m-2.htm |date=2021-05-09 }}),  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}}
* [[Michael Levi Rodkinson|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
* {{cite book |author=Jonathan Rosen |title=The Talmud and the Internet: A Journey Between Worlds |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GaAyUAKmm00C |access-date=29 August 2011 |date=2001 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8264-5534-5}}
* {{Cite book |last=Schiffman |first=Lawrence H. |title=The Comparative Textual Criticism of Religious Scriptures |date=2024 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-69362-3 |editor-last=Finsterbusch |editor-first=Karin |pages=133–151 |chapter=Textual Criticism and the Evolution of Rabbinic Texts: Will There Ever Be a Final Text? |doi=10.1163/9789004693623_009 |editor-last2=Fuller |editor-first2=Russell |editor-last3=Lange |editor-first3=Armin |editor-last4=Driesbach |editor-first4=Jason |chapter-url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004693623/BP000014.xml}}
* {{cite book |author=Steinsaltz |first=Adin |author-link=Adin Steinsaltz |title=The Talmud: A Reference Guide |url= |access-date= |date=1996 |publisher=Random House |isbn=0-679-77367-3}}
* {{cite book |author=Adin Steinsaltz |author-link=Adin Steinsaltz |title=The essential Talmud |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=keXGJjd4ThcC&pg=PA10 |access-date=29 August 2011 |date=2006 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-08273-5}} Read more [http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20060829004122/http://www.steinsaltz.org/dynamic/book_details.asp?id%3D22 here]. See also [https://web.archive.org/web/20060525191901/http://www.steinsaltz.org/dynamic/essay_details.asp?id=6&sub=1 here].
* {{Cite book |last=Strack |first=H.L. |title=Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash |last2=Stemberger |first2=Giinter |date=1992 |publisher=Fortress Press}}
{{refend}}
====Logic and methodology====
{{refbegin}}
* [[Samuel ibn Naghrela|Samuel ha-Nagid]], ''Mevo ha-Talmud''
* [[Joseph ben Judah ibn Aknin]], ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/33105 Mevo ha-Talmud]''
* [[Zerachiah ha-Levi of Girona|Zerachiah Halevi]], ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/24968 Sefer ha-Tzava]''
* [[Samson of Chinon]], ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/32813 Sefer ha-Keritut]''
* [[Jacob Hagiz]], ''Teḥillat Ḥochmah'' (included in most editions of ''Keritut'')
* collective, ed. [[Abraham ibn Akra]], ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/7049 Meharere Nemarim]''
* [[Joseph ibn Verga]], ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/11888 She'erit Yosef]''
* [[Isaac Campanton]], ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/21689 Darche ha-Talmud]''
* [[David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra]], ''Kelale ha-Gemara''
* [[Bezalel Ashkenazi]], ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/38786 Kelale ha-Gemara]''
* Yeshu’ah b. Yosef ha-Levi, ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/11511 Halichot Olam]''
** [[Joseph Caro]], ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/24850 Kelale ha-Gemara]'' (commentary on ''Halichot Olam'')
** Solomon Algazi, ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/24722 Yavin Shemu’ah]'' (commentary on ''Halichot Olam'')
* Yisrael Ya'akov Algazi, ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/31452 Ar'a de-Rabbanan]''
* Serillo, Samuel, ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/20305 Kelale Shemuel]''
* [[Isaiah Horowitz|Horowitz, Isaiah]], ''Shene Luchot ha-Berit'' (section on ''Torah she-be-al-Pe'')
* [[Moses Chaim Luzzatto]], ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/19760 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, ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/42077 Darche Noam]''
* Malachi ha-Cohen, ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/14122 Yad Malachi]''
* [[Aryeh Leib HaCohen Heller]], ''[[Shev Shema'tata]]''
* Goitein, B., ''[http://hebrewbooks.org/19582 Kesef Nivhar]''
* Ezechia Bolaffi, [http://hebrewbooks.org/30816 ''Ben Zekunim'' vol. 1]
* Moshe Amiel, ''Ha-Middot le-Ḥeqer ha-Halachah'', [http://hebrewbooks.org/33168 vol. 1], [http://hebrewbooks.org/33170 vol. 2], [http://hebrewbooks.org/33169 vol. 3]
{{refend}}
====Modern scholarly works====
{{refbegin}}
* Hanoch Albeck, ''Mavo la-talmudim''
* [[Daniel Boyarin]], ''Sephardi Speculation: A Study in Methods of Talmudic Interpretation'' (Hebrew), Machon Ben Zvi: Jerusalem, 1989
* Yaakov Elman, "Order, Sequence, and Selection: The Mishnah’s Anthological Choices,” in [[David Stern (academic)|David Stern]], ed. ''The Anthology in Jewish Literature'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) 53–80
* Y.N. Epstein, ''Mevo-ot le-Sifrut haTalmudim''
* Uziel Fuchs, ''Talmudam shel Geonim: yaḥasam shel geone Bavel lenosaḥ ha-Talmud ha-Bavli'' (The Geonic Talmud: the Attitude of Babylonian Geonim to the Text of the Babylonian Talmud): Jerusalem 2017
* [[David Weiss Halivni]], ''Mekorot u-Mesorot'' (Jerusalem: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1982 on)
* [[Louis Jacobs]], "How Much of the Babylonian Talmud is Pseudepigraphic?" Journal of Jewish Studies 28, No. 1 (1977), pp.&nbsp;46–59
* [[Saul Lieberman]], ''Hellenism in Jewish Palestine'' (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1950)
* [[Moses Mielziner]], ''Introduction to the Talmud'': repr. 1997, hardback {{ISBN|978-0-8197-0156-5}}, paperback {{ISBN|978-0-8197-0015-5}}
* [[Jacob Neusner]], ''Sources and Traditions: Types of Compositions in the Talmud of Babylonia'' (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992).
* Aviram Ravitzky, ''Aristotelian Logic and Talmudic Methodology'' (Hebrew): Jerusalem 2009, {{ISBN|978-965-493-459-6}}
* Andrew Schumann, ''Talmudic Logic'': (London: College Publications 2012), {{ISBN|978-1-84890-072-1}}
* [[Hermann Strack|Strack, Herman L.]] and Stemberger, Günter, ''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}}
{{refend}}
'''On individual tractates'''
{{refbegin}}
* 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)
* Netanel Baadani, Sanhedrin chapter 5: ''Iggud le-Farshanut ha-Talmud'' (Hebrew, with English summary)
* Moshe Benovitz, Sukkah chapters 4–5: ''Iggud le-Farshanut ha-Talmud'' (Hebrew, with English summary)
{{refend}}
'''Historical study'''
{{refbegin}}
* 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.&nbsp;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, [http://www.edah.org/backend/coldfusion/displayissue.cfm?volume=2&issue=1 Finding A Home for Critical Talmud Study] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040905170257/http://www.edah.org/backend/coldfusion/displayissue.cfm?volume=2&issue=1 |date=2004-09-05 }}
{{refend}}
====Full text resources====
* [https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Talmud Talmud and English translation, from the Steinsaltz edition]
* [http://www.halakhah.com Talmud Bavli (Soncino translation)] (English). The Soncino Press translation of the Talmud Bavli in [[Portable Document Format]]. No index volume and no [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5423306 minor-tractates].
* [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/h/h0.htm Mishnah] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121205052431/http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/h/h0.htm |date=2012-12-05 }} (Hebrew)
* [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/f/f0.htm Tosefta] {{Webarchive|url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20131011213928/http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/f/f0.htm |date=2013-10-11 }} (Hebrew)
* [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/r/r0.htm Talmud Yerushalmi] {{Webarchive|url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20131011213925/http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/r/r0.htm |date=2013-10-11 }} (Hebrew)
* [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/l/l0.htm Talmud Bavli] {{Webarchive|url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20131011213928/http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/l/l0.htm |date=2013-10-11 }} (Hebrew)
* [http://kodesh.snunit.k12.il/ Full searchable Talmud on Snunit] (Hebrew)
* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm Rodkinson English translation] See above, under [[#Talmud Bavli]].
* [http://www.e-daf.com E-Daf] Images of each page of the Babylonian Talmud
* [http://www.nosachteiman.co.il/?CategoryID=1160&ArticleID=5713&SearchParam=%D7%AA%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%93 Tractate Megillah]: .pdf download showing Yemenite vocalization
* [http://www.shas.org/dafviewer Shas.org Daf Viewer] (Hebrew)
==External links==
{{Wikisource}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{commons category|Babylonian Talmud}}
* [https://www.sefaria.org/ Sefaria.org]
* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14213-talmud/ Jewish Encyclopedia: Talmud]
* [http://www.aish.com/literacy/jewishhistory/Crash_Course_in_Jewish_History_Part_39_-_Talmud.asp Jewish History: Talmud] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141118034335/http://www.aish.com/literacy/jewishhistory/Crash_Course_in_Jewish_History_Part_39_-_Talmud.asp |date=2014-11-18 }}, aish.com
* [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/talmud_&_mishna.html Talmud/Mishnah/Gemara], jewishvirtuallibrary.org
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080705164241/http://www.law.miami.edu/library/judaicguide.php Jewish Law Research Guide], [[University of Miami]] Law Library
* [http://ohr.edu/judaism/survey/survey.htm A survey of rabbinic literature] by [[Ohr Somayach, Jerusalem|Ohr Somayach]]
* [http://www.yibuffalo.org/divrei_torah/Intro_Talmud_06.pdf Introduction to the Talmud] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160902074949/http://yibuffalo.org/divrei_torah/Intro_Talmud_06.pdf |date=2016-09-02 }} by M. Taub
* [https://www.e-codices.ch/en/list/one/sbs/min0071 Talmud translation, 13th–14th century], at [[E-codices]]
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