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The Talmud
The Talmud contains sixty-three sections or tractates, each of which deals
with some aspect of the law. Two Talmuds, representing the Palestinian and
Babylonian schools of the Amoraim, or doctors, are in existence. The Palestinian
Talmud, the shorter of the two, written in Western Aramaic, dates from the close of
the fourth century. The Babylonian Talmud was written about the end of the
fifth century in Eastern Aramaic dialect. Both are incomplete, lacking whole
sections or parts of sections. In the thirteenth century the Talmud came under the
ban of the church, and so many copies were destroyed or damaged that its survival
was threatened. The miracle is that it exists at all. To this day the Talmud
is the standard of orthodox Judaism, regulative of faith and of ritual practice.
It sets the interpretation of the law and is often more directly influential
on beliefs and on life than is the Old Testament itself.
The Talmud is the final form of the oral law, now written, including legal
discussions, verse by verse analysis and exegesis, proverbs, prayers, fables, and
Jewish folklore. Between the 3rd and 6th centuries A.D. the Mishnah, along with
all its exegetical and homiletical additions, was gradually compiled into what
is known as the Talmud. Two separate versions of the Talmud were produced by
Jewish rabbinic schools: the Babylonian Talmud compiled by Jews in Babylonia who
had not returned to Jerusalem with the other exiles; and the Palestinian
Talmud edited by Jews who had returned to Palestine after the exile. The Talmud is a
massive collection of Jewish law with corresponding commentary. The Babylonian
Talmud came to be recognized as the authoritative source for the regulation of
Jewish religious and community life.
Also see The Tractates of the Mishnah