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The Revelation at Mount
Sinai occurred over 3,400 years
ago. (Some chronologists, curi
ously enough, fix the dates of
Exodus from Egypt, seven
weeks before Revelation, as
1,492 B.C.E., which by an
amazing coincidence brings to
mind the Exodus from Spain
in 1492 of the Common Era,
which is also the year America
was discovered by Columbus.
As a result we have the Torah,
or Scriptures, consisting of
three Sections, known as '(a)
“The five books of Moses”
(pentateuch), (b) The “Pro
phets” (Neviim) and (c) “K’-
thubim” (Hagiographa), the
trilogy forming the word “Ta-
NaCH,” from the initial He
brew letters of these three
words.
The Torah, or Scriptures, are
known as the Written Law.
Next in importance is the Oral
Law, known under the general
name of Talmud (meaning:
learning), consisting of the
Mishnah and Gemarah. This
colossal code of Jewish Oral
Law was written over a period
of about 700 years, beginning
about 200 B.C. and finally com
pleted at about 500 C.E. The
Mishnah consists of legal tra
ditions, practices and usages,
which were learned orally,
from teacher to pupil, down
through the ages. The early
such teachers were called
“Tannaim,” (the plural of the
word Tanna, meaning: teach
er), there being some 277
Tannaism of these profound
thinkers and interpreters of
Bible and Jewish Law. These
were followed by some 2,300
known under the name of
“Amoraim” (Expounders) to
complete the Talmud, univer
sally considered to be the
CORPUS JURIS of the Jew
ish People.
There are actually two Tal-
muds: The more important one
is called the Babylonian Tal
mud, because it was developed
in the Rabbinical Academies of
Babylonia where there was a
great settlement of Jews, prob
ably numbering between one
and two million at the time
after the destruction of Jeru
salem. The other called the
Jerusalem Talmud had been
completed in the year 370 C.E.
The language of the Mishnah is
a terse concise vernacular form
of Hebrew and is followed by
the Gemarah, a discoursive
commentary on the Mishnah,
and the Talmud consists of
the Mishnah and Gemarah
combined. The Talmud is
known as the “Yam Hatal-
mud “the Talmudic Sea, em
phasizing its vastness and end
less depth. After the “Scribes”
had collected and edited the
Bible as we have it now, de
claring it a closed canon, reii-
10
gious thinkers and the Jewish
people alike remained dis
satisfied. This merely goes to
prove that at no time did the
Jews have a static or frozen
p h i 1 osophy of religion. It
grew and changed organical
ly with the development of
life itself through the ages.
So the successors of the
Scribes, the Tannaim proceed
ed to expound and interpret
the Bible itself examining
every word and even letter of
it. Before long the Mishnah,
too, was found to have obscuri
ties which required elaboration
and interpretation. The ans
wer to this was the Gemarah,
which interprets the Bible and
the Mishnah, which, combined,
are called “The Talmud.” This
tremendous set of volumes is
written mostly in Aramaic and
Hebrew with a good admix
ture of Latin and Greek words
and expressions.
There is another set of in
terpretive literature known as
the “Midrash” written by the
Tannaim and Amoraim and
others, simultaneously with
their work on the Mishnah
and Gemarah, lasting over a
period of about 1,200 years.
Thus we see that the concep
tion of Torah was a constantly
widening one. The Babylonian
Talmud consists of sixty-three
(63) volumes or tractates. Each
tractate is divided into chap
ters, there being 523 chapters
in all. The entire Talmud is
divided into Six Orders, which
are as follows: (1) “Seeds”
(11 tractates), dealing with
rules of planting, fruit offer
ings, forbidden mixtures, the
seventh year, etc. (2) “Festi
vals.” (12 tractates) Regula
tion of Sabbath, Festivals, etc.
(3) “Women.” (7 tractates)
dealing with marriage, divorce,
infidelity, etc. 4) “Injuries and
Damages.” (10 tractates), deal
ing in injuries, criminal law,
legal punisments, maxims and
aphorisms, etc. 5) “Holy
things.” (11 tractates), dealing
on sacrifices, the Temple, 1 etc.
and (6) “Purification.” (12
tractates), dealing on ritual
purification, leprosy, menstrua
tion, defilements of bodily dis
charge, etc.
The Talmud is one of the
monumental works of the
world’s literature. Next to the
Bible itself it is the supreme
product of the Jewish mind,
and throughout the centuries
has exercised a tremondous in
fluence on the life of the Jew
ish people not inferior to that
of the Bible itself.
Many erroneous impressions
have existed concerning the
Talmud and its contents. The
Dominican Friar H e n r i c u s
Synesis, in the middle ages,
thought it was the name of a
Rabbi and he introduced a
The
Talmud
Short History
and Explanation
by JACOB L. FRIEND
whose translations oj
Talmudic Sayings now
appear weekly in
The Southern Israelite
widely-known as a
renowned scholar, Mr.
Friend teaches at the
Ahavath Achim Religious
Schools. He is recalled
as our "Rosh Hashonah”
couer notable in 1958
when he was translating
Russian treatises into
English at Georgia Tech—
free in appreciation of
finding a final for himself
and family in America
The Southern Israelite