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v
■quotation with the words “As
Rabbi Talmud relates” . . .
A nineteen century theolog-
gian ridiculed the Talmud be
cause he thought the lengthy
tractate called “Beitzah” dealt
entirely with the subject of an
egg. He was woefully ignorant
of the elementary fact that it is
a Hebrew custom to designate
a book or a section by its
opening word. As an illustra
tion, the first of the five books
of Moses is called “Bereshith”
—“in the beginning,” since that
is the first word of the Bible.
There was a time it was felt
by many that the Talmud is a”
“secret” book, containing in
formation exclusively, for the
adherents of Judaism. The
truth is that nothing is hidden
except for those who cannot
read and understand the text,
which is quite difficult to
master properly.
For one reason or another,
the Talmud was “persecuted”
like the Jewish people them
selves. Prohibition against its
study was proclaimed
throughout history, tens of
thousands of its volumes were
confiscated and burned, and its
students tortured and marty
red. Our history is replete with
such auto-da-fes of the Talmud
with many of their Rabbis and
scholars burned alive togeth
er. Thus on Rosh Hashonah
1553 Pope Julius the third
ordered the burning of tens
of thousands of Talmudic vol
umes. More burnings took
place during the reign and by
the order of Pope Gregory the
13th between the years 1575 to
1585 and by Pope Clement the
8th in 1593. Holland did its
share of burning of the Tal
mud in the year 1559, Ger
many—in 1707 and Poland as
late as 1757. The Nazis under
Hitler of course surpassed
them all and destroyed and
burned all the Hebrew books
that they laid their bloody
hands on.
Among the many definitions
of the Talmud, the description
offered by the famous scholar,
Emanuel Deutsch, deserves
quotation: “The Talmud is the
work which embodies the Civil
and Canonical Laws of the
Jewish people, forming a kind
of supplement to the Penta
teuch, such as took about one
thousand years of a nation’s
life to produce. It is not merely
a dull treatise, but it appeals
to the imagination and feel
ings, and to all that is noblest
and purest. Between the rug
ged boulders of the Law which
bestrew the path of the Tal
mud there grow the blue
flowers of romance, parable,
tale, gnome, saga; its elements
are taken from the heavens
and the earth, but chiefly and
most lovingly from the human
heart and from Scripture, for
every letter and every verse
in this latter, became as it were.
The Southern Israelite
a golden nail upon which to
hang its gorgeous tapestries.
The Talmud taught that reli
gion was not a thing of creed
or dogma or faith merely, but
of active goodness. “And as an
other scholar declares “The
Talmud is an inexhaustible
mine embodying the purest of
gold and the most precious of
stone. In it is included the
study of nature such as: cos
mology, cosmography, astron
omy, mathematics, medicine,
physics, hygiene, psychology,
philosophy, diet, maxims and
ethics, etc. etc. which instill
the teachings of religion and
morality to the very highest
order.”
The Talmud is a veritable
Encylopedia Judaica Universus
with everything imaginable in
it. But unlike modern Ency
clopedias where one can easily
find everything by referring
to specific words and items,
the Talmud, in spite of its di
visions into tractates and chap
ters is in nuda veritas a virt
ual sea, where important dis
cussions and decisions of law
may be found alongside with
any of the above sciences on
the same page, and mixed to
gether, it is really a conglo
meration of everything with
out anyway of reference, and
unless one is highly proficient
in its long study and in posses
sion of an extraordinary mem
ory, there is absolutely no
way of finding anything, like
attempting to find a needle in
a stack of hay. This was real
ized by the great Maimonides
(12th Century) and Jacob ben
Asher (The Turim) (13th cen
tury) who sorted out all the
points of the law into separate
codes known as the “Yad Ha-
chazakah” of the Maimonides.
and the “Four Turim” by Jac
ob ben Asher by which world
Jewry of today is guided in
decisions of Law.
The Talmud itself is com
prised of many huge volumes
printed with original text and
hundreds of commentaries
some of which are extremely
essential for the understanding
of the meanings, and others of
which are required for deeper
insight and investigation of the
difficult disputes and problems
involved. It indeed is a very
difficult study and many great
Rabbis have been known to
have spent their entire life
time in its study and claimed
not to have “completed it,”
notwithstanding the fact that
they actually “finished” it
many many times with Uje^
hundreds of the commentaries.
It has been translated into
many European languages. An
excellent English edition has
been printed by the “Soncino
Press”, London,. England. The
translation was made by the
famous scholar Rabbi Dr. Isa-
dore Epstein.
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