Talmud: Some Thoughts and Notes

by koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil, ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer for Avondale College

Australia


Translation in Korean

by Sookyoung Kim (Phd) (my spouse)

Conjoint lecturer for the Theology Department

Avondale College

Australia


Source: 

Z. H. Chajes, The student's guide through the Talmud. Edited by J. Schachter (New York: Philipp Feldhiem, 1960).

Encyclopaedia Judaica "Talmud". Edited by Fred Skolnik (Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference, 2007).

M. J. Mielke, "Literêre bronne van die Halakhâ tussen die 4e en 6e eeu n.C." Judaica II Guide 1 chapter 6 (Pretoria: University of South Africa, 1979), 55-68.


Definition and history

The Talmud is a literary source of the Halachah that originated between the 4th and 6th centuries AD.

There were two centers of legal studies during the period after the completion of the Mishnah (completed between 200 to 400 AD): Palestinian academic group and the Babylonian academic group. Due to the upsurge of Christianity and due to persecutions, Jews moved to Babylon but others remained in Palestine. There were contact between the two centers but they sometimes had a different approach to the same problems. The Palestinian decisions were cursory and short to enhance the speed of application. In Babylon, the Amora'im (Jewish scholars of this period) studied the literary products of the Tanna'im (Jewish scholars between 200-400 AD) very carefully and also to apply their ideas to their own conditions in Babylon. The Amora'im wrote their discussions in Aramaic and they are very systematic. These discussions are called Gemara which means "educate".

The Palestinian Amora'im between the time of the Mishnah and the Talmud were Rabbi Ḥanina ben-Ḥama and Rabbi Jannai ben-Kappara. They both studied under Rabbi Judah at Sephoris in Galilee. At Lidda were Rabbi Hoshea (the Great) and Rabbi Joshua ben-Levi. Ben-Levi tried to collect all that was left out of the Mishnah and wanted to explain why they were left out.

The second generation of Palestinian Amora'im were Rabbi Joḥannan bar Nappaḥa (199-279 AD) and Rabbi Shimeon ben-Lagish (200-275 AD). The third generation were Rabbi Ammi ben-Natan and Rabbi Assi and also Rabbi Eleasar ben-Pedat and Rabbi Se'ira of Babylon. At Caesarea was Rabbi Abbahu. Two more generation followed after these but they were not so important. Through the labor of Rabbi Jose ben-Nun, the Palestinian Talmud was completed.


The Jerusalem or Palestinian Talmud.

The word Talmud is derived from the word lamad meaning "to teach" and it includes both the Mishnah and the commentary and discussions on the Mishnah. It appears in the Gemarȃ, a word derived from the Aramaic word gamar "to teach". The Gemarȃ is a continuous expansion and explanations of the parts or paragraphs of the Mishnah. The text of the Mishnah was studied separately by Palestinian and Babylonian schools. Each produced their own Gemarȃ. The one that originated in Palestine is now called the Jerusalem Talmud and the one that originated in Babylon is called the Babylonian Talmud.


Author

The author of the Jerusalem Talmud is not one particular person but is the sumtotal of investigation, discussions and expansions that were developed over a period of two centuries. Rabbi Jose ben-Nun finally completed the project in ca. 375 AD.


Content

The content of the Jerusalem Talmud must be divided into two parts: the first dealing with the Halachah and the second with the Aggadah. With the first part, the text of the Mishnah is cited first and studied well. Then the opinions and teachings of the rabbis that were not included in the Mishnah (Beraitot = outsiders) are considered and weighed in comparison with the Mishnah. The Talmud mentions also a number of problems that did not exist earlier. Inconsistencies are weighed and solutions are considered. In the second part, the Aggadah, which comprise about 15% of the Talmud or 750 000 words, is a collection of teachings, decisions, parables and exegetical explanations which is called the tradition of the teachers of the Talmud scholars and also earlier scholars. The Aggadic material can be divided into four parts: history, religion, ethics/exegetical and scientific. The scientific section deals with medicine, astrology, astronomy.


Style

The style of the Jerusalem Talmud is very short and cryptic and in many cases two words flow into one. This Talmud was written in haste and with speed. Sometimes statements and teachings are placed together but they are without contextual link. Many sentences are incomplete. Sometimes the report of differences between two schools come abruptedly to a halt. Words were not written in full at times and two or more words may be abbreviated together by just using letters. Sometimes the letters were interpreted wrongly and also the text were understood wrongly. Until today, there is no scientific trustworthy edition of the Jerusalem Talmud.


Language 

The language of the Jerusalem Talmud is  mostly a western dialect of Aramaic with a number of Hebraisms.

As far as divisions are concerned, the Jerusalem Talmud provides notes and explanations of the Mishnah text for the first four sedarim. Except for the first tractate of the sixth order, namely, Niddȃ, that provides Gemarȃ on the first three chapters and a few lines of the fourth chapter, there are no Gemarȃ available on the fifth and sixth sedarim. Scholar are not sure if the Jerusalem Talmud had Gemarȃ on all the tractates, including the fifth and sixth. It may have gone lost because the last four chapters of the tractate Sabbath and also the last chapter of the Makkot is not available.


First full Edition

The first full edition of the Talmud was the Palestinian Talmud in 1522/3 in Venice. It was published with two columns on each page. Since then the Jerusalem Talmud is printed the same as the Babylonian Talmud, namely, only with one column on each page. The text of the Talmud is in the center and the commentaries are printed on each side.


The Babylonian Amora'im

Under the Parthians the Jews had more freedom than the scholars of Palestine. Similar to the Jerusalem Talmud also in the Babylonian Talmud the combination of the Mishnah and Gemara is the Talmud.

The Babylonian Talmud was brought together over 300 years by careful study of the Mishnah. At Sura and Pumbedita new trends developed that was also taken up in the Gemara. Rabbi Ashi spent 30 years to complete all the tractates and another 30 years were spent for revision. After his death another 60 years were spent to refine it. With the death of Rabina in 499, the Talmud was completed.


Content

The content of the Babylonian Talmud is more extensive than the Jerusalem Talmud. There are 2.5 million more words in the Babylonian Talmud of which 30% are haggadic in nature. It is more complex since they could calmly spent more time on speculative aspects than what the Palestinian scholars could do.


Language

The Babylonian Talmud was written in an eastern Aramaic dialect but Hebrew also appears freely. In the Jerusalem Talmud the haggadic and halachic portions are woven into each other better.


First complete edition

The first complete edition of the Talmud appeared in 1520 in Venice. The standard edition is that of Romm that was used in 1886 in Vilna. It is a replica of the first edition. The commentary of Rashi appears on the inner margin line and the remarks of the Tosafot are on the outer margin line on each page. A compilation of variants to the present text and a comparison of various manuscripts was made by Raphael Rabbinovitch. His work, entitled, Diqduqe Soferim, consist of 16 volumes and was made between 1868-1886 in München and was published in 1897 in Przemysel.


Function

The prime function of the Talmud is to present the discussions of the Amora'im on the Mishnah.

The impression the Talmud gives, is that the discussions are comprehensive and confusing. They indicate by closer inspection important legal principles that played a role on the later and further development of the halacha. The principles of the Talmud is based on the hermeneutic rules of Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Samuel.


Conventionally, the Talmud scholars accepts the following hermeneutic rules:

1. If there is a difference of opinion between an individual scholar and his colleague, the majority view is accepted (Berakhot 9a)

2. The opinion of the school of Hillel is accepted rather than the opinion of the school of Shammai (Eruvin 6b)

3. When there is a dispute between Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Samuel, Rabbi Hillel is followed for the religious cases and Rabbi Samuel is followed for the civil cases.

4. The opinion of Rabbi Johanan bar-Nappaḥa is followed over against that of Rabbi Simeon ben-Lagish (Jevamot 36a).

5. The opinion of Rabba bar-Naḥmani is accepted over against the opinion of Rabbi Joseph bar-Ḥijja (Baba Batra 144b).

6. The opinion of Rabbi Hillel is followed over against the idea of Abbaje (Kiddushin 52a) .

7. When the phrase we-hilketȃ is used with a sentence "And this is the law" then the sentence is legally binding.

8. A law that is stated anonymous is accepted to be the opinion of the majority and is thus binding.


Differences between the Jerusalem Talmud and Babylonian Talmud

a1. Each page of the Babylonian Talmud consists of a folio a on the obverse and folio b on the reverse. Reference is TB Ber. 9b = Tractate Berakhot in Babylonian Talmud, folio 9 reverse.

a2. In the Jerusalem Talmud there are two columns on each folio, obverse and reverse. Folios on the obverse are called a and b and on the reverse c and d. TJ, Ber 23c = Tractate Berakhot in the Jerusalem Talmud, folio 23, column c.

b1. The Babylonian Talmud only gave a Gemarah on the tractate Berakhot.

b2. The Jerusalem Talmud gave commentary on all the tractates of the "Order Zera'im".

c1. The Babylonian Talmud is written in Eastern Aramaic with some Hebraisms.

c2. The Jerusalem Talmud is written in Western or Palestinian-Jewish Aramaic with also many Greek words and expressions.

d1. The Babylonian Talmud is more focused on themes although it is comprehensive and sometimes wander off the topic.

d2. The Jerusalem Talmud contains many repetitions which demonstrate that it is a compilation.

e1. The Babylonian Talmud has more haggadic material.

e2. The Babylonian Talmud has less haggadic material.

f1. The Babylonian Talmud has more material on which the later legal scholars depended, although its format does not give the impression of a legal book.

f2. The Jerusalem Talmud gives more the impression of a legal book.

g1. The authority of the Babylonian Talmud was propagated.

g2. The authority of the Jerusalem Talmud was not propagated and thus not cited as source for legitimacy.


Textual Criticism of the Talmud

The most critical aspect of the Talmud is the issue of textual form. Due to persecutions and book-burnings through the ages, the Talmud had to be rewritten many times. One finds evidence of inconsistency in the words of Rashi who refers to different editions. Rashi, Jacob Tal and Rambam sometimes included words or phrases that they felt was left out by the copyists. As a result of these additions to the Talmud, interpretational differences originated later. The authoritative manuscript for the Talmud is the München manuscript of the complete Talmud of 1334 that is known as Codex Münich 95 and that also contains some "Apocryphal Tractates".

The Palestinian Talmud is accepted to be best represented in the Leyden manuscript. This manuscript was copied in 1289 by Benjamin ha-Rofe and he himself was very sceptical about its form, namely that it was considered to be unreliable.



For the following reasons, the Talmud is of prime importance:

1.  The Talmud provides us with close approximations as to who the authors of the various books of the Old Testament were.

2. The Tractate Baba Batra 14a and 14b is of prime importance for all Old Testament scholars.

3. The Talmud is very certain that Moses wrote Job. This position is not only favorable traditionally in Jewish circles but also linguistically the book of Job contains many Egyptianisms, indicating that the book originated by someone who was very acquainted with Middle Egyptian vocabulary, phrases and culture.

4. The Talmud is a good source for the information regarding the canon of the Old Testament, that it consists of 24 books.   

5. The Talmud is the opinions of scholars and at times opinions varied and are contrasting. Biblical truth is not the sumtotal of the decision of the majority in a council. It is truth because it is the Word of God. Democratic votes cannot establish truth and in this way, following the voice of the majority according to hermeneutical rules for the Talmud, cannot safeguard truth for us.

6. As long as the Talmud is not in conflict with scripture, not disturbing the inner balance and harmony of scripture itself, the Talmud can be a rich source of information for the Old Testament Scholar.

7. The Talmud has no power to amend, add, delete, any part of the Scripture.

8. Even though the people who compiled the Talmud was God-fearing people and at times very spiritual, their sayings or opinions are not the Word of God but opinions and sayings about the Word of God. There is a difference.

9. The Talmud is not a navigation for the Word of God but the Word of God is normative for the Talmud.

10. Although the Talmud is filled with all kinds of legends and myths regarding the historical persons of the Old Testament, yet, one can sometimes see that these scholars studied the Old Testament very well. One example is where the Talmud indicate that Abraham went to stay with Noah for 39 years to learn from him the Word of God. This is a very interesting comment, since the totals of the chronology of the Old Testament, places Abraham in 2231 BCE for his birth, but the death of Noah was in 2171 BCE. There is a 60 year overlap.

11. Another remarkable comment in the Talmud, although also loaded with legends and myths of an uneasy kind, is the information about Henoch that he had a son who was a prophet and who had a vision of the Flood to come.

12. Another aspect of the Talmud caught our attention: Just like in the post-Christian era books of Buddha, so also in the post-Christian era Talmud is there a correlation with the phenomena in the stars at the birth of Abraham, just like that of Christ and Buddha. While Terah had friends and wisemen for a feast over at his tent, they saw in the sky a big star that ate up all the other stars. The wisemen then proclaimed that Abraham will be a big man in future.


 

탈무드 Talmud. “연구,” “학습,” “교훈”의 뜻으로 유대교의 랍비들이 성경 시대 이후 약 800년(B.C. 300-A.D. 500)에 걸쳐 구두로 전달, 발전시켜 온 구전과 해설을 모은 것이다. 유대인의 종교적, 도덕적, 시민적 생활 전반에 걸친 유전(막   7:9)과 지혜를 모은 구전 율법의 집대성이라 할 수 있다. 유대인의 전승에 따르면 성문법과 더불어 시내산에서 모세에게 계시되었던 구전법(口傳法 oral law)이 대를 이어 전달되어 여호수아와 장로들을 거쳐 선지자들에게서 에스라와 그의 후계 서기관들에게 전달되었으며 그 후 기원전 1세기 끝 무렵 힐렐 샴마이 학파로 시작되어 기원 2세기 경 끝난 타나임 (Tannaim) 시대의 학자들에 의해 이 구전 율법이 히브리어로 기록된 미쉬나 (Mishnah)가 완성되었다. 그 후 기원 200-500년에 걸친 아모라임 (Amoraim) 시대의 유대인 랍비들이 수 세기에 걸쳐 이 미쉬나를 토의하고 해설한 것을 요약하여 주로 아람어로 기록한 주석집인 게마라 (Gemara)가 집대성되었는데 구전 율법인 미쉬나와 그 주석인 게마라의 두 부분을 합하여 탈무드라 부른다. 탈무드는 법전 가르침, 즉 일종의 판례집인 할라카 (halakah)와 비법전 자료로 윤리적 가르침과 이야기를 모은 하가다 (haggadah)로 구성되었다. 집대성된 장소에 따라 팔레스틴 탈무드, 또는 예루살렘 탈무드바벨론 탈무드의 두 종류가 있는데 예루살렘 탈무드보다 약 1세기 후인 기원 500년 경 완성된 바벨론 탈무드에 더 많은 권위를 부여한다. 탈무드의 구조는 주로 미쉬나의 구조를 따라 6 개의 주제별(세다 Sedar)로 배열되었다. 해당되는 미쉬나페이지의 중앙에 놓이고 그 주위로 주석인 게마라를 배치하였다. 오늘날에 이르기까지 유대인의 생활 전반에 미친 탈무드의 중요성은 괄목할 만하다. 중세 시대 유대인의 모든 종교적 행위의 중심에 탈무드와 그에 대한 해석이 자리 잡고 있었으며 유대인 교육에 있어 가장 중요한 문서로 여겨졌다. 또한 탈무드는 기독교의 경전이기도 한 구약 성경의 책들을 모두 정경으로 인정하며 창세기를 비롯한 책들의 저자들을 그 책들 내부에서 기술하는 바대로 뒷받침하여 기독교인들에게도 의미를 지닌다. 그 기록된 사건들이 발생한 5세기 후에 완성된 문서이기는 하나 집필의 배경이 신약 성경이 쓰여진 시대까지 거슬러 올라가므로 예수님 당시나 신약 시대 유대인들의 관습이나 랍비들의 사상이 반영되어 있어 탈무드는 신약 학자들에게도 흥미있는 연구의 대상이다. 

<참고문헌> 아가페 성경사전, “탈무드” (서울: 아가페 성경사전 편찬위원회, 1991); 이호열, 새성경사전, 탈무드” (대전: 하나성경, 2004); Stephenson Humphries-Brooks, "Talmud," in  Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Chad Brand, Charles Draper, and Archie England, ed. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publisher, 2003); Z. H. Chajes, The Student's Guide through the Talmud, J. Schachter ed. (New York: Philipp Feldhiem, 1960); Fred Skolnik, ed., Encyclopaedia Judaica (Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference, 2007), s.v. "Talmud,"; Leo Trepp, A History of the Jewish Experience: Eternal Faith, Eternal People (New York, NY: Behrman House, 1973).