The Talmud

THE TALMUD Meanwhile, if agadic exegesis was popular in the centuries fol lowing the redaction of the Mishnah, the study of halakhah was by no means neglected. As the discussion of the Law led up to the compilation of the Mishnah, so the Mishnah itself became in turn the subject of further discussion. The material thus accumu lated, both halakhic and agadic, forming a commentary on and amplification of the Mishnah, was eventually written down under the name of Gemara (from gemar, to learn completely), the two together are commonly spoken of as the Talmud (properly "in struction"). There are two distinct works to which the title Tal mud is applied. One contains the oral traditions which had grown up in the Palestinian Schools and the other those of the schools of Babylonia. Both were due to the Amoraim and were com pleted by about A.D. 500, though the date at which they were actu ally committed to writing is very uncertain. Both are arranged ac cording to the six orders of the Mishnah, but the discussion of the Mishnic text often wanders off into widely different topics. Neither is altogether complete. In the Palestinian Talmud ( Yerushalmi) the gemara of the 5th order (Qodashirn) and of nearly all the 6th (Tohoroth) is missing, besides smaller parts. In the Babylo nian Talmud (Babhli) there is no gemara to the smaller tractates of Order 1, and to parts of ii., iv., v., vi. The language of both is in the main the Aramaic vernacular (western Aramaic in Yeru shalmi, eastern in Babhli), but early halakhic traditions (e.g., of Tannaitic origin) are given in their original form, and the dis cussion of them is usually also in Hebrew. Babhli is not only greater in bulk than Yerushalmi, but has also received far greater attention, so that the name Talmud alone is often used for it. As being a constant object of study numerous commentaries have been written on the Talmud from the earliest times till the present. The most important of them for the understanding of the gemara (Babhli) is that of Rashi (Solomon ben Isaac, d. 1104) with the Tosafoth (additions, not to be confused with the Tosefta) chiefly by the French school of rabbis following Rashi. Since the introduction of printing, the Talmud is always cited by the number of the leaf in the first edition (Venice, 1520, etc.), to which all subsequent editions conform. In order to facilitate the practical study of the Talmud, it was natural that abridge ments of it should be made. Two of these may be mentioned: that by Isaac Alfas' (i.e., of Fez) in the 11th century, often cited as Rif; and that by Asher ben Yehiel (d. 1328) of Toledo, usually cited as Rabbenu Asher (Rosh). The object of both was to collect all halakhoth having a practical importance, omitting all those which no longer possess more than an academic interest, and excluding the discussions on them and all agada. Both add notes and explanations of their own, and both have in turn formed the text of commentaries.

With the Talmud, the anonymous period of Hebrew literature may be considered to end. Henceforward important works are produced not by schools but by particular teachers, who, however, no doubt often represent the opinions of a school.

The Geonim.

The order of the Amoraim, which ended with the close of the Talmud (A.D. soo), was succeeded by that of the Saboraim, who merely continued and explained the work of their predecessors, and these again were followed by the Geonim, the heads of the schools of Sura and Pumbeditha in Babylonia. The office of Gaon lasted for something over 400 years, beginning about A.D. 600, and varied in power according to the ability of its holders. Individual Geonim produced valuable works (of which later), but what is perhaps most important from the point of view of the development of Judaism is the literature of their Responsa or answers to questions, chiefly on halakhic matters, addressed to them from various countries. Some of these were actual decisions of particular Geonim; others were an official summary of the discussion of the subject by the members of the School. They begin with Mar Rab Sheshna (7th century) .and continue to Hai Gaon, who died in 1038, and are full of historical and literary interest. (See the edition of them in Harkavy, Stu dien, iv. [Berlin, 1885].) The She'iltoth (questions) of Rab Ahai (8th century) also belong probably to the school of Pumbeditha, though their author was not Gaon. Besides the Responsa, but closely related to them, we have the lesser HalakhOth of Yehudai Gaon of Sura (8th century) and the great Halakhoth of Simeon Qayyara of Sura (not Gaon) in the 9th century. In a different department there is the first Talmud lexicon (`Arukh) now lost, by Zemah ben Paltoi, Gaon of Pumbeditha in the 9th century. All these writers, however, are entirely eclipsed by the command ing personality of the most famous of the Geonim, Seadiah ben Joseph (q.v.) of Sura, often called al-FayyUmi (of the Fayum in Egypt), one of the greatest representatives of Jewish learning of all times, who died in 942. The last three holders of the office were also distinguished. Sherira of Pumbeditha (d. 998) was the author of the famous "Letter" (in the form of a Responsum to a question addressed to him by residents in Kairawan), an historical document of the highest value and the foundation of our knowledge of the history of tradition. His son Hai, last Gaon of Pumbeditha (d. 1038), a man of wide learning, wrote (partly in Arabic) not only numerous Responsa, but also treatises on law, commentaries on the Mishnah and the Bible, a lexicon called in Arabic al-Hawi, and poems such as the Musar Haskel, but most of them are now lost or known only from translations or quotations. Though his teaching was largely directed against superstition, he seems to have been inclined to mysticism, and perhaps for this reason various kabbalistic works were ascribed to him in later times. His father-in-law Samuel ben Hophni, last Gaon of Sura (d. 1034), was a voluminous writer on law, translated the Pentateuch into Arabic, commented on much of the Bible, and composed an Arabic introduction to the Talmud, of which the existing Hebrew introduction (by Samuel the Nagid) is perhaps a translation. Most of the works of this author are now lost.