Talmud

The Two Versions.

The Babylonian Talmud (or Tal. Babli) contains the Gemara to 361 tractates, but the material is rela tively very full, and it is about three times as large as the Pal., although the Gemara there extends to 39 tractates. In the latter the Gemara follows each paragraph of the Mishnah ; in the former, references are usually made to the leaves (the two pages of which are called a and b), the enumeration of the editio princeps being retained in subsequent editions. The Mishnah is written in a late literary form of Hebrew; but the Gemara is in Aramaic (except the Baraithas), that of the Bab. T. being an Eastern Aram, dialect (akin to Mandaitic), that of the Pal. T. being West ern Aram. (akin to Biblical Aram. and the Targums). Greek was well understood in cultured Palestine ; hence the latter recension uses many Greek terms which it does not explain ; whereas in the Bab. T. they are much less common, and are sometimes punningly interpreted. The Pal. Tal. is the more concise, but it is remarkable for the numerous repetitions of the same passages ; these are useful for the criticism of the text, and for the light they throw upon the incompleteness of the work of compilation. The Bab. Tal., on the other hand, is diffuse and freer in its composition, and it is characterized by the exuberance of Halakah, which is usually rather subtle and far-fetched. Both Talmuds offer a good field for research.

Especially interesting are the Baraithas which are preserved in the Gemara in Hebrew; they are "external" decisions not included in the more authoritative Mishnah, but they differ from and are sometimes older than the Mishnic material, with which they some times conflict (so in particular as regards the rejected decisions of the school of Shammai). They usually begin: "our Masters taught," "it is taught," or "he taught," the verb tend (cf. Tan neilim, "teachers") being employed (see further Jew. Ency. 513 seq.). Parallel to the Mishnah is the Tdsephtd, an independent compilation associated with R. Nehemiah (a contemporary of Meir and Simeon b. Yohai), 11iyya b. Abba and others; it is ar ranged according to the Mishnic orders and tractates, but lacks IV. 9 and V. 9–I I. The halakoth are fuller and sometimes older than the corresponding decisions in the Mishnah, and the treat ment is generally more haggadic. The method of making the dis cussions part of an interpretation of the Old Testament (halakic Midrash), as exemplified in the Tdsephtd, is apparently older than the abstract and independent decisions of the Mishnah—which presuppose an acquaintance with the Pentateuchal basis—and, like the employment of narrative or historical Midrash (e.g., in the Pentateuch, Chronicles and Jubilees), was more suitable for popular exposition than for the academies.

The Responses of the Geonim.

The Palestinian Talmud, although used by the Qaraites in their controversies, fell into neglect, and the Babylonian recension became, what it has since been, the authoritative guide. With the Geonim, the heads of Sura and Pumbeditha (about 589-1038), we enter upon another stage. The "canonical" Mishnah and Gemara were now the objects of study, and the scattered Jews appealed to the central bodies of Judaism in Babylonia for information and guidance. The Geonim in their "Responses" or "Questions and Answers" supplied authoritative interpretations of the Old Testament or of the Talmud, and regulated the application of the teaching of the past to the changed conditions under which their brethren now lived. The legal, religious and other decisions formulated in the pontifical communications of one generation usually became the venerated teaching of the next, and a new class of literature thus sprang into existence. (See Gaon.)

Meanwhile, as the Babylonian schools decayed, Talmudic learn ing was assiduously pursued outside its oriental home, and some Babylonian Talmudists apparently reached the West. However, the fortunes of the Talmud in a hostile world now become part of the history of the Jews, and the many interesting vicissitudes can not be recapitulated here. (See JEws.) To the use of the Pal. Talmud by the Qaraites in their controversies with the Rabbis we owe the preservation of this recension, incomplete though it is. To the intolerance of Christians are no doubt due the rarity of old mss., and the impure state of the text of both Talmuds. At the same time, the polemics had useful results since the literary controversy in the 16th century (when Johann Reuchlin took the part of the Jews) led to the editio princeps of the Babylonian Talmud (Vienna, 1520-23). A change shows itself in the second edition (Basel, 1578-81), when the tractate AbOdah Zdrah was omitted, and those passages which offended the Christians were cancelled or modified.

Characteristics.

Owing to the nature of its contents the Tal mud stood sorely in need of aids and guides, and a vast amount of labour (of varying value) has been devoted to it by Jewish scholars.

Neither the Mishnah nor the subsequent Gemara aimed at presenting a digested corpus of law. It is really a large collection of opinions and views, a remarkably heterogeneous mixture of con tents, for which the history of its growth is no doubt largely re sponsible. It appalls the reader with its irregularity of treatment, its variations of style, and its abrupt transitions from the spiritual to the crude and trivial, and from superstition to the purest in sight. Like the Koran it is often concise to obscurity and cannot be translated literally; it presupposes a knowledge which made commentaries a necessity even, as we have seen, to the Jews them selves. The opening of Order II. 6, for example, would be unin telligible without a knowledge of the law in Levit. xxiii. 42 : "A booth (the interior of which is) about 20 cubits high is disallowed. R. Judah allows it. One which is not ten hands high, one which has not three walls, or which has more sun than shade is disallowed. `An old booth?' (marks of quotation and interrogation must be supplied). The school of Shammai disallows it ; but the school of Hillel allows it," etc. In the Gemara, the decisions of the Mishnah are not only discussed, explained or developed, but all kinds of additional matter are suggested by them. Thus, in the Bab. Gem. to III. 5, the reference in the Mishnah to the Zealots (ItKaptot) is the occasion for a long romantic account of the wars preceding the destruction of the Second Temple. In IV. 3 the incidental prohibition of the cutting up of a roll of Scripture leads to a most valuable discussion of the arrangement of the Canon of the Old Testament, and other details including some account of the character and date of Job. There are numerous haggadic interpolations, some of considerable interest. Prose mingles with poetry, wit with wisdom, the good with the bad, and as one thing goes on to suggest another, it makes the Talmud a somewhat rambling compilation. It is scarcely a law-book or a work of divinity; it is almost an encyclopaedia in its scope, a store-house reproducing the knowledge and the thought, both unconscious and speculative, of the first few centuries of the Christian era.