TALMUD. The Talmud (1111,1) is the work which embodies the canonical and civil law of the Jews. It contains those rules, institutions, pre cepts, and interpretations, by which the Jewish people profess to be guided, in addition to the O. T. Whatever is obligatory on them, besides the law, is recorded in this work. Here duties are explained, doubts resolved, cases of conscience cleared up, and the most minute circumstances relative to the conduct of life discussed with par ticularity. The contents of the work are of a mis cellaneous character, relating not merely to religion. but to philosophy, medicine, jurisprudence, history and the various branches of practical duty.
The Jews have been accustomed to divide their law into written and unwritten—the former con tained in the Pentateuch ; the latter handed down orally, till circumstances urged them to commit it to writing. The oral law is fonnded upon or developed out of the written. Some Jews have assigned the same antiquity to both, alleging that Moses received them on the mount ; that Joshua got the oral law from Moses, and delivered it tc. the seventy elders, who transmitted it to the men of the Great Synagogue, the last of whom was Simon the Just. From the men of the Great Synagogue it came into the possession of the Rab bins. This, however, is a superficial and inaccu rate account of the matter. .11Iidrashim, or ex planations and amplifications of Biblical topics, were of gradual growth. 'fheir commencement dates prior to the Chronicle-writer, because he refers to works of that nature. The system of interpretation which they exemplify and embody existed in the age of the so-called Sopherim, who took the place of the prophets. The men of the Great Synagogue promoted it. It prevailed from the Asmonan period till that of Hadrian-4 e. about 3oo years. The midrash was naturally simple at first ; but it soon grew more com prehensive and complicated, under a variety of influences, of which controversy was not the least powerful. When secret meanings, hidden wis dom, deep knowledge, were sought in the letter of Scripture, the midrashim shaped themselves ac cordingly, and a distinction in their contents could be made. Thus they have been divided into the Halacha and Hagada—i.e. the rnle, and what is sad. Legal prescriptions formed the halacha ; free interpretations, the hagada. The one as a rule of conduct must be attena'ed to ; the other merely passed for something said. The one was per manent, and proceeded from authoritative sources, from schools, the teachers of the law, etc. ; the other was the product of individual minds, consist ing of ideas which had often no other object than that of being expressed at the moment.
The oldest collection of Halachoth—that is the oldest Mishna—procealed from the school of Hillel.
R. Akiba, who was slain in the Hadrianic war, is said to have composed Mishna-regulations. The school of R. Simon ben Gamaliel (A.D. 166) who was a descendant of Hillel, collected and sifted the exist ing materials of the oral law. The present Mishna proceeded from the hands of R. Jehuda Hanasi (219 A.D.), son and succesor of R. Simon ben Gamaliel. His son, R. Simon, made many addi tions to the Mishna after his father'. death. It must not be supposed, however, that the Mishna was reduced to writing by R. Jchuda. For several centuries it was committed to the memories of scholars ; and to write it down was even looked upon as a religious offence. Nothing but hagadas were written here and there ; and though singular or striking halachas were carried about in writing by some, it was in secret. Nor were all the midrashim, or traditional precepts and interpreta tions, incorporated in this official Mishna. Many others existed, which are contained in part in the Sifra or Torath Kohanim,* in the Sifri,t the Mechilta,1.- the second or smaller Sifri,§ in the Mishnas made by individual teachers for the use of their pupils, vvith the additions to the official Mishna collected by R. Chiya and his contem poraries. All the halachas of this sort which were extra -Mishnaic were called Boraitas (rnro4-0, Hebrew ruirn) or Toseftas 0-rinalro. The ne cessity for digesting and reducing them to writing became more apparent when persecutions de stroyed the academies of Palestine in the 4th cen tttry, and of Babylonia in the stli. Thus the present Talmud or written Gemara originated. The Jerusalem, or as it has been sometimes called the Palestinian Talmud, proceeded from the aca demy of Tiberias. It is said to have been chiefly written by R. Jochanan, rector of that academy. But this is contradicted by internal evidence ; for Diocletian (284-3os), Ursicinus, and Julian (361, etc.) are mentioned in it ; whereas R. Jochanan d'ed A. D. 279. Hence we must infer that it was not compiled till the end of the last half of the 4th century, which agrees very nearly with the opinion of Maimonides. The Jerusalem Talmud has contributed to the Babylonian, there being evident traces of it in the latter. The Bab) Ionian Talmud, called ours' by later Jews, was principally compiled by R. Ashe, who died in 427 A. D. The labour spent upon the mass of materials which he had to arrange, weigh, decide upon, and adjust, was immense. More than half a century was devoted to it. But Ashe did not complete it. It was left to his successors to do so—to Rabina and R. Jose, presidents of the schools of Sora and Pumpadita respectively. These, with the aid of other scholars whose names we need not give,% brought the work to its final state of redaction, It belongs therefore to the 6th century.