TALMUD, THE. The Talmud. the great literary pro duction of the Jewish Schools. consist.3 of the Mishnah and the Gemara. The Mishnah for the most part repro duces the traditional discussions of the Rabbis who lived between 70 A.D. and about 200 A.D. These discussions seem to have been written down about 200 A.D. After this the Mishnah (q.v.) was discussed in the Schools of Palestine and Babylonia, and the new discussions received the name Gemara. The Rabbis who were active in the Schools from 220 to 500 A.D. are designated Amoraim, " Speakers " or " Interpreters." The Palestinian or Jerusalem Talmud was completed towards the end of the fourth century or during the fifth century A.D. The Babylonian Talmud was completed about 500 A.D. The Mishnah is the text, to which the Gemara is a kind of commentary. In both recensions of the Talmud the Mishnah is the same. The Gemara is not identical, that of Babylon being very much amplified. In neither case is the Gemara complete. Certain tractates are omitted in each, and these are not the same in the two Gemaras. The :Mishnah consists of sixty-three tractates or treatises which are arranged in six groups or Sedarim. For the names of these see MISHNAH. The discussions in the Mishnah are mostly of the kind called Halachah: those in the Gemara are entirely of the kind known as Hag gadah. Halachah means literally the act of walking or going. Then it comes to mean (1) a walk (life) in accordance with the Law, (2) the Law in accordance with which the walk of life must be guided. Haggadah means literally " telling " or " recitation." Halachah aims at establishing legal rules. Haggadah is homiletical.
See further HAGGADAH and HALACHAH. out the Talmuds are also found what are known as Baraitha sections. Baraitha means in Aramaic " the outside " or " the external." It denotes a Tannaite tradition (see TANNAIM) which has not been incor porated in the Mishnah. The Baraitha sections are in
Hebrew, whereas the Gemara is in Aramaic. Moreover, the Baraithas are in the style of both halachah and hag gadah. C. A. Briggs (Intr.) gives an example of Baraitha and Gemara from the tractate Th1135 Bathrft. Part of it is as follows: (Baraitha) " The rabbins have taught that the order of the Prophets is. Joshua and Judges, Samuel and Kings, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Isaiah and the Twelve (minor prophets) "; (Gemara) " How is it? Hosea is first because it is written, ' In the beginning the Lord spake to Hosea.' But how did he speak in the beginning with Hosea? Have there not been so many prophets from Moses unto Hosea? Rabbi Jochanan said that he was the first of the four prophets who prophesied in the same period, and these are : Hosea, Isaiah, Amos, and Micah. Should then Hosea be placed before at the head? (Reply): No, since his prophecies had been written alongside of Haggai. Zechariah. and Malachi, and Haggai, Zecharikah. and Malachi were the last of the prophets, it was counted with them. (Question) : Ought it to have been written apart and ought it to have been placed before? (Reply) : No; since it was little and might be easily lost. (Question) : How is it? Isaiah was before Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Ought Isaiah to be placed before at the head? (Reply): Since the book of Kings ends in ruin and Jeremiah is, all of it, ruin, and Ezekiel has its beginning ruin and its end comfort, and Isaiah is all of it comfort; we join ruin to ruin and comfort to comfort." See J. W. Etheridge, Intr. to Heb. Lit., 1S56; Encycl. Bibl., s.v. " Law Literature "; W. O. E. Oester ley and G. H. Box; A. S. Geden, Intr. to the Heb. Bible, 1909.