The written laws of Judaism are found in the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. In ancient Israel, however, there were also many oral, or unwritten, teachings that people followed. Jewish leaders, called rabbis, eventually wrote down those oral laws and traditions. Those writings are known as the Talmud. The Talmud helped to bring Jewish people around the world together. It showed that no matter where or when the Jewish people lived, they all shared common traditions. Writing the TalmudOver a long period of time, the Jews created many oral laws and traditions. Those unwritten traditions developed and changed depending on daily life. During the 1st and 2nd centuries AD rabbis decided to write down the oral teachings to preserve them. It took hundreds of years for rabbis to write the Talmud. Contents of the TalmudThe Talmud includes two types of writing: laws and stories. The Talmud's laws tell Jewish people how to use the written laws found in the Torah. For example, the Talmud explains the steps that people can take to eat food as the Torah describes. The Talmud's stories, or narratives, tell about other parts of the Torah. Some stories in the Talmud explain the ideas and lessons found in the Torah's stories. The Talmud also has its own stories that teach moral lessons to readers. The rabbis who wrote the Talmud were generally well educated. Parts of the Talmud mention many fields of study, including astronomy, geography, history, magic, mathematics, medicine, and science. Parts of the TalmudThe first part of the Talmud is called the Mishna, which states the oral laws. Scholars think that a rabbi in Palestine (a region of the Middle East) finished the Mishna early in the 3rd century AD. The rabbi divided all oral law into six sections: farming, festivals, marriage, criminal and civil law, rules of the temple, and cleanliness. He noted which laws were accepted by most rabbis. He also wrote down less popular laws in case rabbis needed to use them in the future. The second part of the Talmud is called the Gemara, which contains comments on the ideas in the Mishna. Jewish scholars wrote the Gemara after the Mishna, from the 3rd through the 6th century. There are two versions of the Gemara. Jewish writers from Palestine wrote one version. Jewish writers from Babylonia (a historic region of southwestern Asia) wrote the other version. Modern Jewish scholars consider the Babylonian version to be more complete. |