Talmud Bavli
This week, as a prelude to the Presentation scheduled for next Sunday, we will discuss a bit of the details of the Talmud in outline as an introduction – and hopefully this will give you a little taste of what you will see next week. Just in case you do not know about what I am referring to: Next Sunday (not tomorrow) The Men’s Club of Congregation Beth Shalom (Bermuda Dunes, CA) is having a catered kosher brunch at 10:30. They are putting this on with an open invitation to all who are interested. There is a $10. charge (or recommended donation) for members and $12. for non-members. But the interesting thing is that the morning is being presented in conjunction with our Shabbos Torah Study Group! After the brunch there is a no-charge video presentation on the Talmud. I have previewed this and I strongly recommend it – Rated ‘FFBB’ & ‘NOJ’ alike. There will also be some printed information available. S0… let’s take a peek at what we might see/learn next week.
There are, as you already know, two Talmuds. The Babylonian Talmud, which is the one that is usually referred to when we mention the Talmud. And there is the Jerusalem Talmud. Both were written concurrently & simultaneously too. This places the writings at the time of our Galut in Babylonian lands.
But let’s first look at the Tradition(s) here. First we received, as a Nation, the Written Law in the form of two tablets. At the same time we received the Oral Law which was passed from generation to generation (L’dor v’dor). And so the “Five Books of Moses” [Torah] were finally presented in written form – but you may not know that the form was not ‘set’ and canonized until about the year 500 CE!
Before that had happened, the Jews had dispersed in different directions and we find that Rabbi Judah HaNasa (c. 220 CE) wrote what we now know as the Mishnah. Next week the movie and our written materials will cover this in greater depth.
At the time of the Mishnah, we also find what is called the Berita (legal documents and materials). And the Teachers of the Berita are called Tanna.
Finally we arrive at the Talmud (c. 475 CE). The first Editor was Rav Ashi. At this time the Teachers of Talmud – or Gemara – were known as Amoraim (sing. Amora).
After the Talmud we find the Commentators and Codifiers. There are many of these men who labored to clarify the writings and to discourse with one another. The one that you find in every edition of the Chumah is… Rashi; he was extremely important to the understanding and is the most referred to Commentator in the Talmud. [In the Chumash, he shares the pages with another name which may or may not be familiar to you: Onchlos. We will discuss him at another time].
Other of the authors are, to mention briefly, all (but one) Sephardic Jews, and most of them lived in the Iberian territories. They include Rabbi Yehudah Alfasi; Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzaki (who we know as Rashi); Tosafot; the great Maimonedes (known as Rambam); The ‘Rosh’ – or Rabbynu Asher and Joseph Karo.
It was not until the 16th Century CE that we find commentaries written to reflect the traditions of the Northern Jews – the Ashkenazi Jews.
But for a better understanding of the influences that we find on the authors of these commentaries, it is important to understand the travels of the Jews in the Galut (Golus), and especially how the Jewish Experience while in Muslim Spain- Al-Andalus. The history is so filled with wondrous adventures of our ancestors and we should spend more time learning about it! [Was Columbus a crypto-Jew in reality? Who was Ziryab? Why did the Christian Kings in Spain ignore the laws of the Pope regarding the Jews… and how did they get away with it all?] Fascinating stuff really…
Let me mention just a few other names of important Jews who, if they did not have a direct impact on the Talmud, had a strong indirect impact by laying down the basis and the framework for the Jews in the Mediterranean world. The built a position on which later Jewish thinkers would be able to stand!
Among the forceful personalities that led to the flowering of Hebrew poetry, prose, philosophy, and politics with an emphasis on the verbal rather than the pictorial, I would have to mention Hasdai (the Nasi) ibn Shaprut. It was he, whose written communications with Joseph, King of the Khazars, that led to the wholesale conversion of what was, in truth, the Nation of Israel – a Nation that extended from the Middle East, from the Mediterranean all the way into Russian! Then there was Samuel (Ha’Nagid) ibn Hagrela who became the Vizier of the Kingdom of Granada!
This is the briefest of overviews concerning the Talmud and I apologize for letting so much information “hanging” but I “Do not want to ‘give-away’ the store” because I do want you to attend this Sunday morning brunch and learning session. IF you are unavailable (show me a note from your mother…) and I will get a copy of the program and additional details to you in one manner or another. In the meantime, there is a book that gives you a grounding in the environment(s) in which these people found themselves and provides you with an understanding of how HaShem led these thoughts to germinate and flower until we find the rich tapestry of the Talmud.
That book is:
The Jews of Spain – A History of the Sephardic Experience by Jane S. Gerber [The Free Press Division of Macmillian, Inc. 1992]. Jane Gerber is professor of Jewish history and director of the Institute for Sephardic Studies at CUNY Graduate Center.
Shalom
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