The Jewish commentaries & interpretations of the Bible, ranging from legal codes to rabbinic dialogues, from philosophical inquiry lớn folklore, collectively khung the Talmud. The earliest commentary is called the Mishnah, while the later commentary on & elaboration of the Mishnah is called the Gemara, taken together these two commentaries biến hóa the Talmud. Talmudic Midrash, another genre of rabbinic writing, also includes stories, philosophical explications, & historical writing.
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Traditionally, Judaism today is conceived as a timeless và ongoing conversation between the Jews và God, based on centuries of religious development and voluminous writings. These legal và interpretative texts, arguably the sum total of the discussion, argumentation, and writings of rabbis through the ages, is commonly called rabbinic literature. Rabbinic literature is a religious textual compendium developed over the history of the Jewish people, particularly in the Second Temple period và afterward.
The rabbis designated their literature the Oral Torah, as opposed to the finalized canon of the Written Torah. While the Torah refers mainly to lớn the five books of Moses, it also refers more widely to lớn all of Jewish sacred literature. To ensure the durability và relevance of the Biblical tradition, rabbis drew a distinction between the written Torah dictated by God khổng lồ Moses on Mount Sinai and the unwritten Torah dictated by God khổng lồ Moses verbally. According to lớn rabbinic tradition, this second tradition was passed down orally, eventually developed in writing by the rabbis of the 3rd century CE in Palestine and becoming known as the Mishnah.
Thought to lớn be modeled on the curriculum of the post-temple yeshiva (a school for rabbinic study), the Mishnah is the basic code of post-biblical Jewish law. The text’s many sections concern the whole spectrum of individual & community life—laws of agriculture, prayers & benedictions, the observances of Sabbath & holidays, women and family law, property, inheritance, and criminal law, sacred objects & ritual associated with the temple, và ritual purity & impurity.
During the 3rd to lớn 6th centuries, the rabbis of the yeshivas in Palestine & Babylonia continued khổng lồ study and debate the rulings of the Mishnah. Their deeply analytical discussions in the Aramaic vernacular of the day were preserved in the Gemara (an elaboration of, or commentary on, the Mishnah). As a pair, the Mishnah and the Gemara size the Talmud, of which there are two extant versions. The Palestinian Talmud was finished in the early 5th century; the lengthier & more authoritative Babylonian Talmud was completed by the beginning of the 6th century.
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One important distinction between the Mishnah và the Gemara is their context of reference. As a relatively specific text, the legal code of the Mishnah necessarily acknowledged the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, but primarily addressed Jewish corporate existence within the holy land of Israel. The Gemara, on the other hand, presupposed the reality of exile from Israel và addressed itself more generally to lớn Jewish life in Diaspora (galut). One of the underlying themes of the Talmud is the accommodation of Judaism lớn the minority status of Diaspora Jewry. Much of its legal discussion, therefore, is theoretical and abstract rather than literal & applied, including legislative debate on issues such as criminal law, torts or damages, civil rights and administration, and family law. The legacy of the Talmud is important to lớn note: because Jewish civil law was often superseded in Diaspora by the rule of the state, the forms of critical reading and argumentation of the Talmud today serves a more pedagogical purpose. The commentaries are used khổng lồ sharpen the reasoning powers of Jewish scholars by means of Talmudic súc tích.
In addition lớn the Mishnah and the Gemara, the Talmud contains material that could better be called folklore, history, ethics, và philosophy. This is collectively called aggadah (or haggadah), constituting approximately one-third of the Babylonian Talmud. The rabbis also wrote complete works of biblical interpretation called Midrash. The whole of the Talmud (the Mishnah & the Gemara, as well as all of the Talmud’s later appendices and elaborations) forms the bulk of rabbinic literature, or “Oral Torah.” This living tradition of scripture guaranteed the permanent relevance of the Torah & preserved the importance of the rabbi’s role as scholar & interpreter of a living tradition for each generation. Rabbinic commentary on both the Torah và the Talmud continued throughout the centuries, and came to be incorporated into the study of the text. Perhaps the greatest individual commentator was Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac of Troyes, France, known by his acronym, Rashi. Rashi was the first commentator khổng lồ systematically write on all of the Torah và nearly all of the Talmud. His commentary has been so influential for subsequent generations of Jews that it has been printed often alongside the text of the Torah & Talmud. Rashi’s 11th century commentaries are used in Jewish study lớn this day.
Through the centuries, the major discipline within the rabbinic literary tradition has remained Jewish law, halakhah. Following the completion of the Talmud, far-flung Jewish communities often depended upon leading rabbinic authorities elsewhere in the world khổng lồ render legal opinions. These legal queries and rabbinic replies constitute the body toàn thân of legal literature called Responsa, which continues to lớn be produced in the present day. Jewish life in the Diaspora also required a more systematic treatment of religious practice, and in the later middle ages two major works codifying Jewish law and practice were produced: Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah (c. 1178) & Joseph Caro’s Shulchan Aruch (1564). Both works continue khổng lồ be studied today by traditionally observant Jews. While an abbreviated version of the Shulchan Aruch is more accessible, it has by no means replaced the unabridged version.
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Perhaps the most important legacy of the rabbis is the tradition of lifelong study. As the rabbis intended, the study of Torah và the Talmud are ongoing enterprises. Through study, debate, discussion, & appropriation by each generation, Judaism is indeed a living tradition.
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