The Talmud (/ˈtɑːlmʊd,-məd,ˈtæl-/; Hebrew: תַּלְמוּד, romanized: Talmūḏ, lit. 'teaching') is, after the Hebrew Bible, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (halakha) and Jewish theology.[1][2] Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish cultural life and was foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews.[3]
The term Talmud normally refers to the collection of writings named specifically the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli), compiled in the 5th century by Rav Ashi and Ravina II. There is also an earlier collection known as the Jerusalem Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi).[4] It may also traditionally be called Shas (ש״ס), a Hebrew abbreviation of shisha sedarim, or the "six orders" of the Mishnah.
The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah (משנה, c. 200 CE), a written compendium of the Oral Torah; and the Gemara (גמרא, c. 500 CE), an elucidation of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Hebrew Bible. The term "Talmud" may refer to either the Gemara alone, or the Mishnah and Gemara together. Talmudic traditions emerged within a literary period that can be bracketed between the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE until the Arab conquest in the early seventh century.[5]
^Safrai, S. (1969). "The Era of the Mishnah and Talmud (70–640)". In Ben-Sasson, H.H. (ed.). A History of the Jewish People. Translated by Weidenfeld, George. Harvard University Press (published 1976). p. 379. ISBN9780674397316.
^Goldberg, Abraham (1987). "The Palestinian Talmud". In Safrai, Shmuel (ed.). The Literature of the Jewish People in the Period of the Second Temple and the Talmud, Volume 3 The Literature of the Sages. Brill. pp. 303–322. doi:10.1163/9789004275133_008. ISBN9789004275133.