Literature and history

history come.

Hello and welcome to literature and history.

Episode 104, an introduction to the Talmud.

In this episode we will explore the Talmud, a vast collection of ancient Jewish laws,

narratives, and layers of commentary on those laws and narratives, completed around 600 CE,

and having been at the heart of rabbinic Judaism ever since.

For practicing Jews, the Talmud is a sacred body of work second only to the Tanakh or what Christians call the Old Testament in esteem and

cultural centrality. A gigantic collection of more than 2.5 million words or more than 8,000 pages if put into standard print, the Talmud is a finished

revered text in tens of thousands of synagogues and yeshiva's today. But the Talmud is also a text that by its very nature invites

questions, commentaries, and further analyses. The Talmud is profound and encyclopedic. It is sometimes maddeningly dense, but it's also a deeply

practical self-conscious search for truth and dignity from the heart of late Antiquity, an immense group project in which hundreds

and likely thousands of ancient rabbis, between about 100 and 600 CE, mapped out how to honor their venerable traditions and to stay true to their

ancient scriptures while simultaneously living under the heels of great empires, whether the Romans

to the West or the Parthian and Sasanian Persians to the East.

Let's begin by discussing what the Talmud is at a basic level.

If you enter the office of your friendly neighborhood rabbi you will very likely

see prominently displayed on his bookshelves right next to the Hebrew Bible a set of two or three dozen

volumes bound in cloth, leather or vinyl, about 14 inches in height and altogether two or three feet wide, depending on the printing and addition.

These volumes are the Talmud,

and on the shelves of any studious rabbi,

their pages are thoroughly read and annotated.

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