Download or read book The Talmud written by Barry Scott Wimpfheimer and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-09 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Babylonian Talmud, a postbiblical Jewish text that is part scripture and part commentary, is an unlikely bestseller. Written in a hybrid of Hebrew and Aramaic, it is often ambiguous to the point of incomprehension, and its subject matter reflects a narrow scholasticism that should hardly have broad appeal. Yet the Talmud has remained in print for centuries and is more popular today than ever. Barry Scott Wimpfheimer tells the remarkable story of this ancient Jewish book and explains why it has endured for almost two millennia.0Providing a concise biography of this quintessential work of rabbinic Judaism, Wimpfheimer takes readers from the Talmud's prehistory in biblical and second-temple Judaism to its present-day use as a source of religious ideology, a model of different modes of rationality, and a totem of cultural identity. He describes the book's origins and structure, its centrality to Jewish law, its mixed reception history, and its golden renaissance in modernity. He explains why reading the Talmud can feel like being swept up in a river or lost in a maze, and why the Talmud has come to be venerated--but also excoriated and maligned-in the centuries since it first appeared.0An incomparable introduction to a work of literature that has lived a full and varied life, this accessible book shows why the Talmud is at once a received source of traditional teachings, a touchstone of cultural authority, and a powerful symbol of Jewishness for both supporters and critics.
Download or read book Essential Figures in the Talmud written by Ronald L. Eisenberg and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Essential Figures in the Talmud, Dr. Ronald L. Eisenberg explains the importance of the more than 250 figures who are most vital to an understanding and appreciation of Talmudic texts. This valuable reference guide consists of short biographies illustrating the significance of these figures while explaining their points of view with numerous quotations from rabbinic literature. Taking material from the vast expanse of the Talmud and Midrash, this book demonstrates the broad interests of the rabbis whose writings are the foundation of rabbinic Judaism.
Download or read book written by Heinrich Walter Guggenheimer and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Becoming the People of the Talmud written by Talya Fishman and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Becoming the People of the Talmud, Talya Fishman examines ways in which circumstances of transmission have shaped the cultural meaning of Jewish traditions. Although the Talmud's preeminence in Jewish study and its determining role in Jewish practice are generally taken for granted, Fishman contends that these roles were not solidified until the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. The inscription of Talmud—which Sefardi Jews understand to have occurred quite early, and Ashkenazi Jews only later—precipitated these developments. The encounter with Oral Torah as a written corpus was transformative for both subcultures, and it shaped the roles that Talmud came to play in Jewish life. What were the historical circumstances that led to the inscription of Oral Torah in medieval Europe? How did this body of ancient rabbinic traditions, replete with legal controversies and nonlegal material, come to be construed as a reference work and prescriptive guide to Jewish life? Connecting insights from geonica, medieval Jewish and Christian history, and orality-textuality studies, Becoming the People of the Talmud reconstructs the process of cultural transformation that occurred once medieval Jews encountered the Babylonian Talmud as a written text. According to Fishman, the ascription of greater authority to written text was accompanied by changes in reading habits, compositional predilections, classroom practices, approaches to adjudication, assessments of the past, and social hierarchies. She contends that certain medieval Jews were aware of these changes: some noted that books had replaced teachers; others protested the elevation of Talmud-centered erudition and casuistic virtuosity into standards of religious excellence, at the expense of spiritual refinement. The book concludes with a consideration of Rhineland Pietism's emergence in this context and suggests that two contemporaneous phenomena—the prominence of custom in medieval Ashkenazi culture and the novel Christian attack on Talmud—were indirectly linked to the new eminence of this written text in Jewish life.
Download or read book The Complete Idiot s Guide to the Talmud written by Aaron Parry and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2004-07-06 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insightful look at one of the most unusual written works ever created. Compiled centuries ago by a group of wise men as a way to preserve the oral traditions of the Jewish faith, the Talmud has challenged and thrilled some of the world’s greatest minds with its complex approach to exploring ideas and subjects from virtually every possible angle. This essential guide makes the ancient text of the “oral Torah” accessible for all readers, whether they’re Jewish or not. In this Complete Idiot’s Guide®, you get. • An examination of Talmudic logic and debate. • Discussion of how science and medicine relate to Talmudic philosophies. • Description of proper behavior and conduct as expected within Talmudic lifestyle. • The significance of seeds and blessings found in the Talmud.
Download or read book Rabbi Akiva written by Barry W. Holtz and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling and lucid account of the life and teachings of a founder of rabbinic Judaism and one of the most beloved heroes of Jewish history Born in the Land of Israel around the year 50 C.E., Rabbi Akiva was the greatest rabbi of his time and one of the most important influences on Judaism as we know it today. Traditional sources tell how he was raised in poverty and unschooled in religious tradition but began to learn the Torah as an adult. In the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E., he helped shape a new direction for Judaism through his brilliance and his character. Mystic, legalist, theologian, and interpreter, he disputed with his colleagues in dramatic fashion yet was admired and beloved by his peers. Executed by Roman authorities for his insistence on teaching Torah in public, he became the exemplar of Jewish martyrdom. Drawing on the latest historical and literary scholarship, this book goes beyond older biographies, untangling a complex assortment of ancient sources to present a clear and nuanced portrait of Talmudic hero Rabbi Akiva.
Download or read book The Iranian Talmud written by Shai Secunda / Yitz Landes and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2013-10-09 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the Babylonian Talmud, or Bavli, has been a text central and vital to the Jewish canon since the Middle Ages, the context in which it was produced has been poorly understood. Delving deep into Sasanian material culture and literary remains, Shai Secunda pieces together the dynamic world of late antique Iran, providing an unprecedented and accessible overview of the world that shaped the Bavli. Secunda unites the fields of Talmudic scholarship with Old Iranian studies to enable a fresh look at the heterogeneous religious and ethnic communities of pre-Islamic Iran. He analyzes the intercultural dynamics between the Jews and their Persian Zoroastrian neighbors, exploring the complex processes and modes of discourse through which these groups came into contact and considering the ways in which rabbis and Zoroastrian priests perceived one another. Placing the Bavli and examples of Middle Persian literature side by side, the Zoroastrian traces in the former and the discursive and Talmudic qualities of the latter become evident. The Iranian Talmud introduces a substantial and essential shift in the field, setting the stage for further Irano-Talmudic research.
Download or read book Why Study Talmud in the Twenty first Century written by Paul Socken and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2009 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Talmud is the repository of thousands of years of Jewish wisdom. It is a conglomerate of law, legend, and philosophy, a blend of unique logic and shrewd pragmatism, of history and science, of anecdotes and humor. Unfortunately, its sometimes complex subject matter often seems irrelevant in today's world. In this edited volume, sixteen eminent North American and Israeli scholars from several schools of Jewish thought grapple with the text and tradition of Talmud, talking personally about their own reasons for studying it. Each of these scholars and teachers believes that Talmud is indispensible to any serious study of modern Judaism and so each essay challenges the reader to engage in his or her own individual journey of discovery. The diverse feminist, rabbinic, educational, and philosophical approaches in this collection are as varied as the contributors' experiences. Their essays are accessible, personal accounts of their individual discovery of the Talmud, reflecting the vitality and profundity of modern religious thought and experience.
Download or read book Philosophy of the Talmud written by Hyam Maccoby and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a new presentation of the philosophy of the Talmud. The Talmud is not a work of formal philosophy, but much of what it says is relevant to philosophical enquiry, including issues explored in contemporary debates. In particular, the Talmud has original ideas about the relation between universal ethics and the ethics of a particular community. This leads into a discussion on the relation between morality and ritual, and also about the epistemological role of tradition. The book explains the paradoxes of Talmudic Judaism as arising from a philosophy of revolution, stemming from Jewish origins as a band of escaped slaves, determined not to reproduce the slave-society of Egypt. From this arises a daring humanism, and an emphasis on justice in this world rather than on other-worldly spirituality. A strong emphasis on education and the cultivation of rationality also stems from this. Governing the discussion is a theory of logic that differs significantly from Greek logic. Talmudic logic is one of analogy, not classification and is peculiarly suited to discussions of moral and legal human situations. This book will be of interest to those in the fields of philosophy, religion and the history of ideas, whether students, teachers and academics, or the interested general reader.
Download or read book Sages of the Talmud written by Mordechai Judovits and published by Urim Publications. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of biographical information about the authors of the Talmud. It contains more than four hundred entries and hundreds of anecdotes about the sages, all as recorded in the Talmud itself. An indispensable book for the student of the Talmud.
Download or read book Fathers of the World written by Burton L. Visotzky and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 1995 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Essential Talmud written by Adin Steinsaltz and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Israeli rabbi and scholar conveys the spirit of the Talmud as he treats its composition, traditions, structure, and laws
Download or read book Jews Gentiles and Other Animals written by Mira Beth Wasserman and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2017-04-21 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Jews, Gentiles, and Other Animals, Mira Beth Wasserman undertakes a close reading of Avoda Zara, arguably the Talmud's most scandalous tractate, to uncover the hidden architecture of this classic work of Jewish religious thought. She proposes a new way of reading the Talmud that brings it into conversation with the humanities, including animal studies, the new materialisms, and other areas of critical theory that have been reshaping the understanding of what it is to be a human being. Even as it comments on the the rabbinic laws that govern relations between Jews and non-Jews, Avoda Zara is also an attempt to reflect on what all people share in common, and on how humans fit into a larger universe of animals and things. As is typical of the Talmud in general, it proceeds by incorporating a vast and confusing array of apparently digressive materials, but Wasserman demonstrates that there is a whole greater than the sum of the parts, a sustained effort to explore human identity and difference. In centuries past, Avoda Zara has been a flashpoint in Jewish-Christian relations. It was partly due to its content that the Talmud was subject to burning and censorship by Christian authorities. Wasserman develops a twenty-first-century reading of the tractate that aims to reposition it as part of a broader quest to understand what connects human beings to each other and to the world around them.
Download or read book The Babylonian Talm d Tractate Ber k t written by Abraham Cohen and published by CUP Archive. This book was released on 1921 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Talmud the Steinsaltz Edition written by Adin Steinsaltz and published by Random House Incorporated. This book was released on 1996 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since it was first published in 1989, the "Talmud Reference Guide" has introduced thousands of people to the study of the books of Jewish law. The guide is an historical treatise on the Talmud and its role in Jewish life, as well as an essential road map to the twenty projected volumes of the Steinsaltz translation. Brilliantly written and lavishly designed and illustrated, this full-length guide will raise interest in the Talmud.
Download or read book Tradition and the Formation of the Talmud written by Moulie Vidas and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-31 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tradition and the Formation of the Talmud offers a new perspective on perhaps the most important religious text of the Jewish tradition. It is widely recognized that the creators of the Talmud innovatively interpreted and changed the older traditions on which they drew. Nevertheless, it has been assumed that the ancient rabbis were committed to maintaining continuity with the past. Moulie Vidas argues on the contrary that structural features of the Talmud were designed to produce a discontinuity with tradition, and that this discontinuity was part and parcel of the rabbis' self-conception. Both this self-conception and these structural features were part of a debate within and beyond the Jewish community about the transmission of tradition. Focusing on the Babylonian Talmud, produced in the rabbinic academies of late ancient Mesopotamia, Vidas analyzes key passages to show how the Talmud's creators contrasted their own voice with that of their predecessors. He also examines Zoroastrian, Christian, and mystical Jewish sources to reconstruct the debates and wide-ranging conversations that shaped the Talmud's literary and intellectual character.
Download or read book The Wisdom of the Talmud written by Ben Zion Bokser and published by Citadel Press. This book was released on 2001-08 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating and revelatory introduction to the Talmud discusses the Talmudic mind, its conceptions of God, and its thoughts on social ethics, personal morality, law, and general human wisdom. Original.
