The Talmud: Difference between revisions

The existence of an "oral" Torah was a hotly contested issue before the Roman conquest of Judah; the Sadducees (an extinct political/religious entity tied to the priesthood and Hasamonean kings of Judah) vigorously denied any oral law. Their opponents, the Pharisees (the ancestors of modern-day rabbinical Judaism) accepted the oral law. Today, there are still groups of Jews (Karaites, and the dwindling Samaritan community) that reject the validity of the Talmud.

 

 

* [[Anachronic Order]]: Although Berachos is usually shown as the first tractate, every single tractate cross-references others. Often you will see tractate A assuming you are familiar with tractate B ''and vice versa''. Even within single tractates (e.g. Makkot), sometimes the first part of a chapter will discuss minutiae of a law, while the law itself is not actually given until later on.

** Some say this is why the first page of each tractate is ''page 2'' (bet) rather than page 1 (alef). They say that the Talmud really has no beginning or end, so you need to keep that in mind before going in. Others simply say that page 1 is the cover page.

* [[The End of the World as We Know It]]: God desires this, believe it or not, in Tractate Sanhedrin. Narrowly averted when He catches sight of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah - the three righteous men from the [[The Bible|Book of Daniel]].

* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: Known as "measure against measure", this crops up all over the place. A famous example is in Avot 2:7:

* [[Ho Yay]]: Rabbi Yohanan and Resh Lakish in Bava Metzia 84a. Resh Lakish sees Rabbi Yohanan bathing in the Jordan, thinks he's a woman, and pole vaults the river on his lance. When he discovers his gender mistake, he says to Rabbi Yohanan, "Your beauty for women!". They become at the very least [[Heterosexual Life Partners]], and brothers-in-law to boot, as Resh Lakish marries Rabbi Yohanan's sister.

* [[Jesus Was Way Cool]]: Averted and inverted; none of the Talmud editions have much good to say about him, and some specifically say (in Gittin 57) that he's being [[Fire and Brimstone Hell|punished in Hell]] for [[Values Dissonance|being an apostate]].

 

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[[Category:Classic Literature]]

[[Category:Literature]]