Talmud

the Torah

Torah Shebiksav and Torah Sheb’al Peh

torah means 'a teaching'. The Torah is what God revealed to the Jews. In the Torah God tells the Jews how to live. The Torah has two sections – the Torah Shebiksav (the Written Torah) –

 

the Torah Sheb’al Peh (the Oral Torah)

 

the Written Torah the Torah Shebiksav (the Written Torah), consists of three parts: • the Torah in the strict sense. The part that given directly to Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our Teacher) at Mount Sinai by God it is made up of the Five Books of Moises (Pentateuch). Each book is called a Chumash

• the Nevi'im (Prophets): the books which record what God said to his prophets (nabi, pl. nebiim) • the Kesuvim (Writings): eleven books written by prophets with God's guidance but are not direct prophecies they include poetic and epigrammatic works such as Psalms and Proverbs, Job as well as a miscellany of other writings (Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Kohelet, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles)  

 

the Oral Torah many things are not explained in the Torah Shebiksav. God gave these further explanations to Moshe Rabbeinu on Mount Sinai together with the Written Torah – the explanations are called the Torah Sheb’al Peh, the Oral Torah – the Oral Torah was passed down orally from generation to generation

 

 

the Oral Torah

the Mishna

circa 200 the Palestinian patriarch Rabbi Yehuda ha-Nasi assembled a basic outline of the Torah Sheb’al Peh into a series of books called the Mishna, Hebrew 'teaching'

 

 

the Oral Torah

the gemara

the Mishna was primarily an outline and did not include the indepth analysis and explanation for every single rule. These explanations to the Mishna are called gemara

 

 

the Oral Torah

the Talmud

about three hundred years after the completion of the Mishna the rabbis of Palestina and Babylonia in their yeshivas compiled the gemara into a written work as a commentary on the Mishna – that completed work is called the Talmud – the Talmud is therefore the complete collection of the Mishna and the gemara – the Palestinian and Babylonian yeshivas produced two different Talmuds: the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmud

 

 

the Torah

Torah Sheb’al Peh

the Talmud is made up of six sections. Each section is called a Seder (Order) and contains several books called Mesechtos (Tracts). The six Sedarim are:

 

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Zera’im (Seeds): deals with the laws of agriculture. It also deals with the laws of prayer and blessings ( 11 mesechtos)

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Mo’ed (Season): deals with the laws of Shabbos and Yom Tov (holidays) (12 mesechtos)

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Nashim (Women): deals with the laws of marriage and divorce (7 mesechtos)

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Nezikin (Damages): deals with civil law, such as laws about damages and theft. It also deals with ethics (10 mesechtos)

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Kedoshim (Holy Things): deals with sacrifices (11 mesechtos)

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Tohoros (Purities): deals with laws of ritual purity (12 mesechtos)