The Reader's Guide to the TalmudThis systematic introduction to the Talmud of Babylonia (Bavli) answers basic questions of form: how is this a coherent document? How do we make sense of the several languages in which it is written? What are the principal parts of the complex writing? Turning to questions of modes of thought, the account proceeds to address the intellectual character of the Bavli and in particular the character and uses of its dialectics. Finally, questions of substance come to the fore: how does the Talmud relate to the Torah? and how does tradition enter in? These basic questions of rhetoric, topic, and logic that anyone approaching the text will raise are dealt with clearly and authoritatively. |
Contents
The Bavlis One Voice | 3 |
The Bavlis Two Languages | 30 |
The Bavlis Constituent Elements | 52 |
The Bavlis Intellectual Character | 111 |
The Bavlis Dialectics | 161 |
The Talmud and the Torah | 205 |
The Question of Tradition | 258 |
The Bavlis Unique Voice | 295 |
365 | |
Common terms and phrases
Aramaic Atlanta authorship Bavli Tractate beast Berakhot blemished Chapters classification cogent coherent composition context damage defined derives dialectical argument discourse distinction document domain Eleazar encompass exegesis exposition fact follows framers Genesis Rabbah gentiles Halakhah hand Hebrew History of Judaism Holy indicative traits inquiry Israelites issue Judah Land of Israel language liable literary logic Lord matter meaning ment Mish Mishnah Mishnah-exegesis Mishnah-paragraph Niddah Oral Torah owner party passage position premises Press for South principle prior problem proposition question Raba Rabbah rabbis reason reference sages Scholars Press Scrip sense Shabbat Shammai Sifra Simeon single sources South Florida Studies statement sukkah sustained systematic Talmud of Babylonia Tannaite authority Tannaite formulation taught on Tannaite things tion tooth topic Tosefta tradition uncleanness valid verse of Scripture whole woman word writ of divorce writing written Yerushalmi Tractate Yosé Zebahim Zira