What are the top facts about the Talmud?

Answer 1

• The Talmud contains the Oral Torah of the Jewish people.
• The Talmud serves to clarify the brief verses of the Torah and Tanakh (Hebrew Bible).
• The Talmud, after the Hebrew Bible, is considered the primary text of Jewish learning.
• The Talmud contains, in addition to Torah-matters, some mathematics, geometry and trigonometry, medicine, astronomy, and advice on a large range of problems and situations.
• The Talmud includes information on the lives and personalities of the Sages, from Abraham down to the writing of the Talmud.
• The Talmud was kept entirely orally, and learned by heart, from the time of Moses until it was written 1800 years later (1500 years ago).

• The Talmud contains the Mishna (relatively brief paragraphs of law, in Hebrew) and Gemara (explanations of the Mishna, in Aramaic and Hebrew).
• The Talmud has thousands of published commentaries.
• The Talmud contains 63 tractates (volumes) in 2711 leaves (double pages). New printed editions maintain the same pagination as earlier ones.
• The Talmud has been banned, censored and burned many times by enemies of the Jews.

Some of its books are:

A tractate (volume) about the daily blessings (Berakhot)

A tractate about Shabbat

A tractate about Passover (Pesachim)

A tractate about Rosh Hashanah

A tractate about Yom Kippur (Yoma)

A tractate about Purim (Megillah)

A tractate about marriage (Ketubot)

A tractate about vows (Nedarim)

A tractate about divorce (Gittin)

Three tractates containing laws of torts, damages, property etc. (the three Bavot)

A tractate about Jewish courts (Sanhedrin)

A tractate about the prohibition of idolatry (Avodah Zarah)

A tractate about the offerings (Zevachim)

A tractate about the laws of keeping kosher (Chullin).

Answer 2

The Talmud is a vast repository including the Mishnah (brief laws) and Gemara (Aramaic commentary) and the minor tractates (volumes). The central pillar of the Talmud is the Mishnah (the Oral Law), which is usually printed and studied as part of the Talmud.

• The Talmud serves to clarify the brief verses of the Torah and Tanakh (Hebrew Bible).
  
• The Talmud, after the Hebrew Bible, is considered the primary text of Jewish learning.
  
• The Talmud contains, in addition to Torah-matters, some mathematics, geometry and trigonometry, medicine, astronomy, and advice on a large range of problems and situations

See also the Related Links.

Link: Jewish history timelineLink: Why do Jews need the Talmud?