Judaism's Original Texts 3: The Talmud — Oral Law, Mishnah & Gemara

Thank you for visiting. This article is the third installment in a series explaining the original texts of Judaism.

This time, I take up the most characteristic original text, which makes Judaism unlike any other religion — “the Talmud.” Neither Christianity nor Islam has anything that corresponds to it exactly. It is an original text unavoidable for knowing the essence of Judaism.

For an overview map of Judaism’s original texts as a whole, please see this summary article.

Judaism's Original Texts: A Complete Guide to the Tanakh and Talmuden.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-judaism/

The Idea of the Oral Torah

The starting point for understanding the Talmud is the distinctive idea of the “Oral Torah (the oral law).”

In Judaism, it is thought that what Moses received from God at Mount Sinai was not the written “Written Torah (the Bible)” alone. At the same time, he is said to have received “another Torah,” not written in letters but transmitted orally from generation to generation. This is the Oral Torah.

Why is such a thing needed? It is because with the Written Torah alone, one cannot tell how actually to keep it. For example, the Torah commands “you shall not work on the Sabbath,” but then what concretely does “work” refer to — using fire? carrying things? Those fine lines are not written in the text of the Bible. The very tradition of interpretation that supplements this “how concretely to practice it” is the Oral Torah.

This tradition, long transmitted orally, in time faced the danger of being scattered and lost, and came to be written down in letters. Its crystallization is “the Talmud.”

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The Mishnah — the Book That First Put the Oral Tradition into Letters

What forms the foundation of the Talmud is the “Mishnah.”

In AD 70, the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed, and as Jews scattered to various lands, it was strongly feared that the oral tradition would be lost. So around 200 AD, the rabbi “Judah ha-Nasi” finally organized and gathered into letters the oral law, which until then had been held that one “must not write.” This is the Mishnah.

A great feature of the Mishnah is that it organized the law by theme (subject), rather than in the order of the Bible’s verses. The whole is divided into six great divisions (sedarim = orders).

From marriage to agriculture, courts, and festivals, this comprehensiveness — making every scene of life the object of the law — is a great feature of Judaism.

The Gemara — the Record of Endless Debate

When the Mishnah was complete, the rabbis of later generations (the Amoraim) came to exchange lively debate over it. What recorded that debate is the “Gemara.”

The interest of the Gemara lies in that it is not a mere collection of conclusions, but preserves the very process of debate. “Concerning a certain law, Rabbi A said this. But Rabbi B objected thus. The grounds were…” — the manner of thoroughly clashing pros and cons is written down as it is. Even minority opinions are deliberately left without being erased. This stance of honoring not only the conclusion but “why one thinks so” is said to have become the source of Jewish thinking that values logic.

What combines this Mishnah (the text) + Gemara (the debate) is “the Talmud.”

The Two Talmuds

In fact, there is not one Talmud but two. They divide by which land’s scholars made the Gemara.

Of these, the one that has overwhelming authority in Judaism today is “the Babylonian Talmud.” When one simply says “the Talmud,” it usually refers to this. The whole is enormous, a great work that, translated into Japanese, would run to dozens of volumes.

Halakhah and Aggadah — Law and Story

The contents of the Talmud are largely a mixture of two elements.

One is the part called “Halakhah,” the legal rules to be kept. This is the center of the Talmud, defining “how a Jew should live.” The other is “Aggadah,” which is not law but the narrative, didactic part — supplements to the Bible’s stories, parables, anecdotes of the rabbis, ethical lessons, and the like. Amid hard legal argument, a richly flavored tale is suddenly inserted — this ebb and flow makes the Talmud a deep read, not a mere code of law.

The Birth of Rabbinic Judaism

The formation of the Talmud greatly remade Judaism itself.

Until the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70, the center of Judaism was the “ritual (sacrifice)” of offering animals at the Temple. But when it lost the Temple and the priests’ ritual became impossible, it would have been no surprise had Judaism perished.

What became the new center then was learning, debating, and practicing the Torah and the Talmud. Becoming leaders in place of the priests were the experts in the law, the “rabbis (teachers),” and the place of prayer and learning was the “synagogue.” The form of Judaism born this way, centered on study, is called “Rabbinic Judaism.” Modern Judaism is basically in the current of this Rabbinic Judaism.

What kept the Jews — having lost both their land and their Temple, scattered around the world (the Diaspora) — as one people for 2,000 years was not an army or a state, but, it can be said, a portable original text called “the Talmud,” which could be studied unchanged wherever one went.

The Spirit of Honoring Debate — Hillel and Shammai

A great feature of the Talmud lies in writing down whole opposing opinions, not only the conclusion. Its symbol is the two great rabbis active around the turn of the era, the gentle Hillel and the strict Shammai, and the hundreds of disputes of their two schools. The Talmud, rather than erasing one side, noted even minority opinions alongside, as “this too is the word of the living God,” leaving them to the judgment of later generations. Not hurrying to a single correct answer, but honoring the very act of continuing to question — this stance is said to have cultivated the Jewish intellect.

There is a famous anecdote concerning Hillel. A certain gentile put an impossible demand: “If you can teach me the whole of the Torah while I stand on one foot, I will convert.” The short-tempered Shammai drove him away, but Hillel is said to have answered calmly: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah. The rest is mere commentary on it. Now, go and learn.” This is a passage characteristic of the Talmud, showing that this teaching, later known also as Christianity’s “Golden Rule,” was already told within Jewish tradition.

A Comparison with Other Religions — Is There Anything Like the Talmud?

Finally, let us compare with Christianity and Islam. Neither religion has anything that corresponds exactly to the Talmud.

If forced to name something close, Islam’s “Hadith (the record of the prophet’s words and deeds)” and the Islamic law “Sharia” derived from it are somewhat similar, in the point of being “a second authority that supplements the scripture and defines the law of life.” In Christianity, on the other hand, the interpretation of the Bible was entrusted to the writings of the Church Fathers and the decisions of councils, and no “book that canonized the very debate” like the Talmud was born. Honoring the whole debate of pros and cons, not narrowing down to a single conclusion — this intellectual undertaking is the very individuality of Judaism.

To Learn More

Here are some related books. Reading them alongside this series lets you savor this world even more deeply.

The Origins of Religion: Why We Needed a ‘God’View on Amazon → A Complete History of Philosophy and ReligionView on Amazon →

Conclusion

In this article, I explained in detail the original text that most characterizes Judaism, “the Talmud.” How was it?

The Talmud is an enormous original text consisting of the “Mishnah,” which put the Oral Torah into letters, and the “Gemara,” which recorded its debate. The law to be kept (Halakhah) and richly flavored story (Aggadah) are mixed, and the stance of honoring debate over conclusion runs throughout.

After losing the Temple, Judaism changed its form into “Rabbinic Judaism,” centered on the study of this Talmud, and kept connecting the Jews scattered through the world for 2,000 years. It can be said to be an original text unique to Judaism, found in neither Christianity nor Islam.

In the next Article 4, I will explain the faith and daily practice of Jews based on these original texts (the 13 Principles, the Sabbath, kosher, and so on).

Judaism's Original Texts: A Complete Guide to the Tanakh and Talmuden.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-judaism/

I hope you’ll read the next article too.