The Talmud is one of the richest and most complicated works of literature the world has ever known. Since being composed around 1500 years ago it has inspired not only religious reverence but significant intellectual engagement. In this course learners will be introduced to the unique characteristics of this text and the challenges that inhere in studying it while studying a chapter of the Talmud. Students of the course can expect to develop an appreciation for how the Talmud works and why it continues to inspire religious and intellectual devotion. They will be challenged to employ critical reading skills and to analyze legal and historical concepts.
Video 1 Why Study Talmud?
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来自 Northwestern University 的课程
The Talmud: A Methodological Introduction
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从本节课中
Introducing the Talmud
The Talmud is a canonical work of Jewish literature that collects the ideas and arguments of rabbis who lived between the first and eighth centuries CE. This module explains the basics of how the Talmud was composed, why the Talmud matters and how it is accessed today.
与讲师见面
Barry Scott WimpfheimerAssociate Professor
Religious Studies
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Jews have long been called the people of the book.
The book that is usually presumed to give the Jews this title
is the Hebrew bible known to some as the Old Testament.
But for 1,000 years, a different book has been slowly but
steadily displacing the Bible as the book.
That book that has been displacing the Bible is the Talmud.
This is an intentionally provocative claim.
You might be watching this and
object that the Bible remains the central book of the Jews.
After all, Jews continue to venerate the Torah, the Hebrew term for
the first section of the Bible.
And the Torah is undeniably crucial to the synagogue service,
where the Talmud is nowhere to be seen.
There are five ways in which the Talmud has succeeded the Bible
either partially or in full.
First, the Talmud participates in a process of biblical interpretation that
replaces the surface meaning of the Bible with the Talmud's own interpretations.
These interpretations can at times depart significantly from the Bible's
literal meaning.
By building on the Bible's literal meaning,
the Talmud expands the meaning of the texts.
In this sense the Talmud secretly co-opts the central position of the Bible by
putting the Talmud's words in the Bible's mouth.
Beyond this masked act of displacement through interpretation,
the Talmud has more openly replaced the Bible.
For nearly a millennium the Talmud has been the intellectual foundation for
all matters of Jewish ideology, whether or
not these topics are covered in the Hebrew Bible.
Within a religion that places a high value on the study of text,
the Talmud has been displacing the Bible as the study text.
The reasons for
this focus on the Talmud over the Bible in study are hard to tease apart.
One simple explanation is that the Talmud's format lends itself to more
rigorous study.
Whatever the precise reason, for centuries this has meant that elite scholars
are partial to the Talmud over the Bible.
With the rise in textural literacy in modernity, this is increasingly become
the case not only for elite scholars, but also for non elite learners
in day schools and adult education settings, and even for self-study.
Next, since the 19th century the study of Talmud has functioned as a defining
characteristic of Jewish identity for a certain sub population of Jews.
For these people, the study of Talmud is less what one does and more what one is.
Finally, from its rhythms to its logic to its language, the Talmud has long
nourished traditional Jewish society and seeped into its language and culture.
The Talmud functions as a Jewish cultural language par excellence.
So what is the Talmud?
The Talmud is a work of literature unlike any other you may have studied.
This work of literature collects and organizes the ideas of rabbis who lived
roughly between 70 CE when the Romans destroyed the second Jerusalem temple, and
750 CE, a rough date for the conquest of ancient Near East by Islamic forces.
The Talmud is structured as a commentary to the Mishnah,
a law code that was orally published around the year 200 CE.
The Mishnah is highly organized, and is comprised of six thematic orders
which are then sub-divided into subject tractates, or individual volumes.
The Talmud is also composed of orders and tractates.
But unlike the Mishnah, the Talmud resists rigid ordering, and
prefers free flowing conversations that range across topics, and then back again.
This feature of the Talmud,
flitting from subject to subject across the arcane corpus of rabbinic ideas
can make the Talmud feel somewhat inaccessible to beginners.
This course focuses on the Talmud's treatment
of a single chapter of a single tractate of Mishnah.
I've chosen the opening chapter of tractate Makkot, which literally means
lashes, because it focuses on a fairly relatable subject, false testimony.
And it is less distracted from its central topic than some other chapters in
the Talmud.
This course is the latest of many top quality study aids for
the beginning learner.
Dictionaries, translations, study companions, and
software have been produced to enable access to this important but
sometimes intimidating corpus.
Likewise this course provides tools for those new to the Talmud.
There are many things one can expect to learn from this course.
It goes without saying that you will learn some Talmudic material regarding the ways
the rabbis thought about testimony and false testimony.
In addition to this textual content though,
someone who finishes the course will have an appreciation for how the Talmud works.
And the confidence to employ a translation or
other study guide to study other chapters or tractates.
Along the way you'll develop an understanding of ancient history,
particularly Jewish history and
some insight into the unique issues of historiography related to text.
You will also develop new skills as a student that are applicable to
other subjects and text as well.
The Talmud specializes in a form of critical examination
that forces learners to hone their critical thinking and reading skills.
Since much of our study of the Talmud will focus on legal issues,
the student will develop abilities in legal analysis and thinking.
In 2012, over 600,000 people packed stadiums and arenas worldwide
to commemorate the conclusion of a cycle of Daf Yomi, a program of study
in which a person studies one double-sided page of Talmud every day.
It takes seven and a half years for
committed Daf Yomi students to complete the cycle.
Once an obscure program for
elite students, Daf Yomi has been growing in popularity with each successive cycle.
Today one can study Daf Yomi in synagogues, online, and
even on a Long Island commuter train.
Thankfully this course is much less demanding.
In just a few modules you will have a deeper appreciation of what the Talmud is
and how it works.
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