Talmud or the Gemara is derived from the words, and it means “study” or “learning.” The Talmud is in Hebrew, while the Gemara is in the Aramaic language and belongs to the Babylonian Talmud. Talmud is written in both the Hebrew as well as Aramaic languages. That is, the Amora’im formal statements are verbalized in Hebrew, and its discussions and explanations of the same are phrased in Aramaic. Gemara and the Mishnah combined constitute the Talmud. Gemara study services, however, show that it is written in the Aramaic and has no punctuations. It is the main body of the Talmud and includes the age-old debates regarding the analysis of the Mishnah and the critical source of the Jewish religious law.
Talmud
Before the coming of modernity, in most communities, the Jewish Talmud was the central piece of the Jewish cultural life, and it was the establishment of the thoughts and aspirations of the Jewish. It constitutes selected writings and has been called the Babylonian Talmud. However, the earlier collection version exists and is referred to as Jerusalem Talmud. Traditionally, it is known as Shas, a Hebrew denotation of the shisha Sedarim, otherwise known as the six orders of the book of Mishnah. It comprises two components, the Mishnah (Oral Torah) and the Gemara, which is a clarification of the Mishnah and interrelated writings of the Tannaitic. The Tannaitic constitutes the various subjects and illustrates majorly in the Hebrew Bible. Therefore, the term Talmud can either be the Gemara single-handedly or a combination of the Mishnah and Gemara. The whole of the Talmud has 63 tractates and constitutes 2,711 double-sided sheets. It has been printed in Mishnaic Hebrew and the Babylonian Aramaic Jewish. It has the teachings, thoughts, and ideas of many scholars from the Common Era up to the fifth century. The subjects covered in it included; customs, history, halakha, ethics, and philosophy.
Talmud’s History
Initially, the scholarship of the Jews was oral and could be transmitted from one generation to another. Rabbis then discussed and debated the Torah, which was written in the Hebrew bible and gave the benefits of written works. But, some of them had written notes on specific subjects, such as the decisions regarding the court. However, dynamics arise following the drastic change and extinction of the Jewish commonwealth. At the same time, the second Temple got destroyed, resulting in the disruption of legal and social norms. Therefore, there was a need to adjust, given that Judaism had no temple as the central point of studying and teaching. Since Judea, the Roman province, had no partial autonomy, legal discourse arose, and the past system or oral could not be maintained anymore. At this point, the rabbinic discourse started to be recorded in writing. Munich Talmud, the whole ancient manuscript of the Talmud, dates back to 1342 and is accessible online.
Gemara
Gemara or Gemarah is the Talmud’s component consisting of analyzing the rabbinical and the Mishnah’s commentary. Initially, it was not allowed to be recorded in writing and could only be spoken orally. However, after the Mishnah’s publication around 200 CE by Judah the Prince, it was examined comprehensively by the eventual generations in the Land of Israel and Babylonian. The eventual discussions were then transcribed in a majority of books, and it became the Gemara, and when combined with the Mishnah, is referred to as the Talmud. Gemara constitutes two versions; Jerusalem Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi) compiled by scholars (Jewish) of the Land of Israel established between 350 to 400 CE. The second version, Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) published around 500 CE by the Babylonian scholars. Its publication primarily belonged to the Nehardea, Sura, and Pumbedita academies. More concretely, referring to “Talmud” or “Gemara,” with no other qualification, is known as the Babylonian version, whose main compilers were Rav Ashi and Ravina. There are six Gemara groups: Moed, Nezikin, Kodshim, Zeraim, Taharot, and Nashim. In 1923, a custom existed to enable some parts of the work to be read, given that those parts could not be read at all. Therefore, Polish Meir Shapiro saw the need for the initiative, and people could get familiar with a page of Gemara by reading it for seven years to learn it.
Therefore, Talmud is made up of the Mishnah and Gemara. Mishnah is the main text, while Gemara, which has constituted the analysis and commentary, finalizes the Talmud. Talmud has the description of the components of the Gemara as helping to understand and intellectualize an idea from its roots, comparing and inferring one idea to another.
