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Talmud

Hebrew (countable and uncountable, plural Hebrews)

  1. (countable) A member or descendant of a Semitic people claiming descent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
  2. (countable) A descendant of the biblical Patriarch Eber.
  3. (uncountable) The Semitic language spoken by the Hebrew people.
  4. (uncountable) The writing system used in Hebrew language.
  5. (uncountable, colloquial) Unintelligible speech or writing.

The name Eber is the original eponym of the Hebrew people, from the root ‘abar (עבר‎, עָבַר), "to cross over".[2][3][4]

Talmud - Wikipedia

Etymology

Talmud translates as "instruction, learning", from the Semitic root LMD, meaning "teach, study".[6]

The Talmud (/ˈtɑːlmʊd, -məd, ˈtæl-/; Hebrew: תַּלְמוּד‎, romanized: Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (halakha) and Jewish theology.[1][2]

Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish cultural life and was foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews.[3]

The term Talmud normally refers to the collection of writings named specifically the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli), although there is also an earlier collection known as the Jerusalem Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi).[4]

It may also traditionally be called Shas (ש״ס), a Hebrew abbreviation of shisha sedarim, or the "six orders" of the Mishnah.

The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah (משנה, c. 200 CE), a written compendium of the Oral Torah;

and the Gemara (גמרא, c. 500 CE), an elucidation of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Hebrew Bible.

The term "Talmud" may refer to either the Gemara alone, or the Mishnah and Gemara together.

The entire Talmud consists of 63 tractates, and in the standard print, called the Vilna Shas, there are 2,711 double-sided folios.[5]

It is written in Mishnaic Hebrew and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis (dating from before the Common Era through to the fifth century) on a variety of subjects, including halakha, Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, and folklore, and many other topics.

The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law and is widely quoted in rabbinic literature.