CHAPTER XIII.

Of the Gemara, or Completion, which is usually styled Talmud.

In the foregoing chapter we described the manner in which the Mishna was compiled, together with its contents, from its first delivery by Moses till the time of its being committed to writing by Rabbi Judah the Prince. We shall now proceed in regular order to explain what the Talmud is, and how it was composed by the several learned men among the Jews both in Jerusalem and in Babylon.

The compilation of the Talmud ranks among the most ancient Hebrew writings. It consists of two distinct heads--the Mishna and the Gemara, and both together form the Talmud.

The Mishna, as already explained, chiefly contains the oral or traditional laws transmitted down to posterity from the time of Moses the Lawgiver, to that of Rabbi Judah the Prince or Nassi.

The Gemara consists of expositions and comments on the Mishna, as also various other subjects connected with Jewish literature, and more especially Jewish theology. It contains also treatises on moral philosophy, ethics, mathematics, astronomy and chronology, and many other branches of the different sciences known in those days. The Gemara or expositions on the Mishna was commenced in the days of the Rabbins, Gamaliel and Simeon, the two sons of Rabbi Judah the Holy, about the year 3980 of the creation, and was completed and compiled into one body by Rav Ashi, President, and Raviny, Vice President, who are considered the actual compilers of the Babylonian Talmud. This took place about the year 4260.

The authors of the Talmud in general are styled Amooroim, dictators, as they dictated the several explications of the Mishna, as discussed in the different schools, and which are all found in the Talmud. The comments and expositions are known by the name of Gemara, which signifies completion, because therein is fully explained all the traditional doctrines of the Jewish law and its religion. The Mishna is the text, the Gemara the comment, or glossary, and both together form the Talmud.

There are two Talmudim. The first is styled Talmud Yerushalmi, or Jerusalem Talmud. This was compiled by Rabbi Jochanan in five sedorim or divisions. This Talmud does not contain the whole of the Mishna. It was completed about the year 4060. The second Talmud is called Talmud Bably, or Babylonian Talmud, which was completed about two hundred years after the other Talmud. The Talmud Yerushalmi is the least esteemed of the two, and consequently less studied and quoted by the learned among Israel. It is the Babylonian Talmud which is usually studied and consulted in all points of jurisprudence, as connected with all religious affairs, both in, and out, of the synagogue. It is therefore to be understood, that whenever the Talmud is simply notified, it means the Babylonian Talmud; as the other Talmud is never quoted, unless particularly and expressly mentioned.

The Talmud Bably is arranged in the following order. The Mishna forms the text, and the Gemara is annexed as the comment or glossary. The same order is observed as with the Mishna, although it must be observed that the Gemara appears only on thirty-six sections, whereas the whole of the Mishna contains sixty-three sections, as explained in the foregoing chapter. The order of the Talmud is as follows:

No. 1.--Seder Zeroeem contains 1 section. No. 2.--Seder Moed contains 11 sections. No. 3.--Seder Nosheem contains 7 sections. No. 4.--Seder Nezekeen contains 8 sections. No. 5.--Seder Kodosheem contains 8 sections. No. 6.--Seder Taharous contains 1 section. -- Total 36 sections.