Contents Introduction ................................................. ............................................... 1 God's guidance to Israel .............................................. ....................................... 1 Diversity ................................................. .................................................. .............

2 The joint ................................................ .................................................. . 3 The Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha ............................................ ...... 4 Septuagint ................................................. .................................................. .......... 4 Tanaka and Old Testament .............................................. ........................ 5 The Oral Torah ............................................... .................................. 6 Use of the word Torah .............................................. .................................................. .. 6 About Tora core ............................................... .................................................. ..... 7 From the oral Torah to the Talmud ............................................. ................................... 7 Interpretation Types ................................................. ........................................ 8 Midrash ................................................. .................................................. ............... 8 Halakhah ................................................. .................................................. ............... 9 Haggada ................................................. .................................................. ............... 9 The timescales ................................................. ......................................... 10 Division into periods ............................................... ............................................... 10 Mishna takes shape ............................................... .................................................. ... 10 The Talmud takes the form ............................................... .................................................. ... 11 Talmudic literature and midrashisk .............................................. ........... 11 Mishnah ................................................. .................................................. ............... 11 Example ................................................. .................................................. ........ 11 Divisions ................................................. .................................................. ... 12 Tosefta ................................................. .................................................. ............... 13 Talmud ................................................. .................................................. ............... 13 Comments ................................................. .................................................. 14 Midrashim ................................................. ............................................ 14 Halakhic Midrashim ................................................ .......................................... 14 Haggadiska midrashim ................................................ ......................................... 14 The Talmud today ................................................ .......................................... 14 This text is in the making! Misspellings and unfinished phrases may occur. Dieter Mitternacht 1 A brief introduction to the Talmud and Midrash OF DIETS MITTERNACHT "When your son asks you ..." (5 Moses 6:20) Introduction Moses called all Israel, to admonish them to keep the statutes and judgments which the Lord commanded him to teach them. They would pass it on to children and grandchildren, inculcate them in their children, talk about them as they sat in his house, when they were out walking, they went to bed and when they arose. They would love the Lord their God with all his heart, with all his soul and with all his might (5 Mose 6:5) and be righteous before the Lord his God by faithfully comply with "all this law, so he has to ask-precipitated us' (Gen. 6:25 5; read the entire five Gen. 5-6). God's Guide to Israel

Torah, God's guidance, was sent to Moses for the people of Israel on behalf of Mount Sinai. According to rabbinic tradition had this guidance dessfr-before only existed in heaven. Now it was Moses the two ways, as a written part, the Pentateuch also referred to as the written Torah and an oral part, the so-called oral Torah. The Oral Torah debt smile passed from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation, from teacher-to student (mAvot 1:1 ff). Over time, systematized the Oral Torah scholars of the tradition bearers and preserved in a collection of texts known as the Mishnah (c. AD 200). At that time, many Jews lived in Babylonia, while others, after decades of war and devastation had returned to the Land of Israel. Both of Babylon and Jerusalem-Salem and the surrounding area started to emerge so-called lrohus, rabbinical schools, where an extensive interpretation activities going on. Two collections of Mishnatolk-tions grew and preserved separately. They were named The babylo-tronic Talmud and the Talmud jerusalemitiska. Talmud bavli, as the ba-bylonska Talmud is also known, was completed around 700 CE, the JerusalemThis text is in the making! Misspellings and unfinished phrases may occur. Dieter Mitternacht 2 salemitiska Talmud about the year 400 CE, but the interpretation process continued through the centuries. Some interpretations were inserted in the Talmud that comments-tors, others gathered in other text collections. Interpretation and collection has been going through the centuries and continues today, so that it is practically impossible to survey the extensive Jewish corpora and no single person knows the content of everything that has been collected. Diversity Like other peoples and religions of Judaism consists of several groupings with different interests and priorities with regard to faith beliefs tions, religious practice and appreciation of traditions and writings. For Jews-nas part to come to the thousands of years have been scattered to all over the world. Of the approximately 15 million Jews in the world today, one third live in Israel, about half in the Americas and about 15% in Europe. Jews shapes their lives and perceive their religious tradition in many different ways. Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn are different from other Jews in the same city. Jews in Russia preserve other traditions than Jews in Ethiopia-a or Australia. Jewish life in France related to a different culture than in Argentina, etc. Again there is a growing jew population in Germany related to the humanities and cultural heritage that their ancestors before the war and Shoan (Holocaust) has helped to build up and give-vocational adult. A look back in history will notice two main groupings. First there is the Sephardic Judaism which until 1492 lived mainly in Spain and Portugal, but then was displaced and settled mainly in the Ottoman Empire main campuses, such as Cairo, Thessaloniki, Istanbul and Damascus. Many also moved to America and some of Europe's North-tional regions. The Sephardic Jews read the Babylonian Talmud. The askenasiska Judaism which first found in central Europe and then in Eastern Europe, estimated in the early 1800s have constituted the majority of ju-users worldwide. Within the askenasiska Judaism arose on the ti-it is also the so-called Chassidismen. Moreover, they wanted to, however, adapt to European culture and sought agreement with Christianity. Many were influenced by the Enlightenment, and wanted to be involved in the European countries' educational systems and languages. While there were those who warned that in-gration was at the expense of identity. This text is in the making! Misspellings and unfinished phrases may occur. Dieter

Mitternacht 3 When integration efforts had his abrupt and horrific end when millions of Jews were exterminated in concentration camps arose several flyktingv-ters to Palestine. From 1940 onwards immigrated mainly box-looks from the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe and the State of Israel's founding was the population to 80% of askenaser. The Sephardic Jews who had settled in North Africa, Middle East, Southwest Asia is also called Oriental Jews. They tend to derive their parishes origins until the First Temple period (10th-6th century. BCE). The Oriental Jews have never lived in Europe and are currently at least half of the State of Israel's population. There are also groups of Jews in India and China with their own traditions. Today Judaism is divided on the basis of rabbinic and religious-philosophical criteria in Liberal Judaism, also known as Reform Judaism, Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism. Within these groupings there is disagreement in terms of divine worship design, the ritual pre-writing, the validity, the role of women and the rabbinic tradition significant. Then there are Jewish mysticism and Hassidic groups that focus on exploring the Tora's secrets. The joint In diversity there are common, what all can agree upon, the linking of Jews and Judaism around the world. Basic is that with the exception of Reform Judaism, provides a common response to The issue of who is a Jew: a person born a jew mother or have con-verted to Judaism. Unlike the terms Christian or Muslim, Jew denotes membership of both a religion and a people. Some would add that as belonging to the Land of Israel is the third compo-nent which unites all Jews. Jews who practice their religion is broadly agreed that the Torah as it is represented in the Talmud is God's perfect guidance and obligations of the silent words to his people both in the past, present and future. Unlike Christianity, which makes the Creed in the center stands in Judaism faithfulness to God's guidance in the center. If Christians can fight for the right belief, orthodoxy, are fighting the Jews rather for the right action, ortopraxin. This text is in the making! Misspellings and unfinished phrases may occur. Dieter Mitternacht 4 The Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha As background to the discussion of the Talmud and Midrash is a word says gas in the Hebrew Bible and the Apocrypha. Among the many traditions of Judaism occupies the Hebrew Bible, also called Tanaka, a cen-tral position. Tanaka is an acronym for the word Torah ("Guidelines"), Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (the Scriptures). It contains 24 books that are broadly consistent with the Christian Old Testament's 39 books (see box). After Tanaka is the so-called rabbinical or talmu-Jewish literature is essential for all forms of rabbinic Judaism. Of less importance to tradition through centuries formation but still a part of it, is the large amount of apocryphal writings. Some of them are gathered in the Appendix to the Old Testament of the Bible 2000th It is a unique phenomenon that two completely different religious communities play a significant part of their sacred texts common. It reminds Christians that their faith has grown out of Judaism and sets the scene for re-tion between Jews and Christians today. When it is said that the Old Testament was Jesus' Bible must be remembered that at the time of Jesus there was no ready-yourself Bible and the term "Old Testament" came into use only when people started talking about "New Testament" as the second part of the Christian writers collection, which took place earlier than in

the mid 100's. Septuagint Long before the Hebrew Bible had been defined translated the Hebrew text of the future lingua franca, Greek, only the five books of Moses (200-century BCE), then until mid-to-first century CE remaining papers are grouped in the so-called Sep tuaginta (LXX). Like any translation is also LXX interpretation. When the translators thought that the Hebrew idiom was incomprehensible to hellenis-cal Greeks chose the express the content quite freely. Et example of this is God's self-presentation to Moses in the burning bush (2 Moses 3:14), which says hy <+ ha (rv <AA] hy <h.a, (('literally' re-made: "I will be who I should be. "The translators wrote in Greek: (roughly" I am the present ") and made an arcane formula available for hellenis-notions of God, while the" foreign "was lost rat . This text is in the making! Misspellings and unfinished phrases may occur. Dieter Mitternacht 5 The core of Israel's sacred texts consists of the Torah and the Prophets. In the mid100's f.v.t. began to talk about another third part of "the Rest of the scriptures," sometimes as "David's Psalms." In the Gospels it is referred to Israel's sacred texts with names Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms (cf. Mt 22:40, Luke 24:27, 44). Tanaka and the Old Testament In the LXX (later the Old Testament plus) around the year 200 were put together with some of the 27 texts that would later be included in the New Testament-end began the Christian Bible to take shape. In LXX apply a division into four parts and the collection concludes with pro-prophet Daniel. The prophetic conclusion was retained in the Christian Old Testament tamentet, perhaps because it was perceived as a good transition to the New Testament. New Testament course begins with tales of the prophecies concerning the promised Messiah has come true. The Hebrew Bible, however, three-piece design and ends with a historical text, Chronicles. Some of the texts included in the LXX were excluded and were instead among the entries are called apocrypha. With evolving Tanaka acronym for three-division Tora, Nevi'im and Ketuvim of the Hebrew Bible. Facts about Tanaka and Old Testament TANAKA THE OLD TESTAMENT Enlarge Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy Prophets (Nevi'im) the early Joshua, Judges, Samuel (a book), Kings (a book) the later Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, The Twelve (a book): Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadia, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Sefania, Hag-gai, Zechariah, Malachi Scriptures (Ketuvim) Pentateuch Five books of Moses Historical Books Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, First and Second Chronicles-book, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther Poetic books

Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, clean, Song of Solomon Prophets the larger This text is in the making! Misspellings and unfinished phrases may occur. Dieter Mitternacht 6 Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah (one book), Chronicles (book) Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel the smaller Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadia, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Sefania, Haggai, Zech-aria, Malachi Additions to the Old Testament (the Bible 2000): Tobit, Judith, Esther, in the Greek text, the First and Second Maccabees, Sa-lomo Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, Jeremiah's letter, Additions to Daniel, Manasseh's prayer. These writings are included in the Septuagint (LXX) and embedded in Catholic editions of Gam-added Testament. The texts were excluded from Tanaka of Palestinian Judaism. The Oral Torah Use of the word Torah The word Torah is used in several different ways, reflecting that it denotes a central religious greatness that can be represented by "learning", "teaching" or "guidance", while circumscribing part of the Jewish tradition's corpus. As the Jewish tradition corpus may be the effect of switching between: - A generic term for the revelation to Israel - a written and an oral Torah - The first five books of Moses - A label for the commandments that God gave to Israel at Mount Sinai - Individual bids (Hebrew mitzvah,-ot), which regulates real life situations According to traditional account includes 613 Torah commandments (mitzvot) which is intended to guide the people of Israel in all life situations. The number 613 is said to be composed of 365 negative commandments, one for each day of the year, and 248 positive commandments, one for each leg man has in his body. The translation of "Torah" with "law" is misleading, because the Torah contains and involves much more than what is usually meant by "law", ie. rules and regulations that apply to the administration of justice. Faithful Jews see Torah as God's gift and guidance for life. This text is in the making! Misspellings and unfinished phrases may occur. Dieter Mitternacht 7 About Tora's core It is said that a sneherde asked Rabbi Akiva (c. 50-135 CE), an "instant" the teaching of Torah. Rabbi Akiva replied: "Our teachers Mo-seen spent 40 days and nights on Mount Sinai, how am I supposed to learn Torah in a moment? Tora has one basic rule: Do not do to your neighbor that you hate. " In addition to this so-called "golden rule" are other attempts to re-duce Torah to a core. Such an attempt is attributed to the prophet Amos who raised the slogan: "Search me, you shall live" (Am 5:4). Others have seen the word "The righteous shall live by faith" (Hab 2:4) as a center. When asked after the great commandment Jesus replied with the words from the Torah (5 Gen. 6:4 f; & 3 Mos 19:3): "The most important thing is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind and with all your strength. Then comes this:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Slightly higher bids than they are not. "(Mark 12:29-31). From the oral Torah to the Talmud The rabbinic literature had its origin in the so-called oral Torah. Underlying this is the tradition of God on Mount Sinai gave Moses a double revelation. This double revelation - a written and an oral one - "contain the divine architect's plan for reality, his design for the entire universe" (Jacob Neusner). The rabbis believe that God through Moses to give both written and oral teaching has shown how the Torah should be taught. Moses, who is considered the chief rabbi, followed God's example and rabbis follow Moses' example. The written Torah is part of the revelation. First, together with the Oral Torah is the revelation perfect. Another way of looking at the advent of the Oral Torah is that it was growing up, because the bids were interpreted and raised in new life situations. After the second destruction of the Temple in 70 v.t. and a time of uncertainty and devastation that hit Jerusalem and the whole country, it became increasingly important re-preserving even the oral tradition into writing. Until about the year This text is in the making! Misspellings and unfinished phrases may occur. Dieter Mitternacht 8 200 v.t. out the different traditions together in one document collection, called the Mishna. Simultaneously with this process and especially after it had reached its by-circuit, the rabbis discussed the proper interpretation and use of the commandments. They gathered in the so-called school buildings and decided the right interpreter-tion by majority vote. Interpretations were the doctrines that collect-des and preserved. Mishna, which contains the original oral interpretation of the written Torah, was given new interpretations and explanations, called Gemara. Mishnah and Gemara was added then reassembled in a text collection that was called the Talmud. In the modern scientific dis-course, there are references to the Gemara often only when talking about the Talmud. Interpreting Types Looking for a way to interpret, there are three types of interpretation in the rab-binska literature: Midrash, Halakhah and Haggada. Midrash is also used to designate a corpus which contains interpretations of scripture (see below). Midrash The term midrash found in 2 Chronicles 13:22 and 24:27 to mean "write down", "describe". As a method of interpretation is originally a philological exposition of the written Torah literal meaning. Over time it develops into a method to interpret scripture in depth, ie. not to rely solely on the literal meaning (peshat) and "dig" for the spiritual sense. The Talmud compares the type of interpretation with hammers, which raises the dormant sparks of a stone. Sometimes it also refers to a perceived midrashtolkning text to be interpreted as interlocutors in a conversation that is always ongoing and never reach a definitive conclusion. A famous midrash to the first verse in the Bible ("In the beginning God created heaven and earth") goes something like this: When someone is building a palace, she takes the help of a builder. The builder, in turn, keeps the drawings and plans to get right in the rooms and corridors-s. The Holy One, blessed be He, did the same. He looked after in the Torah and then created the world. The rabbis could thus perceive the Torah as the model for the whole must-coat. The

actual letters and words as we can see with our eyes This text is in the making! Misspellings and unfinished phrases may occur. Dieter Mitternacht 9 can be likened to a lining in which the eternal guidance is hidden. In the lining there is a depth of possible meanings that can never be lap in its entirety. Possibly this thinking behind the famous word in Matthew 5:18 that not a dot in the Torah must pass away until all be fulfilled. Midrashtolkningen grace its peak in the Rabbi Ishmael and Rabbi Akiba schools. Ishmael's hermeneutics was primarily logical and searched for similarities and analogies, Akiba hermeneutics was more focused on the subti-added. His interest was addressed as the words and phrases that seemed superfluous, or to what was said between the lines. Many passages in the Gemara, the Talmud is a quote from Midrashsamlingar, so that it is sometimes said that the Talmud (Gemara) relates to the Mishnah as midrash relates to scripture. Halakhah The term Halakhah (Hebrew pl. Halakhot, "practice") refers to as the interpretative strategy tradition, which gives practical guidance on how a rule should be applied in every-day, church service or in relation to customs and traditions. It is customary insplit Halakhah in an older and younger tradition, but somewhat simplified terms, the Halakhah is based on a choice-interpretation (ie, a midrash) and apply its meaning in a given context and situation in life. Not infrequently cited Tue-vious halakhot to support a new contextualization. Haggada The Hebrew noun Haggada is derived from a verb meaning "reporting", "declare", "tell". The verb is also the time that the start-ing to a halakhic statement, but as a noun, it indicates that the difference is always the Halakhah and refers to the narrative parts, sometimes even on the aphorisms of the rabbis. Haggadot focuses on those who are not pure texts of Scripture. Biblical stories illustrated, expanded, themes and ideas explored. Haggadah par excellence is the ornate ritual tale of endurance-get out of Egypt expressed by the head of the household at the Jewish Passover meal. It is called by outsiders for pskhaggadan. Haggadiska elements can be fine-ments in the New Testament, such as 1 Cor. 10:1-13. This text is in the making! Misspellings and unfinished phrases may occur. Dieter Mitternacht 10 Mishna and Talmud is thus the name of text collections, and midrash ha-Lakha indicates interpretation types present in the various collections of texts, which midrash is the basic and comprehensive designation of "exegesis". Midrash is also used for a corpus (see below). Timescales Division into periods Rabbis divides the centuries of its own interests and perspectives. Central to these is the relationship between tradition and teaching. The time period from the years 000-200 to be arranged, therefore, the so-called Tannaim (aram. Tanna of the Hebrews. Shanna "repeat", "teaching", "learning"). Tannaim has sometimes been described as living scrolls as they were known for kunna cite the oral traditions from memory. They saw their role in the co-added students around them and teach them the tradition through relentless repetition. The students

were teacher's disciples and the objective of life Community was that students could take independent decisions in religious law. This is followed Amoraim (aram. aram, say, comment), which dominate-the period extending up to about 500. Amoraim commented and interpreted Tannaims teaching. 500s assigned Saboraim (sabar, think) as editor of the Babylonian Talmud, as a result of Genoim (ga'on, prominent, eminent), the academy superintendent. Mishna takes shape After the Jewish War and the Jerusalem Temple's destruction in 70 formed a center for jew lesson in Javne in Judea. Where did Rabbi Akiva ben Joseph (50-135) and organized the oral tradition in three collections: Midrash, Mishnah and Haggada. After the failed Bar Kochba uppro-year (132-135) was reconstituted Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, which Jews Supreme Court and the main academy. In Judah-ha-Nasis (Prince Judah) leadership - both he stood before the Sanhedrin and was a recognized rabbi - got Mish-nasamlingen their official identification. Judah wanted to gather together all the oral tradition, but the extent size forced him eventually to be selective, leaving out almost all of midrash and everything haggadiskt materials. Others took on themselves to round up the excluded material, baraitot (= the outside landscape) in separate This text is in the making! Misspellings and unfinished phrases may occur. Dieter Mitternacht 11 collections. Another explanation is that the Mishnah represents what was taught in the Palestinian and Babylonian academies, while baraitot is such that only taught in the academies' private schools. Baraitot can be said to relate to the Mishnah about the apocrypha relates to the Hebrew Bi-cable. One of these collections was Tosefta (= addition). The Talmud takes the form Interpreters of the Mishna was Amoraim (= pavers). Both the Talmud, the Palestinian Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud includes their explanations, discussions and decisions. After the Bar Kochba revolt, many rabbis have moved to Baghdad in Babylon, and there founded Jewish academies, only one of Hillel and Shammai in one spirit - two influential rabbis who had each built their own school during the period prior to 70 years - since more and more. At the same time raised new schools in Pa-lestina, the most important among them in Sepphoris, Tiberias and Lydda. The exchange between the different schools was considerable and between Palestine and Babylon, there were regular contacts. Both the Talmud that were emerging in its place was testimony by the many similarities between them on the exchange. Amoraims ambition was to thoroughly and comprehensively explain the Mishna and Baraitot. Contradictions were harmonized by attributing differences-na different situations or different people. The discussions lasted for centuries row and were included as in both the Talmud, which was taking shape in Palestine and Babylon. Talmudic literature and midrashisk Mishnah The name of the Mishna is derived from the Hebrew word Shanna, which means "repeat" recite ". Mishnah can roughly translated as "the oral teachings". The impression of orality, that one is in the midst of an ongoing conversation, appear already when you read the first sentences-na in the first department's first chapter (Berakot). To begin the Mishnah: Example

When do they begin to recite the Shema in the evening? From the moment when the priests come home to eat his victims. This text is in the making! Misspellings and unfinished phrases may occur. Dieter Mitternacht 12 "Until the third vigil ends." - R. Eliesers words But the scholars say: "The midnight." Rabban Gamaliel says: "To the dawn." M SH His sons came home after midnight and told him: "We have not said Shema yet." To which he replied: "If the dawn has not started yet, you have to say Shema. "And this applies not only in this case. In all cases in which the scholars say that the bids should be performed to midnight, for it until dawn. " For example, victims of the viscera - the requirement to dawn (Lev. 1:9, 3:3-5). And all victims must be eaten within a day. The requirement applies to dawn. But if so, why did when they got to 'midnight'? In order to preserve man from sin. (Note: M SH S = an earlier case, Illustration) Departments Mishnah consists of six departments (Hebrew sedarim) Seraim (sowing) - The first section focuses mainly on agriculture, food production and skrdeav data (tenth etc.). First the department's first chapter (Berakot) is about the blessings and prayers as already mentioned Shema. Moed (festivals) - Second Chamber is about holidays and celebrations. Nashim (women) - Third Division units and about EK-sciences and divorce. Nesikin (vandalism) - The fourth section is called and is about civil law, criminal law, idolatry and how to fundamentally deal with the rights and wrongs of the Oral Torah. Kodashim (holy things) - the fifth section deals with how victims should be managed. Toharot (pure things) - The Sixth Chamber, finally, involves clean-safety regulations (Kashrut). It turns out already in this section review the Mishna does not distinguish between religious and secular spheres of life. Judicial and bnepraktik stands This text is in the making! Misspellings and unfinished phrases may occur. Dieter Mitternacht 13 side by side. The whole life of the same identity and the weekend is God. Tosefta Oral traditions that were excluded from the Mishnah, or port of not-for various reasons was named baraitot (= excluded) and were largely written in a collection bearing the name Tosefta (Hebrew "Completion"). Tosefta is arranged according to similar principles as the Mishna and raises similar could the problems and issues. Tosefta is four times as extensive as the Mishnah and edited probably between the 3rd and 5th century. v.t. In the past it was considered Tosefta often be a commentary on the Mishna, but both the fact that it contains discussions not found in the Mishna and the pa-rallella issues discussed in a similar way but without the references to Mishnatolkningar suggest that it is an independent collection. The Committee notes that several of the Talmudic baraitot are verbatim quotations from the Tosefta. Typical of the Tosefta, which is written in Hebrew is also the large amount of Greek loan words. Talmud Summary of the Talmud process is complex. Over a period of 500 years created the

rabbis in Jerusalem and in Babylon was his collection, the jerusalem Kingdom (Talmud Yerushalmi) and the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli). Both the Talmud contains summaries of the Mishnah (also a number baraitot) and Gemara (interpretations of the Mishnah). The Babylonian Tal-mud is more extensive than the jerusalem Kingdom, treating only the first four sections of the Mishna and the part of the Sixth Chamber. Talmud was completed in the early 700's. But that the Talmud is ready were completed does not mean that the interpretation ceases. Life continues to change and new situations requiring new decisions about how God's will and guidance to be understood. Consequently remained nor the Talmud closed but continued at expanding. When opening a modern Talmud edition, one finds additional texts that have been added as comments to the Gemara. Here it is primarily about the medieval Talmudic expert Rabbi Schlomo bone Jizchak (Rashi), who lived from 1040 to 1105 CE Today, Talmud, a book collection of approx. 20 000 pages of detailed regulations on the Orthodox Jew's life. This text is in the making! Misspellings and unfinished phrases may occur. Dieter Mitternacht 14 Comments Interpretations of the Talmud took off when academies established in Europe and Nordaf-rich in the 900's and on. Best known and appreciated is Rashis come-positive comments (Rashi is an acronym for Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaqi). Rashi counted as a master in step by step to clarify an argument. Rashis comments, positive comments were so popular that they basically took out all the other schools' attempts to attach comments to the Talmud. Midrashim Halakhic Midrashim Halakhic Midrashim is exegetical comments on the texts of Exodus to Deuteronomy. The five famous collections are Mekhilta to 2 Mos, Mek-Hilt deRabbiShimon ask Yohai to 2 Mos, SIFR to 3 Mos, SIFR to 4 & 5 Mos. Mekhilta means "measure", "rule", sIFR (pl above figures) means "written". Haggadiska midrashim Haggadiska midrashim were added in connection with the readings and explanations of synagogsgudstjnsten. Surviving collections derived from 300's to 1000's. Best known is the Midrash Rabbah is a compilation of comments on the Song of Songs, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Esther and Lamentations. The oldest is the Genesis Rabbah, a verse by verse commentary. The Talmud today Through the State of Israel's birth and a new cultural resurgence has also been given renewed impetus Talmud. Orthodox Judaism has always held high the Talmud and saw it as the ultimate halakhic authority. In Israel, home to one now hopes that the Talmud is elevated to the state general law. Although Conservative Judaism follows the rabbinic tradition, however, sees it more as part of an evolutionary process, which changes according to the Halakhah, as times change. Classical Reform Judaism has traditionally had a negative attitude vis--vis the Talmud. But even where there has recently been raised voices affirming ritual custom and practice again. Even the rabbinic argumentation style including Talmudic casuistry has begun to honorary again.