Talmud - The Oral Torah

Talmud

This week we talked about the Talmud, which may be explained as the compilation of the Torah's oral law and the commentary of that oral law. These two things are called the Mishnah (the first compilation of the oral law) and the Gemara (the explanation of the Mishnah) - together they make the Talmud. It is also referred to as Rabbinic Judaism, second to the Torah. My boyfriend doesn't even remember this, do I just had to explain it to him. Geeez.

Here's where my lack of historical knowledge comes in, and I'll just repeat what I read and what I was told:

The beginnings of the Talmud began with the Jewish uprising from the Romans around 70 C.E. When the Jews lost all control of worship in Temples, they turned to making Judaism centered on the study & prayer without the need of a Temple. I believe this is another example of why Judaism has been around for so long, and why the Dalai Llama reached out to the Jewish people for advice.

In a more modern sense, one the reasons for the Talmud is that one cannot literally live biblically; thus we must use the oral interpretation to further guide us through the intricacies of the Torah and life. However, the historic reason the Talmud came to be was out of a need for spiritual survival. When the Romans destroyed the Temples of worship, which were the focus for the Jewish religion, they changed their focus to be about Jewish studies instead. For some, modern Judaism is primarily lived via practice of the Talmud and not biblical.

Written Torah

The written Torah is what may be referred to as "half of the story" and the other half being the oral Torah. I've begun to notice more often that a lot of Jews disagree with one another, and that must be why we discuss the interpretations and oral portion of the Torah. To give you an idea of just how much Jews disagree, 50 of 5,000 debates between Rabbi's ended in an agreement. These debates are known as Makhloket, the first post modern literature on rabbinical debates - oh what fun! I think what enhances people's belief is being able to hear all sides to a story. While doing research, I found this book that seems like a great read to help us understand the major disputes in Judaism: Judaism's Great Debates: Timeless Controversies from Abraham to Herzl.

The author Barry Schwartz states that healthy arguments are at the core of Judaism, and Judaism is made up of unresolved arguments rather than resolved. Although I find a lot of answers throughout my journey, there are also a lot of times I am left with no answer. When I asked my Jewish friend about G-d's existence, he asked why did I want an answer, and said so many people are concerned with wanting that question answered. For him, he's content with knowing there is a higher being based on the and doesn't need to question the Torah.

Oral Torah

The other part to the Talmud are the important traditions we've learned from the oral interpretations of the Torah. Surprisingly, the written Torah does not mention traditions such as what to do on Shabbat like the use of challah bread. These traditions have come from aggadah; the stories, traditions, spirituality and legends. The oral Torah is the "other half" to Jewish law. This is the interpretive tradition that contains the 200+ laws that include animal sacrifices and the Shabbat traditions.

What I like about Judaism is that no one is ever satisfied with complacency. I don't think it's that people questioned the religion because they thought it was wrong, rather they wanted to enhance their understanding. Thus when their Temples were destroyed they sought out more answers to enhance their Judaism life. I wonder what would've happened if the Temples were not destroyed and Rabbinic Judaism did not become so important. Would there not be so many of the traditions we love like challah bread and the peacefulness of Shabbat?