Book: Everyman's Talmud by Abraham Cohen

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This book is self-described as an introduction to Judaism.

It starts off with an interesting and captivating short history of Judaism, focusing on the development of the Talmud (“study”) of the Torah (“direction”, usually referring to the first five books of the Bible).

The Talmud is a collection of Rabbinic writings and beliefs beginning about 200 BC and until about 600 AD. This was a critical period resulting from the destruction of the Temple and the Jewish government and the emergence of Christianity among Jews and Gentiles.

I’ve posted this thread in Sacred Scripture, because the book discusses Jewish beliefs particularly pertaining to the revelation in the Torah. One of the things that kept this book interesting was reading their beliefs that are so similar to Catholic beliefs – an afterlife, judgment after death with reward or punishment, and a lot of beliefs that are similar and/or identical to the faith of the New Testament.

Being written in the same time as the development of Christianity, the Talmud was written partly in reaction to the beliefs of Christians-- to express what they do not believe.

What might seem tiresome if it were not so interesting, is the general pattern of this Rabbi said this, that Rabbi said that,and the other rabbis said (something else). That is the general structure of how Jewish thought developed and was recorded and transmitted for future generations, to keep Judaism alive.

The interpretation of the Torah without a Temple is really tricky. And, so, all this Talmud writing becomes the Oral Torah, the interpretation of the Torah for its own sake, and to contrast the re-interpretation of the written Torah by the Christians, who adopted it as their own. See? This is very parallel to the ideas of the Catholic Church in the document Dei Verbum of Vatican II, which says that revelation consists of scripture and tradition, and that Church teaching stands on revelation and magisterial teaching. Very similar patterns with different outcomes.

The Talmud has a lot of folklore, superstitition, silly medical advice, and other topics. I skipped most of that and the section on Jurisprudence.

The book is very readable and generally interesting (to me) except as noted above.

One of the highlights of the teaching: Study of the Torah is the most important activity in the life of a Jewish man, although an occupation is required to help him understand the Torah and support himself and his family. Another: Judaism is really “evangelical” and intended to be extended to all the nations, in God’s own time and will.

The book was first published in 1931 and revised in 1949. My copy was published in 1995. I found the book in our local public library and I believe that I am the first person to read it, based on the pristine condition of the copy.
 
Crumpy, thank you for that most interesting book review. I have copied it and placed it in my ‘book’ file. I don’t know that I will read the book because my ‘to read’ list is taller than I am. lol:)
 
There was one more point that I wanted to raise, something interesting and surprising in the book.

Not only is there a Jewish belief in the afterlife, a judgment for the rights and wrongs that one has done in life, but there is, let me say it this way, some sort of temporal punishment, before one is admitted to the presence of God. In other words, there’s something like purgatory. The Rabbis estimate that the average person spends about 12 months there “expiating” for sins.

The conclusion that I draw from my observation that the Talmud is this endless discussion – this rabbi says this, that rabbi says that, the other rabbi says something else – is that the Jews have scripture and tradition, but they are lacking a definitivev sense of magisterium in the Catholic sense. They seem to develop a consensus about an issue over time, but it is always an open-ended consensus, allowing for further discussion.

I’m on to reading the next Jewish book on my list, the JPS (Jewish Publication Society Guide to the Bible) and I would like to make a point that this book clarifies about Cohen’s book. The Talmud consists of the Mishnah, which is a compilation of Jewish laws, developed from about 200 BC to 200 AD. The second main part of the Talmud is the Gemara, which is a commentary on the Mishnah, which was compiled from about 200 AD to 600 AD.

This latter Guide makes the observation that the Talmud indicates that there are 613 mitzvot (commandments) but it doesn’t list what they are. It may be that the compiled list was lost for some time, but was eventually explained in a classic work by a Rabbi known as Maimonaides. (It’s quite embarrassing to lose your commandments, as you can imagine,so they must have been really delighted when the list was printed again.)

I will have a separate thread on this Guide to the Bible when I finish that book.

Cohen’s book also tells that the Talmud teaches that the Torah (first five books of the Bible) were written in God’s heart 2000 years before the creation of the World. That statement like other statements in the Torah attribute human characteristics to the LORD. This is not to say that the LORD has these human features; the use of such language is a way of teaching a truth that we can understand.

Cohen’s exposition is fairly readable and interesting. The Talmud itself has been criticized as almost incomprehensible, as it was written in Hebrew, before the development of such ideas as using punctuation, indentation, footnotes, appendices, and the like. So, reading the Talmud itself is much more difficult. Cohen’s book of about 350 pages is a much friendlier way to dig into the subject.
 
I’ve read this! It is indeed wonderful, informative, awesome. I seconded the recommendation. 👍
 
Crumpy said:
Cohen’s exposition is fairly readable and interesting. The Talmud itself has been criticized as almost incomprehensible, as it was written in Hebrew, before the development of such ideas as using punctuation, indentation, footnotes, appendices, and the like. So, reading the Talmud itself is much more difficult. Cohen’s book of about 350 pages is a much friendlier way to dig into the subject.
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You can get an english translation that is readable. The Steinsaltz edition, for example, has the original mishna language translated (which makes little sense) and then on the opposite side it has the language with the appropriate fill in and added words.

The difficulty in reading and understanding the Mishna is no so much the lack of puncuation (although that certainly doesn’t make things easier), but the fact that this was originally an oral torah, which meant it was memorized in a kind of shorthand. And sometimes words are inserted that are meant as mneomic devices to a whole bunch of stuff that you could not possibly associate with the verse without knowing what the mneomic trick.

I found your two posts to be a good succint introduction to what the Talmud was. I have read Everyman’s Talmud and I try to Study a page of Talmud a week. It ain’t easy.
 
Valke2 said:
You can get an english translation that is readable. The Steinsaltz edition, for example, has the original mishna language translated (which makes little sense) and then on the opposite side it has the language with the appropriate fill in and added words.

The difficulty in reading and understanding the Mishna is no so much the lack of puncuation (although that certainly doesn’t make things easier), but the fact that this was originally an oral torah, which meant it was memorized in a kind of shorthand. And sometimes words are inserted that are meant as mneomic devices to a whole bunch of stuff that you could not possibly associate with the verse without knowing what the mneomic trick.

I found your two posts to be a good succint introduction to what the Talmud was. I have read Everyman’s Talmud and I try to Study a page of Talmud a week. It ain’t easy.
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I don’t suppose there is a free online English translation, is there?
 
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