So, correct me if I am mistaken, the Talmud is all oral? That confuses me because when I think of oral tradition, I don’t think that it would be written down. Where would that make books like Ruth or Isaiah land? I was under the impression that they were in the talmud.
Jewish scholarship was originally transmitted by word of mouth, handed down from teacher to student. Rabbis discussed about, expounded on and debated concerning the Scriptures without the benefit of the written word other than the books themselves, though some may have took private notes for use in areas such as court decisions. There was also apparently a feeling at the time that such scholarly learning should continue to be passed by word of mouth and
not be written down: after all, proponents say, when Moses received the Law in Sinai, its explanation was also conveyed to him orally - and no man should dare break that chain, which they claim stretches across the centuries.
The situation, however, changed at the destruction of Jerusalem and with it, the Temple, and the consequent upheaval of social and legal norms. Whereas up to now Judaism was far from being a singular, monolithic entity; on the contrary there was a huge diversity within Jewish thought and practice - that some scholars even choose to speak of them collectively as ‘Judaisms’ in the plural - many of these other forms of Judaism did not survive the carnage (the Sadducees for one), leaving only the descendant of the Pharisaic school, rabbinic Judaism, the sole survivor.
Without a Temple to serve as the center of teaching and study and living in a land without at least partial autonomy, there was a huge uncertainty among the rabbis about the direction Jews will take from then on, and there was a flurry of legal discourse, such that the old system of oral transmission could not be maintained. It is during this period that rabbinic discourse began to be written down. By around AD 200, the
Mishnah, a redaction of rabbinic oral law in writing, was completed. Later further discussions and comments about said oral teaching were also eventually written down as the
Gemara. Taken together, these two elements were edited together into the Talmud.
I think you’re thinking about the word
Tanakh, the Hebrew term for the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible as a whole. The word is an acronym:
tanakh is taken from
Torah (the Law; i.e. the Pentateuch),
Nevi’im (the Prophets), and
Ketuvim (the Writings; i.e. books which do not fit into the two categories above).
Here is how the books are commonly categorized today among Jews:
Torah
1.) Genesis
2.) Exodus
3.) Leviticus
4.) Numbers
5.) Deuteronomy
Nevi’im (The Prophets)
6.) Joshua
7.) Judges
8.) 1 and 2 Samuel (counted as one book)
9.) 1 and 2 Kings (counted as one book)
10.) Isaiah
11.) Jeremiah
12.) Ezekiel
13.) The Twelve Prophets (Hosea to Malachi; counted as one book)
Ketuvim (The Writings)
The Books of Truth (Sifrei Emet)
14.) Psalms
15.) Proverbs
16.) Job
The Five Scrolls (Chamesh Megillot)
17.) Song of Songs
18.) Ruth
19.) Lamentations
20.) Ecclesiastes
21.) Esther
Other books
22.) Daniel
23.) Ezra-Nehemiah (counted as one book)
24.) 1 and 2 Chronicles (counted as one book)
