The Talmud is not a book you can criticize without studying. It is akin to criticizing the New York Federal Supplement vol. 2 case law.
The overall structure of a page of Talmud traditionally goes something like this:
The text of the Mishna is placed in the center of the page. The Mishna is the earliest redacted transcription/recording of the Oral Torah that was given to Moses at Sinai. This material has changed at times due to editing of non-jewish censors but it has been restored in later editions. The Mishna is often difficult to understand because it uses oral memory devices to convey a lot of information, information that is not readily apparent from simply reading it. This is because the Mishna was taught orally and a lot of information had to be memorized.
Example of Mishna:
"If a person was riding on an animal and he saw a found object, and he said to another person, “Give it to me,” [and the other person] took it and said, “I have acquired it,” he has acquired it. If, after he gave it to him, he said “I acquired it first,” he said nothing.
The Mishna’s goal is to clarify how to behave in certain circumstances that the written Torah does not expressly cover. As you can see, the commentary can often require further commentary. This is where the Gemara comes in. Gemara is later commentary written on the Mishna. In the Talmud, it follows underneath the Mishna passage.
Gemara: We have learned there: Someone who gahtered pe’ah and said 'Behold this is for so-and-so the poor man. Rabbi Elizer says:…
Most Talmuds will also have the Rashi commentary on the same page, giving his view of the Mishna and/or the Gemara. Rashi was one of the greates rabbis, lived in the 12th century France, and wrote extensive commentaries on all the Jewish scriptures.
Then in the bottom half of the page will be notes:
“Gemara” We have learned elsewhere in a Mishna in tractate Pe’ah (4:0): Someone who gathered pe’ah - produce which by Torah law [Leviticus 23:22] is left unharvested in the corner of a field by the owner of the field, to be gleaned by the poor – and said, 'Behold, this pe’ah which I have gleaned is intended for so and so the poor man, Rabbi Elizar says: The person who gathered the pe’ah has acquired it…
Then there would be footnotes that discussed certain words or terms used in the Mishna and Gemara:
“If a person gathered pe’ah.” According to Rahsi, the Mishna must be referring to someone other than the owner of the field. By Torah Law the owner of a field is required to seperate part of his field as pe’ah, even if he himself is poor, and he may not take the pe’ah for himself. Thereofre the “since” argument…
At the very bottom of the page will be the Halakhah – the law that is derived from the Mishna:
"A person who gahtered pe’ah for someone else. If a poor person, who himself is entitled to collect pe’ah, gathered pe’ah for another poor person, and said, “This pe’ah is for x, the poor person,’ he acquires the 'e’ah on behalf of that other poor person. But if the person who collected the pe’ah was wealthy, he does not acquire the pe’ah on behalf of the poor person. he must give it instead to the first poor person who appears in the field,” following the opinion of the Sages as explained by Rabby Yehoshua ben Levi (Rambam, Sefer Zeraim, Hilkhot Mattenot Aniyyim 2:19).
On the margins of the page might be notes providing background information:
“The Torah forbids harvesting the corners of your field,” so that the produce left standing may be harvested and kept by the poor (Leviticus 19:9). The Torah did not specify a minimum amount of produce to be left as pe’ah, but the Sages stipulated that it must be at least 1/60th of the crop.
Pe’ah is set aside only from crops that ripen at one time and are harvested at one time. THe poor are allowed touse their own intitiative to reap the pe’ah left in the fields. But the owner of an orchard must see to it that each of the poor gets a fixed share of the pe’ah from places that are difficult to reach. The poor come to collect pe’ah three times a day. The laws of pe’ah are discussed in detail in tractate Pe’ah.
And there you have a typical page of Talmud. One page. There are most likely several other pages discussing the two lines of Mishna.
If one only attempts to learn a little bit of Talmud, hopefully with a knowledgeable study partner, it quickly becomes apparent how misleading, wrong, and hurtful are the majority of nonjewish comments on various Talmud verse that are found all over the internet.
