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Notes on video lecture:
What is the Talmud?
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on April 18, 2016 (go to class or lectures)
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
Hebrew, format, Bible, beginners, interpretation, primary, Talmud, ideology, Purity, Rabbinic, 750, tractates, Mishna, five, Gemara, Oral, 19th, Book, Babylonian, Holidays, logic, widespread, Palestinian, expands, Torah, literal, Synagogue
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Jews have long been called the people of the         
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the book that is usually presumed to give Jews this title is the           
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for a thousand years, another book has been slowly displacing the Bible as this book, the             
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Jews continue to venerate the           , the Hebrew term for the first section of the Bible
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the Torah is crucial to the                    service where the Talmud is nowhere to be seen
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there are          ways that the Talmud has succeeded the Bible partially or in full
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1. participates in a process of Biblical                              which replaces the surface meanings of the Bible with the Talmud's own interpretations
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sometimes departs significantly from the Bible's                meaning
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               the meaning of the Biblical text
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2. has become the foundation for Jewish                  whether or not these topics are covered in the Hebrew Bible
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3. has been replacing the Bible as the                study text
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in a religion that places high value on studying texts
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the Talmud's              lends itself to more rigorous study
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elite scholars are partial to the Talmud over the Bible
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with today's                      access, it is always becoming a primary text for non-elite scholars, e.g. day schools, adult education settings, and self study
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4. since the          century, the study of the Talmud has focused as a source of identity for a certain sub-population of Jews
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5. with its rhythm,           , and language, the Talmud has long nourished traditional Jewish society
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What is the Talmud?
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a central text of                  Judaism
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a work of literature unlike any other you may have studied
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collects and organizes the ideas of Rabbis who lived between 70 CE, when the Romans destroyed the Second Temple of Jerusalem, and        CE, a rough date of the conquest of the Ancient Near East
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the Talmud is structured as a commentary to the             , a law code that was orally published around the year 200 CE
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the Mishna is highly organized and is composed of six thematic orders
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1. Agricultural Law
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2.                 
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3. Family Law
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4. Sacrifice
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5. Criminal and Civil Law
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6.              Law
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the Talmud is also divided into orders and                   , but the Talmud resists rigid ordering and prefers free-flowing conversation
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the feature of the Talmud can make the Talmud feel somewhat inaccessible to                   
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the term "Talmud" normally refers to the collection of writings named specifically the                      Talmud
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there is also an earlier collection known as the Jerusalem Talmud or                        Talmud
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two components
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Mishnah
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c. 200 CE
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a written compendium of Rabbinic Judaism's          Torah
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Gemara
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(c. 500 CE), an elucidation of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings (from the Rabbinic sages) that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the              Bible
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the Talmud may refer to either the              alone, or the Mishnah and Gemara together
What is the Talmud?