The Talmud

The Talmud is a compendium of Jewish tradition passed down by word of mouth and finally written down, along with commentary, additional notes, glosses, legal decisions and related non-legal advice collected into multiple volumes called tractates. Two major efforts to create the Talmud has produced two versions: the Palestinian Talmud was edited in the Land of Israel while the Babylonian Talmud was edited by the Jews in exile in Babylon. The version that is considered authoritative is the Babylonian Talmud. The Talmud is in arranged in various ways to make study of the work easier to comprehend. The edition produced by Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna (The Vilna Gaon) is the most common edition to date but other popular arrangements exist such as the Steinsaltz edition. Note: An effort was made here to describe the Talmud in general terms and thus some critical religious ideas of what the Talmud means to the Jewish people have been glossed over. Just know that this work is extremely import in terms of Jewish Law. Corrections are welcome.