From Jewish oral tradition to the cultural development of the Talmud, and from the colorful depiction of Jewish daily life to the importance of Hebraic history and impact on "Modern Jews", Rabbi Steinsaltz took us on a delightful journey of wisdom and enlightement.

I knew the Rabbi for many years, and I have attended almost all of his lectures in New York City.
What a delight to hear him explaining the Torah and the Talmud in a most enchanting way.
This book offers you the opportunity to discover the depth and beauty of his teachings.

I am a Christian, with a Jewish wife and deep exposure to Jewish culture. I have often found myself bewildered by Judaism. When my wife and I read from the Torah/Old Testament, for example, we usually seem to be reading entirely different books, although the text is identical. As the years have gone by, I have often felt that they more I am exposed to Judaism, the stranger it is to me.

I was given this book by a Jewish friend. I found that it answered a tremendous number of my questions. The basic thing that I did not know was, since the Bible was finished, the Jewish scholars have been working on their understanding of it for centuries and centuries. Their thought has developed in a totally different direction than that of any strand of Christianity. They have been writing commentary on the Torah and then commentary on the commentary for two thousand years now. They have produced a great collective work of unique scholarship, the Talmud.

The Talmud, it seems, is the backbone of post-Biblical Jewish culture. It is a vast and unfinished work. There are two different forms of it, the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusaleum Talmud, both many, many volumes.

I have not, and probably will not, read either version of the Talmud myself. It is so vast that it seems almost a lifework to approach it. This little volume, however, gives a very understandable introduction to it. It starts out by giving the history of the Talmud, what it is, where it came from and how it developed. All of this was new to me, and very useful.

He then gives introductions to various aspects of the Talmud, such as its ethical teachings, the dietary laws, different Talmudic forms of logic and so forth. I get the impression that much of this is unavoidably somewhat superfical, because Talmud, by its nature, is vast and free-ranging, whereas this book is only rather short volume. It gives a good overall sense of what Jewish thought is about, however, what concerns it and why it has such enduring value.

Christians tend to be dismissive of the uniquely Jewish approach to the Bible. Jesus, after all, spent a good deal of energy denouncing the Pharisees, who are the spiritual predecessors to the scholars who wrote the Talmud. The Talmudic approach is certainly deeply alien to the Christian mind and spirit. But one conclusion that I think all of us are coming to, from many different angles, is that God is bigger than we are, and no one approach to the truth exhausts the Lord. In the same way that each of the major Christian traditions brings something unique and valuable to our understanding, if we are open-minded enough to listen, so the Jewish sages have an approach that is worthy of deep respect. In their own way, this is a community which has clung tenaciously to the Lord, and refused to ever give up what God had given to them. Their way is not our way, but it also came from God.

This book will be used at Oral Roberts University for the summer school class titled "Intro to Jewish Literature" which will be a springboard class for the new graduate degree in Biblical Literature with emphasis on Judeo-Christian Studies. Excellent beginners book on how to read the Talmud, its History, and how it should be read. For those not enrolling in classes, this would be an excellent resource for your private library, or purchase a copy for your public library and share the knowledge.
Prof. Cheryle Holeman

This is the best short introduction to the Talmud I know. The first section that relates the history of the Talmud's creation is the most extensive and interesting part of the work. The short summaries of various tractates also provide a basic knowledge. But there is no substitute for ' learning the Talmud with others' Hopefully this work will encourage many to do so.

This is the best short introduction to the Talmud I know. The first section that relates the history of the Talmud's creation is the most extensive and interesting part of the work. The short summaries of various tractates also provide a basic knowledge. But there is no substitute for ' learning the Talmud with others' Hopefully this work will encourage many to do so.

Adin Steinsaltz is second to none in the field of Talmudic studies. A translator and editor of the magnificent Steinsaltz edition of the Talmud, he heads the Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications, one of the primary institutes for the discipline. Author of more than 60 books, Rabbi Steinsaltz's writings are what first introduced me to the interesting and complex world of the Talmud in an accessible and engaging manner.

The Talmud is not part of the shared Judeo-Christian tradition; this is a development of rabbinic Judaism after the divergence of the paths. Steinsalz states that if the Bible constitutes the cornerstone of Judaism, the Talmud is its central pillar. The Talmud arose from the writings of teachers and the wise in Palestine and in Babylonia from the aftermath of the destruction of the second Temple up until the early Middle Ages. Steinsaltz traces this history in the first part of the text, from the periods of oral tradition, to the tannaim (the period of Hillel and Shammai), the compilation of the Misnah, the amoraim (interpretations), and the final redaction and printing. Steinsaltz also looks at the various times of the banning and burning of the Talmud. He points out that without the Talmud, the Jewish communities might well have ceased to exist, which is one of the reasons why persecutors sought to limit or destroy the books.

In his second section, Steinsaltz looks at the structure and content of the Talmud. While the Talmud consists of the Mishnah (a book of halakhah, the laws, written in Hebrew), and the Gemarah (the commentary on the law), in fact there is much more to Talmud than this. Into the commentaries rabbis and sages included many details and facets about the culture and general life of Jewish people beyond the legal and theological beliefs. It represents a thousand years of wisdom, legend, philosophy, common sense and community interpretation that goes well beyond a strict legal codification. While talking about such well-known topics such as dietary restrictions and Sabbath/holy day observances, one gets a sense for the greater community, what is important and what is identity-forming.

The third section is on method. The Jewish tradition never developed a theological practice like the Christian theological process, largely because the Talmudic process already encompassed much of what would have been otherwise covered. There are particular ways of thinking, approaching problems of interpretation and applicability, as well as an open-endedness to Talmud that makes it a strong and continuing vital presence in Jewish life. The Talmudic scholar is not required to memorise and accept all that is written in the books -- unlike the Bible, it was never seen as having a final redaction and closing of the canon. Indeed, according to Steinsaltz, it is the responsibility of a Talmudic student or scholar to question things that seem to conflict with each other, or with daily life. Just as culture and society continue to change, so too does the Talmud and the way it is applied and interpreted -- this process is built into the document itself.

In this book, Steinsaltz writes for the general audience. He defines his terms and, while he uses a fair amount of Hebrew terminology, he keeps these well explained and relevant. He does not go off on tangents or into too much detail for an introductory survey; however, he does give good examples as highlights (for instance, the discussion about the mouse who brought in breadcrumbs to Passover, etc.). These add colourful details; the Talmud can be wonderfully practical and astonishingly removed from real life, all within pages of each other.

This is a wonderful introduction to the Talmud by a wonderful teacher.

I liked this book and found it very helpful. It is more about how the Talmud was actually put together, than a review or commentary on what the Talmud actually contains.

Rabbi Steinsaltz, one of the most respected Talmudists of his generation, has devoted significant effort to introducing the Talmud to a wider audience and encouraging people to actually read it rather than merely read about it. Starting to read the Talmud without some idea of what it is and what it is about would be a very frustrating project, however, and this book is intended to help bridge that gap.

"The Essential Talmud" is divided into three sections, covering history, content and method. The historical section gives a very traditional account of the origins of the Talmud in the oral Torah, and its compilation and editing in Palestine and Babylon. By "traditional" I mean that this is essentially the account that the Talmud gives of itself or that can be filled in from other rabbinic literature. Whether or not this history is completely accurate, it is a significant part of the Talmud's self-presentation and of its authority, and throws important light on both the Talmud's content (largely the teachings of prior masters) and its methods (the obsessive quest to identify the authors of and reconcile the various teachings). In short, it is very difficult to understand the Talmud if you do not understand where the Talmud believes it came from, and Rabbi Steinsaltz's chapters on history are very helpful in that regard. He then goes beyond the Talmud itself to offer a brief history of Talmudic exegesis, and some very interesting information on the printing and persecution of the Talmud.

The second section of the book covers the structure and content of the Talmud. Here Rabbi Steinsaltz offers a very concise summary of the topics touched on by the various tractates of the Talmud. These very brief chapters can do no more than give one a sense of the general subject matter covered, but they successfully provide a general overview. What I found lacking in this section was the complete absence of any citations to the Talmud itself, or any bibliography for further reading on the various subjects. It is easy enough to guess that most of the material on marriage will be found somewhere in Tractates Ketubot and Kiddushin, but it is less easy to determine the source for his comments on the status of women or on ethics and halakhah. Some citations here would have been nice, in case the reader is sufficiently intrigued to want to read more. For example, in the chapter on ethics, Rabbi Steinsaltz summarizes rabbinic thinking on the sometimes conflicting claims of justice ("truth") and compromise ("peace"). I would love to read more on this subject, but I don't know where in the Talmud (or in other commentaries) to look. (For a more detailed look at the subject matter of the Talmud, see Abraham Cohen's "Everyman's Talmud," which has chapters that cover most of the tractate subjects, and additionally pulls together material on other subjects (such as the nature of God, sin and repentance, and so on) that is scattered throughout the Talmud.)

The third section of the book is entitled "Method," and while it is in some ways the most intriguing part of the book, it is also in some ways the least successful. Here Rabbi Steinsaltz attempts to give the reader a sense of how the Talmud operates, what problems it studies, how it approaches those problems, and how it uses logic, midrash and aggadah to achieve its goals. There are many interesting insights here *if* you already have some experience with reading Talmud. The real difficulty is the almost complete lack of concrete examples or actual text from the Talmud to illustrate Rabbi Steinsaltz's points.

Overall, I found this to be a good summary of basic points that someone new to Talmud study needs to know. The book is well written and easy to read. The failure to include any extended passages of text is a major flaw, however, and makes it impossible for this book to really capture the "essence" of the Talmud.