Starting to Read the Talmud
Starting to read the Talmud is like being a character in a science fiction novel--one of those novels where the main character falls through a rabbit hole and lands in an entirely new world where nothing is familiar.
I'm exceedingly grateful to have found an English translation of the Talmud at http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm. I'll need a lot more reading practice--and, no doubt, a teacher--before I can hope to read the actual Talmud, and I'm delighted that I can at least take a few baby steps toward this goal.
Because I burn to read the Talmud. From the moment that I first set eyes on it in the Rabbi's study, I wanted it desperately.
Not just because it's so big that I can read it for the rest of my life without "running out" of material. Not just because it'll be great fun learning (at least) two brand-new languages. Not just because it's history, which is my strongest suit. And certainly not because I plan to follow every rule--I can't imagine doing that, though I don't know what God has in store for me.
But because, as I've read elsewhere (Can I remember where I read it? Of course not.) the Talmud is the backbone of Judaism, second only to Torah. It has been burned, censored, destroyed, and forbidden throughout history. If it were to disappear from the face of the earth, tens of thousands of scholars from every land would immediately drop everything else to recreate it as accurately as they could.
Because the Talmud tells you what it means to be a Jew.
And although I as yet only aspire to be a Jew, I am already conscious of the need to bear the burdens of the Jewish people and, to me, an important part of that "burden" is the Talmud. The Talmud is the catena aura, the golden chain that binds Jews to God and to each other throughout the entirety of Jewish history. The Talmud is the story of people who, for thousands of years, have tried to apply God's words as known in Torah to the specifics of everyday life. What better life goal can a person have than to study Talmud (along with Torah) every day?
I'm exceedingly grateful to have found an English translation of the Talmud at http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm. I'll need a lot more reading practice--and, no doubt, a teacher--before I can hope to read the actual Talmud, and I'm delighted that I can at least take a few baby steps toward this goal.
Because I burn to read the Talmud. From the moment that I first set eyes on it in the Rabbi's study, I wanted it desperately.
Not just because it's so big that I can read it for the rest of my life without "running out" of material. Not just because it'll be great fun learning (at least) two brand-new languages. Not just because it's history, which is my strongest suit. And certainly not because I plan to follow every rule--I can't imagine doing that, though I don't know what God has in store for me.
But because, as I've read elsewhere (Can I remember where I read it? Of course not.) the Talmud is the backbone of Judaism, second only to Torah. It has been burned, censored, destroyed, and forbidden throughout history. If it were to disappear from the face of the earth, tens of thousands of scholars from every land would immediately drop everything else to recreate it as accurately as they could.
Because the Talmud tells you what it means to be a Jew.
And although I as yet only aspire to be a Jew, I am already conscious of the need to bear the burdens of the Jewish people and, to me, an important part of that "burden" is the Talmud. The Talmud is the catena aura, the golden chain that binds Jews to God and to each other throughout the entirety of Jewish history. The Talmud is the story of people who, for thousands of years, have tried to apply God's words as known in Torah to the specifics of everyday life. What better life goal can a person have than to study Talmud (along with Torah) every day?
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