A History of the Talmud

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the Talmud in Judaism and beyond. Yet its difficult language and its assumptions, so distant from modern sensibilities, render it inaccessible to most readers. In this volume, David C. Kraemer offers students of Judaism a sophisticated and accessible introduction to one of the religion's most important texts. Here, he brings together his expertise as a scholar of the Talmud and rabbinic Judaism with the lessons of his experience as director of one of the largest collections of rare Judaica in the world. Tracing the Talmud's origins and its often controversial status through history, he bases his work on the most recent historical and literary scholarship while making no assumptions concerning the reader's prior knowledge. Kraemer also examines the continuities and shifts of the Talmud over time and space. His work will provide scholars and students with an unprecedented understanding of one of the world's great classics and the spirit that animates it.

1. Why a history of the Talmud?; 2. Before the rabbis; 3. The emergence of the Mishnah; 4. What is the Mishnah?; 5. The reception of the Mishnah; 6. The first Talmud: the Yerushalmi; 7. Jews in Babylonia and the emergence of the Babylonian Talmud (the Balvi); 8. What is the Balvi?; 9. The reception of the Balvi; 10. The Talmud and early modernity; 11. The Talmud in modernity and beyond.

David C. Kraemer is Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York. He is the author of Mind of the Talmud (1990) and Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages (2008).