Prologue: The Talmud: essential, enhanced, and emblematic -- Gestation and birth (essential Talmud part one) -- Anatomy (essential Talmud part two) -- Election: how the Talmud's discourse developed (enhanced Talmud) -- Rivals, naysayers, imitators, and critics (emblematic Talmud) -- Golden old age: Talmud in modernity, three stories.
Summary:
"The Babylonian Talmud, a postbiblical Jewish text that is part scripture and part commentary, is an unlikely bestseller. Written in a hybrid of Hebrew and Aramaic, it is often ambiguous to the point of incomprehension, and its subject matter reflects a narrow scholasticism that should hardly have broad appeal. Yet the Talmud has remained in print for centuries and is more popular today than ever. Barry Scott Wimpfheimer tells the ... story of this ancient Jewish book and explains why it has endured for almost two millennia"--Dust jacket flap.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.