The Talmud is the central body of rabbinic literature in Judaism, comprising the Mishnah and the Gemara. The Mishnah is a written compilation of the oral legal traditions (halakha) of Judaism, redacted in Roman-era Judea around 200 CE. The Gemara is a collection of rabbinic analysis and commentary on the Mishnah, produced in two distinct versions: the Jerusalem Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi), compiled in the Land of Israel circa 400 CE, and the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli), compiled in Babylonia (modern Iraq) circa 500 CE. When used without qualification, “the Talmud” typically refers to the Babylonian Talmud, which became the more authoritative text in subsequent Jewish legal tradition. The Talmud encompasses legal discussion (halakha), narrative and ethical teaching (aggadah), biblical exegesis (midrash), and extended philosophical and theological dialogue.

The Talmud is organized around the six orders (sedarim) of the Mishnah, which are subdivided into tractates (masekhtot). The Babylonian Talmud contains 37 tractates and spans thousands of pages in standard printed editions, the most widely used being the Vilna Shas, first printed in the 1880s. The language of the Mishnah is a form of Late Biblical Hebrew known as Mishnaic Hebrew; the Gemara is written primarily in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, with portions in other dialects. The text records debates and rulings attributed to two classes of rabbinic authorities: the Tannaim (active c. 10-220 CE), whose discussions are preserved in the Mishnah and related works, and the Amoraim (active c. 200-500 CE), whose discussions constitute the Gemara. Later editorial layers, attributed to the Savoraim and Geonim, are also recognized by scholars.

The process by which the oral tradition was committed to writing is itself a topic of historical and religious discussion. Traditional accounts hold that oral transmission had been the required mode since Sinai, and that only pressing historical circumstances - particularly the dispersions and persecutions of the Roman period - prompted Rabbi Judah the Prince (Yehudah HaNasi) to authorize written redaction of the Mishnah. Academic scholarship situates the composition of both the Mishnah and Gemara within their respective historical, political, and intellectual environments, including the influence of Persian Zoroastrian legal culture on the Babylonian Talmud. See Talmud - History.

In Jewish legal tradition, the Babylonian Talmud functions as the foundational source for halakhic (legal) adjudication. Subsequent codes - including Maimonides' Mishneh Torah (12th century) and Joseph Karo's Shulchan Aruch (16th century) - derive from and depend upon Talmudic reasoning. The Talmud is also the primary curriculum of traditional Jewish religious academies (yeshivot). Different Jewish denominations vary significantly in how they regard the Talmud's authority: Orthodox Judaism treats it as binding legal precedent; Conservative Judaism accepts its authority while permitting halakhic development by qualified decisors; Reform and Reconstructionist movements treat it as historically significant but non-binding. See Orthodox Viewpoint, Conservative Viewpoint, and Reform Viewpoint.

Christian, Islamic, and secular academic engagement with the Talmud spans more than a millennium and has ranged from serious scholarship to polemical attack. Medieval European authorities periodically censored, confiscated, or burned copies of the Talmud, most notably at the Paris Disputation of 1240 and subsequent burnings. Censored and expurgated editions shaped the printed text for centuries; critical scholarship has worked to reconstruct uncensored readings from manuscript traditions. Academic Talmudic scholarship developed primarily in the 19th and 20th centuries through the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement and continues through programs at universities and seminaries worldwide.

The Talmud contains passages touching on medicine, astronomy, natural history, and cosmology as understood in late antiquity. The status of these passages - whether they carry religious authority, reflect the best knowledge of their time, or are subject to revision in light of later science - has been a recurring question in Jewish legal thought. Specific discussions include the structure of the heavens and the motion of celestial bodies, which intersect with later debates about the reception of Copernican and heliocentric cosmology among Jewish authorities. See Heliocentrism - Jewish Viewpoint.

Passages from the Talmud have been selectively excerpted and circulated in antisemitic literature from the medieval period to the present. These excerpts are typically presented without context, in mistranslation, or drawn from aggadic (non-legal narrative) passages and treated as binding doctrine. Scholars of rabbinic literature and Jewish organizations have produced responses to these claims. The debate over how to characterize and respond to distorted uses of Talmudic text is treated separately. See Talmud - Debate.

• Orthodox Viewpoint - The Talmud constitutes the binding oral Torah, transmitted from Sinai and essential to halakhic practice.
• Conservative Viewpoint - The Talmud is authoritative but subject to development by qualified decisors responding to historical change.
• Reform Viewpoint - The Talmud is a historically significant record of Jewish thought, but does not carry binding legal authority.
• Academic Viewpoint - The Talmud is a historical document produced in specific cultural contexts, best understood through philological and comparative methods.
• Critical Viewpoint - Perspectives that challenge the Talmud's content, authority, or social influence, including both internal Jewish critiques and external criticism.

• Talmud - History
• Talmud - Debate
• Mishnah
• Gemara
• Halakha
• Jewish Law - Consensus
• Heliocentrism - Jewish Viewpoint
• Judaism
• Antisemitism

1. Stemberger, Gunter. Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash. 2nd ed. Translated by Markus Bockmuehl. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1996.
2. Neusner, Jacob. The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2011.
3. Jaffee, Martin S. Torah in the Mouth: Writing and Oral Tradition in Palestinian Judaism 200 BCE-400 CE. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
4. Steinsaltz, Adin. The Essential Talmud. Translated by Chaya Galai. New York: Basic Books, 1976.
5. Schafer, Peter. Jesus in the Talmud. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007. (Covers the history of censorship and the manuscript tradition.)
6. Strack, Hermann L., and Paul Billerbeck. Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch. Munich: Beck, 1922-1961. (Historical example of Christian Talmudic scholarship.)