Tagged Questions
4
votes
1answer
67 views
How were long-running talmudic discussions actually conducted?
Eiruvin 13b records two years-long disputes between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai, and surely these are not the only long-running debates. How did that work in practice? Did they really have a single ...
5
votes
0answers
45 views
What is the status of the “minor tractates”?
There is a collection of "minor tractates" some of which contain material not found in other works of torah sh'baal peh (the oral law). What is the origin of these tractates? Who wrote/compiled them? ...
9
votes
2answers
112 views
Looking for information on the Savoraim
I am looking for more information on the Savoraim such as a list of who they were, what they wrote outside of comments/amendments in the talmud, meaning do they have responsa, ethical or halachik ...
5
votes
0answers
73 views
When was the bending of the knees in bowing introduced?
The Gemara in Berachos 12a says that we bow at Baruch and we straighten at Hashem. Nowadays the familiar practice is to bend the knee at Baruch, to bow at Atah, and to straighten at Hashem, as stated ...
3
votes
1answer
103 views
Dialogue Between Jews and Romans in Jewish Tradition
I always wonder what people refer to when they quote things spoken between the Jews and the Romans. Does ancient Jewish doctrine include instances of dialogue between the Jews and the Romans?
11
votes
3answers
119 views
Who is the voice of Tosafoth?
Tosafoth were the sons-in-law, grandchildren, and students of Rashi (and their students), and "they" wrote a commentary on the Talmud that is often at odds with Rashi's earlier commentary. Sometimes ...
14
votes
2answers
380 views
What was wrong with the word Talmud?
The Wikipedia article on The Talmud says:
and Pope Pius IV commanded, in 1565, that the Talmud be deprived of its very name. The convention of referring to the work as "Shas" (shishah sidre ...
12
votes
4answers
181 views
Rabba bar bar Chana
There is a rabbi in the Talmud referred to as רבה בר בר חנה. Why is he called that way? It says that Rabba was the grandson of Chana.
Who was Chana? Was it(?) a woman? Why wasn't he called after his ...
5
votes
4answers
232 views
Why was the Gemara written in Aramaic?
The Gemara (the Bavli and Yerushalmi) are the fundamental texts that we possess of the Oral law. Why were they written in Aramaic?
At first glance, Ravina and R' Ashi probably knew that this will be ...
2
votes
1answer
143 views
Why was the Mishna written in Hebrew while the Gemara wasn't?
By the time of the Mishna, people speaking in Aramaic on a day-to-day basis. Nonetheless, R' Yehuda Hanasi wrote the Mishna in Hebrew. So were the Toseftas and the Braisos.
Why?
On the other hand, ...
9
votes
2answers
81 views
What is the provenance of Maseches Sofrim
Who wrote Maseches Sofrim and when did he live. Is it accepted by everyone?
The Rashba in Brachos 34a writes that is one of the minor masechtes that were authored by the early sages. He reiterates in ...
9
votes
1answer
111 views
layout of the Gemara
When was the current pagination of the Gemara finalized? It seems that it was before the Vilna print, though it seems from different Acharonim (the Rama, etc.) quoting the Mordechai that the Mordechai ...
6
votes
1answer
414 views
How did the Ten Martyrs actually die?
On Yom Kippur and Tisha B'av we read about the Ten Martyrs who were gathered and killed by Emperor Hadrian to atone for the Sale of Yosef HaTzadik.
In addition to the idea that the Ten Martyrs didn't ...
3
votes
1answer
91 views
'fixed' wording of the g'mara justified by found mss.?
In the margins of the g'mara are many notations indicating changes that various rabbis (Bach, G'ra, Tzon Kadashim, Shita M'kubetzes, etc.) made in the wording of the g'mara, seemingly to resolve ...
12
votes
1answer
350 views
What is the oldest manuscript of Torah Shebaal Peh?
We don't have (and more's the pity!) R' Yehudah Hanassi's autograph copy of the Mishnah (well, okay, it's a controversial issue whether he actually wrote it or only arranged it orally), or Ravina and ...
2
votes
1answer
131 views
Ben Petura - The Nazarene?
The Gemara in Bava Metzia 62a talks about two people in the desert and who gets the water first. I heard that the character Ben Petura is the Nazarene; can anyone confirm or deny this with a source?
...
4
votes
1answer
305 views
Yerushalmi Versus Bavli
What are the differences between the two Talmuds? or are there differences? Why did the two Talmuds develop separately or did they? Why do we Poskin like the Bavli or do we? Is it true that the ...
13
votes
2answers
258 views
What does “the Talmud” mean in the Talmud?
The G'mara Bavli says in Shabas 63:
אמר רב כהנא, "כד הוינא בר תמני סרי שנין, והוה גמירנא ליה לכוליה תלמודא, ולא הוה ידענא דאין מקרא יוצא מידי פשוטו..."
Rav Kahana said, "When I was 18 years ...
5
votes
1answer
112 views
Where did Rash"i's commentary leave off when he died?
Where did Rash"i's commentary leave off when died? Did he finish it? What was he working on?
5
votes
1answer
81 views
If the “ten martyrs” didn't happen together, did the punishment-for-Joseph story happen? When?
It's commonly believed that the "ten martyrs" didn't all live in the same time period, and the description of them as a group is conceptual, not historical.
Now the story opens with a Roman ruler ...
4
votes
1answer
214 views
Which Raban Shimon ben Gamliel was it who was martyred?
The Ten Martyrs liturgy describes Rabbi Yishmael the High Priest and Raban [=nasi or "chief rabbi"] Shimon ben Gamliel as killed by the Romans at the same time. Rabbi Yishmael served as cohen gadol ...
7
votes
0answers
96 views
Identifying Ba'alei Tosafos [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Who is the voice of Tosafoth?
How much do we know about which specific people wrote which comments of Tosafos?
2
votes
2answers
125 views
Did the Jews in the Midbar know the entire Torah?
The G'mara in Y'vamos (ד) and B'rachos (כא) records a dispute over whether laws can be deduced from the fact of two p'sukim appearing adjacent to one another in the Torah.
The Mahara"tz Chayos ...
4
votes
1answer
187 views
What's in the new bit of Jerusalem Talmud?
I just read a news story about a newly discovered sentence-long fragment of the Jerusalem Talmud that apparently resolves a previously unintelligible section of Tractate Bikkurim.
Does anyone know ...
