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I think that it's important to take into consideration the manner in which the Talmud was composed. It has never been a secret that the authors of the Talmud were many and various, ranging over a peri …

On a previous question that I asked, one correspondent pointed out the existence of a Mishnaic index, which lists every page of the early rabbinic literature on which there is a reference (or allusion …

It is important to understand that there is more than one way that a scriptural passage might be brought, to which your question may have already deliberately alluded. You refer to passages being brou …

There's a very widespread metaphor applied to the Talmud, through which it is likened to a vast body of water, which means that the person "navigating" the Talmud is being likened to a sailor, a swimm …

Bar Kappara (possibly Eliezer haKappar, possibly his son Shimon) was a tanna who was known, within the Talmud, for his unusual antics and unchecked speech. In Nedarim 51a, for example, he causes Rebbi …

In Mesores haShas (printed in the margins of the Vilna Shas), is there any order to the sequence of quoted masekhtas? For example, on Sanhedrin 105b, a story is related that concerns the length of tim …

I encountered an interesting sugya today (Bava Qama 102b), in which we are told that, "in the west", the rabbonim laughed at the interpretation of Rabbi Yohanan. Presumably, this is a reference to Rab …

The Mishna (Ketubot 2:10, 28a) states that there are certain people who are trusted to deliver testimony that relates to something that they witnessed as minors. Included within that list are those wh …

There is a custom of referring to Tractate Kesubos in the Bavli as "Shas Qatan", the Talmud in miniature. This is due to the fact that it treats of a wide variety of different topics, and includes a n …

I am currently reading Rabbi Shimon Huberband's Kiddush Hashem, which is constructed of passages that he authored in the Warsaw Ghetto. In his description of Rosh HaShanah 5700 (1939), he mentions sit …

In this answer to a question that concerned the ways in which languages change and evolve, @SethJ made reference to a sugya that discusses the differences between different dialects of Aramaic, and a …

I'm going to disregard your second paragraph, since a "modern-day" posek (your example was of the Mishna Berurah) doesn't go from the Talmud directly into halakha lema'aseh, but is already familiar wi …

A beraita (Tana d'Vei Eliyahu §17, Kallah Rabbati §8; cf: Avot 6:6) lists amongst those things that enable a person to acquire Torah patience, acceptance of suffering, recognising one's place and reli …

The gemara, in Ketubot 38b, resolves a contradiction between a mishna and a baraita by postulating the existence of a second person named Rabbi Akiva. Is there any reference, outside of this particula …

In Ketubot 49a, the mishna presents the opinion that a man is not legally obligated to support his daughters. The gemara then goes on to determine whose opinion this is: first it excludes Rabbis Meir, …