Talmud/Talk

Someone ought to frame this article with some dates. Right now it's floating in one big moment. --MichaelTinkler

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This article begins with "The Talmud, also known as gemara, is a collection of Jewish scripture". But aren't the Talmuds the Mishnah plus gemara? Gemara printed by itself without the associated Mishnah wouldn't be a Talmud. Right? -- SJK

If the world made sense, you'd be absolutely correct. But religious Jews have their own slang, sometimes jokingly called Frum-speak, or "Hebronics", and this slang is used very consistently. A gemara printed by itself wouldn't be a Talmud; however, one never sees this in real life. The Mishnah is only about 10% of a Talmud, so it just is easier to print them both together. Gemara became, in practice, a synonym for the whole Talmud. You may note that Jews also have this same terminology problem when it comes to the word "Torah". it should mean the five books of Moses (and often does), but it also is used as a synonym for the combined written law (the entire Hebrew Bible) AND the entire corpus of classical rabbinic exposition on the Oral Law (the Mishnah, and both Talmuds. Further, Torah is also used forRK

Maybe we should note something like that in the article. I've always thought of Talmud as Mishnah+Gemara, but then my exposure to Judaism is limited to having read some books. But if that's the impression I got from reading books, doubtless others may get that impression also. -- SJK