The Talmud: A Selection (Penguin Classics)

Rabbi Solomon's book is an introduction to the Talmud, the second most important written text in Judaism. The Talmud is second in importance to the Bible, and it seeks to apply the words of the Bible(Jewish Bible only contains what is generally referred to as Old Testament)to the lives of the Jewish People. He gives a lengthy Introduction in the book, in which he discusses how to read the Talmud, its structure, the history of its compilation, the styles of writing in it, the people who contributed to it, its theology, its relationship to Christianity, and how it was transmitted. To me, this was the most important part of the book, and I agree with the previous reviewer, that this portion of the book is worth the price of the book, alone. What follows are examples of text from each of the sections of the Babylonian Talmud, which is divided into Orders and Tractates. There are brief explanations given to aid you in understanding the examples of the text given. Following the examples of text, there is supplementary material, including a glossary, a discussion of the weights and measures mentioned in the Talmud, a lengthy bibliography. and maps. The entire book contains well over 800 pages and is well worth the purchase price. One warning; if you expect to learn the Talmud from this book, you will be disappointed. The title of the book is "The Talmud A Selection", and after you read a few of the examples of the text from the Talmud, you will quickly come to the conclusion, that, it is impossible to really learn the Talmud, without a long, in depth study of it, with the aid of an instructor. This book is a great starting line if you wish to run the distance.

This book's preface includes a 49 page introduction that is a masterful, scholarly exposition of the development of the Talmud, followed by 8 pages of numbered (115) notes. Some of the notes are just citations, but others are paragraphs of explanation, pointing you to pages within the book. At the end of the book is a very valuable 4 page timeline from 333 BCE to 642 CE highlighting events dealt with in the introduction, a glossary, 6 appendixes , 3 bibliographies, maps, a sacred writing index and a general index. These items alone are worth the price of the book. The body of the book consists of samples from each tractate in each of the six orders of the Talmud. The actual Talmud consists of 63 tractates, usually in 63 volumes, so it is impossible to really condense that into one 700 plus page 5 X 8 paperback, but for a taste of what the Talmud is like, plus a superb series of pages explaining how it came to be and how it is arranged, this book more than fills the bill.

Good for history

Great book. Giving you the history of the Talmud in the introduction. Then the whole, book in a very very short version but without missing anytractate. The truth is that the teachings, stories, anecdotes, allegory, literature, science, law,and much more of the Talmud are so much interesting and nearly life time studies. Nevertheless, this book introducing each tractate and what is about.

The book is a lie but good for studying. Jesus says God does not support man made rules and this book is clearly made of rules but its good to read about jewish history

This book will be one of those books I will refer to frequently since it helps to explain the Bible. I am enjoying using this book.It isn't the easiest read, but it is very informative.

This selection of passages from the Talmud provides a good introduction to the reasoning present and the process by which the law was created. It certainly cannot completely substitute for a full Talmud, but it quite a good introduction.

This was always a mystery to me. If you want to get an understanding of the Talmud this is the book for you. Interesting to see how the oral laws brought too much order to society.

Very interesting pictures. The writing is a bit too small and hard to read.

Good book with lots of interesting facts which make the Talmud less daunting to study

Super. Love the book. Good service

Sadly was damaged - returning for exchange

a very useful compilation