The Talmud

29 May, 2014 290 Other religions

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history and contents of the Talmud, one of the most important texts of Judaism. The Talmud was probably written down over a period of several hundred years, beginning in the 2nd century. It contains the authoritative text of the traditional Jewish oral law, and also an account of early Rabbinic discussion of, and commentary on, these laws. In later centuries scholars wrote important commentaries on these texts, which remain central to most strands of modern Judaism.

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Guests

  • Philip Alexander 4 episodes
    Emeritus Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester
  • Rabbi Norman Solomon No other episodes
    Former Lecturer at the Oxford Centre for Jewish and Hebrew Studies
  • Laliv Clenman No other episodes
    Lecturer in Rabbinic Literature at Leo Baeck College and a Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King's College London

Reading list

  • Engendering Judaism
    Rachel Adler (Jewish Publication Society, 1998) Google Books →
  • Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties
    Shaye Cohen (University of California Press, 2001) Google Books →
  • Holy Men and Hunger Artists: Fasting and Asceticism in Rabbinic Culture
    Eliezer Diamond (Oxford University Press, 2003) Google Books →
  • The Babylonian Talmud
    I. Epstein (ed.) (Soncino Press, first edition 1935-1948, second edition 1978) Google Books →
  • The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature
    Charlotte E. Fonrobert and Martin S. Jaffee (eds.) (Cambridge University Press, 2007) Google Books →
  • Rabbinic Texts and the History of Late-Roman Palestine
    Martin Goodman and Philip Alexander (eds.) (Oxford University Press/British Academy, 2011) Google Books →
  • Rabbinic Thought in the Talmud
    Louis Jacobs (Vallentine Mitchell, 2005) Google Books →
  • Demonic Desires: "Yetzer Hara" and the Problem of Evil in Late Antiquity
    Ishay Rosen-Zvi (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011) Google Books →
  • Jewish Marriage in Antiquity
    Michael L. Satlow (Princeton University Press, 2001) Google Books →
  • Why Study Talmud in the Twenty-First Century? The Relevance of the Ancient Jewish Text to Our World
    Paul Socken (ed.) (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009) Google Books →
  • The Talmud: A Selection
    Norman Solomon (Penguin, 2009) Google Books →
  • A Very Short Introduction to Judaism
    Norman Solomon (Oxford University Press, first edition 1996, revised edition 2014) Google Books →
  • The Essential Talmud
    Adin Steinsaltz (Basic Books, 2006) Google Books →
  • The Talmud: A Reference Guide
    Adin Steinsaltz (Maggid, 2013)
  • Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash
    H. L. Strack and G. Stemberger (T&T Clark, 1996) Google Books →

Related episodes

Programme ID: b044j7pd

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b044j7pd

Auto-category: 296.1 (Judaism - Talmud and Rabbinical literature)

Hello (First sentence from this episode) Hello. The Talmud is one of the most important texts of Judaism.