( It should be noted that in the account given of the same events, in rabbinic sources ( b. Talmud Shabbat 99a ; Exodus Rabbah 41 ) and in the Qur ' an, Aaron is not the idol-maker and upon Moses ' return begged his pardon as he had felt mortally threatened by the Israelites ( Quran 7: 142-152 ).

According to the Talmud, extinction of the soul is reserved for a far much smaller group of malicious and evil leaders, either whose very evil deeds go way beyond norms, or who lead large groups of people to utmost evil.

Although there is no reference to reincarnation in the Talmud or any prior writings, according to rabbis such as Rabbi Avraham Arieh Trugman, reincarnation is recognized as being part and parcel of Jewish tradition.

The out of print Random House publication of The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition is widely regarded as the most accurate and least redacted of any English language edition and is sought after on that basis by scholars and collectors.

It is not clear why the present order of the books in the Tanakh does not match the order given in the Talmud ( nor does it match that of the Christian Old Testament ).

It is dated to the 4th century BCE and according to the Talmud was a redaction by the Great Assembly of an original text by Mordecai.

This is reflected in the variety of views and attitudes of the biblical legislators, priests, prophets, historians, psalmists and Wisdom teachers, the hundreds of controversies among the rabbis of the Talmud and in the codes and responsa of their successors.

The miracle of the one-day supply of oil miraculously lasting eight days is first described in the Talmud, written about 600 years after the events described in the books of Maccabees.

The Talmud states that the fetus is not yet a full human being until it has been born ( either the head or the body is mostly outside of the woman ), therefore killing a fetus is not murder, and abortion-in restricted circumstances-has always been legal under Jewish law.

Rashi, the great 12th century commentator on the Bible and Talmud, states clearly of the fetus lav nefesh hu: " it is not a person.

" The Talmud contains the expression ubar yerech imo -- the fetus is as the thigh of its mother ,' i. e., the fetus is deemed to be part and parcel of the pregnant woman's body.

" The Babylonian Talmud Yevamot 69b states that: " the embryo is considered to be mere water until the fortieth day.

Two additional passages in the Talmud that shed some light on the Jewish belief that the fetus is considered part of the woman, and not a separate entity.

Nonetheless, the Talmud teaches that " If someone comes with the intention to murder you, then one is obligated to kill in self-defense than be killed ".

This is codified in the Mishna Avot 4: 29, the Babylonian Talmud in tractates Avodah Zarah 10b, and Ketubot 111b, and in Maimonides's 12th century law code, the Mishneh Torah, in Hilkhot Melachim ( Laws of Kings ) 8. 11.

The Talmud describes the blind as having " much light " ( Aramaic סגי נהור ) and this phrase — sagee nahor — is the Modern Hebrew for euphemism.

In the Talmud ( Tractate Yoma 29a ), Esther is compared to the " morning star ", and is considered the subject of Psalm 22, because its introduction is a " song for the morning star ".

According to the Talmud, however, the point of Qoheleth is to state that all is futile under the Sun.

It was said in the Talmud about the death penalty in Judaism, that if a court killed more than one person in seventy years, it was a barbarous ( or " bloody ") court and should be condemned as such.

Ezekiel, like Jeremiah, is said by Talmud and Midrash to have been a descendant of Joshua by his marriage with the proselyte Rahab.

According to the Talmud, Obadiah is said to have been a convert to Judaism from Edom, a descendant of Eliphaz, the friend of Job.

In a similar vein, Rabbi Akiva ( ca. 50 – ca. 135CE ), is said to have learned a new law from every et ( את ) in the Torah ( Talmud, tractate Pesachim 22b ); the word et is meaningless by itself, and serves only to mark the direct object.

In an interview, Peres said: " As a child, I grew up in my grandfather's home … I was educated by him … my grandfather taught me Talmud.

In the Talmud, Rabbi Joshua interpreted that they petitioned first the assembly, then the chieftains, then Eleazar, and finally Moses, but Abba Chanan said in the name of Rabbi Eliezer that Zelophehad's daughters stood before all of them as they were sitting together.

Most Messianic congregations and synagogues can be said to believe that the oral traditions are subservient to the Written Torah, and where there is a conflict between the Torah and the Talmud, the plain interpretation of the Written Torah take precedence.

In the Talmud, it is said that the second born son of the Egyptian Pharaoh of the Bible was a dwarf.

The Talmud cites Rav Sheshet who said that by neglecting the precept, one transgresses eight positive commandments.

Among his teachers in Talmud were Judah ben Yakkar and Meïr ben Nathan of Trinquetaille, and he is said to have been instructed in Kabbalah ( Jewish mysticism ) by his countryman Azriel of Gerona, who was in turn a disciple of Isaac the Blind.

He further said that if the sages of the Talmud believed that Christ was the messiah then most certainly they would have been Christians and not Jews, and the fact that the sages of the Talmud were Jews is beyond dispute.

" The Holy One, blessed be His name, said to Elijah, ' Behold, the precious gift which I have bestowed on my world: though a man sins again and again, but returns in penitence, I will receive him '" ( Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 28b ).

In 1977, he said of Vilenkin: “ He taught me and my brothers Chumash, Rashi and Talmud.

It may even be said that this work had a greater influence on the development of the Jewish mind than almost any other book after the completion of the Talmud.

Judah ha-Nasi, who spent all day involved with his studies and teaching, said just the first verse of the Shema in the morning ( Talmud Berachot 13b ) " as he passed his hands over his eyes " which appears to be the origin of the Jewish custom to cover the eyes with the right hand whilst reciting the first verse.

In fact, the Talmud teaches that if this paragraph is forgotten, the Amidah need not be repeated, because Havdalah will be said later over wine.

The Talmud ascribes the translation effort to Ptolemy II Philadelphus ( r. 285-246 BC ) who is said to have hired 72 Jewish scholars for the purpose, for which reason the translation is commonly known as the Septuagint, a name which it gained around AD 354-430, " the time of Augustine of Hippo ".

:" They have to know Bible and Talmud, of course, but we have made spiritual direction the core ," said Rabbi Victor Gross, a former Conservative rabbi who is now on Aleph's central teaching committee.

The " good luck " traditions of eating black-eyed peas at Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, are recorded in the Babylonian Talmud ( compiled ~ 500 CE ), Horayot 12A: " Abaye 339 CE said, now that you have established that good-luck symbols avail, you should make it a habit to see qara ( bottle gourd ), rubiya ( black-eyed peas, Arabic lubiya ), kartei ( leeks ), silka ( either beets or spinach ), and tamrei ( dates ) on your table on the New Year.

Halivni terms the anonymous texts of the Talmud as having been said by Stammaim ( based on the phrase " stama d ' talmuda " which refers to the anonymous material in the Gemara ), placing them after the period of the Amoraim, but before the Geonic period.

These four sons were said to have been given her for the four tears which she shed at parting with her mother-in-law ( Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 42b ).

The Talmud is said to be a codification of the oral law, and is thereby just as binding as the Torah itself.

The tekhelet strand serves this purpose, explains the Talmud, for the blue color of tekhelet resembles the ocean, which in turn resembles the sky, which in turn is said to resemble God's holy throne-thus reminding all of the divine mission to fulfill His commandments.