( 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.

The intensity of debate spurred Catholic Church interventions against " heresy " and even a general confiscation of Rabbinic texts and in reaction, the defeat of the more radical interpretations of Maimonides and at least amongst Ashkenazi Jews, a tendency not so much to repudiate as simply to ignore the specifically philosophical writings and to stress instead the Rabbinic and halachic writings ; even these writings often included considerable philosophical chapters or discussions in support of halachic observance, as David Hartman observes Maimonides made clear " the traditional support for a philosophical understanding of God both in the Aggadah of Talmud and in the behavior of the hasid pious Jew " and so Maimonidean thought continues to influence traditionally observant Jews.

In addition to its role as a commentary on the Mishnah, this work is often referenced by students of Talmud as a review-text, and is often referred to as " the Bartenura " or " the Ra ' V ".

The Talmud, which often uses stories to make a moral point ( aggadah ), tells of a highly respected rabbi who found the Messiah at the gates of Rome and asked him, " When will you finally come?

Until the twentieth century, women were often discouraged from learning Talmud and other advanced Jewish texts.

The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah ( Hebrew: משנה, c. 200 CE ), the first written compendium of Judaism's Oral Law, and the Gemara ( c. 500 CE ), an elucidation of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Hebrew Bible.

The terms Talmud and Gemara are often used interchangeably.

The Talmud Yerushalmi is often fragmentary and difficult to read, even for experienced Talmudists.

The Talmud El Am contains Hebrew text, English translation and commentary by Rabbi Dr A. Ehrman, with short ' realia ', marginal notes, often illustrated, written by experts in the field for the whole of Tractate Berakhot, 2 chapters of Bava Mezia and the halachic section of Qiddushin, chapter 1.

The Talmud often utilizes the traditions found in the Tosefta to examine the text of the Mishnah.

Although Jews and religious leaders share a core of monotheistic principles, and there are many fundamental principles quoted in the Talmud to define Judaism ( often by what it is not ), it has no established formulation of principles of faith that are or must be recognized by all observant Jews.

Nevertheless, it is significant that, despite the apparently positive description of a Prophet blessing the Israelites, given in Numbers 22 – 24, in rabbinical literature the epithet rasha, translating as the wicked one, is often attached to the name of Balaam ( Talmud Berachot l. c.

Non-Haredi girls ' schools ' curricula often includes the study of Mishna and sometimes Talmud.

The first is study in-depth ( iyyun ), often confined to selected legally focused tractates, with an emphasis on analytical skills and close reference to the classical commentators ; the second seeks to cover ground more speedily, to build general knowledge ( beki ' ut ) of the Talmud ; see the Talmud in modern-day Judaism.

Yeshiva students who learn in Kollel often go on to become rabbis, poskim (" decisors " of Jewish law ), or teachers of Talmud and Judaism.

While still a schoolboy Frank began to reject the Talmud, and afterward often referred to himself as " a plain " or " untutored man.

The Talmud often says of the interpretations of a baraita: " The Biblical passage should be merely a support.

Anonymous Baraitot are often attributed to particular Tannaim by the Talmud.

Lydda was next taken and many of the Jews were executed ; the " slain of Lydda " are often mentioned in words of reverential praise in the Talmud.

Ironically, while Maimonides refrained from citing sources out of concern for brevity ( or perhaps because he designed his work to be used without studying the Talmud or other sources first ), the result has often been the opposite of what he intended.

While other scholars had also treated the Talmud as a multi-layered work, Halivni's innovation ( primarily in the second volume of his Mekorot u-Mesorot ) was to distinguish between the onymous statements, which are generally succinct Halachic rulings or inquiries attributed to known Amoraim, and the anonymous statements, characterised by a much longer analysis often consisting of lengthy dialectic discussion, which he attributed to the later authors-" Stamma ' im " ( or Savora ' im ).

The first is the intellectual and legal methods of the Talmud, which uses elaborate legal arguments and situations often seen as so absurd as to be humorous in order to tease out the meaning of religious law.

Similarly, in the tradition of the legal arguments of the Talmud, one prominent type of Jewish humour involves clever, often legalistic, solutions to Talmudic problems, such as:

A cryptic story in the Babylonian Talmud states that " On the eve of every Shabbat, Judah HaNasi's pupils, Rab Hanina and Rab Hoshaiah, who devoted themselves especially to cosmogony, used to create a delicious calf by means of the Sefer Yetzirah, and ate it on the Sabbath.