The Talmud (30 page)

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Authors: Harry Freedman

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BOOK: The Talmud
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Acknowledgements

I
have
acquired
knowledge
from
all
my
teachers.
So wrote
the author of Psalm 119, who people say was King David. I owe a debt of gratitude to all my teachers, the sages who lived in ages past, the scholars and academics whom I have never met but whose works I have encountered and of course those whose words I heard from their own mouths. (I would like to have said, as a student of earlier generations might, ‘at whose feet I sat’ but of course we don’t sit at our teachers’ feet these days.) The knowledge is theirs, any errors only mine.

More particularly I would like to thank my agent, Sheila Ableman, for her unbounded enthusiasm for the book and for her ongoing support. To Robin Baird-Smith for his positivity, energy and for believing in the idea, to Joel Simons for his adept managing of the project, and his patience even when I was at my most trying, and to Anya Rosenberg, Helen Flood and the rest of the team at Bloomsbury. Grateful thanks too to Kim Storry for project managing the prepress, and to Sue Cope for her diligent copy editing and for being prepared to work all hours to meet the deadline.

Thanks also to Professor Jerry Gotel for reading the manuscript, to Dayan Ivan Binstock for the conversations which taught me so much, to Paul Summer for solving the Jacob Landau riddle, to Ivor Jacobs for helping me lay my hands on vital out-of-print texts and to my brother Jeremy Freedman for explaining how Henry VIII’s Talmudic investigations influenced English divorce law. Particular thanks must go to my parents Joan and Louis Freedman who made sure that I received an education which enabled me to read and understand the Talmud, to my children Josh and Mollie whose continual interest and probing questions obliged me to sharpen my wits and to my wife Karen for her unflagging support and encouragement. Finally, words can never adequately acknowledge just how much I owe to the greatest of all my Talmud teachers, Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs, whose scholarship, wit,
breadth
of knowledge and profound humanity turned the Talmud from a dusty tome to a source of inspiration for so many people. May his memory be for a blessing.

Index

Abassids
56

7
see also
under respective caliphs

Abba Sikra
18

Abelard, Peter
104

5

Abraham ben David of Posquières
96

7

Abraham ibn Daud
91

2
see also
legend of the four captives

Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Qirqisani
73

4

academies
see
yeshiva

Adelkind, Cornelius
143

4

aggada
46

7
,
116
,
123

Ahai Gaon
66

7

Akiva, Rabbi
23

7
,
33
,
119
,
127

Al-Andalus
see
Spain

Alexander the Great
30
,
89

90

Al-Idrisi, Muhammad
81

Al-Ma’mun, Caliph
56

7

Al-Mansur, Caliph
56

Almohads
94

5

ambiguity
65
,
213
see also
disagreement

America
132
,
184

5
,
198
see also
Reformed Judaism

Amoraim
42

3
,
49
,
61

Amram Gaon
67

8
,
80
,
88

Anan ben David
71

2
,
75

ancient French
102

Ancient Mediterranean
14

15

Andres de Bernaldez (Priest)
132
,
141

anti-Christian sentiments, alleged
116
,
146

7

Arba’ah Turim
(Four Rows)
135

Artabanus, King of Parthia
34

artisans
36

7

ArtScroll Talmud
209

Asher ben Yehiel
135
,
143

Ashi, Rav
38
,
48
,
49

Ashkenazim
135

Assi, Rav
45

6

astronomy
38
,
156

60

Augustine of Hippo
124

5

authorship
10
,
52
,
66
,
160

Babylon
11

12
,
29

30
,
34

academy in Nehardea
32

5

exilarchy
30

2

geography
35

9

see also
Babylonian Talmud; exilarchy

Babylonian Talmud
11
,
48
,
65
,
67

71

Baghdad
53

9
,
62
,
65

6
,
84
,
87

baraita
42

Barcelona
121

6

Baron, Salo
112

Bernard of Clairvaux
104

Besht
see
Israel Ba’al Shem Tov

Bet Yosef
(Caro)
135

Bible
1
,
72
,
85
,
112
,
182
,
208
see also
Vulgate Bible

biographical details
47

8

blood libel
112
,
172

3
,
190

1

Bodin, Jean
150

Bomberg, Daniel
142

4

book burnings
116

19
,
139

Guide for the Perplexed
(Maimonides)
119

20

Italy
144

5

Jacob Frank
172

see also
persecutions

Book of Creation – Sefer Yetzirah
(Jewish mystical text)
126

Book of Lights and Watchtowers
73

4

bowls, magic
38

Brahe, Tyco
158

Briel, Judah
159

60

Britain
147

9
,
167

Bulan, King of Khazaria
90

burnings of books
see
book burnings

Bustanai, Exilarch
54
,
62

3

Cairo
69

70
,
89
,
96
,
197

8

Caldron, Ruth
211

calendar
75

7
,
157

caliphates
56

7
,
62

3

caliphs

Al-Ma’mun
56

7

Al-Mansur
56

Harun al-Rashid
56

7
,
66

capital punishment
32
,
42
,
45

Caro, Ephraim
134

5

Caro, Yosef
134

5

Carolingian Renaissance
99

Castile
121
,
127

casuistry
105

6
,
179

80

censorship
118

19

Council of Trent
145

7

Index Librorum Prohibitorum
145

Spain
123

4

see also
book burnings

Chapters of the Fathers
13

14
,
19

charity
24

5
,
46

Charleston (USA)
184

5

Chmielnicki, Bohdan
163

5

Christian Hebraists
135

40
,
145
,
205

Christian of Stavelot
89

90

Christiani, Pablo
121

6

Christianity in Talmud and Midrash
(Herford)
205

Christianity in the Talmud
116
,
146

7

Church authorities
146

147
,
172
see also
Inquisition

codification
2
,
65

7

Isaac Al-Fasi
93

Mishneh Torah
(Maimonides)
96

7

Saadia ben Yosef
78

Shmuel Hanaggid
92

Spanish school
91

3
,
106

vs. textual analysis
106

Cohen, Jeremy
113

Cohen, Mark
60

commandments, ten
9

Commentary on the Mishnah
(Maimonides)
95

commerce
59

60

compilation of the Talmud
47

9

academies in Babylon
40

4

layering
50

2

theory and practice
44

7

composition
see
structure

concentration camps
202

4

conquests

Barbary
91

Islamic
54
,
81

2

contradictions, textual
105

6

controversy
19

20

conversos
129

33
,
160

Copernican revolution
156

60

Copernicus, Nicolaus
156

8

copyright law
142

Cordoba
91

correspondence
32

3
,
101

Council of Trent
145

6

Council of Venice
143

Croke, Ricard
147

9

Crusades
103

4

cultural cross-fertilization
60
,
69
,
88
see also
religious differences, tolerance of

Cunaeus, Petrus
153

daf yomi
programme
199

200
,
211

12

Damascus Affair
190

1

Dan, Joseph
120

Danby, Rev Herbert
205

David ben Zakkai
77

David of Makov
174

6

daybreak, legal definition of
59

De Arcana Catholicae Veritatis
139

Dead Sea Scrolls
60

death camps
202

4

death penality
32
,
42
,
45

decalogue
9

demonology
38

destruction of the Temple
17

19
,
164

development, doctrinal
55
,
78

dhimmi
status
97
see also
religious differences, tolerance of

dialectic
19

20

diaspora
34
,
53
,
64
see also
isolation of communities

dictionaries
193
,
209
see also
grammars

digression
12

16
,
40

1
,
46

dina malchuta dina
ruling
45

disagreement
19

20
see also
ambiguity

discursivity
12

16
,
40

1
,
46

Divine inspiration
9

11

divorce
69
,
147

9

doctrinal development
55
,
78

dogmatism
55

Dominican Order
121

6

Donin, Nicholas
113

16

Dutch Republic
152

3

Eastern Europe
162

3

Eden
35

education

Elijah of Vilna
179

80

importance of
46
,
56
,
162

3
,
203

as universal ideal
91

of women
84
,
103

see also
yeshiva

Elchanan, son of Shimon of Mainz
98

9

Eldad the Danite
82

3

Eleazar ben Azariah, Rabbi
23

Elijah of Vilna
176

80

Elijah the Prophet
48

elitism
37

8
,
199

Ellman, Yaakov
51

Emden, Jacob
170

Enlightenment
160

2
,
177

8

French and American revolutions
185

Moses Mendelssohn
181

3

reversals of
162

3

see also Haskalah
; Reformed Judaism

Epstein, Isidore
206

Erastus, Thomas
152

3

esotericism
2

3
,
11

12

excommunication
45
,
101
,
161
,
170

exegesis
11

12
,
106

7

exilarchy
30

3
,
37

Anan ben David
71

2

Bustanai
54
,
62

3

under the caliphate
62

3

David ben Zakkai
77

Mar Zutra
49

exorcism
38

Extractiones de Talmut
115

Eybeschutz, Jonathan
169

70

Ezekiel the Prophet
126

Farabi ibn Kora
90

fatwas
67

71

Felice de Prato, Fra
142

3

Ferdinand III, King of Castile
121

Fez
94

Fifth Monarchy Men
167

finance
59

60

fingernails
39

Fishman, Talya
85
,
99

fleas, killing of
159

60

fluidity of doctrine
55
,
78

folklore, Islamic
60

1
see also
legends; superstitions

forced conversion
97
,
100

1
,
129

33

France
98
,
103
,
113

18
see also
Rhineland

Frank, Jacob
171

3

French, ancient
102

Friar Ramon
122

Friedman, Shamma
51

Froben, Ambrosius
146

7

Gafni, Isaiah
35

Galatino, Petrus
139

Gamaliel II
22

3
,
157

Gans, David
158

9

Gaon’s
letter (Sherira)
32

3

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