What Do "Torah,"
"Talmud,"
"Mishna," and "Gemara" Mean?
Relevance to Times of Refreshing
The emphasis of this
website is an examination of the Christian observance of the
Feasts and Holy Days of the Bible. There are numerous individual
Christians and Christian groups in the 21st century that choose
to observe these days as times of worship, fellowship, and
celebration. They believe that these times of celebration are
shadows pointing to the reality of Jesus. And they believe that
there are valuable spiritual lessons to be learned year by year
through actually physically setting aside these times as
"appointments with God." Many such individuals and groups have
come to this conclusion exclusively through their own study of
the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
However, the Bible
really has little to say about the specifics of just how
these days are to be kept. The Old Testament records specific
rituals that were to be performed by a priesthood on these days
at the central place of worship of the ancient Israelites,
either at the original Tabernacle, or later at the Temple in
Jerusalem. When the last Temple was destroyed in 70 AD, these
rituals were no longer possible.
Although there are
hints in the New Testament that the earliest Christians, both
Jews and Gentiles, continued to observe these special times in
some way, there is no record of just what sort of gatherings
they may have held, nor just what traditions or customs they may
have followed in their celebrations. So modern Christians who
have become convinced there is value in such observances have no
real biblical guidance on how to go about worshipping and
honoring God, and celebrating and rejoicing at these times.
And thus the
relevance of the terms listed in the title of this article: It
is quite common for such Christians to wonder if it would be
useful to look to modern Judaism as a source of guidance and
customs for their own observances. Those who begin checking into
this option will soon come across the Hebrew terms Torah,
Talmud, Mishna, and Gemara. In order to evaluate the
contribution Judaism might make to Christian biblical Feast and
Holy Day observance, it is helpful to understand these terms.
(For more detailed
information on the actual Holy Day and Feast observances of
modern and ancient Jews, and how they might relate to
Christianity, go to the
Introductory
Article of the Jewish Feast and Holy Day
Customs
section of this website.
For more information on the Christian observance of
these days, go to the Introductory
Article of the series on The 3 Rs.)
Torah
The Hebrew word
torah means, in general, "instruction" or "teaching." But in
most contexts in modern Judaism it is used in several specific
ways:
Torah is the designation of
the collection of the first five books of the Bible--Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Each Jewish
synagogue has a "Torah scroll" (Hebrew: Sefer Torah) that
contains these books, usually housed in a special, often highly
ornate cabinet called a "Holy Ark" (Hebrew: Aron haKodesh).
These scrolls must be meticulously
written by hand under the strictest of traditional methods, and
each one can cost many thousands of dollars to produce. The one
shown here is from a sefer torah catalog with prices
ranging from $18,000 to $39,500 for a single scroll.
Torah is also used as the
designation, specifically, of the collection of commandments and
statutes given by God anciently to Moses at Mt. Sinai, and
believed to have been written down by him as part of the
scriptural record.
And even beyond
that, Torah is often used to designate the complete
collection of both written commandments and the "traditional
oral teachings" believed to have been handed down from Moses
through all the generations of Jewish sages to the present. The
portion of this body of teaching that was not believed to have
been put into writing at the time of Moses is sometimes referred
to as the Oral Torah.
From the
Wikipedia.org article: Oral Torah
According to
classical Rabbinical interpretation and the
tenets of Orthodox Judaism, Moses and the
other Jews at Sinai received an Oral as well
as a written Torah (teaching) from God at
Mount Sinai. The interpretation of the Oral
Law is thus considered as the authoritative
reading of the "Written Law" (either the
Torah or Tanakh [see definition below] or
both). Further, halakha (Jewish law)
is based on the premise that that the
Written Law is inherently bound together
with an Oral Law. Jewish law and tradition
thus is not based on a literal reading of
the Tanakh, but on combined oral and written
traditions.
The context of a
statement by a Jewish writer or speaker would hopefully clarify
which of these meanings of Torah is intended.
The complete
collection of writings that are usually referred to within
Christianity as the "Old Testament" is called in Hebrew the
Tanach (alternate spellings: Tanak, Tanakh). In Judaism, the
writings of the Tanach are divided into three categories,
labeled the Torah (the Law), the Neviim (the
Prophets), and the Ketuvim (the Writings.)
Mishna
The Mishna is the
collection of writings believed by many Jews to have been
compiled from the authentic Oral Torah teachings mentioned
above. The contents of these traditional teachings consisted of
detailed explanations for various topics within the written
Torah. From the perspective of the most Orthodox of Jews, the
teachings of the Mishna are of equal authority to the written
Torah. Other branches of Judaism may view them as more the
"collective wisdom" of the ancient Jewish sages regarding Torah
topics, but not as necessarily having been handed down directly
from Moses through all generations and having equal authority to
the written Torah. The Mishna was first compiled in a written
form near 200 AD, after the destruction of the Temple, and
dispersion of the Jews that followed, in 70 AD.
Gemara
After the contents of the Mishna
had been codified in writing, more Jewish sages engaged for well
over a century in discussion and debate regarding the content of
the Mishna. These discussions and conclusions were eventually
gathered together into a collection of writings called the
Gemara. The Gemara includes commentary also on the other parts
of the Tanach.
Talmud
Eventually, the contents of
various versions of the Mishna and Gemara were combined all in
one text, known as the Talmud. There are two versions of the
Talmud, one that represented the scholarship of Rabbis in
Israel, usually referred to as the Jerusalem Talmud, and the
other the scholarship of Rabbis in Babylon, referred to in
English as the Babylonian Talmud. The contents of the Jerusalem
Talmud were compiled a century or more earlier than the
Babylonian. The Babylonian Talmud is more widely studied, and
when the term Talmud has no specific designation attached to it,
it is traditionally speaking of the Babylonian Talmud.
From the
Wikipedia.org
article: Talmud
The Talmud
contains a vast amount of material and
touches on a great many subjects.
Traditionally talmudic statements can be
classified into two broad categories,
Halakhic and Agaddic statements.
Halakhic statements are those which directly
relate to questions of Jewish law and
practice (Halakha).
Aggadic statements are those which are not
legally related, but rather are exegetical,
homiletical, ethical or historical in nature
(Aggada).
For more details on the history and
content of the Talmud, see the Wikipedia Talmud article at the
link above. The information in this brief overview was adapted
in part from that material.
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Refreshing WebAuthor
All of the articles on this Times
of Refreshing website were written by Pam Dewey, with
the support and sponsorship of Common Ground Christian
Ministries. For more of Pam's inspirational and educational
writings, visit The Oasis website at
www.youall.com/oasis
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© 2006, Pam
Dewey and Common Ground Christian Ministries
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