Anyone studying the Talmud in depth knows that one enters a very special but complicated world with its own rules and methods, like no other. In recent years it has begun to be looked at (I hesitate to say studied) by a far wider cross section of people. Not necessarily from a religious point of view ( although the Talmud is all about religious practice and thought). But either out of academic or simply fashionable motives.
It was compiled some 1,500 years ago of the record of earlier authorities and customs ,debates and opinions of scholars from Mesopotamia to Italy, over almost a thousand years, living under different political and social cultures, religions and political rulers. They were all dedicated to the survival of the Jewish way of life ( though some were heretical) and they believed that the preservation and study of it, was a kind of direct engagement with God.
It is not just the equivalent of mastering the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Traditionally studying it is in itself an act of religious commitment and a religious obligation. It has context, without it, the text has been made fun of, distorted, and misunderstood. Either by the antagonistic, the ignorant or the cynical. There is a huge difference between reading it, as many do, and learning it. The word we use, to learn, alone is crucial. It distinguishes study for an end, from study for its own religious sake. In a traditional Yeshiva it can take a full year to get through one Masechta, often translated as a tractate or volume .
The current Masechta deals with civil and political law. It is called Sanhedrin, the name of the ancient Supreme Court. Topics that have been dealt with recently have included what constitutes having illegal sex with someone or indeed something (sic), and at what age can one be said to be able to commit a sexual crime. Not your usual religious conversation. But from a purely legal point of view a fascinating if recondite topic.
More interestingly has been the topic of Noachide Commands. What obligations do non-Jews, Children of Noah, have. The Talmud isn’t just concerned with Jews keeping Jewish law. It expects all human beings to be circumscribed by basic morality. Whereas Jews have hundreds of laws and obligations, according to tradition non-Jews have a core of seven alone. The Talmud says that any non-Jew who adheres to them is regarded as a righteous person with a guaranteed spot in the next world. No need to convert or assent to any credos or articles of faith. Just avoid doing bad things.
The rabbis deduce these from the narratives in Bereishit.
“The school of Menashe taught that the descendants of Noach (all mankind) were commanded seven mitzvot: The prohibitions of idol worship, forbidden sexual relations, and bloodshed, robbery, and taking a limb from a living animal, a castration, and mixing plants.”
Others include cursing the name of God, Establishing Courts of Law, forbidding castration, sorcery, wearing diverse kinds of wool and linen and sowing diverse kinds of seeds together, and breeding diverse species of animals and grafting diverse species of trees. It is left unresolved. As are the issues of punishment and enforcement (Sanhedrin 56a and 62b).”
As is typical of the Talmud the final tally is left open. The Codes of Maimonides (Laws of Kings Chapter 9) call them the Laws of Adam and he comes up with the generally accepted seven. Not rejecting God, not to commit murder, sexual depravity and theft, and the obligation to set up courts of law. And even then, today, not everyone agrees, and Chabad, for example has its version.
I am glad to say the laws of punishment have been inapplicable for two thousand years. Even before then, some rabbis objected to the death penalty on principle and argued for its cessation. The barriers they put up to avoid convicting were enormous and included not accepting circumstantial evidence. Besides, since then, Jews have never been able to carry out these laws. They were in exile and subject to the non-Jewish Laws of the Land. And in Israel the Law of the Land does not allow the death penalty whereas in the United States there still are States that apply the Death Penalty. With the unique exception of the Nazi Eichmann.
All this goes to show two things. That Jewish Law is highly complex and constantly being argued over and often modified. But the Talmud has such inordinate respect for its history, and past and its texts, regardless of whether they are applicable today, or not, there is much to be learnt from them. No cancel culture here. And the mental discipline of Talmudic study and debate means that those who are trained in it and then go out into the world, often become the best of lawyers and professionals and contribute immensely to Jewish creativity and success.
We may be overly concerned with ourselves, because of the hatred directed at us all over the world. Yet it is important to realize how involved the rabbis were with the non-Jewish world in the past, regardless of how badly they were treated. The Talmudic concern for all the Children of Adam or the Sons of Noach shows how they were not just occupied with their own laws of the Torah, but also with all of humanity’s souls as well.
Shabbat Shalom
Jeremy Rosen February 2025
