First, a big thank you to Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles.  Below is their excellent image of a Talmud page with a legend.  I found this image posted on their website.  I hope they will not mind me using it.

Most printed editions of the Talmud today rely on the Vilna Edition Shas printing from 1835. The layout has an established geography and all pages look very similar. The Mishnah (Block 1 in the illustration) is the center focal point of the page. The Gemara (Block 2 in the illustration) is printed below the Mishnah. Both the Mishnah and Gemara use Hebrew print letters, but remember that much of the Gemara is written in Aramaic, not Hebrew. Aramaic was the everyday dialect of Jews at the time of the compilation of the Gemara. I hope to have a later post on language in the Talmud. Remember, Hebrew (and Aramaic written in Hebrew print) is read right to left, not left to right like English. Hebrew books open backwards to a native English speaker.

Directly to the right of the Mishnah and Gemara is Rashi’s commentary. Rabbi Shlomo Itzackhi is known universally by an acronym of his name “RAbbi SHlomo Itzackhi”. He lived in Northern France (or what today is Northern France) in the 11th century. I really want to do a later post about Rashi because he is so important to understanding much of ancient Jewish scripture. His commentary helps make sense of the grammar and lexicon of the Talmud. Remember, the Talmud was developed for oral transmission. It does not use complete sentences. The words are written without vowels and the language is ancient. Without Rashi we would spend a lot more time just decoding the plain meaning of the text. Rashi’s commentary appears in just about every printed edition of the Talmud since printing was invented. The commentary again is in Hebrew, but a special font called “Rashi Script” is used for his commentary.

On the left of the Mishnah and Gemara are the commentaries of the Tosefot. The Tosefot are medieval European commentators – they came after Rashi, and some of the earliest Tosefot are direct descendants of Rashi. Unlike the Rashi commentary, the Tosefot commentary focuses on analysis of the Talmud and sometimes on Rashi’s commentary. Rashi focused much more on the plain meaning of words and passages.

Block five in the illustration above is the Mesoret Ha Shas. Think of Mesoret Ha Shas as links on a webpage taking you to similar or additional content. The Mesoret Ha Shas lists other relevant Talmudic pages to the content discussed on the current page. “Ha Shas” is another word for the Talmud. It means “The Six”. Remember, the Talmud is divided into six orders. “Mesoret” means “Tradition”.

On the far left of the page, block six above, is Ein Mishpat, Ner Mitzvah. This means “Well of Justice, Lamp of Commandment”. This section provides references to the medieval compilations of Code of Law so that the reader can find where the rules discussed on this page have been codified. These Codes of Law are still used today by religious scholars.

Block seven above is written between the Mishnah and Gemara and Rashi and is written vertically. It is called “Torah Or” or “Light of the Torah”. Torah Or provides biblical references for the page being discussed.

Beneath the Mesoret Ha Shas are short elucidations by later commentators from the 17th to the 19th century. The most famous of these commentators is the Vilna Gaon. Hopefully we will have a later post on the Vilna Gaon. A “Gaon” is a head of school and the Vilna Gaon was the head of the school in Vilnus in the 18th century.

Finally, block 9 in the illustration above contains other commentaries on the particular page. The commentators in this section change based on the subject matter being considered.