Folks, today is New Year’s Eve. We have five days until we start our New Daf Yomi cycle on Sunday. Before diving into today’s content, I want to wish everyone a healthy, prosperous 2020 full of lots of personal growth and satisfaction. This blog is part of my personal development plan in 2020 and I am so glad to have you along for the journey.

Today, I want to delve a little deeper into the actual structure of the Talmud. I mentioned in an earlier post that the Talmud was divided in six orders. Those six orders are:

• Zera’im (seeds) – laws governing agriculture, particularly in the land of Israel;
• Moed (appointed times) – laws of Sabbath and festivals;
• Nashim (women) – laws of marriage, divorce, widowhood, etc.
• Nezikin (damages) – laws of torts and commercial matters;
• Kodashim (holies) – laws of the Temple and sacrifices;
• Tohoros (purities) – laws of ritual purity and impurity.

Each Order is further divided in tractates and each tractate is divided into chapters. There are 63 tractates in all, but the Babylonian Talmud only has commentaries on 37 of these tractates. The Jerusalem Talmud covers 39 tractates, but not all of these are covered completely.

Our Talmud study begins with Zera’im (seeds), which has 11 tractates:

1. Berakhot (blessings) – rules for daily prayer;
2. Pe’ah (corner) – rules for charity for the poor, particularly from fields;
3. Demai (doubtfully tithed produce) – rules for produce when we are uncertain if the proper tithes have been set aside;
4. Kil’ayim (mixed species) – rules for forbidden mixtures in agriculture and clothing;
5. Shevi’it (seventh year) – rules for the sabbatical year;
6. Terumot (donations) – rules about donations to the Kohanim (priests);
7. Ma’aserot (tithes) -rules for tithes to be given to the tribe of Levi;
8. Ma’aser Sheni ( second tithe) – rules for tithes that must be eaten in Jerusalem;
9. Hallah (dough) – rules for the offering of dough to be given to the Kohanim;
10. Orlah (fruits of trees) – rules regarding use of trees for the first three years after they have been planted and use of the first fruits in the fourth year; and
11. Bikkurim (first fruits) – rules regarding the donation of first fruits to the Kohanim.

The Babylonian Talmud only has commentary on the first tractate, Berakhot, while the Jerusalem Talmud has commentary on all 11 tractates. I have seen some commentators suggest that the Babylonian Talmud did not cover the other 10 tractates of Zera’im because most of those rules cover only behavior in the land of Israel. I don’t find this explanation very convincing because the Babylonian Talmud has plenty of commentary on rules that can only be performed when the sacrificial cult is restored in Jerusalem. I don’t believe we can say for certain why the Babylonian Talmud cover only one tractate of Zera’im, but the Jerusalem Talmud covers all the tractates. Please feel free to offer an explanation in the comments.

Zera’im is the first order and Berakhot is the first tactate. Maimonides offers an explanation on his Introduction to the Mishnah. Maimonides believes that Zera’im starts the Talmud because agriculture is the basis of sustenance and without sustenance we could not serve God. Maimonides further states that Berkhot starts Zera’im, because you cannot partake of sustenance without blessing it first. At any rate, don’t forget that there is no real beginning, middle or end of the Talmud. There is not a logical progression that can be followed through the whole document and you can jump in at the beginning of a tractate or chapter anywhere.

Maimonides and Rashi are the two most influential Talmud commentators of all time. Maimonides was Rabbi Moishe ben Maimon, a twelfth century scholar in what is today Spain. He was well known to non-Jewish scholars (both Christian and Islamic) who Hellenized his name to “Maimonides”. He is known to Jews by his acronym “Rambam”. Rambam should not be confused with his contemporary Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, who is referred to as Nachmanides or the Ramban.

Finally, I would like to learn how to insert Hebrew letters into this blog to show the Hebrew as well as transliterated English of some words. If anyone knows how, please feel free to comment.

Happy new years!