As we come to the start of the Daf Yomi cycle on January 5, one obvious question is why study Talmud at all today? After all, much of the material included in the Talmud is not relevant to our lives today – laws of purity of the priests in the temple in Jerusalem, etc. Even the legal rules about who is liable for damages or what constitutes a valid divorce are not applicable to the vast majority of us. Why do we care?

I am still working out a coherent answer to this question. I am not sure I can adequately explain outside of a religious duty why anyone else would be interested in the Talmud, but let me try.

First, as a historical document the Talmud is a wealth of information. Why do we study any ancient text? We learn about life in an earlier age and hopefully we learn how that life evolved and shapes our life today. The Talmud contains remarkably detailed rules about everyday life. The Talmud also contains a wealth of stories about historical figures, information about how Jewish communities were to relate to the world around them and information about how classes of people without power (women, slaves, etc.) were to be treated. As a historical document, the Talmud governed the minutia of life in Jewish communities around the world for many centuries, really up until the 20th century.

Second, the Talmud explains Hebrew scripture, which is a fundamental document of Judaism, Christianity and Islam today. The Rabbis in the Talmud spend a lot of time working out what the Hebrew scriptures mean. As we become further and further from the authorship of those scriptures, the Talmud helps us understand a fundamental document to many of the world’s citizens today.

Third, (and I do not know if there is actual scholarship to back this claim), the Talmudic method of analysis of debate and analysis underpin much of the thinking about law in today’s societies. The Talmud seeks to find the general principle in specific cases and then see if that general principle explains other specific cases. The Talmud also seeks to harmonize seemingly inconsistent principles. This activity is very similar to our modern practice of drafting, interpreting and applying laws. I hope to do a later post on influential legal scholars who had a Talmudic background.

Fourth, the Talmud reflects very greatly on Western philosophical tradition. The Talmud reflects an idea that the ideal, the holy, is encountered in rigorous academic study. The Talmud is an effort to structure everyday life around logical principles – an activity that required rigorous application of logic and problem solving skills (which also heightened those skills amongst the practitioners).

Fifth, the Talmud teaches us to deal with uncertainty. Many of the debates in the Talmud are not concluded. We want a world of clear rules, but we live in a much messier place. The Talmud acknowledges the messiness, teaches us to approach the messiness and still live with it. In a similar manner, the Talmud shows that there can be serious debate, even debate about our most fundamental beliefs, without losing reverence for those with whom we do not agree. Unfortunately, we seem to be moving further and further away from that world.

One postscript for today. I understand that almost every Korean household has a translated copy of at least some of the Talmud. I was shocked by that fact. I don’t believe that there are significant amounts of Jews living in Korea. Apparently, Koreans have a belief that if they teach their children Talmud, they will learn to think in new ways – ways that have allowed Jews to have such a high percentage of Nobel Laureates.