The secondary sources are so extraordinarily deep and varied that it was difficult for me to fathom. I was confused by the difficult languages (typically Hebrew and Aramaic) and the incredibly large number of early commentators. I ended up having to take a few months to try and rationalize this environment before being able to make sense of it.
0.5. Halakha
Halakha (Oral Law), was passed orally along the generations of priests up to about 200 ACE. The Halakha explains and expands upon Tanakh.
0.5.1. Halakha vs Haggadah
The material in documents published by Torah scholars can be halakhic (of legal nature) or haggadic (of legendary, or spiritual, or of non-purely legal nature). Scholars use haggadah to help readers understand concepts underlying the documents.
0.5.2. Writing the Oral Law
0.5.2.1. Tannaim: writing of the Mishnah
Around the 2st century ACE, the rabbis started worrying that the Halakha would get lost because there was no more country for the Jews, and revolts had resulted in many prominent scholars being killed. The two preeminent rabbinical schools, in Babylon and Jerusalem, started writing it down in several documents over the next 8 centuries.
First, around the end of the 2nd century ACE, several books of explanations and stories around the Tanakh appeared:
- Mishnah (“Study”) – an authoritative text (has the value of law), divided in 6 orders, which forms the first part of the Talmud
- Compiled by/under Yehuda HaNasi (The Prince) around 189 ACE
- A famous part of the Mishnah is the section dedicated to ethics, called Pirkei Avot
- Beraitot (“Outside” = outside the Mishnah, i.e. complementary material that was not included in the Mishnah)
- Tosefta (“additions” in Aramaic): primarily Halakhic writings with glosses and haggadot, matching the structure of the Mishnah and complementary to it, compiled in the late 2nd century ACE. It is not as authoritative as the Mischnah.
- Halakhic Midrashim (Midrashai Halakha), focused on Halakha, also called Tannaitic Midrashim
- These may have been preceding the Mishnah
- Mekhilta deRabbi Ishmael, on Exodus
- Sifra, on Leviticus, from the school of Rabbi Akiva
- Sifre, on Numbers, from the school of Rabbi Ishmael
- Sifre, on Deuteronomy, from the school of Rabbi Akiva
Starting with the generation of the disciples of Hillel and Shamai, through to the students of Yehuda HaNasi (Judah the Prince, the led the writing of the Mishnah), the scholars quoted in the Mishnah are called Tannaim, the Aramaic for ‘teachers’ – that is roughly from year 0 to 200 ACE.
Before that time, scholars would have belonged to the “Great Assembly,” “Knesset Hagedola”, a list of about 120 righteous men and rabbis between the end of the times of the Neviim and the earliest scholars of the time of the Tannaim.
0.5.2.2. Amoraim and Savoraim: writing of the Talmud
Between the 3rd and the 5th century, more key documents emerge. These documents are:
- Talmud as a whole
- Composed of the Mishnah + the Gemara
- Two versions
- Mishnah + Gemara from Jerusalem = Talmud Yerushalmi (written in Jerusalem), completed around the year 400
- Mishnah + Gemara from Babylonia = Talmud Babli (written in Babylon), the more prestigious and complete of the two, completed around the year 500
- The Gemara records rabbinic discussions on Mishnah law
- Talmud and Gemara, as words, are sometimes used interchangeably
Those scholars who are quoted in the Gemara are called Amoraim (“explainers” or “interpreters”). While the content of the Talmud was complete by around 500 ACE, it was polished for 50-100 years by the Savoraim (“reasoners”).
0.5.2.3. Babylonian Gaonim
Between the 6th and the 10th century, the two rabbinic schools in Babylon, the academies of Sura and Pumbedita, become the supreme halakhic authorities. More documents were published, often haggadic or with a haggadic component:
- Other Midrashim (“Investigations”) [some of them are still written up through the 12th century]
- Midrash HaGadol, also called Midrash Rabba, in 10 parts (not a unified whole: all parts are independent)
- Many others
- Many of these Midrashim are haggadic in character and content
- Responsa are the halakhic authoritative documents issued by the Babylonian rabbinic schools, in response to halakhic questions from diverse communities.
- Many of them are lost
The leaders of the Babylonian academies are called the Gaonim. The most famous of them is Saadia Gaon. The last academy closes under Moslem pressure (and torture) in 1040.
After that, there is no organized, structured, authoritative discussion of Halakha. However, the greatest commentators are still to come, at the end of the “Dark Ages” and in the Middle Ages.
Born left-handed 