Gemara
Videos
Page
The Gemara is an essential component of the Talmud, comprising a collection of rabbinical analyses and commentaries on the Mishnah and presented in 63 books. The term is derived from the Aramaic word גמרא and rooted in the Semitic word ג-מ-ר (gamar), which means "to finish" or "complete". Initially, the Gemara was transmitted orally and not permitted to be written down. However, after Judah the Prince compiled the Mishnah around 200 CE, rabbis from Babylonia and the Land of Israel extensively studied the work. Their discussions were eventually documented in a series of books, which would come to be known as the Gemara. The Gemara, when combined with the Mishnah, forms the full Talmud.
The first text page of tractate Rosh Hashanah. The center column contains the Talmud text, beginning with a section of Mishnah. The Gemara begins 8 lines down with the abbreviation 'גמ (gimmel-mem). Mishnah and Gemara sections alternate throughout the Talmud text. The large blocks of text on either side are the Tosafot and Rashi commentaries. Other notes and cross references are in the margins.
Members of Kvutzat Rodges studying the Gemara (June 1, 1935)
Gemara students in chavrusa recording their summary of each sugya alongside its Mishnah (using the Mishnah Sdura edition)
"Theologisch debat" (Eduard Frankfort, c. 1900), depicting a chavrusa debating a sugya
Talmud
Videos
Page
The Talmud is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (halakha) and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish cultural life and was foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews.
An early printing of the Talmud (Ta'anit 9b); with commentary by Rashi
A page of a medieval Jerusalem Talmud manuscript, from the Cairo Geniza
A full set of the Babylonian Talmud
Koren Talmud Bavli