#talmud study

[kimchicuddles]

I'm currently (very slowly) writing a graphic novel about studying the talmud. If you're interested in seeing my behind the scenes process about that, and various other things including this comic as I write it, join the fun over on patreon.com/kimchicuddles ❤ Thank you so much for supporting my work!!

[shelvesofsiddurim]

Some other free online resources include:

There's also Mercava which is pretty cool because it presents the Talmud pages like they're an actual daf and has some really nice features, like highlight the sections of the daf to make it easy to follow what's what.

If you're going to do Daf Yomi (or any Talmud study) in the original text, then you'll need a Jastrow. Sefaria has one built into it, but if you want to see what the inside of a Jastrow looks like and build up your dictionary surfing skills, LaHav Learning has a digital version with a search function.

Talmud Study Resources

This will hopefully be an ever growing list. If you have any Talmud study resources you like (online or in print), please send them to me and I’ll update accordingly!

The most important resource for study is community, so if you have a local synagogue, check if they have study group

Free Online Resources

Sefaria Mishnah — reading the Mishnah first can make the Gemara easier

Sefaria Talmud — the go-to free online translation. I believe it uses the Koren translation

Daf Yomi — daily image of the day’s daf with audio of it being read (not translated as far I can tell)

New addition! Hadran Courses — Absolutely top notch courses to give you the tools to study Talmud. Cannot recommend this enough.

Books

Your local Shul’s library probably has a copy of these or similar books! They are far from the only books on these topics

Reference Guide to the Talmud by Rabbi Steinsaltz

I love this book. It has the answers for almost every question a beginner could ask, from how a page of Talmud is laid out to the basics of Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic

The Practical Talmud Dictionary by Yitzhak Frank

Not a comprehensive dictionary of Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic, but it has a lot and is simple to use

Grammar for Gemara & Targum Onkelos: An Introduction to Aramaic by Yitzhak Frank

Sister text to The Practical Talmud Dictionary. Good for beginners with at least some knowledge of Hebrew

Everyman’s Talmud by Abraham Cohen

Basic overview of topics covered in the Talmud. Very dense

The Essential Talmud by Rabbi Steinsaltz

More digestible than Cohen’s book, but not as comprehensive

[madewithonerib]

What you look at is what you become. Offence intended | Vigler JESUS is the SON OF GOD, Vigler you're totally off your rockers. JESUS didn't start HIS religion; HE fulfilled OT prophecy [12:57]

[hyperpotamianarch]

To all the Talmud posters out there: I get that your audience is largely English-speaking, but can you also include the source in Aramaic? Because while with Tanachic verses I can easily decipher what that was supposed to be, Talmud translations seem to be 75% commentary, and I'd like to see the source and judge for myself.

[kijew]

[writer-at-the-table]

The current cycle started in January of 2020, but you should absolutely feel free to jump in now. If you like it, you can always keep going next cycle until you get everything you missed this time. (or just do the whole thing again, plenty of people do. You always get something new when you study Talmud, after all!)

We're also mid-tractate, so if you jump in immediately, you'll be jumping in mid-conversation, and possibly mid-sentence, but that's okay, too. The extra context resources from Sefaria and the other links later in this post should help with that.

Or, you could wait and join in at the start of the next tractate, but that's another 40-something days, so I say just jump right in now.

To actually access and read the Daf, just go to Sefaria.org! There will be a link on the front page to the daily daf. (You can actually access a ton of Jewish texts there, not just Talmud. But that's not the subject of this post.)

You can make an account for free, and as long as you're logged in, the site will keep track of the last text you were looking at. As you can see from my screenshot, that information will also appear on the front page. You can also take notes, make source sheets, and more.

You can do a ton of different things with Sefaria, and they explain much better than I ever could, so here's a link to their page on Daf Yomi:

That page walks you through the idea of Daf Yomi and how to use Sefaria to do it.

As someone who has never studied Talmud before, you'll want some extra context to help understand what you're studying. Sefaria has a lot of that, and the link above takes you through it all.

There are also bunch of daily podcasts, and some weekly ones, as well as blog posts on the daf. Here are a few to get you started:

you can also look in tumblr tags. Various people on here do daf yomi, and sometimes we post about it. Some consistently, others randomly and sporadically. (That's me). Generally any post about daf yomi would be tagged daf yomi. Obviously you need to look at that chronologically rather than Most Popular or whatever, or it won't make any sense.

This last link won't be as helpful, as it's not following the daf yomi cycle, but I do suggest looking at it to get a feel for how Talmud works and how to study it. Also, Rabbi Kulp's commentary is a delight on its own merits that I really enjoyed all through the tractates we had it for.

Good luck, and welcome to the Daf Yomi community!

conservative jewish kid here. I really want to start studying the talmud/daf yomi, but i don't know how to. my mom said we could take a class on shavuot, but it feels so long from now. anyone have any tips?

.

[jewish-microwave-laser]

one must imagine the sages with butterfly clips in their hair

[nehardeia]

a brief history of a literary nature

the Jewish people: minds their own business following the laws of their book

Babylon: ugh they're so annoying let's get rid of those guys *conquers the Jews and exiles them to Babylon*

the Jewish people: *writes a few more books about the exile, starts holding public readings every week to keep them fresh*

Rome: oh we do not like these book people let's oppress them

the Jewish people: *sets up academies to study the books. many students now have them fully memorized*

Rome: shoot this is getting out of hand we gotta do something about this, ok we shall Destroy their cultural center and scatter them across the empire

the Jewish people: *hurriedly transcribes decades of academic discussions. there are now 63 more books.*

Medieval Europe: this is getting to be a real problem, if you see jews kick them out so they go away

the Jewish people: *spreads across the entirety of Europe and writes hundreds more books, now in a multitude of different languages*

Various Nations of the World: shoot shoot shoot that did not go well ok we can do this guys we can do this just keep attacking them

the Jewish people: *writes tens of thousands of more books* *builds study halls and education centers and JCCs* *establishes Jewish publishing houses for the purpose of...you guessed it*

the Rest of the World, appalled: dear god who ARE you people why aRE YOU LIKE THIS

the Jewish people: *quietly reading in their libraries enjoying their books*

(somewhere in there....

Haman: gosh i hate the jews and their books i know i'll mobilize the entire kingdom to attack them

the Jews: *fight back, win, and write a book about it*)

[son-of-avraham]

To a guy like me, g-d isn't even a He/Him. g-d is a Bro/Bro (with the capitalization, obviously)

[yitzh0k-r3uven-hal3v1]

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When people misuse the Talmud, show them this video

[penguicorns-are-cool]

hypothetical Jumblr question for anyone who might know of an answer to this or at least like, an argument that someone had about this or a time it was brought up

so you know how you're supposed to say brachot and certain prayers out loud so that someone can say amen and be sort of like a witness to it

would it count if someone with DID said the bracha in their head in a way where an alter could say amen, like while co-fronting or something

[writer-at-the-table]

Listen, I don't know if Aaron Sorkin knew enough Talmud for "You accidentally slept with a prostitute...I don't understand. Did you trip over something?" to have been a deliberate reference to "If a man fell from a roof and while falling was inserted into a woman due to the force of the fall"

But *Toby Ziegler* 100% definitely knows enough Talmud to assume that from a Watsonian or in-universe perspective, it pretty much has to be.

[livethrushit]

was talking to my friend about how i feel silly calling myself a bby linguist when it's "just a special interest" and not something i'll ever be professionally. they pointed out: a special interest i've spent years learning in various ways outside of academia. through multiple ongoing study groups with friends i've made bc they also love learning these languages, countless books and hyper niche journals, videos, and lotsssssss of study practice.

i learn languages very slowly and grammar fucks me up which gives way to imposter syndrome & being bad at my passion. but id rather spend my days buried in ancient languages and painstakingly learning the philosophies, histories, and methodologies of translation and linguistics than study anything else this in depth more easily.

i've done presentations for study groups on translations of specific words and how vast the interpretations could be as a result. like did you know the whale (it's actually a giant fish) in the biblical story of jonah is a masculine noun in the beginning of the story and changes to a feminine noun later on? and how much that confused the fuck out of early commentators? JUST ONE WORD!! it's beautiful.

i know grammar structures of multiple germanic languages & semitic languages. that's not nothing!! that is COOL actually.

academics are people who are *mostly* able to afford to study their special interests is the way i'm choosing to look at it. barriers don't mean my studies are less important.

[postcard-from-the-past]

"Studying the Talmud", painting by Lazar Krestin

German vintage postcard

[greco-roman-jewess]

I need some outside input. Is this painting terrible? I’m not done yet but I can’t shake the thought that I just suck.