Gemara
Gemara (from Aramaic גמרא, gamar, learn, study) denotes the second layer of the Talmud in the rabbinical tradition of Judaism . It explains and supplements the content of the Mishnah , the oral tradition. The Mishnah and the Gemara together form the Talmud.
Word meaning
The word Gemara (Yiddish Gemore or Gemure ) comes from Aramaic and means "completion" (of the teaching content). The final “a” is the Aramaic article (if it is the letter “Aleph” and not “He”). Gemara is a masculine word and is also treated as such in the Gaonean period . However, later it was mistakenly interpreted as feminine due to the a-ending, and so it is used in all languages today.
Emergence
However, after the oral Torah of a time was summarized in the Mishnah , the process of commenting, discussing and reformulating the tradition continued. This process is, so to speak, logged in the Gemara. It contains, in mostly Aramaic language, the utterances of rabbis, anecdotes, etc. up to the 5th century (Palestinian Talmud) or 7th century (Babylonian Talmud).
Versions
Two main strands of tradition have developed, which are in the form of the Palestinian or Eretz-Jisra'el or Jerusalem and the Babylonian Talmud. The Palestinian Gemara is written in Judeo-Palestinian Aramaic , a western Aramaic dialect. Trader names from Eretz-Jisra'el predominate in it . It comes to results more quickly than its Babylonian counterpart and contains comparatively little Aggada . The Babylonian Gemara, on the other hand, is written in Jewish-Babylonian Aramaic , an East-American dialect, and the discussions are more prolonged. It also contains a wealth of narratives, philosophical and scientific considerations, etc. While Eretz-Jisra'elic Judaism has its own literary genres, e.g. B. developed the Midrash , everything in Babylon flowed into the Gemara. Differences in the initial questions or arguments can be partly attributed to the fact that the two traditions were based on slightly different versions of the Mishnah.
scope
The Palestinian Gemara (p) includes the commentary on the first four orders of the Mishnah, with the exception of the treatises Avot and Eduiot , the last four chapters of Shabbat and the last chapter of Makkot . The fifth order Kodaschim is not commented on at all. There are three chapters by Teharot on the treatise Nidda .
The Babylonian Gemara (b) does not comment on the first order with the exception of the Berachot treatise . Of the second order of the treaty lacks Sch e qalim , but has been replaced in manuscripts and prints by the text of the Jerusalem Talmud. The fourth order lacks edujot and avot, the fifth middot ( dimensions ) , qinnim ( bird's nests ) and a part of tamid ( constant / daily ). From the sixth order only Nidda was commented on.
literature
- Günter Stemberger : The Talmud. Introduction, texts, explanations. 4th edition, Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-08354-9
