Invitation to the Talmud: A Teaching Book

Plot

A rabbi focuses upon laws dealing with ritual behavior at meals in the Mishnah, Tasefta, Babylonian Talmud, and Palestinian Talmud, and discusses the relevance of Talmudic modes of thought and analysis

Product Description
This book invites the reader to try to get in the Talmud. Nowadays, people are scarcely able to try. They do not know how to begin or where--or why. Getting into the Talmud is no easy matter, even for those Jews who are ardent to recover for themselves what their ancestors once knew. This invitation is to join a community of learning men and women, for Talmudic learning is collective. You do not "read" the Talmud, you "learn" it, preferably with a haver, or a fellow student, and always with a rabbi. Here, Neusner shall be your rabbi.

In this book, Neusner takes a single chapter of the talmud (5th chapter of brachot), and analyzes the text in the Mishnah, Tosefta, Babylonian Talmud, and Palestinian Talmud. For each of them he translates the text into English, and goes through it critically in his standard outline form. Essentially you get to be an armchair quarterback as he goes through the text and see how he derives insight into it.

I have only limited experience studying Talmud, and have read a few other English language books on the subject. I didn't find anything in this book to be earth shattering, but it certainly was useful to see how a great academic mind like Neusner's handles differences between the four texts treatment of the same subject. Many of his insights and revelations are universally applicable and have provided me with greater insight and understanding to other areas of the Talmud.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the only book that accomplishes its goals in this fashion. Many other books on the Talmud discuss it in general fashion, and provide the same information, but do not show how it is applied. There are also some Talmudic translations which lack Neusner's critical analysis and insight. I would certainly not make it a "must read" for a person getting into Talmud study, but it was interesting.