What Is the Talmud?

Name: What Is the Talmud?
Price: 70.95 AUD
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ISBN: 9780674305564

The State of the Question

Christine Hayes, Jay M Harris (Harvard University)

$70.95

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Harvard University Press
02 June 2026

Religion & beliefs; Religion: general; Judaism: sacred texts

Series: Jewish Law and Culture

The Babylonian Talmud, or Bavli, stands as one of the central pillars of Jewish intellectual, cultural, and religious life. But what, precisely, is this monumental and heterogenous compilation? How was it formed, redacted, and transmitted? Who composed it and for what purpose? How was it shaped by its broader cultures and historical period? How was it received and re-conceived by subsequent generations, and what has the Talmud become in our day?

What Is the Talmud? collects essays that provide a comprehensive exploration of the Talmud's origins, compilation, and redaction; its diverse genres and discursive practices; its historical and cultural setting; its preservation and study across generations; and its enduring influence on Jewish life and culture today.

Edited by: Christine Hayes, Jay M Harris (Harvard University)
Imprint: Harvard University Press
Country of Publication: United States
ISBN: 9780674305564
ISBN 10: 0674305566
Series: Jewish Law and Culture
Pages: 896
Publication Date: 02 June 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Christine Hayes is Sterling Professor Emerita of Jewish Studies at Yale University, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. She is the author of Gentile Impurities and Jewish Identities and What's Divine about Divine Law? Early Perspectives. Jay M. Harris is Harvard College Professor and Harry Austryn Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard University. He is the author of How Do We Know This: Midrash and the Fragmentation of Modern Judaism.