Everyman's Talmud

Everyman's Talmud by Abraham Cohen

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This is not the Talmud in its raw form. The Talmud per se, which can be found online, is not meant for casual reading. The Talmudic text may contain gems, but finding those gems is the hard work of a lifetime. The actual Talmud is structured eclectically in chapters that may provide no clue about the subject matter. The actual text contains mostly cryptic statements that presuppose an acquaintanceship with the entire text. It is not something to be picked up for momentary inspiration (although the online version is susceptible to word searches.)

What Rabbi Cohen has done is to organize and summarize the Talmud according to the kinds of topics the average reader might be interested in. The structure of Cohen's Talmud reminded me of the structure of St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa or Peter Lombard's The Sentences. Thus, we start with “The Doctrine of God” and cover Scholastic territory like unicity, simplicity, omnipotence, etc. and end with “The Hereafter.” Along the way, we visit “God and the Universe,” human anthropology, jurisprudence, domestic life, property rights, and the other topics that define human life.

As someone who has been reading the Summa Theologica for twenty years, it seemed familiar and interesting as a text in comparative religion.

My interest was in the doctrines of God and the topics of the Messiah, Heaven, and Hell. Needless to say, there was much that I found familiar - particularly in the theology of God - and stuff that surprised me concerning the Messiah and The World to Come. For example, who is this “mysterious figure,” “Messiah, son of Joseph” who is killed in the Messianic age? Proselytes will not be accepted in the time of the Messiah? Sinners suffer for twelve months in Gehinnom before they are admitted to Gan Eden, unless they are eradicated, which may involve a perpetual state of remorse?

Fascinating stuff.

I was interested in seeing that Tobit's dicta that one should not do that which one finds hateful made its way into the Talmud, although not into the Tanakh. (p. 214.)

Then, there is this: “Moses said before Him: Sovereign of the Universe! Cause me to know what the final decision is on each matter of law.” He replied, “The majority must be followed. When the majority declare a thing permitted, it is permissible, when the majority declare it forbidden, it is not allowed.” (p. 148.) Cohen makes the point that this permits the legal precepts of the Talmud to have a continuing vitality, but it seems surprising.

I was also unexpectedly surprised to see the theology of the horror film “The Seventh Sign” confirmed. In that movie, the Last Judgment is coming because, as the mysterious Jurgen Prochnow tells a pregnant Demi Moore, the Guff - the well of souls is empty, prompting Michael Bien to quip that “it all sounds like a lot of guff.” It turns out that the idea of the Guff is actually found in the Talmud.

Who knew?

The introduction was written by Rabbi Jacob Neusner, Pope Benedict's favorite rabbi.