ABSTRACT
The two Talmuds, the Talmud of the Land of Israel, c. 400 CE and the Talmud of Babylonia, c. 600 CE, form systematic commentaries on tractates of the Mishnah, thirty-nine of the sixty-three for the Talmud of the Land of Israel, thirty-seven of the same for the Talmud of Babylonia—and not the same tractates. The former treats the first four divisions of the Mishnah, and ignores the fifth and sixth; the latter, the second through the fifth, ignoring the first and the sixth. The second of the two Talmuds stands completely independent of the first, though both Talmuds drew in common on certain sayings and stories that circulated among sages of the second through the fifth centuries. We concentrate on the Talmud of Babylonia, a.k.a. the Bavli, because it is the authoritative one, which defined the law and theology of Rabbinic Judaism from its closure to the present day.
