The new one-volume edition of the ancient sacred text includes seven new indices, including a subject index of some 27,000 entries covering topics such as labor laws, insurance, prison, abortion, kidnapping and righteous gentiles. Another index covers some 6,000 Biblical verses.
“In this way, the Jerusalem Talmud has become an open book for sages, researchers, Rabbis and ordinary laypeople, who are now able to explore in depth any subject which interests them,” said attorney Zvi Preisler, co-editor of the new edition together with Rabbi Shmuel Havlin.
The new volume's introduction explains, "The Jerusalem Talmud is the Land-of-Israel version of the six orders of the Mishnah - the distillation of all that the Land of Israel sages reflected upon and taught in the approximately 200 years after the codification of the Mishnah."
A team of Talmudic scholars examined the entire Jerusalem Talmud for seven years, Preisler said, in order to create the comprehensive indexes.
“Even in the age of the internet, in which it is possible to find every word of the Holy Scriptures through a database search, there is a great advantage to an index of this kind,” commented the editors.
The Talmud is comprised of the Oral Law, known as the Mishnah, and a collection of discussions and rabbinic interpretations of the Law, known as the Gemara. The Mishna and Gemara together complete the Talmud - of which there are two.
The Jerusalem Talmud, written in both Hebrew and Aramaic, predates by some 200 years the Babylonian Talmud, which the Sages wrote after the Jewish exile from the Land of Israel.
"As is well-known," the introduction states, "the Jerusalem Talmud was outshadowed over the course of many generations by the Babylonian Talmud, and was not even available to many of the early Sages - yet redemption has finally been achieved for the Jerusalem Talmud with the publication of a modern and precise edition of the entire work."
The new edition of the Jerusalem Talmud is published by Ketuvim Publishers of Jerusalem, which can be emailed at "ketuvim@bezeqint.net".
“In this way, the Jerusalem Talmud has become an open book for sages, researchers, Rabbis and ordinary laypeople, who are now able to explore in depth any subject which interests them,” said attorney Zvi Preisler, co-editor of the new edition together with Rabbi Shmuel Havlin.
The new volume's introduction explains, "The Jerusalem Talmud is the Land-of-Israel version of the six orders of the Mishnah - the distillation of all that the Land of Israel sages reflected upon and taught in the approximately 200 years after the codification of the Mishnah."
A team of Talmudic scholars examined the entire Jerusalem Talmud for seven years, Preisler said, in order to create the comprehensive indexes.
“Even in the age of the internet, in which it is possible to find every word of the Holy Scriptures through a database search, there is a great advantage to an index of this kind,” commented the editors.
The Talmud is comprised of the Oral Law, known as the Mishnah, and a collection of discussions and rabbinic interpretations of the Law, known as the Gemara. The Mishna and Gemara together complete the Talmud - of which there are two.
The Jerusalem Talmud, written in both Hebrew and Aramaic, predates by some 200 years the Babylonian Talmud, which the Sages wrote after the Jewish exile from the Land of Israel.
"As is well-known," the introduction states, "the Jerusalem Talmud was outshadowed over the course of many generations by the Babylonian Talmud, and was not even available to many of the early Sages - yet redemption has finally been achieved for the Jerusalem Talmud with the publication of a modern and precise edition of the entire work."
The new edition of the Jerusalem Talmud is published by Ketuvim Publishers of Jerusalem, which can be emailed at "ketuvim@bezeqint.net".