THE TALMUD: A METHODOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION – GLOSSARY
586 BCE – In 586 BCE the
Babylonians destroyed the first
Jerusalem Temple and exiled the
elite population of Jerusalem to
Babylonia, where they formed a
sizable and strong Jewish
community. (Video 2)
70 CE – In 70 CE the Romans
destroyed the second Jerusalem
Temple. This profound event
would have serious repercussions
for subsequent Judaism. (Video 1-
2)
AGGADAH – Aggadah is most
commonly used in contrast with
Halakhah and as such should be
defined as non-legal Jewish
traditions. At times the term has
come to reference narrative texts
in contrast with legal ones. (Video
21)
AGGADIC MIDRASH – Also known
as amoraic midrash, this midrash
includes materials attributed to
both tannaim and amoraim. It is
not specifically concerned with
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the Torah’s legal passages. (Video
18)
AMORA(IM)/AMORAIC – An amora
(pl. amoraim) is a rabbi who was
active after the completion of the
Mishnah around 200 CE. An
amora is understood as not being
able to directly contradict the
position of a tanna. (Video 8-9,
12, 14-15, 19-21)
APOCRYPHA – A term derived
from Greek by way of Latin to
refer to hidden books, it is used to
refer to texts that are included in
the Septuagint but absent from
the Hebrew Bible. (Video 6)
ARBA’AH TURIM – Code of Jewish
Law written by Rabbi Jacob ben
Meir in the early fourteenth
century. The organizational
apparatus invented in this code is
adopted by Shulhan Arukh.
(Video 3)
ASHKENAZ – Though originally a
biblical term, the term Ashkenaz
Definitions © Barry Scott Wimpfheimer
came in the medieval period to
refer to the specific culture of
Judaism found in Germany and
Northern France. (Video 4)
BABYLONIA/BABYLON – Present
day Iraq was known in antiquity
as Babylonia. The Babylonian
Jewish community began with the
exile of elite Judeans following the
destruction of the first temple in
586 BCE. (Video 4, 6, 11, 16a, 17,
19, 23, 25)
BARAITA/BARAITOT – A baraita
(pl. baraitot) is a tannaitic text
that was not included in the
Mishnah. Because it is defined by
period rather than genre, a
baraita can either have the form of
a Mishnah or that of Midrash.
(Video 12-14, 17)
BAVLI – The Babylonian Tamud
or Talmud Bavli is the Talmud
produced by the rabbis who lived
in Babylonia (present day Iraq).
(Video 19)
 THE TALMUD: A METHODOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION – GLOSSARY
BEN ZAKKAI – Rabban Yohanan
ben Zakkai is one of the putative
founders of the rabbinic
movement, who is said to have
survived the destruction of
Jerusalem and arranged for the
survival of the rabbinic group in
Jamnia. (Video 18)
BINYAN AV – Binyan Av is a
rabbinic reading strategy that
allows a reader to combine two
scenarios in order to teach a
shared consequence to a third
scenario. (Video 16a, 16b)
DAF YOMI – A program of study
begun in the early twentieth
century in which one studies a
double-sided page of the Talmud
every day. The celebration that
commemorates the completing of
the Talmud every 7.5 years is
called the Siyyum Hashas. (Video
1)
DEAD SEA SCROLLS – In 1948 a
shepherd happened upon an
archive of scrolls at Qumran
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remarkably preserved within the
arid climate of the Dead Sea area.
Scholars have been processing
these documents ever since and
the consensus view is that they
represent the library of a sect—
probably the Essenes—whose
Qumran outpost was overrun
shortly before Jerusalem in 69
CE. (Video 22)
DIASPORA – Greek term invented
to describe the unique condition
of Judeans who insisted upon
ethnic and cultural identity
outside of the homeland.
Sometimes used to refer to all
Jewish communities outside of
Israel. (Video 4)
DISCIPLE CIRCLE – A somewhat
informal study arrangement in
which students gravitated to and
studied with a single charismatic
rabbi. This was the typical setting
for rabbinic learning throughout
most of the Rabbinic period.
(Video 2, 4)
EDGAR ALLAN POE – Edgar Allan
Poe is a nineteenth century
American short story writer
whose stories are often haunting
and uncanny. (Video 23)
EDIM ZOMEMIM – Hebrew term
meaning false witnesses. The term
specifically references the notion
of intention that the Bible
connects with a specific quid pro
quo punishment. (Video 5-14,
16b, 19)
EDUT – Hebrew term for
testimony. (Video 5)
ESSENES – The Essenes were a
second temple sect of Judaism that
engaged in textual study and had
specific understandings of matters
of theology and ritual. Recent
scholarship has established that
the Essenes are the same as the
group the rabbis call “the
Boethousians” and that the
Essenes are the sect behind the
Dead Sea Scrolls. (Video 22, 23)
Definitions © Barry Scott Wimpfheimer
 THE TALMUD: A METHODOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION – GLOSSARY
“ESTABLISH FOR HIM” – “Establish
for him” is the term that
encapsulates the idea that a
criminal may not receive two types
of punishment for one offense.
(Video 15)
FOREWARNING – Rabbinic law
requires that criminal receive
explicit warning before they
commit a criminal act in order to
be criminally liable for said act.
(Video 16b)
GEMARA – An Aramaic
synonym for the Hebrew word
Talmud. When seventeenth
century censors prohibited the use
of the word “Talmud” in printed
editions, printers replaces the
Hebrew term with its Aramaic
equivalent. (Video 3)
GEONIM – The head of the
Babylonian Yeshiva was a Gaon
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(plural Geonim). The last quarter Instrumental in the modern
of the first millennium is revival of Talmud study and
sometimes called the Geonic Yeshivot. (Video 4)
period in Jewish historiography.
GUIDE TO THE PERPLEXED –
(Video 4, 25)
Aristotleian work of philosophy
GEZERAH SHAVAH – Gezerah written by Maimonides. (Video 4)
Shavah is a rabbinic reading
HALAKHAH – Halakhah means
strategy that allows the reader to
Jewish law. Etymologically
connect the identical term that
derived from the verb “to walk,”
appears in two separate passages
the term is as much about lived
and construct a two-way bridge
cultural norms as it is about civil
across the divide that separates
or criminal law. (Video 21)
the passages. (Video 11)
HASIDISM – A popular religious
GORING OX – Exodus 21 initially
movement that began in
asserts that the penalty for a
seventeenth century eastern
goring ox that kills a person is the
Europe and came to include
death of the animal and its
roughly half of the Jews in
negligent owner. Then it allows
Eastern Europe by the end of the
for a ransom payment instead of
eighteenth century. Hasidism
the death of the owner. (Video 12)
heavily emphasizes mysticism,
GRA/RABBI ELIJAH OF both in the form of direct mystical
VILNA/VILNA GAON – Eighteenth experience and through a
century Lithuanian rabbi who representative Tzaddik. (Video
developed a cult of personality 25)
despite never having an official
communal leadership position.
Definitions © Barry Scott Wimpfheimer
 THE TALMUD: A METHODOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION – GLOSSARY
HASKALAH – The Jewish
Enlightenment was founded by
Moses Mendelssohn, who sought
to gain Jewish political
emancipation alongside continued
traditional observance. Dominated
by rationalism, this movement
attempted to update Jewish
historiography, Jewish thought
and the study of Jewish literature.
(Video 25)
HASMONEANS – The Maccabean
revolt in 165-162 BCE led to
Jewish self-rule in Judea for over
the next century. The royal
family, who descended from the
Maccabee family, are known as the
Hasmoneans. The Hasmonean era
ends with the rise of Herod in 37
BCE. (Video 20)
HAZAMAH – Hebrew term meaning
“act of testifying falsely with
intention to produce a certain
outcome.” (Video 8-9, 11, 13-14)
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HEBREW SLAVE – Exodus 21
discusses the need to let a Hebrew
slave free after six years of labor.
The rabbis understood that one
becomes a slave either by selling
oneself or by being sold as a
consequence of theft for which the
thief has no ability to remunerate
the owner. (Video 12-14)
HEKESH – Hekesh Hekesh is a
rabbinic reading strategy that
allows the reader to connect two
proximate terms in a biblical
passage and construct a two-way
bridge across the divide that
separates the two concepts. (Video
11)
HELLENISM – The imitation of
Greek language, culture and ideas,
particularly associated with
Alexander the Great’s conquests
in the fourth century. (Video 20)
HOMOIOTELEUTON – A scribal
error in which the scribe’s eye
skips from one iteration of a word
to a later iteration of the same
word. This is very common in
manuscripts of all kinds. (Video
14)
JOSEPHUS – Josephus was an elite
Judean priest who fought as a
general on the Judean side of the
war with Rome before
surrendering and becoming an
aide-de-camp first of Vespasian
and later of Titus. Josephus was a
prolific writer whose various
works written in Rome in the late
first century provide the most
detailed accounts of Judean life in
the first century. (Video 22)
JUDAH THE PRINCE – Judah the
Prince was an officially delegated
community leader around the year
200 CE. He is generally credited
with having produced the
Mishnah. (Video 17)
Definitions © Barry Scott Wimpfheimer
 THE TALMUD: A METHODOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION – GLOSSARY
KAL VAHOMER – Kal Vahomer is
an inferential argument that
applies the consequence of one
scenario to another. The
argument can transfer either a
stringency or a leniency
depending upon the relative
severity of the two respective
scenarios. (Video 9-11)
KETUBOT – Tractate of Mishnah
and Talmud in order of Nashim
(Family Law). It deals with
marriage contracts and other legal
matters related to marriage.
(Video 15)
KOHEN/PRIEST – Biblical Judaism
recognizes a priestly caste of
Israelites who are specially
empowered to conduct temple
rituals and who benefit from
certain agricultural tithes. This
caste also has a set of additional
restrictions on marriage and
divorce. (Video 5-10, 12, 13)
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LATE ANTIQUITY – “Late
Antiquity” is a term scholars use
to describe a period between the
second and eighth centuries CE
that was very formative for
Western religion and thought. It
overlaps nicely with the Rabbinic
period. (Video 24)
LEVIRATE MARRIAGE – If a man
died without an heir, his widow
was expected to wed the
deceased’s brother to produce
offspring who would be
considered offspring of the
deceased. The deceased’s brother
could reject this arrangement
through a public ritual designed
to shame him. (Video 7-8, 12, 13)
MAH HATZAD – Mah Hatzad is a
rabbinic reading strategy that
allows a reader to rehabilitate two
failed inferential arguments by
combining the two scenarios and
having the two scenarios teach a
shared consequence to a third
scenario. (Video 16a, 16b)
MAIMONIDES/RAMBAM – Twelfth
Century native of Cordoba Spain
who moved to Egypt where he was
a doctor, philosopher, rabbinic
scholar and communal leader. He
authored both Guide to the
Perplexed and Mishneh Torah.
(Video 3, 4)
MAKKOT – Tractate of Mishnah
and Talmud in the order of
Neziqin (literally “damages”). The
first chapter of Makkot is about
false testimony. (Video 1-3, 8, 12,
15, 17-19)
MANUSCRIPT – The dominant
mode of Talmudic transmission
from 1000-1500 was a
handwritten codex (a bound paper
book designed for writing on both
sides of the page). (Video 3, 14,
19)
MARKED TEXT – A marked text is
a text with a specific feature that
requires interpretive attention.
(Video 16a)
Definitions © Barry Scott Wimpfheimer
 THE TALMUD: A METHODOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION – GLOSSARY
MEHILTA – Mehilta is a work of
tannaitic midrash attributed to
the school of R. Ishmael. A
separate work, Mehilta DeRabbi
Shimon bar Yohai, is attributed to
the school of R. Aqiba. (Video 23)
MEMORY PALACE – Memory
palaces are architectural works
constructed in the imagination in
order to store and easily retrieve
memories stored within them.
(Video 17)
MIDRASH – Midrash is a style of
biblical interpretation that
originated as a study practice and
became a genre of literature.
Among its many reading
strategies, midrash licenses both
intense atomistic local readings
and readings that read a passage
of one book of the bible in light of
a passage from a different book of
the bible. (Video 7, 9-13, 16a-20,
22, 23)
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MISHNAH – The Mishnah is a code
of law produced by the rabbis
around the year 200 CE. The
foundation for both Talmuds, it
divides the rabbinic period into
the tannaitic period (rabbis active
until the Mishnah’s oral
publication) and the amoraic
period (rabbis active after the
Mishnah’s oral publication).
(Video 1-3, 7-13, 15-22, 24)
MISHNEH – Torah Code of Jewish
Law written by Maimonides. This
code produces its own
organization of the law and
restates it in pure literary
Hebrew. (Video 3, 4)
NAHMANIDES/RAMBAN –
Thirteenth century legal scholar,
biblical exegete and kabbalist. His
novellae to the Talmud combine
the Tosafist ideal of a unified
Talmud with traditions inherited
from Provence and northern
Spain. (Video 4)
Definitions © Barry Scott Wimpfheimer
NEZIQIN – One of the six
organizational orders of the
Mishnah. Neziqin covers civil and
criminal law as well as tractates
with more abstract considerations
of questions of authority and
leadership. Makkot is a tractate in
this order. (Video 2, 8)
ORAL LAW – Rabbinic theology
posits the existence of an oral law
alongside the written law of the
bible. Oral law includes both
interpretations of biblical
concepts and things that are
entirely foreign to the bible.
(Video 2, 7, 11)
ORDER – An order is an
organizational tier of the Mishnah.
The Mishnah is divided into six
orders. (Video 2, 3, 15, 17)
 THE TALMUD: A METHODOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION – GLOSSARY
PALESTINE – Present day Israel
was known as Palestine in Roman
times. During the Rabbinic
period, the rabbis were
concentrated in Judea and the
Galilee. (Video 4, 9-10, 15, 16b-
22)
PASCHAL LAMB – The lamb
sacrificed as part of the Passover
rite and consumed on Passover
eve. (Video 16b)
PENTATEUCH – See Torah (Video
2, 16a, 18)
PHARISEES – The Pharisees were
a second temple sect of Judaism
that engaged in textual study and
had specific understandings of
matters of theology and ritual.
Rabbinic texts sometimes assume
the Pharisees to be the
progenitors of the rabbis. (Video
2, 9, 22)
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PLINY THE ELDER – Pliny the
Elder was a Roman writer who
was a friend of Vespasian, the
general and later Caesar who
waged war against Judea in the
seventh decade of the first century
CE. Pliny traveled through
Palestine and his descriptions are
historically helpful. (Video 22)
PRINT EDITION – A specific
printing of the Talmud. Famous
ones include the sixteenth century
Bomberg edition and the late
nineteenth century Romm edition.
(Video 3, 14, 19)
PROTO-MISHNAH – Proto-
Mishnah is a term used to describe
Mishnah-style works that existed
before the production of the
definitive Mishnah around 200
CE. (Video 17)
QUID PRO QUO – Latin term
literally meaning “something for
something.” It describes an exact
exchange. (Video 15, 16b)
RABBENU HANANEL – An eleventh
century rabbi who lived in
Qairouan (present day Tunisia).
Rabbenu Hananel produced one of
the earliest Talmud
commentaries. (Video 3, 4)
RABBENU NISSIM – An eleventh
century rabbi who lived in
Qairouan (present day Tunisia).
Rabbenu Nissim produced one of
the earliest Talmud commentaries
and was a contemporary of
Rabbenu Hananel. (Video 4)
RABBINIC JUDAISM/RABBINIC
MOVEMENT – Between 70 and 750
CE, a group of rabbis recreated
the ideology of Judaism around
texts and interpretation, putting
forth a way of being Jewish that
moved away from the cultic
centrality of temple and sacrifice.
Over time this would come to be
the definitive version of Judaism
until modernity. (Video 2, 4, 6-13,
15-25)
Definitions © Barry Scott Wimpfheimer
 THE TALMUD: A METHODOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION – GLOSSARY
RASHI (RABBI SHLOMO ITZCHAKI)
– Eleventh Century Alsatian
scholar who wrote definitive
commentaries on both Torah and
Talmud. Rashi’s commentary on
the Talmud is both comprehensive
and terse, an invaluable
combination within a handwritten
manuscript culture. (Video 3)
REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM – A
rhetorical argument that asserts
that something must be the case
by exploring the consequences of
its negation. The more absurd the
consequence, the stronger the
argument. (Video 9, 10, 20)
REFORM – This nineteenth
century religious reform program
in Germany and the United States
sought to change Judaism so that
it was more in keeping with
mainstream Protestant values and
practices. Over time, Reform
would transform Judaism and
come to include a majority of Jews
in these countries. (Video 4, 25)
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RESPONSUM/A – A responsum (pl.
responsa) is a formal written
answer to a religious question,
often about a matter of law. The
Geonim and the Yeshivot
produced responsa as part of their
curriculum and this was one of the
vehicles of communicating
rabbinic Judaism to the diaspora.
(Video 4)
RHETORIC – A classical discipline
of speech and debate that trained
individuals to speechify both in
court and at court. It implicated
an entire pedagogical curriculum.
(Video 20)
RHETORS – Professional
practitioners of rhetoric famed for
their speeches. (Video 20)
SADDUCEES – The Sadducees
were a second temple sect of
Judaism that engaged in textual
study and had specific
understandings of matters of
theology and ritual. Rabbinic
texts generally disagree with the
views of the Sadducees and
embody the positions of their
opponents, the Pharisees. (Video
9, 22, 23)
SANHEDRIN (INSTITUTION) – The
Mishnah and other works of
rabbinic literature describe a
Sanhedrin that is housed in the
Jerusalem temple, the
authoritative fount of law and the
court of highest appeal. (Video 24)
SANHEDRIN (TRACTATE) –
Tractate of Mishnah and Talmud
in the order of Neziqin (literally
“damages”). Sanhedrin is about
the constitution and procedure of
courts. (Video 8, 18)
SECTS – During the late second
temple period, some elite Judean
males participated in religious
sects that separated themselves
from Jewish society at large and
from one another. The sects
attended very carefully to narrow
distinctions of ritual practice and
belief. (Video 2, 9, 22)
Definitions © Barry Scott Wimpfheimer
 THE TALMUD: A METHODOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION – GLOSSARY
SEFARAD – Though originally a
biblical term, the term Sefarad
came in the medieval period to
refer to the specific culture of
Judaism found in Southern Spain
and North Africa. (Video 4)
SHAS – A term derived from an
acrostic for “six orders,” it could
refer to Mishnah, Tosefta or
either Talmud, but it has come to
specifically reference the
Babylonian Talmud. (Video 3)
SHULHAN ARUKH – Sixteenth
century code of Jewish law written
by Rabbi Yosef Karo. Shulhan
Arukh’s pluralistic inclusion of
multiple traditions and its
appearance at the dawn of print
helped make it the definitive code
of Jewish law in modernity. (Video
3, 4)
SIFRE – Sifre is a work of tannaitic
Midrash. There is a Sifre on
Numbers and a Sifre on
Deuteronomy. Sifre on Numbers
is a Yishmael school midrash and
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Sifre Deuteronomy an Aqiban
school midrash. (Video 18)
SLANDERING HUSBAND – A man
who asserts that his putatively
virginal wife was not a virgin.
(Video 16b)
SOLOMON IBN ADERET/RASHBA –
Thirteenth century student of
Nahmanides who produced his
own novellae to the Talmud and
an extensive set of responsa.
(Video 4)
STAM/STAMMAIM – The Stam (or
Stammaim) is the author
responsible for the unattributed
parts of the Talmud’s dialogue.
Scholarly consensus is that the
Stam is the latest contributor to
the text and is responsible for
many layout and editing decisions.
(Video 14, 16b, 19-21)
STRICT CONSTRUCTIONISM – A
legal philosophy that attempts to
be constrained by the text of the
law and without recourse to
inferences or external factors.
(Video 22)
SUGYA/PERISCOPE – The smallest
literary unit of the Talmud is the
sugya (or pericope). A sugya is the
topical treatment of a single topic
or sub-topic. (Video 12, 14-15,
16b, 19-20)
SUSANNA – Apocryphal work
appended to the book of Daniel. It
is included in the Septuagint (an
early Greek translation of the
Bible) and therefore in the Roman
Catholic and Eastern Orthodox
bibles. It does not appear in the
Hebrew bible and is considered
apocryphal by Protestants. (Video
6, 11, 18)
SYNOPSIS – A comparative
apparatus that allows scholars to
compare the versions of the text
found in different textual
witnesses. (Video 14)
Definitions © Barry Scott Wimpfheimer
 THE TALMUD: A METHODOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION – GLOSSARY
TALMUD – Originally, a method of
study, Talmud developed into a
genre of literature that combines
legalistic thinking with creative
biblical interpretation in a
somewhat haphazard textual
collage. Though there are two
Talmuds (Palestinian and
Babylonian), this course generally
uses the term Talmud to refer to
the more comprehensive and
better studied Babylonian
Talmud.
TANNA(IM)/TANNAITIC – A tanna
(pl. tannaim) is a rabbi who was
active before the completion of the
Mishnah around 200 CE. A rabbi
can be considered a tanna even if
he is never quoted in the Mishnah.
(Video 8, 12-13, 15-16b, 18, 24)
TANNAITIC MIDRASH/HALAKHIC
MIDRASH – Tannaitic Midrash
(also known as Halakhic Midrash)
is midrash whose attributed
rabbis are tannaim. This early
midrash is primarily concerned
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with the Torah’s legal passages
and reads these very carefully.
(Video 16a, 18, 23)
TEXTUAL WITNESSES – Textual
witnesses are witnesses that
testify to the original text. These
include manuscripts, early print
editions, commentaries and
citations. (Video 14)
“THE TELLTALE HEART” – First
published in 1843, Edgar Allan
Poe’s “The Telltale Heart” is a
short story in which the narrator
describes a murder he has
committed. The narrator’s guilt
emerges through the sound of the
still-beating heart beneath the
floorboards. (Video 23)
THIRTEEN PRINCIPLES – A list of
midrashic reading strategies that
is part of the Jewish daily prayer
book. (Video 16a)
TORAH – Hebrew word that
literally means teaching but refers
to the first five books of the
Hebrew Bible, also known as the
Pentateuch. (Video 1, 3-5, 9, 11,
13, 14, 16a, 18, 22-23)
TORTFEASOR – Person who
commits a tort that injures
another party. (Video 12)
TOSAFOT/TOSAFISTS – Twelfth-
Thirteenth century school of
French and German Talmud
commentary founded by Rashi’s
grandson Rabbi Jacob ben Meir
(Tam). Tosafist work is
characterized by the attempt to
make non-local passages of the
Talmud agree with one another.
(Video 3, 4)
TOSEFTA – A work of rabbinic
literature redacted after the
Mishnah and organized on the
Mishnah’s model of orders,
tractates and chapters. Tosefta
preserves traditions that are older
than the Mishnah and sometimes
comments directly on the
Mishnah. (Video 12, 17, 23)
Definitions © Barry Scott Wimpfheimer
 THE TALMUD: A METHODOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION – GLOSSARY
TRACTATE – A topical unit of
Mishnah. Also a subsection of
Mishnah’s orders. (Video 1-2, 4,
7-9, 15, 17-18)
TRICKSTER – Folk stories often
celebrate heroic tricksters—
figures who achieve their goals
circuitously, through a trick.
Biblical stories are replete with
tricksters (Jacob, Ruth, Tamar,
etc.), who are often female. (Video
21)
VILNA SHAS – A specific print
edition of the Talmud produced
by the Widow and Brothers
Romm Press in Vilnius, Lithuania
between 1880 and 1886. Over the
course of the twentieth century
this edition became iconic and
definitive. (Video 3, 4)
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WISSENSCHAFT DES JUDENTHUMS and institutionalizing Rabbinic
– Literally “The Science of Judaism and the Talmud. (Video
Judaism,” this movement 4, 25)
consisted of scholars who analyzed
YOSEF KARO – Sixteenth century
ancient Jewish texts along the
scholar who was a child exilee
lines of nineteenth century
from Iberia to Safed in present
classicists. They comprise the
day Israel. A legal scholar and
earliest formal field of university
mystic, Karo produced Shulhan
Jewish Studies. (Video 4)
Arukh, the definitive modern
YERUSHALMI – The Palestinian Jewish law code. (Video 3, 4)
Talmud or Talmud Yerushalmi is
ZAMAM – Hebrew term meaning
the Talmud produced by the
“he intended.” (Video 5)
rabbis who lived in Palestine
(present day Israel). (Video 19) ZIONISM – This nineteenth
century Jewish nationalist
YESHIVA/OT – During the last
movement increased in strength
quarter of the first millennium CE
in the early twentieth century and
there were two large institutional
led to the creation of the modern
academies called Yeshivot (plural
state of Israel. (Video 25)
of Yeshiva) in Babylonia (present
day Baghdad). These played an
important role in disseminating
Definitions © Barry Scott Wimpfheimer