What is the 'Talmud'?

[Fragony]

I read some rather unpleasant quotes that would make the Quran look like the teletubbies, what is this book? I always thought that jewish faith only recognised the old testament of the bible, and that christianity and the jewish faith were basicly the same but this is downright scary. Human sacrifice? No shit? Can anyone shed some light on this?

[English assassin]

? I heard that Jesus fellow said you should pull your own eyes out if they caused you to sin. And he also said that looking at a woman lustfully was as bad as boffing her.

So according to Jesus anyone who has enjoyed the sight of a nice looking woman walking past should have yanked their own eyes out.

You've got to give these old texts some leeway, Frag, is all I am saying.

[Fragony]

Found this on a dutch site,

http://www.answering-christianity.co...ual_murder.htm

and no I didn't find it on that kind of site, boatloads of crap in this link, and when I try to confirm I end up in pretty unpleasant company, but some of these 'Talmud' texts are just downright hostile. I never heard of this Talmud, and I know it isn't part of the bible. I have heard the term 'Talmud jews', do they believe this crap? What the hell is this thing?

[Byzantine Prince]

The talmud was written in Babylon by the jews of diaspora if I'm not mistaken. Yeah it's pretty brutal but it IS part of orthodox judaism.

[Fragony]

The talmud was written in Babylon by the jews of diaspora if I'm not mistaken. Yeah it's pretty brutal but it IS part of orthodox judaism.

Nice guys they are then, at least I know now why my neightbour never greets me back in the morning

[Watchman]

It's one of Them Really Olde Holy Books(tm), in other words. Given that it was written in around early Bronze Age or thereabouts (like for that matter most of the Old Testament) it probably isn't too surprising if it can get pretty brutal at times. It wasn't an era very agreeable to the rather less sanguinary modern sensibilities.

But then again, have you taken a look at the Old Testament ? There's actually casual chronicles of entire cities being put to the sword by conquerors (be they Jewish or other) and similar mass atrocities in there, as was perfectly normal at the time, and in general much of the damn thing actually reads more like one of those Viking sagas (albeit without the deadpan humor) than what you'd think the average holy book should look like.

[Adrian II]

Found this on a dutch site,

http://www.answering-christianity.co...ual_murder.htm

The guy is an idiot. Just read his 'purpose'.

This is a better site: The Babylonian Talmud

[JimBob]

My understanding is that the Talmud is the commentary on the Torah. Learned Rabbis debate the meaning of the Torah. According to Jewish law there are a number of things you cannot do on Sabbath. One of these is to tear. So there is a debate on whether or not you can tear toliet paper on Sabbath.

[BDC]

My understanding is that the Talmud is the commentary on the Torah. Learned Rabbis debate the meaning of the Torah. According to Jewish law there are a number of things you cannot do on Sabbath. One of these is to tear. So there is a debate on whether or not you can tear toliet paper on Sabbath.

That could be unfortunate if you forget to prepare it the night before and ate something which didn't agree with you...

[Watchman]

Oh, that's nothing. Somehwere down in south-central Africa there's (or used to be until fairly recently, I don't really know) this tribe, the Chagga, whose menfolk pretend they stop crapping and their anuses close permanently when they reach adulthood. Anthropologists have naturally had a field day dissecting the particular myths involved in this bit of religious weirdness, but one can only imagine how utterly inconvenient it must be for the menfolk...

True story too.

[Divinus Arma]

The Talmud is basically applied philosophy. It is, as one member put, an attempt to analyze the Torah and apply it to life.

It, coupled with the Torah, provide the basis for Judaism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud