A full set of the Babylonian Talmud, which includes both the Mishnah and the expansive commentary known as Gemara, can cost upwards of $2,000. The Jewish Publication Society’s five-volume ...

In fact, only the rich could afford toilets. A thousand years later, the Mishnah and the Talmud raised various criteria that defined a rich person, and Rabbi Yossi suggested that to be rich is ...

The Mishnah was formed due to fear that the Jewish people would lose their unity and beliefs if they were not in the Holy City.

Rabbi Yosi says (the failure of) Haman’s power is our authority. Jews should always remember and celebrate our survival and our enemy’s downfall; not with hate, but by joy. Rabbi Simeon says it was ...

Yet the Mishnah tells that at least from the time of the Bar Kochba revolt (132–136 CE), reading the Book of Esther on Purim was considered a mitzvah. But is it Jewish? The Talmud itself refers ...