The Talmud: Selections

The Talmud: Selections

by H. Polano


A Talmud miscellany.


The Talmud is one of the most important holy books of the Hebrew religion and of the world. No English translation of the book existed until the author presented this work. To this day, very little of the actual text seems available in English -- although we find many interpretive commentaries on what it is supposed to mean. The Talmud has a reputation for being long and difficult to digest, but Polano has taken what he believes to be the best material and put it into extremely readable form. As far as holy books of the world are concerned, it is on par with The Koran, The Bhagavad-Gita and, of course, The Bible, in importance. This clearly written edition will allow many to experience The Talmud who may have otherwise not had the chance.


The "Talmud" is a collection of early Biblical discussions, with the comments of generations of teachers who devoted their lives to the study of the Scriptures. It is an encyclopædia of law, civil and penal, human and divine. It is more, however, than a mere book of laws. It records the thoughts, rather than the events, of a thousand years of the national life of the Jewish people; all their oral traditions, carefully gathered and preserved with a love devout in its trust and simplicity. Accepted as a standard study, it became endeared to the people, who, as they were forbidden to add to or diminish from the law of Moses, would not suffer this work of their Rabbis to be tampered with in any manner. As it was originally compiled it has been transmitted to us. It is a literary wilderness. At the first view, everything style, method, and language, seems tangled and confused.