Richard Kalmin’s Migrating Tales

The babylonian Talmud, or the talmud we study today is made up mostly of the Mishna and Gamara. The Mishna is oral law once written down by Yehuda Hanaci, and once it is written down, it is set in stone. The Gamara follows three main guidelines: it states logic and opinion, brings in other teachings and text and uses stories to explain itself. Also in the Talmud is the Rashi commentary, which is commentary used to explain the logic behind the talmud and help understand it. The Mishna and Gamara are in the center of the Talmud page so they are least likely to get destroyed. The article I read talks about a book, Migrating Tales by Richard Kalmin and contains evidence of all parts of the Talmud’s creation. It shows that it is very impressive the Jews did not assimilate while living among so much roman culture and influence. To me, this proves the importance the Babylonian Talmud had on the Jews, as its teachings allowed us to remain strongly Jewish. 

http://marginalia.lareviewofbooks.org/here-there-and-everywhere-by-amit-gvaryahu/