The Talmud
Historical - this post describes the Talmud as it was historically and describes it mechanically for Ars Magica.
The Talmud is a central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of halakha and rabbinic thought.
The term refers to one of two collections of writings. By default it refers to the Babylonian Talmud compiled around the year 500. There is also an earlier collection known as the Jerusalem Talmud, which overlaps with the Bavli in places but also contains novel material.
The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah, a written compendium of the Oral Torah; and the Gemara, an elucidation of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Hebrew Bible. Not every part of the Mischa has Gemara, and these parts are not included in the Talmud. Modern Talmud editions also include later rabbinic commentaries, but many of those do not exist in 1220 and those that do are not included with the text in the standardized way that the printing press has allowed.
The entire Talmud consists of 63 tractates. It contains the teachings and opinions of hundreds of rabbis on a variety of subjects, including halakha, Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, and folklore, and many other topics. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law and is widely quoted in rabbinic literature. Because it is written in both Mishnaic Hebrew and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic a student of the Talmud must have a Dead Language score of 4 in both Hebrew and Aramaic.
ROPD described the Talmud mechanically in a way that does not match up well with the text. Its description better matches studying the Mishnah alone. I recommend considering ROPD’s version of the “Talmud” to actually be the Mischna, and to use the Talmud I describe below in your campaign. ROPD’s Mischna is 18 tractati in total, six each in Theology: Judaism, Rabbinical Law, and Judaic Lore. Each has a Quality of 8.
The updated Talmud is three Summae in the same collection. The Talmud is very large; it costs 6 Mythic Pounds, twice the standard rate. If purchased as a covenant resource it costs the standard amount of build points. The three Summae are Theology: Judaism Level 9 Quality 4, Rabbinical Law Level 9 Quality 4, Judaic Lore Level 9 Quality 4. In this way the Talmud can be studied for a lifetime, as it was historically, but it's not a particularly useful source without its commentaries.
The core commentaries on the Talmud that exist in 1220 are Rashi and the Tosafot. Rashi was the first commentator to extensively annotate the Talmud. He wrote his commentaries in the 11th century. He focuses on defining difficult to understand words and explaining difficult phrasings, explaining the peshat, the plain meaning of the text.
The Tosafot are a school of scholars in Northern France and Germany descended from Rashi. They are currently working in 1220, and have been for one hundred years. Each Tosafist.has his own style and insight, but in general they go beyond the plain meaning, expanding a single passage with reference to entirely different parts of the Talmud, into allegorical theology, or into matters of halakah which may seem unrelated. The work of the Tosafists is ongoing and there is no single definitive.text, only a collection of Tosafists.commentaries that are copied and passed among the schools of Mythic Europe. The commentaries collectively are also referred to as Tosafot.
Rashi’s commentary on the Talmud can often be found physically on the text itself and is considered a gloss (COV5 page 91). A Talmud with this text costs an additional mythic pound. Rashi’s commentary increases the Quality of each Summa by 2 to 6.
The only compiled Tosafot commentary in 1220 is the Tosafot of Sens, which has only recently been codified by its author Rabbi Samson sen Abraham of Sens. Mechanically it is a commentary on Talmud that can only be read if you have already studied a copy of the Talmud with Rashi’s commentary. There are three Tractates, each with Quality 9. See COV5 page 90 for the rules on commentaries.
The active work of the Tosafists is represented by any number of compilations of correspondences. These may be actual letters between Jewish communities, compiled into a bound correspondence with Quality 4 dealing with a variety of Abilities. Someone who is already a skilled scholar of Jewish topics may be able to initiate a correspondence with a Tosafist, and thereby gain an experience point a season (See COV5 page 90) It must be left to later authors to codify and redact this work into a more useful set of Tosafot such as we have today.
Far more common than any written product of the Tosafists is their work in the beit midrash, the house of study. Any character who is recognized as Jewish by the community (and likely has the Outsider flaw for the rest of Mythic Europe) can study at a beit midrash of one of the Tosafist schools. There are schools in many towns of the Normandy Tribunal, most notably Sens, Evreux, Touques, and Paris. A student needs a score of 4 in Aramaic and Hebrew, and a score of 1 in Artes Liberales to be able to participate in a beit midrash. Students without those skills will be taught them. Characters spend two seasons a year at the beit midrash, and two seasons working to support themselves, modified as usual for being Poor or Wealthy. The beit midrash uses the Teaching rules (ARM5 page 164) and a typical teacher will have Communication 1 and Teaching 5 so students will gain 9 experience a season.
A beit midrash will take a student of any age, but for a typical Jewish child Torah study, which is really study in ancient languages, begins at age 5. Mishna study begins at age 10, followed by Talmud study at age 15. This corresponds with the Mischna’s guidelines:
At five years of age the study of Scripture;
At ten the study of Mishnah;
At thirteen subject to the commandments;
At fifteen the study of Talmud;
At eighteen the bridal canopy;
At twenty for pursuit [of livelihood];
At thirty the peak of strength;
At forty wisdom;
At fifty able to give counsel;
At sixty old age;
At seventy fullness of years;
At eighty the age of “strength”;
At ninety a bent body;
At one hundred, as good as dead and gone completely out of the world.
Story Seed - Wayward Commentary
A disheveled Redcap arrives at the covenant in a rush. Maria is the sort of Redcap who is always running a few days late, but this time it’s worse than normal. She quickly drops off the covenant’s correspondence, and explains she needs to run because she has a pressing letter that must reach a powerful covenant in the Tribunal. She asks a favor of the covenant - she is carrying a package to a certain Simon in a nearby town. Would the covenant mind completing the delivery? It turns out Simon is a local Rabbi, and the package contains correspondence from the noted Tosafist Samson ben Abraham of Sens. How is Rabbi Simon going to react when a wizard shows up at his doorstep? And why is a Redcap carrying Jewish mail?