A review by zhelana
The Essential Talmud by Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, Chaya Galai

challenging informative slow-paced

4.0

This book was a pretty good overview of the Talmud from how and why it was written down to what's actually in it to the fact that it was never considered actually complete. It talks about how the authors of the Talmud wrote so many contradicting statements and you need a teacher to actually tell you which one gets followed. It also talks about the importance of the Talmud to the Jewish people, even more so than the Bible itself you can't understand modern Judaism without understanding the Talmud. It was interesting, but the chapters didn't seem to build on themselves which left it feeling a little like I couldn't remember what I read last week when I tried to read again this week. I will say that for such an old book (published in the 1970s) it holds up remarkably well. I will say, however, that I already knew most of the information in this book and it's better for someone just converting to Judaism or who didn't receive a comprehensive Jewish education.