The History of Judaism and Its Corruption: Pt. 2--Supplement--The Talmud Share

This is apparently a very controversial subject to Jews, as it was the first of my videos to be false-flagged to extinction. I did not write it to be offensive, however. I thought Jews would find it rather boring.
This video is a supplement to the series, meant to explain background about the Talmud that the other articles assume the reader knows. These things are common knowledge to the student of Talmud but which those with only a casual understanding of the Talmud may not be aware.
There are two Talmuds, the Babylonian (Bavli) and Jerusalem (Yerushalmai) Talmuds, but the one referred to without qualification as the Talmud, and the one meant by the rest of this article, is the Babylonian Talmud. The Talmud is not one book, but consists of sections called tractates. Each tractate has a name (eg Berakhot, Sanhedrin, Ketuboth, etc.). To find a give quote, you also need the page number an letter, eg. 59a. The letter will be either an "a" or a "b" signifying which side of the page the given quote is on. On copies of the Talmud with translation, such as those published by Artscroll, the page number will not match the page number on the physical book; however, it will be provided. The Talmud is claimed to be the written version of the "oral Torah", an "addendum" as it were, because the Torah does not explain itself enough.
Although there is some basis for the belief that there was some explanation of certain things said in the Torah that wasn't written down, the Talmud became much more than a mere explanation of the Torah or tradition in practical Jewish life. The Talmud today stands as a single-handed guide to Jewish religious life. If the Talmud forbids something the Torah permits, it is considered forbidden; if it permits something the Torah forbids, it is permitted.
To understand the Talmud, one must understand the background of the Talmud. Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), explains what became the basis for the writing of the Talmud: "1:1. Moses received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua; Joshua to the elders; the elders to the prophets; and the prophets handed it down to the men of the Great Assembly." The Great Assembly is commonly known today as the Sanhedrin. Rabbi Yehuda haNasi compiled the Mishna, the first collection of the rulings of the men of the Great Assembly. The Talmud is a combination of the Jewish sages' teachings from four periods:

* Tanaim: ~70-200 CE

* Amoraim: ~200-500 CE

* Savoraim: ~500-700 CE

* Geonim: ~600-1040 CE

Often there are discussions in the Talmud in which a quote from a rabbi from one era is followed or preceded by a quote from a rabbi of a different era. The reason for these apparent cross-era "discussions" is that the latter era re-visited a topic discussed by a previous era. Each period realized more authority in the homes of Jews. Today, it is common to meet Jews who have studied Talmud for years and can explain complex Talmudic debates, but have never read the entire Tanakh. It is also common to find households that have expended large amounts of money to buy entire sets of Talmud and Mishna but do not have a single Tanakh. The Talmud itself warns: "In the future, the Torah will be forgotten by the Jewish people." (Shabbos 138b).