Jews: How important is the Talmudic teachings in Judaism?

[PerpetualTraveler]

i dont have the actual Talmud but i have a pretty good book that covers many of it's core teachings, written by a jewish rabbi in the early 20th century.
To EddieJ: Are you Hal Roach? Did u make a new account?

To First Answer: You sure it was from Babylonian Talmud? What does that have to do with Judaism? Or unless you mean Jews exiled in Babylonia?

 

[Aravah]

answer: perhaps Othelzer should actually learn about Judaism before spouting off nonsense.

Talmud - look at it this way. The Torah is the laws. The Talmud are the Supreme Court decisions, arguments and disagreements on those laws.

The laws can stand without the decisions but is much richer with the clarifications, debates, arguments and musings of the Jewish sages on the Torah written in the Talmud.

 

[Rachel]

Aravah wasn't completely correct in their explanation of the Talmud. It does include the discussions and musings over the laws but it also includes its own information itself. The Tanach is the written part of the Torah and the Talmud is part of the Torah which once was oral but eventually got written down. It's also basically impossible for one book to cover all the Talmud's core teachings, because there is quite a lot of information in the Talmud. So don't count on the book being able to give you the "low down" or summary just without the details. The Talmud IS details, really.

But to answer your question, the Talmud is extremely important in Judaism. It would literally not be Judaism without it, because it's Torah.

In response to your additional details: The Jews were exiled for a period of time in Babylon, which is where the Babylonian Talmud was written. Not to say that anything the first answerer said about it was true. There is also a Jerusalem Talmud (which was written in Jerusalem, go figure

 

[othelzer]

NOT AT ALL IMPORTANT OUTSIDE JUDAEISM

talmudic teachings flow from the babylonian talmud, an occult legal interpritation of spiritual laws
and as such has no place in our lives as jews or christians

study torah study TaNaKh
it is enough

 

[ami]

Judaism wouldn't be Judaism without the Tanakh and the Talmud. The Talmud is a compilation of the Mishnah, which is the Oral Torah, and the Gemara, which are rabbinical commentaries on the Mishnah. Together they provide the halakha (Jewish law) which Jews follow in daily life.

EDIT: There's nothing "occult" about either the Babylonian Talmud or the Jerusalem Talmud. They are simply compilations of oral teachings which, according to traditional Judaism, Moses received along with the Written Torah at Mt. Sinai.