Back at Columbia: The Academic Study of Talmud

Editors’ Note: When we founded TheTorah.com, we had a broad concept of the Torah, which went beyond Torah as the Pentateuch, or even the Hebrew Bible. Up to now, most of our posts have dealt with the Torah as Pentateuch, with some forays into Nevi’im and Ketuvim, but only a small handful of pieces have dealt with rabbinic literature. Nevertheless, for us, and many of our readers, Torah is broader than just the Bible. As a way of signaling that we will be broadening the coverage on our website, we are very pleased to include this story by the journalist, author, and professor of journalism, Ari L. Goldman, on his experience attending a class on the critical study of the Talmud. You–our readers–will certainly appreciate the similarities and differences presented by the critical study of the Bible, especially the Torah, and the critical study of the Talmud.