What should a goy use to study Talmud?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Continuing with my Judaism trend, what resources should a goy who cannot understand (but can read) Hebrew use to study the Talmud?

WRS

2

Assuming one does not mean to enter Rabbinical school, one buys an English translation.

I’m curious, do you know how long the Talmid is?

3

Frickin’ typos. Talmud.

4

Indeed, the Talmud is very, very long. Many volumes.

But problem is finding a good English translation of the Talmud. There’s the Mishnan, Gemara, Rashi, notes, references - is there an English edition that has all this? The closest I could find is the Artscroll Schottenstein Edition, but it seems not to incorporate all the many things that are in the Hebrew edition.

Why aren’t goyyim more interested in the Talmud? (That’s a subject for another thread, I’m sure.)

WRS

5

Why aren’t gentiles interested in the Talmud?

Probably because its in-depth commentary on a set of complex laws that don’t even apply to them.

6

Well, as one who has studied the Talmud fairly extensively, you’ve got a bit of an uphill climb. The Talmud has a steep learning curve and makes assumptions that you have the prerequisite body of knowledge which you may or may not have.

As such, if you’re just starting out, I would highly recommend that you find a study partner with more experience. The Talmud is not the type of book that you can really just pick up and read on your own for the first time.

Start with the Mishna. Don’t even bother with the Gemara for quite a while. After you have several tractates of Mishna under your belt, then start off with some of the easier Gemaras. Rashi can help you understand the meaning of the words.

If you’re looking for a quality English translation, then the Artscroll one is by far the best. The entire Hebrew/Aramaic text is there, with translation, and the footnotes often add much of Rashi’s commentary or the commentary of the other Rishonim.

But again, I would strongly urge you to find an experienced study partner.

Just out of curiosity, was there any particular area of Jewish law that you wanted to cover? And why?

Zev Steinhardt