His Biblical commentaries are held in
high esteem.
Concerning Rashi and Ibn Ezra see also chap. XI, pp.206-7,
and chap. XII, p.220.
94 At this point I think it well to give once for all a summing
up of Talmudic literature. The Talmud is the united mass of
the documents and texts of the oral law. It comprises the
Mishnah and the Gemara, the latter being called also Talmud.
The Mishnah, a collection in six parts and forty-nine
treatises, is the work of numerous generations of scholars.
Its final redaction (setting aside somewhat later additions)
was made by Judah the Saint, or Rabbi (about 150-210). The
texts not incorporated by Rabbi are called Baraitas. The
Gemara is the commentary and the development of the Mishnab,
which it follows step by step, in discussing it and
completing its statements. There are two Gemara collections:
one elaborated in Palestine under the influence of R. Johanan
(199-279) and terminated toward the end of the fourth
century, which Is called the Palestinian or Jerusalem Talmud;
the other drawn up in Babylonia under the influence of Rab
and of Samuel (third century), and brought to a conclusion
about 500 through the initiative of R. Ashi and his
disciples; this Is called the Babylonian Talmud. The latter
covers the greater part of the Mishnah. It is by far the
more important of the two Talmuds from the juridic point of
view, and it is the one that has been the chief subject of
studies and commentaries.
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