Chapter 10 - The Talmud in Early Modernity

Summary

During the manuscript age, the Talmud belonged to the scholarly few. But with the invention of the printing press in the early sixteenth century, Jewish life, and the place of the Talmud within it, changed forever. With abundant new printed volumes available, yeshivahs grew and Talmud study flourished, making the status of “Talmud scholar” open to larger numbers of Jewish males and transforming the values of Jewish society forever. Religious Jewish life for men came to be devoted to Talmud study as never before, and the most esteemed citizen was the greatest scholar. This valorization of Talmud provoked reaction, but even when early Hasidim sought to promulgate a populism that was open to all, the terms of their reaction were shaped by the Talmud. While printing propelled these dynamics in Jewish society, it made the Talmud available to Christians, who could now learn Hebrew and Aramaic from polyglot Bibles. Christians could gain greater understanding of Jesus’ Jewishness, while being reminded of some of the hateful things the rabbis said about Jesus. Due to the latter, the Talmud was burned or censored, though it was also prized by some as a compendium of Jewish wisdom and practice.