Why the Talmud Develops a Taxonomy of Legal Damages

Literary critic Adam Kirsch is reading a page of Talmud a day, along with Jews around the world.

The Babylonian Talmud is composed of six large divisions, known as Sedarim or “Orders.” At the beginning of June, Daf Yomi readers reached a milestone when we began the fourth of the Talmud’s orders, Seder Nezikin, starting with Tractate Bava Kamma. The word nezikin means “damages,” and this seder covers all situations in which one person damages another—which is to say, almost all the reasons why one Jew would bring another Jew to court. This makes it significantly different from the two complete sedarim we have already completed—Moed, which deals with Jewish holy days, and Nashim, which covers marriage and divorce. (The first order, Zeraim or “Seeds,” has only one tractate of Gemara—Berachot, with which the whole Daf Yomi cycle began.)

Continue reading "Why the Talmud Develops a Taxonomy of Legal Damages" at...