The Talmud and Western Civilization

The Talmud and Western Civilization
By Dylan Rothbein

When we think about the Western World today we think about the relationship between reason and revelation, with revelation coming from Moses at Sinai and could be considered the push and pull of Marx. However Western Civilization is based on Judeo-Christian values that can be traced back to the Talmud and set the stage for Western Civilization from law to the family structure to the way we conduct Judicial review and stare decisis. The Talmud is made up of 73 books I have read personally over a few months in Israel. Each section is called Sedars. Each book is a tractate. Each tractate covers things like divorce. The Talmud is made up by Rabbis and compiled in Babylon and went from animal sacrifices to prayer. This period of history is the birth of Rabbinic Judaism. As opposed to what existed before which was just biblical Judaism about the actual text of The Torah. For Instance there are Rabbinic holidays and biblical holidays. Passover is a biblical holiday and Hunukkah is a Rabbinic holiday because Passover is about Exodus. There are two Talmuds, the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud is the main Talmud that is discussed more.The group of Rabbis that wrote the Talmud are the deliberative body called the Sanhedrin. These Rabbis who brought up many different opinions, and personalities. Although there was a rivalry between the Rabbis and rivalry between the students. There was a rivalry between the schools of Hillel and Shammai. Rabbi Juda Hanasi was often in between for Hillel and Shammai and Rabbi Gamaliel. It’s important to also understand who the Rabbis were on a personal level. Rabbi Shimon is not the same person who wrote the Zohar. In the Talmud the Rabbis are distinguished by their fathers names, their name, their teacher, and where they are from. Hillel is one of the most respected, and was distinguished by “son of”. Your average page of Talmud has Rabbinic commentary on the sides and the subject of the debate is cited as they comment on a piece of text like Torah or Mishna, the Mishna being oral law from Moses. Moses received the oral law and it was not written down until the Talmud was compiled. The Talmud contains Rabbinic debates and stories from these wise men which has become the basis for Jewish law from what we pray and what we eat as Jews.

Throughout Jewish history the Talmud has been reinterpreted over generations, some people admire the Talmud and others see it loosely. These Rabbis having one interpretation or another, either way each Rabbi has added to the historiography of The Talmud. There have even been secular scholars like French scholar Montesquieu who referenced the Talmud in “The Spirit Of Laws” directly, and in America Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were both secular scholars of Talmud.

When we think about the Talmud and Western Civilization we think of democracy in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. In ancient Grease the idea that people would gather in a Amphitheater as a town square as a means of conducting business, this was influenced by the Talmud, both temples, the Temple of David and the Temple of Solomon. It was traditional during the days of the temple to read Torah on Monday and Thursday and the leaders would come to the community and check on local governance similar to Athens Greece. The Talmud among the Sanherin was decided by direct democracy like the direct democracy of Greece. In ancient Rome the Talmud had a purpose. In ancient Rome there was a huge influence of Talmud in how the city functioned. In engineering the irrigation was based on Jerusalem because of its geography as a mountain valley which is directly related to the Talmud prayers about rain on the Shemini Atzeret from the tractete of Sukkot.

When we think about the medieval era there are many schools of thought on the Talmud like Rashi in France and Ramban in Spain. Rashi was a farmer as well as Rabbi and Ramban was a doctor and Rabbi in Spain. Through understanding the role of the commentary of these great men of the history of the Talmud through the study and historiography of Rashi and Ramban. Rashi’s understanding of the Talmud has a formulation which was influential for linguistics based on his translations of French and Biblical Hebrew based on the laws in the Talmud. For instance when Rashi asked why do we cover the bread and the answer is so the bread is not left out when we do the blessing for wine. Whereas Ramban understanding of Talmud came from medicine and came from a mishneh Torah and the nature of the Talmud where he outlined the nature of the universe and connection to the body influencing his rulings. The Talmud influenced the development of ancient England because of the book of damages saying to limit the power of the King in Jerusalem so the book of damages was put on trial in England. This was revolutionary in Western Civilization because the Atheinians were the only ones with a democracy and England was the only place that limited the power of a ruler with the magna carta. One of the most pivotal moments in Western Civilization is the Protestant reformation. The Protestant reformation changed the power of the church in society and the will of the people by making the bible more available outside of the Catholic church. The Talmud also gave birth to localism and influenced the Protestant reformation through access to the rule of law which is the bible. The Talmud understood that different places had different geography and why in the diaspora the festivals are two days instead of one so the Rabbi can inform the locals. Another school of historiography of the Talmud and the bible is a new school of Jewish thought called Kabbalah. Kabbalah means “to receive” which serves as Jewish mysticism. The Talmud had a direct influence on the development of Kabbalah. Especially since the Rabbi who wrote the Zohar Moses ben Shem-Tov de Leon who wrote the Zohar right outside of Tzfat Israel next to the Galilee. When the Jews were exiled from Jersulem he went to hide, in a cave in Mout Maron with his son where he wrote the Zohar as a commentary on the Torah. The Talmud became in some ways the basis of Kabbalah in Tzfat and the two Rabbis associated with this were Rabbi Isaac Luria and Rabbi Joseph Caro. The Kabbalah Shabbat service was written by Rabbi Isaac Luria and he would dance to welcome the Sambath and the song he wrote was Dodi “my beloved” where he envisioned the welcoming of the Shabbat bride, so it is customary to stand by the door on the sabbath to welcome the bride. Rabbi Joseph Caro is most known for writing a book of Jewish law called Shulchan Aruch. The Shulchan Aruch has become the standard book of orthodox Jewish law. In the Talmud Rabbi Hillel was asked by a mother whose son was naughty to keep the son accountable so Hillel suggested the son keep his hand covered to remind him he is accountable. In the Shulchan Aruch Joseph Karo says to keep the head covered to be accountable to G-d. This is very important to Western Civilization because it is based on accountability and Hilel’s idea that the son must wear a Yarmulke.

Throughout Jewish history unfortunately people within the society where the minority is seen as questionable to exist by the majority but society is always trying to improve. In 1492 the Jewish population in Spain and Portugal got a rude awakening and were told they had to either convert to Christianity or be killed and some of them were willing to convert but practiced Judaism in secret. Other jews in Spain and Portugal decided to flee during the Spanish Inquisition and became pirates. The pirates even kept Kosher and had Rabbis on board. Others moved to Arab countries and North Africa and gave birth to Sephardic Jewish tradition. When Jewish people reached Arab countries they gave birth to Mizrahi which means “Eastern communities’ ‘ . When we think about Sephardic tradition a sample of it is the importance of linguistics where Rashi based translations off of the language he was used to, Aramaic, was the dialect used in the Babylon Talmud. During the Spanish Inquisition they took Spanish with them and this new dialect is called ladino which is a mix of Hebrew and Spanish and is particularly used by Moroccan Jews. In the Talmud there is an acknowledgement that Jewish men should wear fringes reminding them of the laws in the Torah and is based on Deuteronomy and in Sphardic Jewish tradition there were local customs to be considered. For instance in Sphardic Jewish tradition the fringes and tallit wearing does not start until age 13. In the same way that different Talmud affects communities is like when different states in the United States interpret the Constitution differently. The Muslim Golden age which inflenced Jewish people in Arab contries. Arabic became the language used in Arab Jewish communities. As far as the Muslims were concerned the Jewish people around them still had freedoms. Jewish people were still the people of the book so they were not treated as well as Muslims but were treated relatively well. In the Talmud it talks about the idea for a Jewish community and the way the Jew interacts is still the same despite adversity. Rabbi Alexander Espinoza showed a person that a Jew can be secular yet still adhere to the law. This is where secular Sephardic tradition was born and how I as a Jewish atheist can still follow the laws and adhere to the principle of “in God we trust” in the United States. There is no era that embodies Western Civilization more than the Enlightenment which was influenced by the Talmud in many ways. In “The Spirit Of Laws” Montesquieu wrote about the Talmud and John Locke wrote about the family structure in the book of Genesis and Adam Smith referenced the Talmud when talking about taxation which is part of the book of damages. Before the enlightenment there was the Talmud which was in its own right an age of reason and had an interest in the ethics of the individual. Anytime they identified a crime it was always an individual decision and actions speak louder than words which is the basis of western civilization. The mishnah says where there is no man be a man just as the enlightenment emphasized taking responsibility for your actions.

Perhaps the greatest case study on the Talmud’s influence on Western Civilization is the effect it had on the founding fathers in particular Thomas Jefferson. If we look at the first sentence of the Declaration Of Independence we see the influence of Maimonides because in the Mishneh Torah he says we are endowed with unique and inalienable talents where Thomas Jefferson got the idea from. When Thomas Jefferson was crafting his image of America and what liberty would be he looked to the Talmud for inspiration. It was Dennis Prager who said the founding fathers took inspiration from Deuteronomy more than any other book of the bible. When Thomas Jefferson was setting up the Bill Of Rights he looked to the structure of the 10 commandments and when he was setting up the court he looked at the book of damages. John Adams said it best with the Boston Massacre when he said everyone has the right to a fair trial. It says in the Talmud in damages that every person must stand trial as an individual with 3 judges and 2 witnesses and this is where the inspiration for judicial precedent in English law and the supreme court came from. When Montesquieu commented on the Talmud in “Spirit Of Laws’ ‘ he compared common law was based on the Talmud and that led to the idea of equal treatment before the law. When the idea of having an Independence day on July 4 despite the declaration being signed on July 2 was a vision of making it a holiday, Hanukkah became a holiday based on victory over the Greeks and freedom. July 4th was our first U.S holiday. In the Hunukkah story the oil was supposed to burn for 1 night and burned for 8, the same idea brings to mind the shot heard around the world. The American Revolution spearheaded an era of Revolutions, one of the most directly related to the American Revolution is the French Revolution. The French Revolution was also influenced by Montesquieu, Russo, and Voltaire. The French Revolution took inspiration from the Talmud where it says people who commit adultery must be stoned which is the same as saying “off with their heads” during the rain of terror before sending the ruling class to the guillotine. The themes that led the peasants to go against the Palace was just like the book of numbers where the Israelities rebelled against Moses because they doubted his leadership and felt he was not leading them to success and it was bloody. The French Revolution led to a bloodbath in French society but it was Exodus that led them through. In the Talmud it says women and slaves must be fed equally along with the disabled and this lead to the abolishment of the barbaric practice of slavery in “Rights Of Man and Citizen”.

The enlightenment led to the Jewish enlightenment. It gave birth to new ideas of the modern world and Jewish history. According to historian Simon Shama, Moses Mendelson had a friendship with Descartes. When we think of the Jewish enlightenment and we think of the denomians we see today of Conservitive, reform and modern Orthodox Judaism. The Conservative movement interprets that Jews should live in the modern world while conserving Jewish tradition and the Talmud should change slightly as society does.The Reform movement says that every Jewish person should interpret the Talmud in their own image as individuals. Modern Orthodox Judaism is a product of the Haskalah such that a Jew can live by the ideals of Talmud but live in the modern world and mend the world and get to appreciate G-d’s creations and be grateful. This means that the Talmud can be literal but allow people to live in the modern world, sometimes there is tension between the modern world and the Talmud but modern Orthodox has found a way to deal with this. The transition over to the modern world was not easy leading to new practices based on Talmud and the Haskalah. The reform movement was based in urban Germany like Berlin. In the pale of settlements however the modern world was rejected. These jews who lived in the shtetl made a new type of Judaism called Hasidism and the leader Ba’al Shem Tov, which means keeper of the great name as a purveyor of Jewish tradition. Hasidism said to reject the modern world to be closer to God so the tension of the 2 is between Kabbalah, the Haskalah and Hasidism which rejected Kabbalah.

Under the Russian Tsar Jewish people who lived under them were relegated to an area that included parts of Poland and Ukraine, with the biggest city being Warsaw. Although they lived in poor villages they developed their own culture and this is the birth of Eastern European Ashkenazi Judaism of which I am one of them. Ashkenazi Jews were in villages called shtetl and the Talmud was a hot topic for discussion according to Simon Shama. Although they were poor they were lively and some of the finest yeshivot were from the shtetl. Although these yeshivot were in these poor villages they had fine learning institutions in Europe as cataloged in “Yentl” with Barbara Strisand, where she goes into a mens yeshiva. In yeshiva you sit with a partner and debate the Talmud back and forth. It is in these yeshivot that debating became commonplace. If not for the Talmud there would not be so many Jewish lawyers. In these shtetl klezmer music developed along with a new language called Yiddish which is a mixture of Hebrew and German. The Talmud says that there was rich music in Jerusalem. This is where Klazmer music developed because it is the Talmud that the songs of Klazmer were based off of. For instance, when the Talmud talks about the Sabbath it talks about the importance of saying hello to the Sabbath, that’s where the opening song of sabbath came from and is “hello bread” to be grateful and to wash hands and say grace whenever you eat bread.

If it wasn’t for the Talmud we would never have abolished slavery in the US because it’s the ideals of the Talmud that gave rise to Abrahm Lincoln. Abrahm Lincoln in his endeavor to unify the country was western wisdom based in Talmud with cohesion, self governance and liberty. This is what the Talmud was about to keep the Jewish people together just like Lincoln tried to unify the US, the Talmud kept the Jews together as a nation of Israel just as Lincoln wanted to keep the union together for generations. It was Abrahm Lincoln that wanted to institute gratitude and made Thanksgiving a national holiday of the fall to be grateful for those around you because the civil war had brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor. The holiday thanksgiving is based off of Sukkot and the point is to eat in the Sukkot to remind yourself of fall harvest and agriculture. When Jewish people came back to the temple after Juda Mcabe and they started out by celebrating Sukkot. In the same way Abrahm Lincoln challenged us to be grateful in carnage and on the thanksgiving table there is a dead bird that relates to Talmud to remove the blood of the bird before you eat it to prevent suffering so there is always a chicken on the Sabbath and always a turkey on thanksgiving. The role of slavery in Talmud is questionable in regards to slavery. Jews had slaves and were slaves. When we think of Passover we know Talmud’s interpretation was to say “next year in Jerusalem” which was to say slaves would be freed in the south. In fact when we think of the Underground Railroad they talked about next year they would be free. Frederick Douglas was friends with Abrahm Lincoln for this reason. The reconstruction era after the civil war takes influence from the Talmud, the talmud talks about the idea of getting a Jew on the right path and this is what falling off the right path means. On Yom Kippur we forgive transgression like reconstruction welcomed successful states back but sometimes people must be guided to the right path but sometimes as the Talmud points out you can sometimes fail just like the radical republicans failed to pass civil rights at first. When Theordore Herzel witnessed the Dreyfus affair, he used Talmud to base his zionist dream off of. The dream of a Jewish state and how it should operate by the Talmud. The Sanhedrin who compiled the Talmud showed a guide to self governance that became the model of Israel. Herzel based it on Talmud in that Jews would be free from antisemitism and Jews taking care of their own. The Talmud sheds light on a light but the Sandhedrin was not without flaws. There was othering of certain people yet it said to hold everyone to the same standard as Dennis Prager says about the book of Deuteronomy. In the book of Leviticus there is the moral not to patronize publicly or shame people for who they are. When Sarah became a pillar of salt, it taught you not to speak ill of others. This means people should not be shamed in public and mimodies said charity should be done in private so as not to embarrass the poor. On the other hand the Talmud looks down on certain groups like intsex, deafblind and people with epilepsy who were considered a joke and this is the birth of PT Barnum and inspiration porn. PT Barnum was acting in accordance with Talmud when he had people be put on display for all to see. PT Barnum continued after displaying a slave to doing freak shows deemed unworthy and most were disabled and thought of as worthy of being mocked with is in accordance with Talmud and wellness and the Talmud frowns upon which is why the Talmud indirectly endorses PT Barnum and under Talmud some people thrived and others did not. After the French Revolution we were given the Statue of liberty as a gift. It serves western ideals because as westerners we are a country of immigrants which is in many ways a continuation of Talmud and wandering the desert that fed them. In the writings it was Ruth who after losing her husband decided to walk with her mother in law and join the Jewish people which shows the wisdom of immigration and Ellis Island to be embraced like Ruth was embraced. In the Talmud Rabbi Hillel is asked by a convert what Judaism is while standing on one foot and he responded to love thy neighbor as thyself which is what it means to embrace immigrants showing that the statue of liberty is rooted in ideals of the Talmud. The Talmud says a great deal about education and that blind people are worthy to know and be read Torah. The Talmud says not to put a block in front of a blind man. This concept could not be more apparent than between Anne Sulivin and Helen Keller. Helen Keller’s wisdom and approach was ideal according to Talmud which was to be curious and work one on one. What Helen Keller and Annie Sulivan had was a learning relationship over a lifetime to learn the wisdom of their teacher. There was no book on how to teach the disabled but Anne found a way and Talmud says education is open to all. It was Anne Sulivin who spearheaded a new tradition of what we call special education and is the mother of special education just as the Sandhedrin were fathers of Jewish education.

When the Talmud talks about agriculture it talks about a shimita year which says every 3 years Jewish farmers are commanded to leave ⅓ of corps to the poor which inspired Marx ideas of redistribution. World War 1 as pertains to the Talmud was stabbing each other in the back starting with the murder of Arch Duke Ferdinand. In the Talmud it talks about how the Sandhedrin can declare war not the king and this inspired the separation of powers. The problem with world war 1 is it violated the principle of Talmud of not gossiping, when you go behind the back of the king people die and this was done with secret treaties. The Russian Revolution also has roots in the Talmud in its ideals and a Marx age when it talks about crops going to the poor and all slaves set free and indentured servants obsolved and under Lennin they librated others from an instructional context.

So the Talmud said people who were eplieptic and blind were not allowed to bring animal sacrifices which is a form of social Darwinism based on how fit they are and this idea led to Margret Sanger because eugenics in the modern world is simply eugenics in the ancient world and an unfortunate causality of human history that some people are judged by immutable characteristic, and in the 1920s it became actively wanting to kill them. In ancient times women got taxed when they got an abortion which is the same as the US taxpayers paying for abortions at Planned Parenthood. When they complied who could bring a sacrifice they decided who was dead in society just like Margret Sanger when she invented birth control. In the same way the Rabbis felt epileptics and intersex were not valued Margret Sanger wanted people in institutions and to control who reproduced. In the time of the temple the grounds were regulated, which meant groups were regulated and removed, the Rabbis regulated just like in the 1920s with the rebirth of the KKK of which Margret Sanger was a member. The KKK worked the same way the Rabbis made sure the impure would not enter. What this meant was the KKK was taking stoning to the next level with lynching. However when case law was established it was because of the Talmud that lynching was stopped because of judicial precedent being established in the United States.

In the 1920s there was a new industry that revolutionized entertainment forever. The film industry was also in its inception influenced by Talmud. When we think of film history we think of light and shadow and we think of how during the Sabbath you can only use so much light. Therefore when it comes to film we think of light and shadow and making everyday life beautiful and make an adventure for the audience to go on which is a partnership between filmmaker and audience like that of a Rabbi and his students. It is the story arcs of the Talmud that influence visual storytelling in film. In the 1920s there was a cultural boom of sorts, in the form of literature, film and music. One of the areas of the boom was Harlem giving birth to the Harlem renaissance and Jazz that is a mix of classical and blues music. The Harlem renaissance gave birth to John Coltrain and Duke Wellington. The Talmud says the marketplace in Jerusalem was repopulated just like blacks and Jews living together in Harlem. One of the moral principles of Talmud was knowing people would move around to help the Jewish community by educating and it is these stories that turned into Ba’al Shem Tov, and this could not be more apparent than in 1920s Paris from Pablo Picasso to F Scott Fizgerald where they sculpted narratives but the narratives traced to the Talmud and F Scott Fizgerald talked about the traveler particularly when he talked about being a foreigner to France, which is the same as the story of Joseph living in a foreign land. When F Scott Fizgerald wrote “The Great Gatsby” he wrote about a prosperous it is almost as if he is writing about a Rabbi of the Talmud that is not respected.

One of the misconceptions of Talmud is how women are viewed. Women have an equal right to vote in the Talmud and have a say in society and there are some things women are not allowed to do or are not obligated to do. In the year 1920 society was changed forever when women gained the right to vote in the US. There was an acknowledgement in Talmud that women were not obligated to do certain things like pray but were obligated to keep Kosher.
Although it may seem hard to believe before Nazis commited genocide during the Weimer Republic was a cultural hub. This led to the birth of a new culture of drag. The Institute for Sexual Research was very groundbreaking for the LGBT community. In the Talmud it talks about how men should not wear a women’s garment but on Purium it is encouraged. It was blasphemy in some circumstances but not others so the drag scene was a reflection of Purium where you are drunk, just like in drag you do not know the difference between man and woman. At the Institue of Sexual Research under the leadership of Magus Hersfield there were great strides in trans health. In the Talmud it talks about caring for the body and understanding need of surgery and that some health concerns leading to death. This not only comes down to the mourners kodish but during the Kosher slaughter to prevent suffering. Magnus Hisfeld helped Lili Elbe under this same principle even though she died so trans health is linked to the Talmud. As the Talmud was concerned the highest form of patriotism is to die for the community and so this is why people handling bodies is done by people who are pure and it is customary for the body to be paraded past the synagogue. This means Lili Elbe died a hero when she died in bottom surgery and became a role model because she died for her community.
In the 1920s there was a push by Rabbi Kaplan to honor his daughter and her accomplishments so he created the first Bat Mitzvah. In the Talmud it talks about a boy becoming a man and the western world’s father’s day is the same. Rabbi Kaplan honored his daughter in the same way western society created mothers day for being a virtuous woman.

In the Torah it talks about the idea of resources for the poor so charity is a virtue particularly around the Sabbath by putting money in a sddukka box. This means there is a safety net for those in need just as the “The New Deal” provided a safety net including a safety net for the disabled when the Talmud talks about counting blind people for prayer even if they cannot pray. It was Maimodies who said disabled people only had to pray when they were able to and would not be blamed if they could not pray.
When the Nazis rose to power in Germany and excuted the final solution of slaughtering Jews you are to take care of children in the Talmud as Sheniler did so even though he was not Jewish he was following the Talmud. Although a misunderstanding arises in the form of eugenics it was that people were undesirable but were not killed. Within the protection of disabled was Has Asperger who understood high functioning autistic people were an assent to the third reich just like a most learned student of a Rabbi became his heir.

The Talmud says people should work the land of Israel which is virtuous under Torah. This is one of the core influences of the huagna and the Kibbutz movements during the British mandate. The Yogun, the right wing mitina was also influenced by the Talmud as well. In the Talmud it talks about personal responsibility and the Yogun stood up to the British by any means necessary showing the Talmud.

Israeli civics is based off of British common law and the Talmud, particularly damages when it comes to family court where Rabbis serve as judges for divorce proceedings and other questions of marriage. The Talmud also governs Israeli culture like the bus system which shuts down on Shabbat and festivals, with festivals being only 1 day in Israel.
In the 1950s a new form of music developed called rock and roll. One of these musicians was Chuck Berry who wrote a song that embodies the Talmud, the song was called “Johnny Be Good” . Now in many ways the ideals of “Johnny Be Good” is aligned with the Talmud’s ideals of becoming a man and a reaching of the age of responsibility despite not being fully mature. He can now take responsibility for this community just as in “Johnny Be Good” he becomes something which is the same idea of a Bar Mitzvah.
In the 50s there was a new literature called beat poetry based in NY and San Francisco. One of the finest heroes of the movement was a Jew named Alan Ginsberg. Alan Ginsberg was based in Talmud when he wrote Kodish a poem about his ideals of what it means to mourn and remember and he showed a respect for Talmud in public that had not been seen before. When he wrote “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness” he was following Talmud.
One of the most controversial aspects of Talmud was education which presents a similar issue to Plessy v Fergenson which created “separate but equal” As far as the Talmud was concerned women were to teach children and women were eventually attending yeshiva and the conservative Judiasim integrated both men and women together like Brown v Board of Ed did based on skin color.

In France there was a wave that we now call documentary filmmaking where they filmed everyday life in Paris. In the same way Rabbis in the Talmud spent hours discussing Torah, French filmmakers put a camera on and let people rant about anything and everything.
There was a new Jewish writer that came up in the 50s who influenced right wing politics forever, her name was Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand’s libertarianism was influenced by the Talmud. In the Talmud it talks about the idea of making the strongest leader because people must be proud of their actions and accomplishments. This is what Ayn Rand meant by “self made” as the Talmud expects us to be stewards of society. In the late 50s which led into the 60s folk revival had roots in the Talmud. A lot of the songs of the folk revival were based on Klazmer music and therefore Talmud. The ideal was to sing the songs of yesterday to help with tomorrow. There were the weavers who were implicated like Pete Seeger who was investigated by “House Of UnAmerican activities’ ‘ and labeled him a communist. A lot of Pete Seegar’s work was based in Talmud like “Turn, Turn Turn” based in Ecclesiastes.

The public school system taught patriotism by using “The Pledge Of Allegiance.” which is based in Talmud and the repetition of the shma which serves as the Jewish The Pledge Of Allegiance which talks about the sanctification of monotheism.
The civil rights movement in the early 60s comes directly out of the Talmud in a few ways. Within the friendship of Heschel and MLK. The Talmud’s influence is all over the civil rights movements because a leader is meant to sacrifice and the point of a prophet is to lead to a just outcome. The idea of prophets as intermediaries is like the fight for the right to vote and led Martin Luther King and Heschel to lock arms for freedom because even in dark Prophecies of Jerimiah there was the idea of order after chaos and the Isiah said may blood cease, may nation leave sword against nation so we don’t see war anymore, which is the basis of the phrase “we shall overcome’’. This is also why during the Underground Railroad Harriet Tubman was seen as the black Moses.

The Talmud influenced music of the civil rights movement. Bob Dylan talked about his Jewish ideals in songs like “Highway 61” where he talks about Abrahm scacrficing Issac and talked about God doing justice to suffering including those who died in the Holocaust “in gas chambers they fried” he wrote in “God on your side”.

During the 60s a rivalry developed between 2 fine Rabbis Rabbi Kaplan and Rabbi Heschel leading to Kaplan being ousted from the Jewish theological seminary where he was serving as a modern Orthodox Rabbi. At this point Rabbi Kaplan started thinking about new ways of interpreting Torah and Talmud and wrote the book “Judaism as a Civilization” which was considered Blasphemy by the seminary and Heshel in particular. Mordiaci Kaplan thought of ideas behind “Judaism as a Civilization” as self governance in the Talmud and the ancient Jewish marketplace became the JCC movement. The Talmud had an influence on the hippie movement which led to the Jewish catalog and a lot of hippies became Hasdic and followed kabbalah which led to a rival of Kabbalah in the 1960s. Many people became Hasidic after Acid trips. The hippie movement influenced the opening of yeshivot. When CarleBach founded the House of love and prayer in San Francisco and Tzfat. When he was asked about a hippie yeshiva he said “the hippies can learn a lot from you but what can you learn from the hippies’ ‘? The Talmud had a profound effect on civil rights because Jewish people died for civil rights. These boys died based on ideals of the Talmud to give their lives for civil rights because the Talmud says that everyone should have a right to vote and the king’s power is not absolute which is why women had a right to vote and blind people were counted in a service leading to civil rights.
One of the most unfortunate miscarriages of justice is the murder of a baby in the womb which is an issue that comes up in the Talmud a lot. The issue of when life begins and viability is discussed in Talmud with 40 days being viability and in medical literature it is 24 weeks. According to Rashi 40 days is when the head develops. On the other hand, in the 10 commandments is thou shall not kill is making murdering a baby killing a creature in the image of God. When Moses says “let my people go” he also says let babies exit the womb alive. Abortion is a disrespect for the Rabbis who took the time to write the Talmud every time a woman kills her child.

In the Mishneh it talks about the idea that when a lead cohen is to lead the service he is allowed to get help to read the text which led to the culmination for the Education for All Hanicapped Children Act and the idea of least restrictive environment in education.

In the late 70s there were debates in the norms of the Talmud over family values between Anita Bryant and Harvy Milk over gays being school teachers and issues of housing. As far as the Talmud is concerned along with Torah marriage is between man and woman and practice these values at home and in business. The question is, is school a business and if yes what values are taught? Homosexuality was not as publically accepted so Anita Bryant argued that certain values be taught in both school and at home, just as a Jewish mother passes Jewish values to her children.

When we think of Jewish history we think of how the community is defined. In the 80s there was a growing Ethiopian Jewish population. It is taught spiritually that King Solomon and Queen Sheba are who Ethiopian Jews are descended from. The Ethiopian Jews did not have access to Rabbinic Judaism until they came to Israel and what makes them interesting is their journey being aligned with Talmud and working on the land. Not only was there a push for Ethiopians but a push for soviet Jews to come to Israel and give them Jewish objects that Dennis Prager was involved in. These gifts from Dennis Prager were the highest form of Talmud because the greatest gift is to know the law.

In the 80s there was the rise of the religious right that talked about morality. This ultimately spearheaded the pro life movement and praying for babies in the womb in front of Planned Parenthood locations. In the Talmud it talks about the best way to honor someone is to pray at their grave each year in the same way it became commonplace for people to pray where babies were being killed in abortion clinics. In the book of Leviticus it talks about taxation in the desert and the half shekel maintaining the tabernacle. In the 1980s Coke ran as the libertain tickets VP and supported a flat tax as the Torah does. In the 1980s this led to Regan cutting taxes allowing the free market to thrive. This was an idea of the flat tax being fair and is aligned with Milton Friedman’s ideas of there being no free lunch because like how we pay to fill pot howls and someone needed to take care of the Tabernacle without one person paying extra money for another. In the 80s women entered the workplace more and women wanted male jobs and this was what led to women Rabbis and the Jewish Theological seminary becoming egalitarian.
In 1986 when Kaplan died his son in law founded the reconstructionist Rabbinical College. The reconstructionist Rabbinical College was founded on ideals of Talmud and that it can exist culturally in the Jewish world.

In 1990 there was a great victory for liberty in the US for the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act which would have never happened without the leadership of Judith Heuman who was Jewish and from Brooklyn, who led one of the most legendary protests in American History, the capital crawl which would not have been possible without the Talmud because the Talmud says to keep power in check and if the king overstepped the Sandhedrin must act, just as disabled people acted and just like Jacob and his ladder with his wrestle with God. It was the tower of babel where people learned not to question God because God killed them for trying to reach his level. It was these ideals that made the capitol crawl in accordance with the Talmud that says the individual always has a right to be heard as stated in damages.
The defense of marriage act was passed and in accordance with the Talmud. The Talmud defines marriage as between a man and a woman and the upholding of marriage is vital to American society and the nuclear family which talks about men growing into fathers in damages and women growing into mothers in “be fruitful and multiply” and the defense of marriage act allows for this.

Unfortunately in the late 20th and 21st centuries there was the idea of sterilizing children to make them happy but the Talmud says the parents are not just to make them happy but to make them members of a community as we see with circumcision when a boy receives the mark of Abraham. This means when a parent advocates to have the child go through bottom surgery they are undermining the Abraham mark even though the person is still Jewish through their mother. In the case of cross sex hormones it makes it hard for the child to live by the Talmud, and makes it hard for the kid to live by certain ideals when you convenience a girl she’s a man you rob her of children and the young male misses out on leading a family as a strong figure. This is why no child can receive cross sex hormones.

One of the most complicated aspects of Talmud is sexual relations. One of the most complicated questions is gay people and how it relates to marriage. The reason marriage came up and is complicated is not because of being gay in itself but the fact that 2 gay men cannot reproduce because its biologically not possible, its it is important for the community to reproduce as so many were slaughtered and the Jews in Israel there is a draft much to my dismay for Israel to defend itself. I’m a pacifist, but I understand the logic of increasing the birth rate. Having said this although gay men cannot mutiply it is still important for them to have a say in the next generation via adoption which is still virtuous under Talmud. This is why although gay marriage breaks Talmud law they still uphold other values and can still be seen as part of society though equal protection. This is why the Talmud can be open to gay marriage if it is a rule of law, and the Talmud acknowledges gays are made in the image of God as individuals, not as couples.
One of the most common issues is women at the western wall regarding chanting Torah. In the times of the temple women were not allowed to engage with holy of holies but women were not 2nd class citizens despite separate roles. This means that women could not chant but prayers would be heard. The Talmud talks about equal protections under the law when it talks about marriage and the power of women to divorce which is the basis of divorce law. The rule of law is the rule of law so a women’s individual decision to pray at the wall happened in the late 1990s which mirrors the 14th Amendment to the constitution and the ideals of Lincoln, that he died for.

Starting in the late 80s there was a school of thought now called “woke-ness” and the question is can the Talmud be resilient in the face of wokeness. Progressive Judaism whether it be Conservative, reform and reconstructionist has become one, turning into social justice becoming an ideal of Judaism and has infiltrated non orthodox learning institutions and has therefore moved away from the Talmud putting identity and politics over everything. Not all Jews are on the left although many are and their Judaism does not factor into whether they should help illegal immigrants and Black Lives Matter. The Talmud in the face of wokeness is the rebirth of orthodoxy, with conservative becoming the same as reform with flanting excess. The question is how much should the Talmud be conserved? Orthodoxy is the most diverse form of Judaism with many different economic classes whereas reform is mostly middle class and filled with progressivism and left wing politics and the Haskalah is abandoned, this means reform and Hasidism is similar because the reform now rejects the Haskalah having a long history whether it be the use of organs in a service or having a choir and some reform Jews celebrate Christmas. The resilience of the Talmud is about conserving it for the next generation through study of Talmud because the Talmud is the wisdom of the past.

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