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Talmud
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===Comparison=== Unlike the Western Aramaic dialect of the Jerusalem Talmud, the Babylonian Talmud has a Babylonian Aramaic dialect. The Jerusalem is also more fragmentary (and difficult to read) due to a less complete [[Redaction criticism|redactional process]].<ref name="AZexile">{{cite book |author=AM Gray |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/75475 |title=Talmud in Exile: The Influence of Yerushalmi Avodah Zarah |publisher=Brown Judaic Studies |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-93067-523-0}}</ref> Discussions in the Babylonian Talmud are more discursive, rambling, rely more on anecdote and argumentation by syllogism and [[Inductive reasoning|induction]], whereas those in the Jerusalem Talmud are more factual and apply argumentation through logical [[Deductive reasoning|deduction]]. The Babylonian Talmud is much longer, with about 2.5 million words in total. Proportionally, more Babylonian material is non-legal (''[[aggadah]]''), constituting a third of its material, compared to a sixth of the Jerusalem.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last1=Pasachoff |first1=Naomi E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z4eaj09hscAC&dq=influence+of+the+jerusalem+talmud+on+the+babylonian+talmud&pg=PA110 |title=A concise history of the Jewish people |last2=Littman |first2=Robert J. |date=2005 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-4366-9 |location=Lanham, Md. |pages=110}}</ref> The Babylonian Talmud has received significantly more interest and coverage from commentators.<ref name=JVLTalJ>[[Encyclopaedia Judaica]] {{citation |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/talmud-jerusalem |publisher=[[Gale (publisher)|Gale]] |title=Bavli and Yerushalmi β Similarities and Differences}}</ref> [[Maimonides]] drew influence from both Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, although he favored the latter over the former when principles between them conflicted.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OX25O1Zqj7gC&dq=maimonides+deference+to+the+babylonian+talmud&pg=RA1-PA77 |title=Windows onto Jewish Legal Culture: Fourteen Exploratory Essays |date=2024 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-50049-4 |editor-last=Ben-Menahem |editor-first=Hanina |edition= |location= |pages=77 |editor-last2=Edrei |editor-first2=Arye |editor-last3=Hecht |editor-first3=Neil S.}}</ref> As the Palestinian Jewish community declined in influence and the Babylonian community became the intellectual center of the Diaspora, the Babylonian Talmud became the more widely accepted and popular version.<ref name=":3" /> Whereas the Jerusalem Talmud only includes the opinions of Israelite rabbis (the ''Ma'arava''), the Babylonian Talmud also includes Babylonian authorities, in addition to later authorities because of its later date. As such, it is regarded as more comprehensive.<ref>{{citation |title=Judaism: The Oral Law -Talmud & Mishna |website=[[Jewish Virtual Library]] |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-oral-law-talmud-and-mishna}}</ref><ref>{{citation |author=Joseph Telushkin |title=Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History |date=26 April 1991 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=0-68808-506-7}}</ref> Neither covers the entire Mishnah. For example, the Babylonian commentary only covers 37 of 63 Mishnaic tractates. In particular: * The Jerusalem Talmud covers all the tractates of [[Zeraim]], while the Babylonian Talmud covers only tractate [[Berakhot (tractate)|Berachot]]. This might be because the agricultural concerns of Zeraim were not as notable in Babylonia.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Essential Talmud |last=Steinsaltz |first=Adin |author-link=Adin Steinsaltz |isbn=978-0-465-02063-8 |year=1976 |publisher=BasicBooks, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers}}{{page needed|date=November 2019}}</ref> As the Jerusalem Talmud was produced in the Land of Israel, it consequently has a greater interest in Israelite geography. * Unlike the Babylonian Talmud, the Jerusalem Talmud does not cover the Mishnaic [[Kodashim]], which deals with sacrificial rites and laws pertaining to the [[Second Temple|Temple]]. A good explanation for this is not available, although there is some evidence that a now-lost commentary on this text once existed in the Jerusalem Talmud. * In both Talmuds, only one tractate of [[Tohorot]] (ritual purity laws) is examined, that of the menstrual laws ([[Niddah]]).
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