Talmud With Trainning Wheels

Innovative Approach, Innovative Design

Talmud With Training Wheels is not so much a curriculum as a text resource. It is built out of a series of technologies that makes Talmud easier to study and much easier to teach. The text is translated as a script, helping the ancient dialogue to emerge. Every historical layer is present in a different font, so immediately you know if something comes from the Bible, from the time of the Mishnah, if it comes the time of the Gemara, or if it is a medieval commentary. Every speaker in the text is identified with a biography. But most importantly, the translation and notes make the flow of dialogue easy to follow and easy to enter. This is all then wrapped in case studies, texts for hevruta study and explanatory essays.

Talmud With Training Wheels is undoubtedly the best way available for people to make their way into the study of Talmud. The volumes... make [Talmud] come alive with motivating cases at the beginning, with a format that presents the Talmudic material as lively debates that matter to us too, and with plenty of analogies to modern life.

Rabbi Elliot Dorff, Rector and Distinguished
Professor of Philosophy,
University of Judaism

What the uninitiated student needs... is not merely a translation but a road map to this unchartered territory, which is what Joel Grishaver's Talmud with Training Wheels provides. That he does it with such acute sensitivity is no surprise. For decades, Joel has been mapping classical Jewish texts for this audience with unparalleled success.

Dr. Neil Gillman, Professor and Chair,
Department of Jewish Philosophy,
Jewish Theological Seminary of America

An Absolute Beginners Guide:

 Meet the Talmud. Learn about the history, topography, context, and process of Talmud. This is a completely original approach to Talmud, built out of images, metaphors, and examples. It allows new learners to enter the world of Talmud and learn to use "the language of Talmud." It gets them ready to enter the text. This is zero-to-Talmud in 48 pages.

$14.95 

Courtyards & Classrooms -
Bava Batra 20b-22a:

This Talmudic dialogue weaves together two themes: (1) The history of Jewish Education and (2) the ethical limits placed on fair competition in business.

$14.95 

Meet the Evil Urge 
Sukkah 51b-53b

This discussion starts with a tour of the Temple during the Sukkot celebrations. Out of this festival comes a discussion of the Yetzer ha-Ra, the evil urge. Included with the Talmudic text is a collection of "Hevruta" texts about the Yetzer ha-Ra; Mishkin: Making a Dwelling Place for God by Rabbi Mordecai Finley, and a word about the evil inclination by David Hozel. This volume adds up to a deep understanding of how Judaism understands and recommends resisting temptation.

$11.95 

The Power of Shame  Available Summer 2006
Bava Metzia 58b-59b

This Sugia sits in the middle of a series of passages about monetary fraud. The Talmud pauses to talk about how words (and actions) have the power to shame. Here are the foundational texts for discussions of Shmirat ha-Lashon, the ethics of speech.

$11.95