Shas

Common designation for the Babylonian Talmud; an acronym of the Hebrew Shishah Sedarim, "Six Orders" (of the Mishnah or Talmud). According to medieval Christian opinion, the Talmud contained defamatory statements about Christianity and fortified Jewish resistance to conversion. Objecting to the word "Talmud," Christian censors appointed to check talmudic literature normally substituted the term Gemara, but in a few instances used the term Shas. The first edition of the Talmud to be censored in this fashion was that published in Basel (1578-81), which nearly all subsequent versions have followed.

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