From the Hebrew lamad, to learn, the Talmud is the name of the great code of Jewish civil and canonical law. It is divided into two portions—the Mishna and the Gemara; the former constitutes the text and the latter is a commentary and supplement. But besides being the basis of a legal code, it is also a collection of Jewish poetry and legend.

The Mishna is a development of the laws contained in the Pentateuch. It is divided into six sedarim or orders, each containing a number of tractates, which are again divided into peraqim or chapters. The sedarim are:

(1) Zeraim, which deals with agriculture;

(2)Moed, with festivals and sacrifices;

(3) Nashim, with the law regarding women;

(4) Nezaqin, with civil law;

(5) Qodashim, with the sacrificial law; and

(6) Tohoroth or Tah, with purifications.

The Mishna is said to have been handed down by Ezra and to be in part the work of Joshua, David, or Solomon, and originally communicated orally by the Deity in the time of Moses.

There are two recensions—the Talmud of Jerusalem and the Talmud of Babylon. The latter, besides the sedarim already mentioned, contains seven additional treatises that are regarded as extra-canonical. The first is supposed to have been finally edited toward the close of the fourth century, and the second by Rabbi Ashi, president of the Academy of Syro in Babylon, sometime in the fourth century. Although revised from time to time before then, both versions have been greatly affected through the interpolation of traditions, and reinterpretations in the light of rabbinical discussions. The rabbinical decisions in the Mishna are entitled helacoth and the traditional narratives haggadah.

The cosmogony of the Talmud assumes that the universe has been developed by means of a series of cataclysms—world after world was destroyed until the Creator made the present earth. E. Deutsch, commenting on the Talmuc in the Quarterly Review,(1867) noted: "The how of the creation was not mere matter of speculation. The co-operation of angels, whose existence was warranted by Scripture, and a whole hierarchy of whom had been built up under Persian influences, was distinctly denied. In a discussion about the day of their creation, it is agreed on all hands that there were no angels at first, lest men might say, 'Michael spanned out the firmament on the south, and Gabriel to the north.' There is a distinct foreshadowing of the Gnostic Demiurgos—that antique link between the Divine Spirit and the world of matter—to be found in the Talmud. What with Plato were the Ideas, with Philo the Logos, with the Kabalists the 'World of Aziluth,' what the Gnostics called more emphatically the wisdom (sophi), or power (dunamis), and Plotinus the nous, that the Talmudical authors call Metation.

"There is a good deal, in the post-captivity Talmud, about the Angels, borrowed from the Persian. The Archangels or Angelic princes are seven in number, and their Hebrew names and functions correspond almost exactly to those of their Persian prototypes. There are also hosts of ministering angels, the Persian Yazatas, whose functions, besides that of being messengers, were two-fold—to praise God and to be guardians of man. In their first capacity they are daily created by God's breath out of a stream of fire that rolls its waves under the supernal throne. In their second, two of them accompany every man, and for every new good deed man acquires a new guardian angel, who always watches over his steps. When a righteous man dies, three hosts of angels descend from the celestial battlements to meet him. One says (in the words of Scripture), 'He shall go in peace;' the second takes up the strain and says, 'Who has walked in righteousness;' and the third concludes, 'Let him come in peace and rest upon his bed.' In like manner, when the wicked man passes away, three hosts of wicked angels are ready to escort him, but their address is not couched in any spirit of consolation or encouragement."

The Talmud is the supreme repository of Jewish moral and spiritual law; it also enshrines a wealth of historical, geographical, philosophical, and poetical traditions. It is one of the great documents of human history and the central focus of Jewish law.

It has been considered by some authorities that a great many of the traditional tales in the Talmud have a magical basis, and that magical secrets are contained in them, but this depends entirely upon the interpretation put upon them, and the subject is one which necessitates close study. An English translation of the Jerusalem Talmud was published in 1871, and of the Babylonian Talmud (35 vols.), 1935-52.