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Wisdom of the Talmud  By  cover art

Wisdom of the Talmud

By: Ben Zion Bokser
Narrated by: Allen O'Reilly
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Publisher's summary

This is a highly comprehensive introduction to the Talmud, the age-old storehouse of Jewish wisdom. Bokser covers the long history of the Talmud, from its origin in the Babylonian exile, its growth through the five centuries after the Roman destruction of the Temple, and the later persecution of the Talmud. The book covers a number of high-level topics, including social ethics and personal morality, with numerous examples from the Talmud. Ben Zion Bokser was one of the major Conservative rabbis of America. He stressed the Rabbinic sages and the Talmud as the source of Judaism. "This is not an uncommon impression and one finds it sometimes among Jews as well as Christians - that Judaism is the religion of the Hebrew Bible. It is, of course, a fallacious impression. Judaism is not the religion of the Bible." Bokser affirms revelation, but revelation is always framed in humans by man. "Man receives a divine communication when the divine spirit rests on him, but man must give form to that communication."

©1951 Philosophical Library (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Wisdom of the Talmud

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    3 out of 5 stars

bad narration can ruin a book

The book is okay, but the volume is ruined by a narrator who is not familiar with the subject matter: many of the Hebrew words, surnames, places, holiday names, etc. were horribly mispronounced.

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17 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Very introductory: nice as far as it goes, but ...

I am not Jewish. However, my scholarly interests mix so often with Jewish history that some closer, focused look at it was inevitable. As a first introduction to some of the history and background, this work is satisfactory. However, I just bought an actual volume of Talmud and it is a large and complex work, not thoroughly described or demonstrated in this audio. As a legal scholar, I can now see what people are referring to with their common aphorisms about the detail of Talmudic scholarship. I guess all this indicates I am growing more scholarly, and I'm seldom satisfied with a "lite" version of anything anymore. That is not the author's fault here; I think, given the length and scope of this presentation, the author did fine work. But anyone with a serious curiosity about the Talmud might quickly survey this and move on.

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11 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Hard to follow, rapid-fire narration

There's not much of a story and the narration is so swift that it would be hard to follow even if there was. Seems like this was edited to be obscure and usable as Cliff Notes and only to those already intimately familiar with the subject. It could have been made better by the narrator taking a breath and using more inflection to decompress the dense material being covered. In short, it was a disappointment.

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9 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Excellent Text, Hebrew Pronunciation Poor

This is an exceptional text for even the lay learner of Talmud. The pronunciation of the included Hebrew terms is poor but intelligible. Don’t let the introduction throw you off of the rest.

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4 people found this helpful

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Terrible Narration!

This guy sounds like an addled half-literate with a gun to his head. He manges sentences such that even repeated listening results in no comprehensibilty. And dear lord was there not a Jew within 100 miles who could tell this poor man how to pronounce the most basic Hebrew words?!? Gaffes like "Immorality" for "Immortality" abound.
Most of the stuff is fine info for people who no nothing of the Talmud but I can't recommend it because of the really 4th rate narration.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Excellent work, poorly read.

The reader mispronounced many terms and names. He obviously had no background in the subject. Excellent work however.

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2 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Hard to follow

I was more than a little frustrated with how this reader was reading. He sounded anxious to get through the text, reading quickly, often in monotone.

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1 person found this helpful

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Interesting and well written

Interesting and well written. I didn't intend to take notes when I started, but I ended up repeatedly pressing pause and or rewind to take notes.

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1 person found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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not as complete as I would have liked

Not as complete a reading of the Talmud as i expected. Many mispronounced Hebrew words. There seem have been numerous audio edits that were not cleanly done. But informative none the less.

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1 person found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Reader is too fast

Poor choice of reader for a book with a lot of nuance wording. He made a mockery of "Deuteronomy" and every other word that is essential to understanding the culture he is reading about. He read so fast I thought I had accidentally pushed the 1.5 button on my app. Listening to him was NOT an enjoyable experience! If you really want to learn this material I suggest getting the book in paper instead of listing to him rush through and butcher it.

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