For five generations of the Talmudic era, the
great Sages of the Land of Israel flourished
in the Galil. There, like the Sages of Babylonia,
they debated, expounded, and applied the laws
and principles of the Mishnah that were received
at Sinai .The sacred learning of those years
was gathered in the Talmud Yerushalmi ù The
Jerusalem Tamud.
They lived with Roman pogroms and persecution ù but the flame of Torah burned bright
despite it all. Until about 350 C. E., when brutal
Roman anti-Semitism decimated the Holy LandÆs
yeshivos and silenced its voice of Torah.
But the SagesÆ teachings live on in the
Talmud Yerushalmi, just as the teachings of
Babylonia live one in the Talmud Bavli ù The
Babylonian Talmud.
But while the Sages of Babylonia had another
150 years to redact, clarify and organize the
text of the Babylonian Talmud, Roman persecution in the Holy Land made that impossible.
Thus, the Jerusalem Talmud is exceedingly
difficult, and ù despite its great significance û
it has been a closed book to all but select, elite
scholars.
Now, thanks to the outstanding scholars who produced
the classic Schottenstein Edition of Talmud Bavli, the lock is
being removed on yet another treasure-house of Torah ShebÆal
Peh, the Oral Law.
This project has been enthusiastically welcomed and
endorsed by Torah leaders in Israel and America.
