Your Guide to Talmud Concepts

The Daf Yomi (Daily Page) is a global initiative to study the entire Talmud Bavli—the Babylonian Talmud—over the course of 7.5 years. The pace is one daf (double-sided Talmud page) per day, following the pagination of the standard Vilna edition, which comprises 2,711 dapim (pages). The Daf Yomi includes all tractates of the Talmud Bavli, with the exception of those from Seder Zera’im (which has no Bavli coverage). There is, however, one exception: Masechet Shekalim, a tractate from the Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud), which is included in the Daf Yomi cycle.

The Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds: Why Are There Two Talmuds? Why do we have two Talmuds—the Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) and the Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud)? What led to their creation? Why were two different versions compiled, and how do they differ in content and style? Let’s explore these questions.

The well-known division of the Oral Torah from the time of the Mishnah onward includes the following eras: Tannaim (sages of the Mishnah), Amoraim (sages of the Gemara), Savoraim, Geonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim. The Rishonim and Acharonim are the sages who lived and wrote after the era of the Geonim. These scholars dealt with all areas of Torah: biblical interpretation, halachic rulings, responsa (she’elot u’teshuvot), Jewish thought, and more. However, the titles Rishonim and Acharonim are most commonly associated with their commentaries on the Talmud (Shas) and their halachic literature.

The Two Essential Commentaries on the Talmud When you open a page of Talmud, you will always find two main commentaries printed alongside the text. These are Rashi and Tosafot. Both are printed in Rashi script, a semi-cursive Hebrew typeface traditionally used for commentaries. Rashi’s commentary appears on the inner margin of the page, closer to the binding, while Tosafot is printed on the outer margin.

The Talmud, as a continuation of the Mishnah, is composed of a wide variety of sources. Unlike most sacred Jewish texts, the Talmud is not the work of a single sage or even a group of sages from the same era (as is the case with the Mishnah). Rather, it is a rich compilation that includes sources from the Tannaitic period—such as Mishnah, Baraita, and Midrash Halacha—and from the Amoraic period, including the teachings of the Amoraim, the anonymous editorial voice of the Talmud (Stam), and non-legal passages known as Aggadah.

In this section, we’ll dive into the structure of the Talmudic text and explain the meaning behind the various symbols and notations that appear on the page. Note that the style and layout of these markings may vary slightly between editions, so for clarity, we will refer to the image below from Masechet Megillah, daf 14b.

At the top of every Talmud page, you’ll find essential information: the name of the tractate (masechet), the chapter number and title, the page number (daf), and whether it’s the front (amud alef) or back (amud bet) side of the page.