This book, the only one in English that can serve as a textbook for
beginners and more advanced students of the Babylonian Talmud, examines
in detail a number of typical lengthy passages with a view to showing
how Talmudic reasoning operates and how the Talmud was compiled by its
final editors. The book serves as an introduction to the nature of this
fascinating work on which the Jewish mind has been intellectually
stimulated and nourished for over 1500 years. Original insights into the
Talmudic debates are provided for the consideration of Talmudic experts
but the work is intended chiefly as a guide to students who wish to
obtain a more than superficial idea of what the Talmud really is about.