The Mystery of the Talmud

The evolutionary role of talmud study in the preservation of the Jewish community

Orthodoxy struggles to determine why it values talmud study at the expense of other forms of Tora study. There is no question - Jewish society does value talmud study more than anything else. But Orthodoxy struggles to answer why talmud study is so much more important than mastering miḳra (“tanach”), understanding Hebrew, or learning halakha.

Common answers range from the deceptive “talmud torah is a chiyuv d’oraysa” to the sacreligious “talmud is the best way to teach logical thinking” to the exasperated “maybe we shouldn’t place so much emphasis on talmud study”. Underlying these answers is the premise that a conscious and rational process resulted in frum society “accepting” this practice.

Allow me to avail you of that myth.

Orthodox rhetoric about the Talmud frames the document as though it contains all the information about God’s nature and will. While a surface-reading of the Talmud (or an in-depth reading) casts this mystery into doubt, by inventing that mystery and making it unattainable, Orthodox society creates demand for talmud study.

What is this mystery? It certainly is not what the Talmud actually contains. The halakhic material is disregarded (as captured in the common refrain: “we do not pasken from the gemara!”), the medical information is (mostly) disregarded in favor of modern medicine. On the other hand, the fabulous sections are foolishly taken quite literally. Ironic.

Therefore, disagreements (“machlokeses”) among the authorities, both those in the text and the commentators thereon, are multiplied and exaggerated. Instead of trying to disprove (or in legal analysis, disqualify) one view or another, as does the scientist with competing hypotheses, the talmud scholar attempts to resolve the different views by assuming and asserting that 1) all views from authorities are equally authoritative 2) all authorities were attempting to uncover the original meaning of the text 3) all authorities were working from the same assumptions about the text 4) all authorities were working from the same text (or equally legitimate texts). 

Therefore, all disagreements between authorities must be due to the different ways they read the text. The talmudic scholar utilizes various forms of often exceptionally creative casuistry in order to “recreate” those different readings. It’s hard to explain the phenomenon to someone who has never experienced a typical talmud shi’ur, but those who have know exactly what I am referring to.

Here’s a fun word: esoteric. Cambridge Dictionary (Oxford is paywalled) defines it as “very unusual and understood or liked by only a small number of people, especially those with special knowledge.” Esotericing talmud makes it desirable for study by turning study into a Veblen good. As the price of the good increases, so does the demand for that product, in an exceptional inversion of the law of demand. With steady demand, increasing scarcity causes price increases (the law of demand). If that good becomes a symbol of prestige, the demand will skyrocket too.

So too with the Talmud. By creating a mystery of the talmud, contemporary Orthodox culture made the attainment of Talmudic expertise very difficult. As a Veblen good, the prestige of that expertise made the value of expertise skyrocket. The result? Wide-scale talmudic learning, which became socially normative as it became more and more common. Think white tablecloths, but much more expensive.

The obvious question then arises: why does Orthodox society tolerate an occupation like Talmud study, which contributes nothing of real value? But that question is loaded with a false assumption (although it is not the assumption the reader will identify at first glance). 

You’re familiar with biological evolution, which posits that as organisms compete with each other to survive and reproduce, individuals with advantageous traits are more likely to succeed in passing those traits to their offspring. Dawkins’ innovation was applying this principle to ideas, memes. We might use the modernist term culture to refer to collections of successful memes.

Frum culture is a collection of ideas, which compete against other cultures (such as, but not limited to, “secular culture”). All cultures exist in perpetual competition with each other, and all versions of Judaism compete with all other possible forms of Judaism for adherents. 

Cultures are selected for which maximize their members’ loyalty, number of children, resistance to joining other cultures, and ability to win adherents (kiruv vs. OTD), whereas cultures which lack these qualities disappear over time. How popular are ascetic practices today?

Because rational explanations for why talmud study is prioritized (see paragraph 2) have failed to explain its endurance, it should instead be approached as a meme which conveys a particular advantage for frum society (a culture). I suggest that talmud study is a proxy for yeshiva engagement.

Yeshiva is a world unto itself, where students are immersed in the prestige culture of Orthodoxy at the exclusion of all else. Outside material is frowned upon (at best) or prohibited (at worst). In order for this system to perpetuate, it must have a declared reason to exist. Talmud study serves as the excuse for keeping young men in yeshiva. So contrary to popular belief, there is no particular benefit for most men to engage in talmud study except in that it will prevent them from being engaged in other activities. 

The yeshiva is a social model that evolved under conditions similar to those of today.This system has been both reliable and enormously successful at perpetuating Judaism into and through modernity. 

Talmud is the excuse, yeshiva is the purpose. Jews that didn’t over-emphasize talmud didn’t have children that experienced the yeshiva immersion (to over-generalize). Yeshivas didn’t have to be talmud focused, but other subjects were more likely to garner attrition. Hebrew might turn you into a Zionist, philosophy into an atheist, Bible into a heretic. Talmud was of little interest to any competing ideologies, so talmudic scholars were selected for among rebbeim.

Yeshiva graduates stay Jewish. They have lots of children. Some of them even go to out-of-town wastelands like Cleveland to do kiruv. A recipe for evolutionary success!

The post-hoc rationalizations (like so much of frum culture) are more detrimental than they seem. Casuistry has side-effects via abstraction. Once the mystery of the talmud is demythologized, and its role in upholding Orthodoxy properly understood, we may understand why women are interested in wasting their time in this activity.

The yeshiva system via talmud study distracts men from external social influences during the formative years of their lives. It is part of a system that evolved to be successful. So whatever benefits women may think (or imagine) may be gained from talmud study should be considered against the larger social fabric of Orthodoxy.

Why do women want to study talmud considering it is nearly pointless for men and certainly pointless for women? They, too, are in pursuit of the prestige. Invent the Veblen good, and you’ll create consumers you don’t expect. Bartenura wine is quite popular in the African-American community.

It’s not the fault of these women, they are just following market incentives in a liberal culture which elevates prestige for women. It is no wonder that women’s talmud is often framed in liberationist rhetoric, but that is a symptom often confused with the disease.

If yeshivas switched from gittin to euclidean geometry, mathematics classes for women would pop up from Riverdale to Teaneck.

You might think women’s talmud study is identical to men’s talmud study but with women. You would be wrong. Men’s talmud study has been as part of an effective system for brainwashing men (“in a good way”) into Orthodox society and culture. Women’s talmud subverts the social order which has led to the triumph of Orthodoxy, and is therefore rightly considered a threat.

But no one cares about appeals to evolutionary fitness, so whatever.