550 CE: TALMUD BAVLI FINAL–EDIT

–and reaches its present form by 700 CE

Babylonian Talmud reaches its present form.

Rabbinics Ravina and Rav Ashi play key roles in its final organization. As noted, the Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions and debates pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. The Talmud has two major components: the Mishnah, which is the first written compendium of Judaism’s Oral Law; and the (much more extensive) Gemara, a discussion of the Mishnah and related Tannaic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Tanach (Torah–Neveim–Ketuvim i.e. the entire Jewish canon).

The Gemara, in turn, is the basis for all codes of rabbinic law and is much–quoted in other rabbinic literature. The whole Talmud is traditionally also referred to as the shas (a Hebrew quasi–abbreviation of, the “six orders” of the Mishnah). Talmud Bavli is the same as Talmud Babli which, as noted above, is the Babylonian Talmud. The Talmud – as it reached its core form in 700 CE – represented an approximately 1000–year effort.

As redaction and commentary have been added–on subsequently, as of the year 2,000 the Talmud and ongoing commentary represent a 2300–year continuous endeavor.

The focused two millennia endeavor has not been unhinged by pogrom, plague, persecution, exile or communal displacement.

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