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The Gemara represents a later interpretation, which further discusses and comments upon the Mishnah, as well as exploring the Torah text itself. It is, thus, a sort of commentary on the commentary, as it were. These are also, collectively, known also as the Oral Tradition, that part of Torah given at Sinai that was not written down but rather passed on generation to generationit is, from this perspective, what was understood at the Time of Revelation. With time, as we moved further from Sinai, it became necessary to record this tradition, During the Diaspora this became especially important as the knowledge dispersed through many lands.

Talmud provides, for me, an important context and historical window into earlier Jewish thinking about Torah and the roots of our Traditions. I appreciate the respect given to minority opinions and "losing" arguments, which are maintained in the text for future generations to read and learn from as we recognize the limits of human knowledge compared to the vastness of Ha'Shem. This, to me, suggests that those who made the interpretations and engaged in the debate did not necessarily see their answers as the final "truth," but rather wanted the human interpretations to refine and revive within the context of history, experience, and careful study. Which is not to say that they didn't think they were right, just that others might further refine what was "right" about what had been saidand to interpret as needed for changes in the world (examples of this abound in the contemporary worldthe coming of electricity, automobiles, and other modern technologies undreamt at the time of the Sanhedrin require learned rabbis to examine all of the Oral Tradition and the Tanach and decide where these "new" inventions fit in and relate to Halakha). In this way, Talmud provides the history and context for understanding how to live one's life through Torah.

HANUKKAH A religiously minor holiday, not mentioned in Torah, which gained significance in the twentieth century, particularly in the U.S. Hanukkah celebrates the victory of the Maccabees in a civil war between assimilated Jews and non-assimilated Jews, the Maccabees being non-assimilated. The story is told as the battle between Jews and a foreign conqueror, which conqueror some Jews were assimilating to. The culminating crisis came when the Temple was desecrated and taken over for idolatrous practices. The Maccabees chased out the idolaters. However, there was not enough oil to keep the eternal

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