Prof. Uziel Fuchs
The Babylonian Talmud has been the foundational book of the Oral Law, whether in its intensive study or in its halakhic rulings, for over a thousand years. This centrality was shaped during the period of the Geonim. During this period, it moved from oral delivery to manuscript writing, its wording was shaped, and it was distributed from the center in Babylon to all the Diaspora in the Diaspora. The extensive preoccupation with the Talmud and the processes of its oral and written transmission have created quite a few changes in its formulas.
This study deals with issues related to the process in which the Babylonian Talmud became such a central book, and especially the question of the attitude of the Babylonian Geonim to the text of the Babylonian Talmud: how did they relate to its various versions, how they decided between them, and according to what criteria they did so; To what extent they preserved its ancient versions and to what extent they changed them. In the second part of the book, all the sources discussed by the Babylonian geniuses in the versions of the Talmud are brought and discussed.
