Excerpt from The History of the Talmud, Vol. 1: From the Time of Its Formation, About, 200 B. C., Up to the Present Time With this in mind, we had already prepared the present work in 1897, when only a few volumes of our translation had been issued. Although we gave a brief general introduction to the first volume Of the translation, and also some prefaces and introductions in the succeeding volumes, they do not suf fice for the student who desires to have a clear idea Of all that he IS studying. However, the translation has taken up so much of our time that it has hitherto been impossible for us to look up every thing pertinent to our purpose that has been written and to submit it in presentable form. Now, after the completion, with the Divine help of the two large sections, containing twenty-seven tracts, and in response to many inquiries from the reading public for some explanations, we find that now is the time to put forth this work; and, instead Of adding two more volumes to the translation Of the Talmud in the current year, we have decided to furnish the two volumes which form our History Of the Talmud. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.