Talmud
Though written in the fifties, Gerson Cohen’s chapters on the Rabbinic Period in Great Ages and Ideas of the Jewish People, by Leo Schwarz, remain a fine introduction to the history of the period and the theological/ideological underpinnings of talmudic literature and religion.
In our day, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz has done much to open the world of rabbinic literature to the English-speaking world. Two of his works make excellent additions to a basic introductory library. First, The Essential Talmud provides an introduction to the structure of the Talmud, the basic concerns of the Talmud, and the nature of talmudic thinking. Second, The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition, A Reference Guide is a superb volume, providing much general and technical information in a very comprehensible format. A page of Talmud is described in detail with brief comments on the time and place of each component of the talmudic page and a concise definition of the purpose and goal of the component. The basic concepts of mishnaic and talmudic terminology are defined with brief and clear definitions, and there is a section devoted to halakhic concepts and terms.
Of course, the ultimate goal is to move from reading about Talmud to studying Talmud. There are two editions of the Talmud in English translation now on the market. One is The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition, under the guidance and supervision of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. The volumes are beautifully edited, with the original text included on every page, surrounded by four columns of commentary: one with a literal translation, the second with the translation worked into flowing English paragraphs, the third with a brief follow-up of the history of the material in Jewish law, and the fourth with notes containing comments and explanations of some of the classical commentators. There are also fascinating sidebars on most pages, including such matters as word histories, pictures of the realia to which the Talmud refers, and short biographies of the sages.
The other English edition is The Schottenstein Edition, part of the ArtScroll Series. This has an offset of the page of the Talmud facing each page of translation (often requiring three or four pages of English translation for each page of the original Talmud). Each page of English is divided between the upper section, which contains the translation and explanation of the Talmud, and the lower section, which contains explanatory notes and additional interpretations of other commentators. The other columns that appear in the Steinsaltz edition are not present in Schottenstein. However, the explanation of the talmudic argument is often clearer in Schottenstein than in Steinsaltz.
