The Social Ethical Thoughts And Its Characteristics In The Talmud

The Jew is an old, suffering and indomitable people. This article begins with the Jewish classic Talmud and uses the research methods of social science, history, religion, by studying the social ethical thoughts in the Talmud to show the Jewish culture's unique connotation and far-reaching effects of Jewish culture.The full text is divided into four parts.The preamble sums up the academic research situation of the social ethics ideology in Talmud, lists a number of representative academic results of foreign scholars and points out the stagnation of the study on Talmud in Chinese academic area.The first part is introduction of Talmud. After the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jewish people choose to study Torah to maintain their national beliefs and spirit. The Jewish intellectuals represented by the Pharisees finally compiled the second holy code Talmud. Talmud was completed from 200 BC to AD 500, and it was the concourse of the authority literature of Jewish oral law and its interpretation spread in the Palestinian and Babylonian. From the contents, Talmud can be divided into Mishnah and Gemara. According to the different themes, Talmud can be divided into two categories, namely Halakhah and Aggadah. Because of difference of compilers, locations and time in the preparation of Gemara, Talmud had two different versions, Jerusalem Talmud and Babylonian Talmud.The second part refers to the expression of social ethical thoughts in the Talmud. The paper concludes and analyses social ethics ideology in the Talmud from four aspects, the affirmation of human nature, the relationship between self and others, family life and social life. In the author's opinion, Talmud affirmed the independence and the sanctity of human nature. It stipulated some moral standards such as humility, honesty, forgiveness to restrict self. And at the same time, it propounded to maintain equality, fraternity and benevolence in handling of the relationship between self and others. It propagated the harmony between husband and wife, care for the children and filial piety for parents as well as the active participation in social life and the maintenance of social harmony and stability.Part three explains the characteristics of social ethics ideology in the Talmud. The paper sums up the characteristics of the Jewish social ethics ideology from the religious, disciplinary, contractual and social aspects. The paper analyses and discusses the connotations and appearance of these characteristics. In the author's opinion, the social ethical thoughts in the Talmud stemmed from Tanakh, so it had a strong sense of religion. In the religious framework, the social ethics requirements in the Talmud were considered as God's law by the Jews. Therefore, Ethics ideology became obligatory just as law. At the same time, the equality, fairness, justice, honesty, and other ideas that Talmud stressed originated from the contractual concept in the Tanakh, so the contractual features also became the important.