Talmud Hebrew and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis (dating from before the Common Era through to the fifth century) on a variety of subjects, including "halakha", Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, lore and many other topics. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law, and is widely quoted in rabbinic literature. Talmud translates as "instruction, learning", from a root " "teach, study". Originally, Jewish scholarship was oral. Rabbis expounded and debated the Torah (the written Torah expressed in the Hebrew Bible) and discussed the Tanakh without the benefit of written
Elwood Talmud Torah Hebrew Congregation Gutnick succeeded his father Chaim as Chief Minister of the congregation. In 2008 the Elwood Talmud Torah Hebrew Congregation celebrated its 75th anniversary. Federal member for Melbourne Ports Michael Danby, an Elwood resident, marked the occasion by paying tribute to the congregation in a speech before Australian Parliament on 16 October 2008, saying, "It is very fortuitous, when viewed in retrospect, that this congregation was formed by central and east European migrants prior to the Second World War. These were the very people who were able to look after the refugees and the displaced persons who came off the ships