Talmudic Quotation
The layered citation tradition of Jewish religious literature — quote upon quote upon quote.
Talmudic quotation refers to the layered citation style of the Talmud and related Jewish religious literature, in which a passage may quote a rabbi, who quotes another rabbi, who quotes a verse of Torah, all on the same page. The form is genuinely multi-voiced: a single passage can stage a debate across centuries.
The tradition shaped how citation works in much of Western scholarship. The idea that a source can be quoted within a quotation within a quotation — each layer attributed — is older than the footnote, and is one of the world's earliest systematic citation practices.
For the modern quoter, the Talmudic instinct is a useful one: when a wise line is attributed to someone, the next question is always 'and who were they quoting?'
“Whoever saves a single life, it is as if he had saved the entire world.”
Keep reading the glossary
The original record of a quote — the book, letter, speech, or recording in which it first appeared.
A formal reference that lets a reader locate the source of a quote.
A 2,000-year-old practice of distilling ethical instruction into short, repeatable lines.
A personal notebook of quotations, ideas, and passages — a tradition stretching from antiquity to today.