Invitation to Talmud

In this book, Neusner takes a single chapter of the talmud (5th chapter of brachot), and analyzes the text in the Mishnah, Tosefta, Babylonian Talmud, and Palestinian Talmud. For each of them he translates the text into English, and goes through it critically in his standard outline form. Essentially you get to be an armchair quarterback as he goes through the text and see how he derives insight into it. I have only limited experience studying Talmud, and have read a few other English language books on the subject. I didn't find anything in this book to be earth shattering, but it certainly was useful to see how a great academic mind like Neusner's handles differences between the four texts treatment of the same subject. Many of his insights and revelations are universally applicable and have provided me with greater insight and understanding to other areas of the Talmud. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only book that accomplishes its goals in this fashion. Many other books on the Talmud discuss it in general fashion, and provide the same information, but do not show how it is applied. There are also some Talmudic translations which lack Neusner's critical analysis and insight. I would certainly not make it a "must read" for a person getting into Talmud study, but it was interesting.