The Talmud?

My teacher says she's covering the rabbinic literature from about 200 BCE to 500 CE.  I'm still trying to understand but certainly the central document developed during this period is the Talmud.  She points out that, until recently, the Talmud was only available to observant Jewish men.  It's huge, different versions, maybe only recently translated.  We haven't really gotten into it but I love the opportunity to know about this.  This is why I'm an access student; to find out about all these things that I don't know about.

A page of the talmud.  The central part is some writing of law from the older Mishnah and the commentaries are written around it.

I think often, there's a lot of attack on the talmud by people who don't know much about it