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Relation between the Hebrew Bible and the MishnahA noteworthy quality of the Mishnah is its lack of citation of a scriptural basis for its laws. It is said that the Oral Law was given simultaneously with the Written Law (Torah), and so does not derive directly from it. Connecting the Mishnaic law with the Torah law was a major enterprise of the later Midrash and Talmuds. Rabbinical Judaism holds that the Five Books of Moses, called the (Written) Torah, have always been transmitted in parallel with an oral tradition. Two guides to laws were given to Moses at Mount Sinai. The first, known as Torah she-bikh-tav, or the "Written Law" is composed of only the Five Books of Moses -- Genesis through Deuteronomy. These five books are the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. When Nevi'im [נביאים] ("Prophets") and Ketuvim [כתובים] ("Writings"), are added to the Torah, the expanded volume is called the Tanakh. It is this collection of books that Christianity knows as The Old Testament. The Rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah are called Tannaim (תנאים), the plural of Tanna (תנא); Tanna is an Aramaic term for the Hebrew word shana, which also is the root-word of Mishnah. The verb shano (שנה) literally means 'to repeat [what one was taught]' and is used to mean 'to learn'. The word mishna can also indicate a single paragraph, i.e., the smallest unit of structure in the Mishnah. The plural is mishnayot. Thus, a number of mishnayot make up a perek (chapter), a number of perakim (chapters) make up a masechet (tractate), a number of masechtot (tractates) make up a seder (order) and the Shas (acronym for Shisha Sedarim - the six orders) make up the Mishnah. (The term Shas is also used to refer to a complete Talmud, which follows the structure of the Mishnah.) The second law given to Moses at Sinai, known as Torah she-be'al-peh, is the exposition of the Written Law as relayed by the scholarly and other religious leaders of each generation. This Oral Law is, in some sense, the more authoritative of the two. The traditions of the Oral Law are considered as the basis for the interpretation, and often for the reading, of the Written Law. By 200 CE, the time of Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi (known in the text as "Rabbi"), much of the Oral Law was edited together into the Mishnah; see below. Over the next four centuries this material underwent analysis and debate, known as Gemara ("completion"), in both of the world's major Jewish communities (in the land of Israel and Babylon). These eventually came to be edited together into compilations known as the Talmud, which generall refers to the Talmud Yerushalmi for the compilation in Israel and Talmud Bavli for the compilation undertaken in Babylon. Jewish law and custom thus is not based on a literal reading of the Torah, or the rest of the Tanakh, but on the combined oral and written traditions. The writing of the MishnahIt is unclear, according to J. Sussman (Mehqerei Talmud III), whether there was any writing connected to the Oral Law, or whether it was entirely oral. It was not written down until c. 800-900 CE, but the reason why this was not done is unclear and perhaps rooted in a belief that only the Torah could be written. This is in contradiction with an established Israelite/Jewish practice, preserved in the Bible and Apocrypha, to write books. The Mishnah is noteworthy in Rabbinic literature for its depiction of a religious universe in which the Temple in Jerusalem, destroyed a century earlier, still retains a central place. Laws concerning the Temple service constitute one of the Mishnah's six divisions. The Babylonian Talmud (Hagiga 14a) states that there were either six-hundred or seven-hundred orders of the Mishnah. Hillel the Elder organized them into six orders to make it easier to remember. The historical accuracy of this tradition is disputed. Interestingly, Reuvain Margolies posits that there were originally seven orders of Mishna. He cites a Gaonic tradition on the existence of a seventh order. The missing order contained the laws of Sta"m and Berachos (blessings). The reasons for its omission is discussed below.Over time, different traditions of the Oral Law came into being, debating what the laws or their rulings were. Further, (according to the Mavoh Hatalmud) many rulings were given about specific things that could have been taken out of context or where a ruling was revisited but the second ruling was not as popularly known. To correct this, Rabbi took up the redaction of the Mishnah. If something was already there with no conflict, he used it without changes in language, he reordered and ruled on where there was conflict, and clarifed where context was not given. The idea was not do this at his own discretion, but rather to examine the tradition as far back as he could, and only supplement as required. As he went through the tractates, the Mishnah was set forth, but throughout his life some parts were updated as new information came to light. Because of the proliferation of earlier versions, it was deemed too hard to retract anything already released, as such, a second version of certain laws were released. The Talmud refers to these differing version as Mishnah Rishona ("First Mishnah") and Mishna Acharona ("Last Mishnah"). Hoffman suggests that Mishna Rishona actually refers to texts from earlier Sages upon which Rabbi based his Mishna. With Rabbi's death, no more redactions were done to the body of the Mishnah, though it was still not written down. It was finally written down some centuries later when it was deemed too difficult to remember, but the exact date is a matter of debate. Together the Gemara and Mishnah form the Talmud. The structure of the MishnahThe Mishnah consists of six orders (sedarim). This explains the traditional name for the Talmud as Shas, which is an abbreviation of shishah sedarim, "six orders". Each of the six orders contains between 7 and 12 tractates, called masechtot. Each masechet is divided into verses called mishnayot (singular - mishna).
In each order (with the exception of Zeraim) the tractates are arranged from biggest (in number of chapters) to smallest. Most of the Mishnah is related stam, i.e. without any name attributed to it. This usually indicates that many sages taught so, and the halakhic ruling usually follows that view. Sometimes, however, it is the opinion of a single sage whom Rabbi Judah haNasi favored and sought to establish the ruling accordingly.
Omissions from the MishnaA number of important laws are not elaborated upon in the Mishna. These include the laws of tzitzis, tefillin (phylactories), mezuzos(Sta"m), the holiday of Hannukah, and the laws of gerim (converts. These were later discussed in the minor tractates. R' Nissim Gaon in his Hakdomah Le'mafteach Hatalmud writes that many of these laws were so well known that it was unnecessary for Rebbe to discuss them.Reuvain Margolies suggests that as the Mishna was redacted after the Bar Kochba revolt, Rebbe could not have included information on Hanukkah which commemorates the Jewish revolt against the Syrian-Greeks (the Romans wouldn't have appreciated it). Additionally, there were several decrees to suppress outward signs of national identity. These included decrees against wearing tefillin, tzitzis, etc. It was against Roman law to convert to Judaism so Rabbi could not have discussed that either. Dovid Hoffman suggests that there existed ancient texts in the form of the present day Shulchan Arukh that discussed the basic laws of day to day living The Generations of the Mishnah sages
Oral traditions and pronunciationThe Mishnah was and still is traditionally studied through recitation (out loud). Many medieval manuscripts of the Mishnah are vowelized, and some of these contain partial Tiberian cantillation. Jewish communities around the world preserved local melodies for chanting the Mishnah, and distinctive ways of pronouncing its words. Most vowelized editions of the Mishnah today reflect standard Ashkenazic vowelization, and often contain mistakes. The Albeck edition of the Mishnah was vowelized by Hannokh Yellin, who made careful eclectic use of both medieval manuscripts and current oral traditions of pronunciation from Jewish communities all over the world. The Albeck edition includes an entire volume by Yellin detailing his eclectic method. Two institutes at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have collected major oral archives which hold (among other things) extensive recordings of Jews chanting the Mishnah using a variety of melodies and many different kinds of pronunciation. These institutes are the Jewish Oral Traditions Research Center and the National Voice Archives (the Phonoteca at the Jewish National and University Library). See below for external links. Commentaries
Historical studyBoth the Mishnah and Talmud contain little serious biographical studies of the people discussed therein, and the same tractate will conflate the points of view of many different people. Yet, sketchy biographies of the Mishaic sages can often be constructed with historical detail from Talmudic and Midrashic sources. Many modern historical scholars have focused on the timing and the formation of the Mishnah. A vital question is whether it is comprised of sources which date from its editor's lifetime, and to what extent is it comprised of earlier, or later sources. Are Mishnaic disputes distinguishable along theological or communal lines, and in what ways do different sections derive from different schools of thought within early Judaism? Can these early sources be identified, and if so, how? In response to these questions, modern scholars have adopted a number of different approaches.
See alsoWikisource has original text related to this article:
ReferencesTranslations
Historical study
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