Mishnah

A page from the Talumud, with a Mishnah section printed in the center, surrounded by commentaries.

The Mishnah (Hebrew משנה, "repetition"), is the first written recording of the Oral Law of the Jewish people. It was redacted circa 200 C.E. by Rabbi Yehudah Ha-Nasi, also known as "Judah the Prince." In includes the often divergent religious opinions championed by the Pharisees and as debated between 70-200 C.E. by the group of rabbinic sages known as the Tannaim. It is considered the first work of Rabbinic Judaism.

The "Oral Torah" (Law) was an unwritten tradition based upon what God reportedly communicated to Moses on Mount Sinai but was not recorded by Moses in writing. In the centuries after its initial redaction by Judah the Prince, commentaries on the Mishnah known as the Gemara (Aramaic: "Tradition") were compiled together with the Mishnah into the work known as the Talmud.

The Mishnah consists of six major orders (sedarim), each containing between seven and 12 tractates (masechtot), which are further divided into verses. The orders include:

• Zeraim ("Seeds"), dealing with agricultural laws and prayers
• Moed ("Festival"), pertaining to the laws of the Sabbath and the ritual celebrations
• Nashim ("Women"), concerning marriage and divorce
• Nezikin ("Damages"), dealing with civil and criminal law
• Kodashim ("Holy things"), regarding Temple rites and the dietary laws
• Tohorot ("Purities"), pertaining to the laws of purity, including the treatment of the dead, the priesthood, sexual purity, menstruation, etc.

Most modern editions of the Talmud are organized with each Mishnah section followed by its associated Gemara commentaries. A Mishnah section may only be a few lines or short paragraph, followed by a commentary of several pages, until that particular tractate of Mishnah is completed.

Context

Relationship with the Hebrew Bible

Rabbinical Judaism holds that the Five Books of Moses, called the (Written) Torah, have always been transmitted in parallel with an oral tradition, and that 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 the "Five Books of Moses," the first five books of the Hebrew Bible: Genesis through Deuteronomy.

According to this view, 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.

Thus, Jewish law and custom is based not only on a literal reading of the Torah, or the rest of the Tanakh, but on the combined oral and written traditions. 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'.

By 200 C.E., the time of Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi (referred to in the text as "Rabbi"), much of the Oral Law was edited together into the Mishnah. Over the next four centuries this material underwent analysis and debate, known as Gemara ("completion"), in what were at that time the world's two major Jewish communities, in the land of Israel and in the Babylonian Empire. These debates eventually came to be edited together into compilations known as the Talmud: the Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud) for the compilation in Israel, and Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) for the compilation undertaken in Babylon.

Notably, the Mishnah does not cite a written scriptural basis for its laws; since it is said that the Oral Law was given simultaneously with the Written Law, the Oral Law codified in the Mishnah does not derive directly from the Written Law of the Torah. This is in contrast with the Midrash halakha, works in which the sources of the traditionally received laws are identified in the Tanakh, often by linking a verse to a halakha. These Midrashim often predate the Mishnah.

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.)

Authorship and writing

The Mishnaic period is commonly divided up into five periods according to generations of the Tannaim. There are approximately 120 known Tannaim. The Tannaim lived in several areas of the Land of Israel. The spiritual center of Judaism at that time was Jerusalem, but after the destruction of the city and the Second Temple, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai and his students founded a new religious center in Yavne. Other places of Judaic learning were founded by his students in Lod and in Bnei Brak.

The generations of the Tannaim included:

1. First Generation: Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai's generation (circa 40 B.C.E.-80 C.E.).
2. Second Generation: Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua's generation, the teachers of Rabbi Akiva.
3. Third Generation: The generation of Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues.
4. Fourth Generation: The generation of Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda and their colleagues.
5. Fifth Generation: Rabbi Judah haNasi's generation.
6. Sixth Generation: The interim generation between the Mishnah and the Talmud: Rabbis Shimon ben Judah HaNasi and Yehoshua ben Levi, etc.

Many of the Tannaim worked as laborers (e.g., charcoal burners, cobblers) in addition to their positions as teachers and legislators. They were also leaders of the people, and negotiators with the Roman Empire.

Competing oral laws and acceptance

It 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. Over time, different traditions of the Oral Law came into being, raising debates about what the laws or their rulings were. 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 Yehuda haNasi 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.

Some Jews did not accept the written codification of the oral law at all; known as Karaites, they comprised a significant portion of the world Jewish population in the 10th and 11th Centuries CE, and remain extant, though they currently number in the thousands.

Writing, Structure, Contents

Redaction

According to Maimonides (Introduction to Mishnah Torah), after the tremendous upheaval caused by the destruction of the Temple and the Bar Kochba revolt, the Oral Torah was in danger of being forgotten. It was for this reason that Rebbi chose to redact the Mishnah. One must also note that in addition to redacting, Rebbi and his court also ruled on which opinions should be followed (see below on stam mishnah).

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 Mishnah Rishona actually refers to texts from earlier Sages upon which Rabbi based his Mishnah.

With Rabbi's death, no more redactions were done to the body of the Mishnah, though it was still not written down.

Recording

The resulting work was not written down until c. 800-900 C.E., when it was deemed too difficult to remember, but the exact date is a matter of debate. The reason for the long delay is unclear and may be rooted in a belief that oral Torah could not be written down, nor written Torah be transmitted orally. The rabbi responsible for this opinion furthermore suggests that the whole Mishnah is contained in the Torah, accessible by subtle exegesis. (id.)

Structure

The 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 - mishnah).

1. First Order: Zeraim ("Seeds"). 11 tractates. It deals with agricultural laws and prayers.
2. Second Order: Moed ("Festival"). 12 tractates. This pertains to the laws of the Sabbath and the Festivals.
3. Third Order: Nashim ("Women"). 7 tractates. Concerns marriage and divorce.
4. Fourth Order: Nezikin ("Damages"). 10 tractates. Deals with civil and criminal law.
5. Fifth Order: Kodashim ("Holy things"). 11 tractates. This involves sacrificial rites, the Temple, and the dietary laws.
6. Sixth order: Tohorot ("Purities"). 12 tractates. This pertains to the laws of purity and impurity, including the impurity of the dead, the laws of ritual purity for the priests (cohanim), the laws of "family purity" (the menstrual laws) and others.

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 (and his Bet Din or court) favored and sought to establish the ruling accordingly.

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 Mishnah. 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 Six Orders of the Mishnah (ששה סדרי משנה)
Zeraim (זרעים)	Moed (מועד)	Nashim (נשים)	Nezikin (נזיקין)	Kodashim (קדשים)	Tohorot (טהרות)
Berakhot · Pe'ah · Demai · Kil'ayim · Shevi'it · Terumot · Ma'aserot · Ma'aser Sheni · Hallah · Orlah · Bikkurim	Shabbat · Eruvin · Pesahim · Shekalim · Yoma · Sukkah · Beitzah · Rosh Hashanah · Ta'anit · Megillah · Mo'ed Katan · Hagigah	Yevamot · Ketubot · Nedarim · Nazir · Sotah · Gittin · Kiddushin	Bava Kamma · Bava Metzia · Bava Batra · Sanhedrin · Makkot · Shevu'ot · Eduyot · Avodah Zarah · Avot · Horayot	Zevahim · Menahot · Hullin · Bekhorot · Arakhin · Temurah · Keritot · Me'ilah · Tamid · Middot · Kinnim	Keilim · Oholot · Nega'im · Parah · Tohorot · Mikva'ot · Niddah · Makhshirin · Zavim · Tevul Yom · Yadayim · Uktzim

Worldview

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.

Omissions

A number of important laws are not elaborated upon in the Mishnah. These include the laws of tzitzit, tefillin (phylactories), mezuzah (Sta"m), the holiday of Hannukah, and the laws of gerim (converts). These were later discussed in the minor tractates.

Rabbi Nissim Gaon in his Hakdamah 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 Mishnah was redacted after the Bar Kochba revolt, Rebbe could not have included discussion of Hanukkah which commemorates the Jewish revolt against the Syrian-Greeks (the Romans would not have tolerated this overt Nationalism). Similarly, there were then several decrees in place aimed at suppressing outward signs of national identity, including decrees against wearing tefillin and tzitzit; as Conversion to Judaism was against Roman law, Rabbi would not have discussed this.

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.

Mishnah Study

Oral traditions and pronunciation

The 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

• In 1168, Maimonides was probably the first to author a comprehensive commentary on the Mishnah. It was written in Arabic and was one of the first commentaries of its kind. In it, "Rambam" condenses the associated Talmudical debates, and offers his conclusions in a number of undecided issues. Of particular significance are the various introductory sections - as well as the introduction to the work itself [1] - these are widely quoted in other works on the Mishnah, and on the Oral law in general. Perhaps the most famous is his introduction to the tenth chapter of tractate Sanhedrin [2] where he enumerates the thirteen fundamental beliefs of Judaism.

• Rabbi Samson of Sens (France) was, apart from Maimonides, one of the few rabbis of the early medieval era to compose a Mishnah commentary. It is printed in many editions of the Mishnah.
• Rabbi Obadiah ben Abraham of Bertinoro (15th century) wrote one of the most popular Mishnah commentaries. He draws on Maimonides' work but also offers Talmudical material (in effect a summary of the Talmudic discussion) largely following the commentary of Rashi. In addition to its role as a commentary on the Mishnah, this work is often referenced by students of Talmud as a review-text, and is often referred to as "the Bartanura" or "the Ra'V."

• After the Maharal of Prague had initiated organised Mishnah study (Chevrath ha-Mishnayoth), Yomtov Lipman Heller (who is often believed to be his pupil but came to Prague already as a mature scholar) wrote a commentary called Tosafoth Yom Tov. In the introduction Heller says that his aim is to make additions (tosafoth) to Bertinoro’s commentary. The glosses are sometimes quite detailed and analytic. That is why it is sometimes compared to the Tosafoth - discussions of Babylonian gemarah by French and German scholars of 12-13th C. In many compact Mishnah printings, a condensed version of his commentary, titled Ikar Tosafoth Yom Tov, is featured.

• Other Acharonim who have written Mishnah commentaries:
  • Rabbi Solomon Luria (the Maharshal)
  • The Vilna Gaon (Shenoth Eliyahu)
  • Rabbi Akiva Eiger

• A prominent commentary from the 19th century is Tifereth Yisrael by Rabbi Yisrael Lipschutz. It is subdivided into two parts, one more general and the other more analytical, titled Yachin and Boaz respectively (after two large pillars in the Temple in Jerusalem). Lipschutz has not been completely without controversy, in some hasidic cricles.

• The commentary by Rabbi Pinhas Kehati, which is written in Modern Israeli Hebrew and based on classical and contemporary works, has become popular in the late Twentieth Century. The commentary is designed to make the Mishnah widely accessible to a wide spectrum of learners of all ages and all levels of experience in Torah study. It is popularly referred to as "The Kehati." Each tractate is introduced with an overview of its contents, including historical and legal background material, and each mishnah is prefaced by a thematic introduction. The current version of this edition is printed with the Bartenura commentary as well as Kehati's.

• The above-mentioned edition edited by Hanokh Albeck and vocalized by Hanokh Yellin (1952-59) includes the former's extensive commentary on each mishnah, as well as introductions to each tractate (Masekhet) and order (Seder.) This commentary tends to focus on the meaning of the mishnayot themselves, without as much reliance on the Gemara's interpretation and is, therefore, considered valuable as a tool for the study of Mishnah as an independent work.

Historical relevance

Both 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.

• Some scholars hold that there has been extensive editorial reshaping of the stories and statements within the Mishnah (and later, in the Talmud.) Lacking outside confirming texts, they hold that we cannot confirm the origin or date of most statements and laws, and that we can say little for certain about their authorship. In this view, the questions above are impossible to answer. See, for example, the works of Louis Jacobs, Baruch M. Bokser, Shaye J.D. Cohen, Steven D. Fraade.

• Some scholars hold that the Mishnah and Talmud have been extensively shaped by later editorial redaction, but that it contains sources which we can identify and describe with some level of reliability. In this view, sources can be identified to some extent because each era of history and each distinct geographical region has its own unique feature, which one can trace and analyze. Thus, the questions above may be analyzed. See, for example, the works of Goodblatt, Lee Levine, David C. Kraemer and Robert Goldenberg.

• Some scholars hold that many or most of the statements and events described in the Mishnah and Talmud usually occurred more or less as described, and that they can be used as serious sources of historical study. In this view, historians do their best to tease out later editorial additions (itself a very difficult task) and skeptically view accounts of miracles, leaving behind a reliable historical text. See, for example, the works of Saul Lieberman, David Weiss Halivni, Avraham Goldberg and Dov Zlotnick.

See also

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Mishnah

• Tannaim
• Talmud
• Tosefta
• Beraita
• Minor Tractates
• Karaite

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Translations

• Philip Blackman. Mishnayoth. The Judaica Press, Ltd., 2000 (ISBN 0-910818-00-X)
• Herbert Danby. The Mishna. Oxford, 1933 (ISBN 0-19-815402-X).
• Jacob Neusner. The Mishnah: A New Translation. New Haven, reprint 1991 (ISBN 0-300-05022-4).
• Various editors. The Mishnah, a new translation with commentary Yad Avraham. New York: Mesorah publishers, since 1980s.

Historical study

• Shalom Carmy (Ed.) Modern Scholarship in the Study of Torah: Contributions and Limitations Jason Aronson, Inc.
• Shaye J.D. Cohen, Patriarchs and Scholarchs, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 48 (1981), pp. 57-87
• Steven D. Fraade, "The Early Rabbinic Sage," in The Sage in Israel and the Ancient Near East, ed. John G. Gammie and Leo G. Perdue (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1990), pp. 417-23
• Robert Goldenberg The Sabbath-Law of Rabbi Meir (Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press, 1978)
• John W McGinley 'The Written' as the Vocation of Conceiving Jewishly ISBN 0-595-40488-X
• Jacob Neusner Making the Classics in Judaism (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989), pp. 1-13 and 19-44
• Jacob Neusner Judaism: The Evidence of the Mishna (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), pp. 14-22.
• Gary Porton, The Traditions of Rabbi Ishmael (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1982), vol. 4, pp. 212-25
• Dov Zlotnick, The Iron Pillar: Mishnah (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1988), pp. 8-9
• Reuvain Margolies "Yesod Ha-Mishnah V' Arichoso" (Heb.)
• David Tzvi Hoffman "Mishnah Rishona V' Pelugta D'tannoi" (Heb)

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Mishnah

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Mishnah

Wikimedia projects

Wikisource's Open Mishnah Project is developing Mishnah texts, commentaries, and translations. The project is currently available in three languages: Hebrew (the largest collection), English, French and Portuguese.

Other electronic texts

• Learn Mishnah Online - Create a Shloshim Mishnah list online
• Mishnah on Demand - Custom PDF versions of any section of the Mishnah in Hebrew.
• Mechon Mamre - Hebrew text of the Mishnah according to Maimonides' version (based on the manuscript of his Mishnah commentary in his own handwriting).
• The Structured Mishnah - Hebrew text according to the Albeck edition (without vowels) with special formatting.
• Treasury of Talmudic Manuscripts, Jewish National and University Library

Mishnah study & the Daily Mishnah

• Aaron Ahrend, "Mishnah Study and Study Groups in Modern Times" in JSIJ 3: 2004 (Hebrew). Available online here (Word & PDF).
• The Daily Mishnah - uses the Kehati commentary (in English translation).
• Mishnah Yomis - Daily Mishnah audio (English).
• Mishnah Yomit - One mishnah per day. (Note: this study-cycle follows a different schedule than the regular one; contains extensive archives in English).
• Mishnah of the Daf - a new Mishnah study cycle that parallels the progress of the Daf Yomi.
• Kehati Mishnah a program of two Mishnayos per day, and the complete text of Kehati in English

Italic text

Audio lectures

• Rabbi Meir Pogrow - advanced lectures (in English); free MP3 download.

Manuscripts

• Kaufmann manuscript of the Mishnah - View images of the entire vowelized manuscript.

Oral Traditions (chanting and pronunciation of the Mishnah):

• Jewish Oral Traditions Research Center (Hebrew University)
• The National Sound Archives at the Hebrew University (catalogue not currently online).
• Treasury of Talmudic Manuscripts, Jewish National and University Library

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