Type: Text

Type: Code of Law

Mishnah

Sample Text in Translation

Image Map of a traditional edition of the
Mishnah
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The Mishnah

Terminology

Dates

Composition

Redaction

Author

Place

Description

Terminology
The Hebrew root "ShNH" means "to repeat," and
refers to memorization by repetition. "Mishnah" therefore has the sense of "that
which is memorized by rote," as distinct from the Rabbinic designation for the
Bible: "Miqra,"that which is read and recited from a written text.

Thus, Mishnah can refer in a general way to the full tradition of the
Oral Torah, as formulated by the Rabbis in the first centuries of the Common
Era. These traditions could not be written down, but had to be transmitted and
learned by word of mouth. This restriction was observed quite scrupulously
throughout the eras of the Mishnah and Talmud.

In some contexts "Mishnah" is contrasted with "Midrash." The
latter term denotes Rabbinic teachings that are attached to the text of the
Bible, whereas the former term refers to teachings that are organized or
formulated independently of Scipture.

In its most narrow sense, as it is employed here, "the Mishnah" refers
to a specific work of Rabbinic literature that embodies the features outlined
above.

The Jewish sages whose statements are quoted in the Mishnah are known as
Tanna'im (singular: "Tanna"), derived from the Aramaic root
related to the Hebrew "ShNH". The era in which the Mishnah was developed
is therefore referred to as the "Tanna'itic" era.
The term "Tanna"
was originally applied to the functionary in the later Talmudic academies whose
job it was to memorize and recite the oral traditions of the Tanna'itic era,
serving as a sort of "living book." By extension it came to be applied to the
actual Rabbis whose opinions make up the Mishnah and its contemporary works.

With a very few exception (e.g., quotations from Aramaic legal documents),
the Mishnah is composed entirely in Hebrew, in a dialect that appears to reflect
the spoken vernacular of Judea.

The Mishnah was composed entirely in the Land of Israel, and all the sages
quoted there, even if they resided originally in other places (Babylonia, Rome,
etc.), were active in the Holy Land.

On the Talmud page, the passages from the Mishnah (for which the Talmud
serves as a commentary) are introduced with the abbreviation
"MTNY'," short for the Aramaic"Matnitin," "our mishnah." It
is customary for the Babylonian Talmud to refer to "our Mishnah" (or:
We learned), to distinguish it from other, "external," mishnahs, referred
to in Aramaic as "baraita." At the beginnings of chapters or tractates no
introductory formula is required, since all chapters in the Talmud must begin
with a Mishnah citation.

Dates

Composition
Although there are traditions in the Mishnah that
claim to go back to the fifth century B.C.E. (the "Great Assembly"; cf.
Nehemiah 8-10), as well as a few additions from as late as the mid-third
century, the main body of the Mishnah consists of teachings attributed to
authorites from about the middle of the first century, through to the second
decade of the third century C.E.

This time period witnessed some major historical turning-points for the
Jewish nation, such as the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple in 70,
and the catastrophic failure of the revolt against Rome under the leadership
of Simeon bar Kokhba (or: bar Kuziba) in 135. Because the Mishnah is a
technical work of religious law, these momentous historical events find almost
no explicit mention in the Mishnah, even though the very composition of the
Mishnah is often viewed as a response to those very events.

It has become customary in scholarly and historical literature to divide
the era of the Mishnah into "generations" that are identified by the towns in
which the main centres of Rabbinic leadership were situated.
Following this
convention, scholars refer to the following generations:

Yavneh [=Jamnia, Jabneh]
The centre of Jewish communal leadership
and Torah scholarship moved to this Judean coastal town following the
destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E.
The Rabbis of Yavneh (the term
"Rabbi" to denote a religious teacher was probably not in use before this
time) were faced with the responsibility of reconstructing Judaism and
adapting it to the new situation, in which its major centre of religious
life was no longer in existence. It is likely that the drive to preserve the
oral traditions of previous generations was initiated at Yavneh as a central
part of this mission.

"Yavneh" is usually used to designate at least two full generations,
extending from 70 to 135 C.E.

The first Yavneh generation was dominated by such figures as Rabban
Johanan ben Zakkai (the academy's founder), Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanos and
Rabbi Joshua ben Hanania. The later Yavneh period (sometimes called "the
generation of Betar" with reference to the military centre of the Bar-Kokhba
insurrection) was known for the appearance of the two influential schools of
Rabbis Akiva and Ishmael, each of which formulated a distinctive approach to
the interpretation of the Torah.

Usha
The tragic aftermath of the Bar-Kokhba uprising saw the
complete destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and the devastation of the
region of Judea, the southern portion of the Land of Israel that had
hitherto been the main centre of Jewish religious leadership. This situation
led to widespread migration to the northern region, the Galilee, and the
seat of rabbbinic judicial authority resided for a while in the Galilean
village of Usha, home of Rabbi Meir.

By far the greatest proportion of Mishnah's contents derive from this
generation. Almost all the "Ushan" Rabbis mentioned in the Mishnah were
students of Rabbi Akiva. These include Rabbis Meir, Judah [bar Ilai], Simeon
ben Yohai, Yose [ben Halafta], Rabbi Eleazar [ben Shamua] and the Patriarch
(Nasi) Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel.

Bet Sha'arayim/Sepphoris: The Generation of the Redaction
On this,
see
below.

Redaction:
All ancient sources are in agreement
that the Mishnah was compiled by Rabbi Judah the "Prince," before his death
around 217 C.E. On the author see
below. It should be emphasized that--contrary to a view that appears in
many histories and introductions, and which is based on the writings of
medieval Spanish Jewish authorities--this redaction did not
involve writing down the traditions, but merely the determining and organizing
of a fixed text that was subsequently disseminated by memory. It is clear from
the internal evidence of the Talmud that the teachings of the Rabbis continued
to be studied orally throughout the Talmudic era, and this continued to be the
practice in the Babylonian academies well into the middle ages.

The Mishnah's redactor, who had studied with most of the important teachers
of the previous ("Usha") generation, assembled early redactions that had been
shaped in various different academies, combining them into a new and
integrated work. The Mishnah contains almost no material that is contemporary
with its redactor.

Author
Rabbi Judah ben Simeon bore the Hebrew title of
"Nasi," signifying the position of Patriarch, the official political
representative of the Jewish people.

From an internal Jewish perspective, the Nasi presided over
Judaism's supreme judiciary and legislative body, the Sanhedrin. The
title had become a hereditary one, almost without interruption, since the days
of the revered Hillel the Elder in the first century B.C.E.

In Talmudic texts, Rabbi Judah is usually referred to simply as "Rabbi" or,
by virtue of his legendary piety: "Rabbenu Ha-Qadosh" ("our holy
master").

Place
After migrating from Judea, Rabbi Judah the Prince resided
in Beit Sha'arayim, and later in Sepphoris, both in the Galilee. Presumably
the project of redacting the Mishnah was conducted in both locations.

Description
With a few significant exceptions (e.g., the tractate
"Avot" [="Fathers"]), the Mishnah deals only with the legal
component of the Jewish Oral Tradition, known in Hebrew as
"halakhah."

The Mishnah is distinguished by its topical organization,
dividing the traditions of Jewish religious law into six main areas,
designated as "sedarim" (singular: "seder"; English: "Orders"),
which are in turn divided into separate topical treatises, or tractates (in
Hebrew: "Masekhet." While the topical classification is the dominant
one, there are numerous digressions, several of which reflect the alternative
criteria of organization employed in previous stages of redaction. The six
orders of the Mishnah are:

Zera'im ("Seeds"): 11 tractates
Deals
mostly with portions of crops and foodstuffs that must be set aside for the
Priests and poor, etc., as well as other land-related regulations
(sabbatical years, mixed sowing, etc.).
The opening tractate,
Berakhot, is concerned with blessing and prayers.

Mo'ed ("Festivals"): 12 tractates

The weekly Sabbath and the cycle of annual festivals.

Nashim ("Women"): 7 tractates
Concerning
marriage, divorce, etc., including laws of oaths.

Neziqin ("Torts"): 10 tractates
Covers
the full range of civil and criminal laws, including the structure of the
judiciary itself. This order also includes two tractates (Avot and
'Eduyyot) that trace the history of Rabbinic authority.

Qodashim ("Sacred Things"): 11
tractates
About the Temple and sacrificial worship.

Tohorot ("Purity"): 12 tractates

About the rules of purity.

The order of tractates within an order is usually determined by the number
of chapters (in descending order). Zera'im does not fit this pattern.

Each tractate is divided into chapters, which are in turn composed of
numbered units, each of which is termed a mishnah or halakhah.
The normal manner of citation would thus be: Tractate Name chapter
number: mishnah number (e.g., Zevahim 4:2. The Mishnah citations in the
Babylonian Talmud are not numbered.

The Mishnah was clearly not designed to encompass the whole of the Oral
Torah tradition. The same Rabbis who contributed to it also figured
prominently in the Tannai'itic Midrashic collections.
The Mishnah form lent
itself most effectively to traditions that were not derived from Scripture or,
more commonly, to the unfolding of legal principles whose Biblical roots had
been so elaborated that they could be discussed adequately without having to
return to their exegetical origins.

In formulating its laws the Mishnah employs a number of different literary
structures:

Some rulings are cited anonymously, implying that they are not
contested.

Some rulings are subject to disputes between named Rabbis. In general,
the Mishnah is very laconic about describing only the contents of these
disputes (e.g.: "Rabbi X says: it is permitted, and Rabbi Y says: it is
forbidden"), without usually explaining their underlying reasons.

Often the Mishnah juxtaposes anonymous views with those of identified
Rabbis. If an anonymous opinion is placed after a named one, it is
introduced by the formula: "And the Sages say..."
The traditional
explanation of the above situation is that the anonymous views were intended
to represent the views of the majority, and hence are being presented as
legally normative.

Although most of the Mishnah is made up of legal
rulings and disputes, there are several other literary types included in it,
including midrashic segments (i.e., Biblical passages accompanied by their
Rabbinic interpretations), anecdotal precedents, extensive narrative
descriptions of rituals and procedures (especially of Temple ceremonies), and
more.

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