The Mishnah (; , from the verb lišnot, "to repeat") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions. These oral traditions are known as the "Oral Torah", to differentiate them from the (written) Torah, and both are believed in rabbinic tradition to have been revealed alongside each other to Moses at Mount Sinai. While the Torah was passed down in writing, the Oral Torah is believed to have been transmitted by Jewish scholars until the compilation of the Mishnah in the late second or early third century CE.The same meaning is suggested by the term Deuterosis ("doubling" or "repetition" in Koine Greek) used in Roman law and Patristic literature. However, it is not always clear from the context if the reference is to the Mishnah or the Targum, which could be regarded as a "doubling" of the Torah reading. The Mishnah is viewed as authoritative and binding revelation by most Orthodox Jews and some non-Orthodox Jews. The Mishnah is also the basis of the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud, which are both commentaries on the Mishnah.
According to tradition, the Mishnah arose during the persecution of Jews in the late second or early third century. Fearing that these events would lead to the oral traditions of the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE) being forgotten, Judah ha-Nasi compiled the Mishnah in its current form,H. Graetz, History of the Jews, vol. 6, Philadelphia 1898, p. 105 either in Beit Shearim or in Sepphoris. It was mainly written in Mishnaic Hebrew, but some parts are also in Jewish Aramaic. The oldest surviving physical fragments are from the 6th to 7th centuries.
Etymology Mishnah comes from the verb shanah, which means "to repeat", "to study", "to heed oral instruction", or "to teach".
Authorship
Traditional accounts, especially the Iggeret of Sherira Gaon, credit Judah ha-Nasi ("Judah the Prince") with the final redaction and publication of the Mishnah, including arranging the Mishnah from earlier tannaitic traditions.The plural term (singular tanna) for the Rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah; from the Aramaic root tanna (תנא) equivalent for the Hebrew root shanah (שנה), as in Mishnah. Modern scholarship likewise treats the Mishnah as a redacted collection rather than a work composed at a single moment. Although Judah's redaction became authoritative, the received text appears to contain some later additions or supplements. Examples commonly cited include the end of tractate Sotah, which refers retrospectively to Judah ha-Nasi’s death, and traditions associated with Judah II, Judah ha-Nasi’s grandson, such as the ruling permitting oil prepared by non-Jews.
The Babylonian Talmud preserves a tradition that the anonymous rulings in the Mishnah can be attributed to the school of Rabbi Akiva, especially his pupil Rabbi Meir. This tradition was cited by Sherira Gaon's account of the development of the Mishnah. However, modern scholars treat this tradition as evidence for earlier collections and schools of thought, instead of proof of authorship going back to individual rabbis.
Scholars have also debated the relative role of written aides and oral traditions in the formation of the Mishnah; these modes were not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Structure
Division The Mishnah is arranged by subject matter, and is divided into six "orders" (, singular ). More often referring to the entire Talmud, the Mishnah may also be called the Shas (meaning "Six Orders"). Tradition attributes this division back to its author, Judah Ha-Nasi.
Except for Zeraim, the orders are arranged from longest (in number of chapters) to shortest. A popular mnemonic for these orders is the acronym "Z'MaN NaKaT".
Each order contains 7–12 tractates (, singular ; lit. "web"), 63 in total. Tractates are divided into chapters (, singular ) and then paragraphs (, singular ). In this last context, the word mishnah means a single paragraph of the work, i.e. the smallest unit of structure, leading to the use of the plural, "Mishnayot", for the whole work.
According to the Babylonian Talmud, Hagigah 14a:9, there were originally six to seven hundred orders of the Mishnah, with only six surviving to the present.
The Six Orders Order 1: Zeraim (Seeds) dealing with prayer and blessings, tithes and agricultural laws (11 tractates) Order 2: Moed (Festival) about the laws of the Sabbath and the Festivals (12 tractates) Order 3: Nashim (Women) concerning marriage and divorce, some forms of oaths and the laws of the nazirite (7 tractates) Order 4: Nezikin (Damages) dealing with civil and criminal law, the functioning of the courts and oaths (10 tractates) Order 5: Kodashim (Holy items) regarding sacrificial rites, the Temple, and the dietary laws (11 tractates) and Order 6: Tohorot (Purities) pertaining to the laws of purity and impurity, including the impurity of the dead, food purity, and bodily purity (12 tractates)
Content and purpose The goal of the Mishnah is to enable the everyday practice of the 613 Commandments of the Torah and allow them to guide all aspects of human living, a task that became increasingly needed in Jewish life since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.
Oral law
Before the publication of the Mishnah, Jewish scholarship and judgement were predominantly oral, as according to the Talmud, it was not permitted to write them down.Babylonian Talmud, Temurah 14b; Gittin 60a. The earliest recorded oral law may have been of the midrashic form, in which halakhic discussion is structured as exegetical commentary on the Torah, with the oldest surviving written material dating to the 6th to 7th centuries CE. Rabbis expounded on and debated the Tanakh without the benefit of written works (other than the Biblical books themselves). However, some may have made private notes () for example of court decisions. The oral traditions were far from monolithic and varied among various schools, the most famous of which were the Houses of Hillel and Shammai.
After the First Jewish–Roman War in 70 CE, with the end of the Second Temple center in Jerusalem, Jewish social and legal norms were in upheaval. The rabbis faced the new reality of Judaism without a Temple to serve as the center of teaching and study and a Judea without autonomy. During this period, Rabbinic discourse began to be recorded in writing. Strack theorizes that the growth of a Christian canon (the New Testament) was a factor that influenced the Rabbis to record the oral law in writing.The theory that the destruction of the Temple and subsequent upheaval led to the committing of Oral Law into writing was first explained in the Epistle of Sherira Gaon and often repeated. See, for example, Grayzel, A History of the Jews, Penguin Books, 1984, p. 193. The possibility was felt that the details of the oral traditions of the Pharisees from the Second Temple period (530s BCE / 3230s AM – 70 CE/ 3830 AM) would be forgotten, so the justification was found to have these oral laws transcribed. (html)Though as shown below, there is some disagreement about whether the Mishnah was originally put in writing.
Over time, different traditions of the Oral Law came into being, raising problems of interpretation. According to the Mevo Hatalmud, many rulings were given in a specific context but would be taken out of it, or a verdict was revisited, but the second ruling would not become popularly known. To correct this, Judah the Prince took up the redaction of the Mishnah. If a point was of no conflict, he kept its language; where there was conflict, he reordered the opinions and ruled and clarified where context was not given. The idea was not to use his discretion but to examine the tradition as far back as he could and only supplement as required.
The Mishnah and the Torah
According to Rabbinic Judaism, when the Written Torah was revealed to Moses at Mount Sinai, it was also accompanied by an Oral Torah, an authoritative oral tradition transmitted through the ages by the sages. Rabbinic sources present this oral tradition as the basis for interpreting and applying the Written Torah, and sometimes as necessary even for its proper reading and liturgical performance. Later rabbinic teaching could also be conceptualized as part of what had already been revealed at Sinai, even when articulated by sages of subsequent generations.
Much of the Mishnah formulates rabbinic law connected with biblical commandments, but it usually presents its rulings as independent legal traditions rather than deriving them explicitly from biblical verses. For this reason, the Mishnah is arranged topically, by orders and tractates, rather than as a running commentary on Scripture. By contrast, the tannaitic halakhic midrashim organize legal material according to the sequence of biblical verses and present many laws as arising from scriptural interpretation, although the distinction between the two genres is not absolute. Some rabbinic laws were understood as received traditions rather than as laws derived directly from Scripture, including the special category known as halakhah le-Moshe mi-Sinai ("Law given to Moses at Sinai").
Mishnah studies Manuscripts Mostly-complete manuscripts (mss.) bolded. Each is missing pages, some of which have been replaced by later hands. The earliest extant material witness to rabbinic literature of any kind is dated to the 6th to 7th centuries CE, see Mosaic of Rehob. Usual name Formal designation Place written Period written Description Kaufmann Hungarian Academy of Sciences Library Kaufmann ms. A50 Italy 12th–13th C. Considered the best manuscript, it forms the base text of all critical editions. Vocalization is by a different, later hand. Parma A Biblioteca Palatina ms. Parm. 3173 Otranto, Italy Late 11th C. Partially the work of MS Vat. ebr. 31's scribe, which MS was copied in 1072–3. Probably the oldest mostly-complete manuscript. Palestinian-tradition orthography. About half is vocalized in the Babylonian tradition (not Babylonian diacritics). Cambridge / Lowe Cambridge University Library ms. Add. 470 (II) Byzantine A very careless copy, it is nonetheless useful where the Kaufmann text is corrupt. Parma B Biblioteca Palatina ms. Parm. 2596 North Africa(?) 12th C. Tohorot only. Fully vocalized by the original scribe and contains teamim, including an early question mark.MS "A" etc.Scattered geniza fragmentsMiddle East10th C.The earliest manuscript fragments of the Mishna, which date to the 10th century, were discovered in the Cairo Geniza. Judith Olszowy-Schlanger has claimed that some are 9th century, but this is not generally accepted. Yemenite ms. National Library of Israel quarto 1336 Yemen 17–18th C. Nezikin to Tohorot. The consonant text is dependent on early printed editions. The value of this ms. lies exclusively in the vocalization. Printed editions The first printed edition of the Mishnah was published in Naples. There have been many subsequent editions, including the late 19th century Vilna edition, which is now the most widely available edition.
Several vocalized editions of the Mishnah were printed in early modern Italy, including the Venice 1737 edition of David ben Solomon Altaras, which became influential in later Italian and Sephardic printings. The Livorno editions in particular are important evidence for Sephardic traditions of Mishnah vocalization and recitation.
In printed editions of the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, the Mishnah is printed together with the corresponding Gemara, which comments on and discusses its rulings. The Mishnah text transmitted in the Talmuds is not always identical with the text transmitted in independent Mishnah manuscripts and editions; citations and discussions in the Gemara may preserve variant readings, some of which are important for reconstructing the history of the Mishnah text.
Critical editions