Torah in the Mouth.pdf

Torah in the Mouth, Writing and Oral Tradition in Palestinian Judaism, 200 BCE - 400 CE
Jaffee, Martin S., Samuel and Althea Stroum Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Washington
Print publication date: 2001, Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: November 2003
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-514067-5, doi:10.1093/0195140672.001.0001
so he could become like the ministering angels. (Avot de-Rabbi Natan A1 [ed. Schechter, p. 1])
In the study circle of the master, the beams streaming from Moses' sanctified form illuminated the face of the disciple as well. The glow
would even accompany one into the world to come. There, where neither wealth nor wine might follow, one's torah alone would bring one
into the community of the transformed, the community of angels.
end p.156
Appendix
The following text, based upon the literary analyses offered on pp. 111–123, represents a reconstruction of the hypothetical oral-
performative narration of the burning of the cow as it is attested by the fragmentary materials of the Mishnah and Tosefta. Text in plain
type corresponds to material found solely in the Mishnah. Italicized text is shared virtually identically in the Mishnah and the Tosefta, and
boldtype corresponds to material preserved solely in the Tosefta. All text-critical and exegetical notes, present in my earlier literary
analyses, have been omitted for purposes of clarity.
(M. Par. 3:1) Seven days prior to the burning of the cow they separate the priest who burns the cow from his home to the chamber
overlooking the Birah. In the northeast it was, and the Stone House was it called.
And they sprinkle upon him all the seven days from all the purifications that were there.
(M. Par. 3:2/T. Par. 3:2) Quarters there were in Jerusalem built upon stone, and beneath them was a hollow space [insulating those
above]from [contamination by]a submerged tomb.
And they bring pregnant women to give birth there, and there they raise their sons until they are seven or eight years.
And they bring oxen, and upon them are doors, and the children sit upon them , and cups of stone are in their hands.
Upon reaching the Siloam, they dismounted and filled them, and remounted and sat upon them.
(M. Par. 3:3) They arrived at the Temple Mount and dismounted.
The Temple Mount and the Courts—beneath them was a hollow space [insulating those above] from a submerged tomb.
(T. Par. 3:4) They arrived at the Gate opening from the Women's Court to the Rampart.
end p.157
(M. Par. 3:3) At the entrance to the Court there was prepared a jar of purification ash.
(T. Par. 3:4) And jars of stone were embedded in the stairs of the Women's Court, and their covers of stone were visible to the
Rampart.
And within them are the ashes of each and every cow that they had burned, as it is said: “And it shall be stored away for the
congregation of Israel, as waters of lustration, for purification” (Num.19:9).
(M. Par. 3:3/T. Par. 3:5) And they bring a male sheep and tie a rope between his horns, and tie a staff with a bushy end to the rope, and
he throws it into the jar, and beats the male, and he recoils backward.
And he takes [the spilled ash ]and sanctifies it [in water ]so that it is visible on the surface of the water , and sprinkles from that which
is spilled.
(M. Par. 3:4) They would not prepare a purification offering in tandem with [the preparations for] a [prior] purification offering, nor a child in
tandem with his fellow.
(M. Par. 3:5)If they did not find [ashes] from seven [previous purification offerings], they would prepare from six, five, four, three, two, or
one.
(M. Par. 3:6/T. Par. 3:7) And they prepared a ramp from the Temple Mount to the Mount of Olives, arches upon arches, each arch
overarching a solid mass [insulating those above]from a submerged tomb . Upon it the priest who burns the cow, the cow, and all her
attendants would proceed to the Mount of Olives.
(M. Par. 3:7) If the cow did not want to go—they do not bring out a black one with her, lest they say: They slaughtered the black one; nor
a red one, lest they say: they slaughtered two.
And the elders of Israel would precede [her] by foot to the Mount of Olives.
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