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
participated in the same oral performative culture that the Mishnah did” (p. 38). The recent Hebrew Union College dissertation of D. Nelson,
Textuality and Talmud Torah , pp. 120–172, has employed a similar model of oral-performative tradition for understanding the relationships
between the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael and the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon b. Yohai.
The most authoritative statement upon the relation of extant Toseftan materials to oral-performative antecedents is offered now by Y.
Elman, “Orality and the Transmission of Tosefta Pisha in Talmudic Literature,” pp. 123–180.
41. J. Foley, The Singer of Tales in Performance , p. 7.
42. For a far richer account of the presuppositions of the law, I refer the reader to the translation and commentary of Jacob Neusner, upon
the foundations of which the present study is built. See J. Neusner, A History of the Mishnaic Law of Purities , vol. 9, pp. 44–62, and his
summary of Mishnah–Tosefta relationships in vol. 10, p. 81–82. There he describes virtually the entire third chapter of the Tosefta, with
the exception of T. Par. 3:1, as a Toseftan commentary on the Mishnah.
43. The appendix to this volume offers a reconstruction of a hypothetical oral-peformative narrative that might have served as a source for
the written versions before us.
44. I translate the text of Albeck, Six Orders of the Mishnah , vol. 6, pp. 261–266.
45. I leave this term untranslated, as its reference is already under dispute in the mid-third century. According to Rabbi Shimon b. Laqish,
it refers to the entire Temple compound, while Rabbi Yohanan claims that it denotes a certain tower within it (Y. Pesahim 7:8, 35a and B.
Yoma 2a).
46. Some texts read prhdryn (“Parhedrin”). Lieberman (Tosefta Ki-fshutah, vol. 4, p. 717) sees here a reference to the Greek prohedroi, a
gathering place for city officials. In any event, the reference—like that to the Birah—is already unclear to second-century Tannaitic Sages
such as Rabbi Yehudah (T. Kippurim 1:1), and confusion continues into the third century (Y. Yoma 1:1, 38c, B. Yoma 8b–9a).
47. I translate the Toseftan text edited by K. Rengstorf, Die Tosefta, vol. 6:2, pp. 190–194.
48. J. Neusner, History of the Mishnaic Law of Purities , vol. 9, p. 49.
49. This point is made clear in B. Sukkah 21a's slightly expanded citation of M. Par. 3:2. See also Tosefot ad loc., s.v. yrdw .
50. MS Vienna: bny šmwnh ‘ rh šnh (“eighteen years old”). I follow the emendation of S. Lieberman, Tosefet Rishonim, vol. 3, p. 215, who
argues that a scribe misread the letters zayin and et (“seven,” “eight'”') as yod- et (“eighteen”). Lieberman's emendation was already
suggested by the traditional Tosefta commentators, David Pardo (Hasdei David , vol. 2, p. 111) and Elijah of Vilna (Biur haGR”A , ad loc).
51. According to Tosefot, B. Sukkah 21a, s.v. whtynwqwt, the reference is to the disputants, Rabbi Yose haGalili and Rabbi Aqiva, at M.
Par. 3:4B.
52. MS Vienna: mynym. Biur haGra , following Tosefot (B. Sukkah 21a, s.v. yrdw ), emends to dwqym, “Sadducees.” The emendation
seems preferable in light of the Second Temple milieu evoked by the narrative. Moreover, rabbinic memory is clear that Sages required
the rite to be conducted by a priest who had been purified by immersion on that day (e.g., Sifre Numbers 129 [ed. Horowitz, p. 166, l. 9
–10]). This is interpreted as a measure to counter Sadducean arguments that the rite was valid only if performed by a person whose
immersion had been followed by the setting of the sun.
On the other hand, most manuscripts of M. Par. 3:3G read mynym where the received text has dwqym. This suggests that the reading
“Sadducees” is a result of censorship. Finally, Neusner's analysis of the various legal strata of M-T Parah should be taken into account:
end p.199
[I]t is exceedingly difficult to demonstrate that the theory of making the priest unclean just prior to his immersion and then his act
of slaughter is known at Yavneh, and the rest of the Yavnean rulings on this subject . . . are clear that the highest degree . . . of
cleanness is to be required. Since it is at the time of Nathan that we have explicit reference to the tevul yom and clear evidence
that the rite is supposed to be carried out not in accord with Temple rules of cleanness . . . , I am inclined to suspect the matter
has been anachronistically assigned to Yavneans, primarily through stories. . . . But it was in fact an issue in Ushan or still later
times.
(J. Neusner, A History of the Mishnaic Law of Purities , vol. 10, pp. 151–152)
Neusner here seems to ignore M. Par. 3:7E/T. Par. 3:7–8A, in which all textual witnesses concur in assigning to the Sadducees the view
that the cow must be burned by a priest who has completed the entire purification process, including the setting of the sun. In light of this I
am inclined to prefer the reading “Sadducees” where there is an uncertainty in the textual tradition. See note 53.
53. J. Neusner, A History of the Mishnaic Law of Purities , vol. 9, p. 51, lists no less than eight manuscripts and early editions that read
mynym, “sectarians.” Rengstorf (Die Tosefta, vol. 6.2, p. 26, n. 24) prefers to emend the Mishnah in light of this evidence.
54. We saw earlier that T. Sanhedrin 7:1/T. Hagigah 2:9 recalled the Rampart as one of two sites in Jerusalem selected for convening
courts of three. According to M. Tamid 2:3, the Rampart was a walkway 10 cubits in width that circumscribed the Temple compound itself
and, with its appended partition, divided the compound from the surrounding plaza of the Temple Mount. The gate in question was the
Eastern Gate, leading into the Women's Court at the eastern extreme of the compound.
55. See Yom Tov Lipmann Heller, Tosefot Yom Tov , M. Par. 3:3, s.v. wbpt h‘zrh.
56. See Hasdei David , vol. 2, p. 111.
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