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
D. Rabbi Yehudah says: Oxen whose bellies are broad, so that the children's feet should not protrude and become contaminated from a
Comment: A–C shares the Mishnaic narrative but differs from that text in three respects. The first is B's reference to the age of the
children, which is unknown to M. 3:2B. This does add a piece of information to the Mishnaic narrative, but we cannot judge whether this is
an exegetical amplification of the Mishnah on the part of the Tosefta or an abbreviation of a minor detail in the Toseftan version on the
part of the redactor of the Mishnah.
The other two textual divergences stem from a difference of opinion on the part of the Mishnaic and Toseftan compilers. C omits M. Par.
3:2C's specification that the children on the oxen carry stone cups in their hands. In the Mishnah these are used to draw the water from
the Siloam as the children dismount (M. Par. 3:2D), whereas the Tosefta omits this reference to dismounting entirely. Both of the Toseftan
end p.114
deviations are explained by the fact that the Tosefta seems to share Rabbi Yose's (M. Par. 3:2E) concern that the children be protected
from even the remotest possibility of contamination (D–E). The key point for the Tosefta is at F, which has the stone cups suspended
from the oxen's horns. This requirement eliminates any need for the children to descend and also explains why they are not holding the
cups in their hands. G records Aqiva's objection; presumably he would follow the procedure known from the Mishnah lest “sectarians”
(more likely, Sadducees, as in M. 3:3G) ridicule the stringencies imposed by rabbinic tradition.
Has the Tosefta modified the narrative as it appears now in the M. Par. 3:2A–D, or does the Tosefta tell the story in light of its own
conception (shared with the Mishnah's Rabbi Yose) of the hyper-purity of the rite? Or, perhaps, does the Mishnaic story retell the Tosefta's
from the perspective of a less rigorous insistence on protection from contamination? There are no grounds here for choosing among these
explanations. The Mishnah and the Tosefta tell the story differently—that is all that can be said. Behind each version of the narrative, I
would suggest, stands an oral-performative narrative tradition upon which each preserved version draws in accord with its own perspective
on the requirements of the rite.
M. Par. 3:3
Comment: The Mishnah's narrative relates nothing about the journey from Siloam, where the narrative had last placed us, to the Temple
Mount. In the new setting, interest shifts from preserving the purity of those gathering the water to the preservation of the ashes
themselves from contamination (A–F). Rabbi Yose finds the precautions absurd (in contrast to his position on gathering the water [M. Par.
3:2E]). He prefers to abandon it lest rabbinic authority be undermined by Sadducean taunts. His language echoes that ascribed to Rabbi
Aqiva at T. Par. 3:3G.
end p.115
submerged tomb.
E. And all 51 agree that the children require immersion [before they may sprinkle].
F. [T. Par.3:3] They said before Rabbi Aqiva in the name of Rabbi Yishmael: Cups of stone were hung on the oxen's horns. When the
oxen knelt to drink, the cups were filled.
G. He said to them: Don't give the sectarians 52 a chance to challenge!
A. They arrived at the Temple Mount and dismounted.
B. The Temple Mount and the Courts—beneath them was a hollow space [insulating those above] from a submerged tomb.
C. And at the entrance to the Court there was prepared a jar of purification ash.
D. 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.
E. And he beats the male, and it recoils backward.
F. And he takes [the spilled ash]and sanctifies it [in water ] so that it is visible on the surface of the water.
G. Rabbi Yose says: Don't give the Sadducees 53 a chance to challenge! Rather, he takes it and sanctifies.
T. Par.3:4–5
A. They arrived at the Gate opening from the Women's Court to the Rampart. 54
B. And jars of stone were embedded in the stairs of the Women's Court, and their covers of stone were visible to the Rampart.
C. 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)
D. (T. Par. 3:5) He beats the male and he recoils backward , and the ash is spilled.
E. He takes [the spilled ash]and sanctifies it [in water ] and sprinkles from that which was spilled.
F. These procedures they did when they went up from Exile—the words of Rabbi Yehudah.
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