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
B. In regard to the same-day immerser, they would argue with him.
He said to them: Tithe may be eaten by a same-day immerser, but heave offering only by a sun-setter. Tithe, which is eaten by a
same-day immerser—all the more so should they enhance its sanctity. . . . 63
They said to him: If we preserve them [i.e., the ashes prepared by sun-setters], we give a bad name to the former ones [who
prepared the ashes as same-day immersers], for people will say: They were unclean.
They decreed concerning it, and poured it out, and went and prepared another [under the auspices] of a same-day immerser.
Comment: The Toseftan context confers no intelligibility upon the passage unless we already know that it disputes M. Par. 3:5's claim
that the High Priest, Yishmael b. Phiabi, had offered only one cow during his career. This is the first Toseftan passage of the chapter that
unambiguously requires for its intelligibility a corresponding passage of M. Parah. Had this passage appeared as M. Par. 3:5C–D, we
would have regarded it as an expansion of discourse like many others appearing in the Mishnah. Its acontextual setting in the redacted
Toseftan chapter suggests that it was formed as a comment on M. Par. 3:5 but proved too lengthy for use in the sequence of spare
commentary on the core narrative selected by the redactor. Accordingly, it was omitted at the time of the Mishnaic redaction. It is
preserved by the Toseftan editor, who assumes that a teacher of the text will explicate the referent of the tradition for an audience of
students. The overall effect is
end p.117
to confirm Rabbi Meir's Mishnaic view that Yishmael b. Phiabi offered only one legitimate cow.
M. Par. 3:6
A. And they prepared a ramp from the Temple Mount to the Mount of Olives, arches upon arches, each arch overarching a solid mass
Comment: The narrative voice resumes at A–B, describing the procession from the Eastern Gate (see M. Middot 1:3) and the precautions
taken to prevent contamination from hidden sources of corpse matter as the cow's procession made its way from the Temple Mount to the
site of the sacrificial rite and burning, on the Mount of Olives.
T. Par. 3:7
Comment: A rejoins the narrative represented in the Mishnah. B interrupts, providing an utterly different picture of the structure supporting
the procession. Rabbi Eliezer's scenario takes no precautions against contamination, reflecting the view that the cow itself cannot become
unclean while alive. 64 The wooden slabs on top of the pillars simply serve as a covenient structure for the procession. 65
It is possible that Rabbi Eliezer's opinion reflects an alternative narrative repressed by the Mishnah, rather than a legal tradition per se.
That narrative would have replaced A (in both the Mishnah and the Tosefta) as follows: “Pillars of marble were implanted there and boards
of cedar on top of them, upon which the priest who burns the cow, the cow, and all her attendants would proceed to the Mount of Olives.”
M. Par. 3:7
Comment: The narrative setting assumed at A is the processional up the ramp to the Mount of Olives, but A is not itself a narration.
Rather, like M. Par. 3:4A, it is a
end p.118
[insulating those above]from a submerged tomb.
B. Upon it the priest who burns the cow, the cow, and all her attendants would proceed to the Mount of Olives.
A. 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.
B. Rabbi Eliezer says: There was no ramp there, but pillars of marble were implanted there and boards of cedar on top of them, for the
cow had no need to go out on a ramp.
A. 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.
B. Rabbi Yose says: Not for this reason; rather because of what is said: “And he shall bring her out” (Num. 19:3)—by herself.
C. And the elders of Israel would precede [the cow] by foot to the Mount of Olives.
D. And an immersion chamber was there.
E. And they would contaminate the priest who burns the cow, because of the Sadducees, so they could not say: It was prepared by a
person [completely purified through]the setting sun.
legal opinion framed to fit smoothly into the narrative voice that structures the chapter. Rabbi Yose (B) agrees with the principle of A but
rejects the reasoning that some might suspect the integrity of the rite. Rather he offers a biblical grounding. C–E takes us up to the site of
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