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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 PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2003 - 2011. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/privacy_policy.html). Subscriber: Columbia University; date: 20 September 2011
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 the rite. D–E, in particular, focuses on the most controversial aspect of the rabbinic depiction of the rite: the contamination of the officiating priest so that he shall perform the slaughter and burning in a minor state of cultic impurity rather than in absolute purity. T. Par. 3:7–8 A. And they would contaminate the priest who burns the cow, because of the Sadducees, so they could not say: It was done by a Now Rabban Yohanan b. Zakkai understood and went to lay his two hands upon him. He said to him: Sir High Priest! How suitable you are to be High Priest! Descend and immerse once! He descended and immersed, and arose. After he arose, [Rabban Yohanan b. Zakkai] tore his ear. He said to him: ben Zakkai—I'll deal with you when I have time! He replied to him: When you have time! Not three days passed until they placed him in his grave. His father came to Rabban Yohanan b. Zakkai and said to him: ben Zakkai! My son won't have time! Comment: Sharing the Mishnaic narrative at A, the Tosefta interrupts with a second narrative in the form of a pronouncement story (B). The whole can be regarded as an explanation and illustration of the Mishnah 67 only if we insist that A is a citation of the Mishnaic text in its present form rather than a rendition of a narrative held in common by both the Mishnah and Tosefta and anterior to both versions. Without that assumption, what we have at B is an illustration of Rabban Yohanan b. Zakkai's exercise of Sages' traditions in the face of those priests who oppose them. Its exclusion from the Mishnaic account is explicable in light of the Mishnaic redactor's spare use of diverting glosses to supplement the core narrative. A second narrative would prove too disruptive. The looser redactional style pursued by the Tosefta permits greater freedom to introduce diverting material. For further comment on the italicized portion of B, see the comment to M. Par. 3:8 to follow. M. Par. 3:8 Comment: A describes the contamination of the priest through the laying on of hands and the command that initiates his purificatory immersion. B abrubtly shifts the narrative to the description of the pyre built for the immolation of the cow. end p.119 person [completely purified through]the setting sun. B. [T. Par. 3:8] An incident: C. A certain Sadducee 66 whose sun had set arrived to burn the cow. A. They rested their hands upon him and say to him: Sir High Priest! Immerse once! He descended and immersed, and arose and dried himself. B. And wood was arranged there: cedar, and pine, and spruce, and smoothed fig branches. And they make it like a kind of tower, and open up spaces within it, and its facade faces west. The italicized material at A is shared with T. Par. 3:8C's account of Rabban Yohanan's intentional contamination of the priest. The Mishnah can hardly be said to have drawn upon this story for its own language; nor has T. Par. 3:8C drawn upon the Mishnah's language. Rather, both reflect an anterior tradition regarding the formula for addressing the High Priest (attested as well at M. Yoma 1:3) and the sequence of his immersion. Each textualization, that is, draws freely for its narrative purposes from the oral-performative traditions current in the communities of the textual tradents. M. Par. 3:9 A. They tied her with ropes of reeds and placed her upon the pyre, her head southward and her face westward. B. The priest stands eastward and his face westward. C. He slaughtered with his right [hand]and received the blood with his left. D. Rabbi Yehudah says: With his right did he receive it, and he places it in his left. E. And he sprinkles with his right. F. He immersed [his finger] and sprinkled seven times toward the Holy of Holies, an immersion for each sprinkling. G. He finished sprinkling, wiping his hand on the body of the cow. H. He descended and kindled the fire with chips. I. Rabbi Aqiva says: with dried palm-branches. Comment: The immersion of the officiating priest completed, the narrative now moves to the slaughter of the cow (A–C), the sprinkling of its blood toward the Sanctuary (E–F), and the beginning of the immolation (G). D and I interrupt the narrative flow with briefly worded alternative scenarios that blend smoothly with the diction of the narrative. T. Par. 3:9–10 A. The place of her pit, and her pyre, and the immersion chamber were hollow [insulating those above] from a submerged tomb. PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2003 - 2011. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/privacy_policy.html). Subscriber: Columbia University; date: 20 September 2011
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