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
Scriptures whose meaning it set out to define. As such it needed to be preserved in a form making it all but inaccessible to anyone but
those privileged to share in the face-to-face learning community of rabbinic discipleship.
The richest source for this view is a well-known passage that appears, with variations, in no less than three tractates of the Talmud
Yerushalmi. The opening unit of the discussion seems to have emerged in reflection upon M. Peah 2:6, in which Nahum the Liblarios
(“copyist”) presents, as a “halakhah to Moses on Sinai,” a certain ruling regarding the leaving of corner-offerings in fields sown with two
kinds of wheat. Accordingly, I cite the version preserved in Y. Peah 2:6, 17a: 49
1. Said Rabbi Zeira in the name of Rabbi Yohanan: If a halakhah comes to your attention and you can't comprehend it, don't set it aside
end p.142
The authorities mentioned in this passage lived from the first half of the third century (Rabbi Yehoshua b. Levi) through the first half of the
fourth (Rabbi Haggai, Rabbi Avin). All but Rabbi Yehoshua b. Levi were younger contemporaries of Rabbi Yohanan (d. 279) or members of
discipleship circles descended from his own. The editor shows no interest in a chronological arrangement of opinions and, as is common
in the Yerushalmi, makes little effort to place the materials at his disposal into some sort of explicit sequence. The result is a series of
discrete units of tradition (1–2, 3–5, 6–7, 8–9) pursuing no cumulative argument. But its several parts offer diverse expositions of how the
Amoraic Sages surrounding Rabbi Yohanan understood the origins and significance of the torah they transmitted by mouth to their
disciples.
Unit 1–2, responding to the Mishnaic comment, simply reinforces the well-attested Tannaitic notion that some halakhot entered the
rabbinic tradition as early as Sinai. The point is merely to encourage the student to make every effort to grasp the inner details of the
halakhic norms with which he is engaged, since one can never know which elements of the oral tradition may have Sinaitic origins.
An obscure verse in Hosea is thoroughly resignified at unit 3–5 in terms of the oral tradition, which is now claimed to constitute the major
portion of the revelation
end p.143
for another matter. For indeed, many halakhot were spoken to Moshe on Sinai, and all of them are embedded in the Repeated Tradition
[mšnh]. 50
2. Said Rabbi Avin: Quite so! [Take this ruling about] two kinds of wheat—had Nahum not come and explained [its origins] for us,
would we have known?
3. Rabbi Zeira in the name of Rabbi Leazar [b. Pedat]: “Shall I write for him the greater portion of my Torah? [They would be like
strangers!]” (Hos. 8:12). Now, indeed, is the majority of the Torah written down? Rather, matters derived from Scripture outnumber
those derived from [what is taught by] the mouth [as halakhah to Moshe from Sinai]. 51
4. Really now! Rather, put it this way: Matters derived from [what is taught] by mouth are more precious than those derived from
Scripture. 52
5. Even so: “They would be like strangers!” (Hos. 8:12). Said Rabbi Avin: Were I to write for you [i.e., Moshe] the greater portion of my
Torah, wouldn't they [i.e., Israel] still be regarded as strangers?
[That is:] What distinguishes us from the Gentiles? These produce their books and those produce their books; these produce their
records (dyptr’ ) and those produce their records! 53
6. Rabbi Haggai in the name of Rabbi Shmuel b. Nahman: Some things were spoken by mouth and others in script—yet we would not
know which are more precious but for this which is written: “I have established a covenant with you and with Israel through these things
taught orally (‘l py hdbrym h'lh : Ex. 34:27)! 54 This proves that those in the mouth are more precious! 55
7. Rabbi Yohanan and Rabbi Yudan b. Rabbi Shimon:
One said—if you preserve what is in the mouth and you preserve what is in script, I will establish My covenant with you. But if
not, I will not establish My covenant with you.
The other said—if you preserve what is in the mouth and you fulfill what is in script, you will be rewarded. But if not, you will
not be rewarded.
8. It is written: “And on them was written according to all the words which the Lord spoke to you on Sinai” (Dt. 9:10).
Rabbi Yehoshua b. Levi said:
Instead of “on them” we read “AND on them.” Instead of “all” we read “ACCORDING to all.” Instead of “words” we read “THE words.”
[These superfluous textual elements indicate that] Scripture, Repeated Tradition, Dialectics, and Homiletics—and even what a trained
disciple (tlmyd wt yq) 56 will in the future expound before his Master—all were already spoken to Moshe on Sinai.
9. What's the proof? “Is there anything of which it can be said, See this is new?” (Qoh. 1:10) His companion will reply: “It has been
since eternity!” (Qoh. 1:10)
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