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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 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) 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 at Sinai. At issue is the quantity of oral tradition derived directly from Moses in relation to the explicit Mosaic writings. In Rabbi Leazar's view (3), the rather small quantity of nonscriptural oral tradition originating with Moses is vastly exceeded by oral text-intepretive tradition stemming from the scriptural exegesis of later Sages. 57 Leazar's unnamed interlocutor (4) disputes this, offering the bold claim that the most precious element of the oral tradition is the portion, however small in quantity, that stands free of Scripture. The exegesis of the concluding stich of Hos. 8:12 explains why the oral tradition in general, and the Mosaic halakhot in particular, are so precious (5). In the game of religious one-upsmanship, each nation will produce its own historical genealogies to demonstrate its pedigree and accomplishments. In the oral-performative tradition, however, Israel has been given a gift that exempts it from this futile competition over literary tradition. This thought is thoroughly explored at unit 6–7, in which the wordplay grounded in the language of Ex. 24:27 plays the crucial role. The covenantal status of Israel is linked firmly not to the Scriptures that record the covenant agreement, but rather to the oral-performative tradition of the Sages that determines the application of the Scripture. The corpus of halakhic tradition has now replaced the tablets of Sinai as the symbolic representation of Israel's possession of divine love. While the oral tradition is, therefore, more precious (6), both the written and oral revelations are necessary (7). The foregoing sets the stage for the exposition of Rabbi Yehoshua b. Levi (8–9). Even though he is the earliest figure mentioned here, the tradition attributed to him stands as a kind of summary of the implications of what has gone before. Ignoring the more cautious perspectives of units 1–2 and 3–6, he offers the boldest claim about the nature of the oral tradition preserved among contemporary rabbinic Sages. Whatever insights dawn in the mind of a properly trained disciple are all an unfolding of the original oral disclosure to Moses. The most recent disciple, therefore, transmits in his mouth knowledge given by God to Moses at the very moment of the covenant's sealing. The guarantee of this is the disciple's own place in the line of tradition that extends, behind his own master, back to his master's master, and ultimately back to Moses himself. This passage is like a stone thrown into the pool of Galilean Amoraic tradition, sending textual ripples out in a variety of directions, reaching ultimately the Amoraic circles of Babylonia. 58 But for the present it will be helpful to trace the impact of its arguments and language on other textual traditions that circulated in the Galilean environment. A theme of only marginal importance in the cited text—the oral tradition as a principle of distinction between Israel and the Gentiles (unit 5)—gradually moved into prominence as, under Byzantine rule, the Christianization of the Land of Israel proceeded apace. By the close of the sixth century, the unwritten character of rabbinic tradition figured as a standard theme in rabbinic polemics defending the authority of rabbinic teachings against Christian theological critics. One text in particular carries within it loud echoes of the words just reviewed coming from the Galilean Amoraim in the circle of Rabbi Yohanan. It is preserved in a Palestinian homiletic collection of the late Byzantine period known as the Midrash of Rabbi Tanhuma (Ki Tissa 17): 59 end p.144 1. As for what Scripture says: “Shall I write for him the greater portion of my Torah?” (Hos. 8:12)—when the Blessed Holy One came to give the Torah, he spoke it to Moshe in a sequence: first the Scripture, then the Repeated Tradition (hmšnh), then Homiletics (h'gdh), and then Dialectics (htlmwd ), for it is said: “And God spoke all these things” (Ex. 21:1). [Thus,] even what a trained disciple might ask from his Master the Blessed Holy One spoke to Moshe at that moment, for it is said: “And God spoke all these things.” 2. When Moshe had mastered it all, the Blessed Holy One said to him: Go and teach it to My children! Said Moshe: Lord of the World, write it for Your children. He replied: I'd like to give it to them in script, but I know that one day the Nations of the World will subdue them and seek to take it from them, so that my sons will become like the other Nations. Rather: Let them have the Scriptures in writing. But the Repeated Tradition, Homiletics, and Dialectics shall remain in the mouth. 3. “And the Lord said to Moshe: write for Yourself” (Ex. 34:27)—this refers to Scripture. “But these are oral” (Ex. 34:27)—this refers to the Repeated Tradition and Dialectics, for these distinguish between Israel and the Nations of the World. This smooth composition displays a number of intertextual connections to Y. Peah 2:6 and its Yerushalmi parallels. Note first, at unit 1, the assumption, shared with Y. Peah (unit 3–5), that Hos. 8:12 conceals a reference to the orally transmitted rabbinic tradition of learning. The tradent of the current passage, however, has now brought Rabbi Yehoshua b. Levi's statement about the seasoned disciple (Y. Peah, unit 8) into closer relationship to the Hosea passage. Tanhuma unit 2, for its part, picks up and enriches Y. Peah unit 5’s note of competition between Israel and the Gentiles over the possession of written records. But now an entirely fresh issue has intruded into the discussion: at stake, it turns out, is the Gentile claim to possess the Scriptures of Israel. The point is driven home at unit 3, which restates in a fresh way the exegesis of Ex. 34:27 that figures so crucially in Y. Peah unit 6. Whereas the tradent of Y. Peah was concerned only to celebrate the covenantal preciousness of the oral tradition, Tanhuma's composer specifies that the covenantal 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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