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  • From: "Ishinan" <ishinan AT comcast.net>
  • To: "B-Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] WHY WAS THE MISHNAH WRITTEN DOWN? Was previously: Motivation for Vocalizing the Hebrew Old TestamentText
  • Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2010 02:15:17 -0500

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[RANDALL BUTH] - Your general motivations seem in the right direction but they don't explain an 1100-year gap. Why did it take from 400 BCE to 700 CE for the vowels and tunes to be recorded?
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[ISHINAN] - Apparently this can be blamed on a trend that had existed for a longtime among some members of the priesthood. They resisted writing down the "Oral Torah", let alone any attempt at its vocalization, leaving the process to be conveyed by word of mouth and memorized from teacher to student. In fact, didn't Rabbi ?iyya denounce every attempt to collect and commit Oral Torah to writing, and upon seeing such a collection he cursed the hand that wrote it? I guess the same may be applied to the written law. This trend rapidly dissipated in front of the rapid spread of the Plague of Justinian, which centuries later became infamous for either causing or contributing to the black death.

The plague began in 540, when people first fell ill in Pelsium east of the Egyptian Delta. Within a month, traders and itinerant scholars carried the disease to Alexandria and Palestine. The Historian Procopius of Caesarea, said that in the Spring of 542 the death toll in Constantinople alone, had reached 10,000 a day. By the year 600, the plague had reduced the population of the Mediterranean world by 40%. Such a massive mortality rate caused depopulation of the urban centers and created a structural imbalance in the society. One can easily understand that, under such a pandemic threat, the motivation for vocalizing the Hebrew Old Testament text for future generation became highly imperative.

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[RANDALL BUTH] - There is a related question that should be included. Why was the oral, unwritten law, written down? One reason is the natural capacity of a community to preserve an oral literature was reached. The Mishnah appears to be written down at a time when the tannaim were being stretched to the limit of their abilities to memorize vast amounts of text.
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[ISHINAN] - In exploring the logical principles underlying the Mishnah's original intention, many considerations seem to come into play.

For example, there were a great many dissensions taking hold in the religious community. During this time, "Beit Hillel" and "Beit Shammai" came to represent two distinct perspectives on Jewish law, and they bitterly engaged in endless heated disagreements. Until then there had been few disagreements among Rabbinic scholars. Jose ben Halafta, who was opposed to their controversy, declared that the antagonism between the schools of Shammai and Hillel made it seem as if there were two Torahs.

In addition, during this time, the Kohanim of the Temple became increasingly corrupt, while the office of the Kohen Gadol himself was rented out to the highest bidder and the priests routinely extorted as much as they could from the pilgrims who came to sacrifice at the Temple. Many of them were seen as collaborators with the Romans. The conflict between the high priesthood and the people led to the split between the Sadducees and the Pharisees.

This antagonism exposed different understandings by the community of the "Oral Torah", and consequently led to differences in their practical application.

Furthermore, according to Rav Sherira Gaon in his Iggeret (1)*, the persecution of the Jews after the destruction of the Temple and subsequent upheaval raised the possibility that the details of the oral traditions would be forgotten. To continue on this path would have led to disastrous results.

Fearing that the oral traditions were seriously undermined, Judah HaNasi, best known as the chief redactor and editor, undertook the mission of compiling oral traditions in what became known as the Mishnah *(2).


Best regards,

Ishinan Ishibashi



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*(1) IGGERET: A comprehensive history of the composition of the Talmud and inquiry into the origin of the Mishnah and the sequence of the redactions, throwing light upon many obscure passages of Jewish history.

*(2) The Mishnah was assembled spanned about 130 years, and five generations. The Tannaim whom approximately 120 are known who contributed to the Mishnah helped the collection of existing oral laws, traditions and traditional wisdom. Their work excluded the development of any new laws
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  • [b-hebrew] WHY WAS THE MISHNAH WRITTEN DOWN? Was previously: Motivation for Vocalizing the Hebrew Old TestamentText, Ishinan, 04/11/2010

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