Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/526

Rh 504 MISHNAH answers this question : it is that the teacher or the judge of later ages may be thus enabled, if he have good grounds for taking a view different from that of the majority as given hundreds of years before, to reverse the old decision, by forming, on the strength of the example before him, with others who agree with him (or without them, if only one vote was wanted to reverse the majority) a fresh majority. Thus the Jewish &quot; oral law &quot; can never become ossified like the laws of the Medes and Persians. 5. Language. The Mishnah is, on the whole, written in almost pure Hebrew ; and even the originally non- Hebrew words (Aramaic, Greek, Latin, &c.) are so skil fully Hebraized that they are a most creditable testimony to the linguistic powers both of many of the disputants mentioned in it, whose very words are in most cases given, and of the editor l or editors who revised them. 6. Age and Authorship. R. Yehudah Hannasi (the Prince), the reputed author (in reality only the principal and best among the editors) of the- Mishnah, was born before the year 140 of the Christian era. His name was in full Yehudah b. Shime on b. Gamliel b. Shime on b. Gamliel 2 b. Shime on b. Hillel. On account of his holy living he was surnamed Rabbenu Hakkadosh, and on account of his great learning and authority he was called simply &quot;Rabbi&quot; (&quot; My Teacher&quot; par excellence). Rabbi and his time, however, are no terminus a quo for the composi tion of the Mishnah. For, not to speak of many isolated Mishniyyoth which can be brought home to R. Meir, to R. Akibah, to Hillel, 3 to Yose b. Yo ezer, 4 and to others, even to the earlier Sopherim, 5 we find that R. Yose b. Halaphta of the 1st century already quotes the beginning and end ing of a whole Mishnic treatise (Kelim c ), and that in the same century (or very early in the 2d) another treatise consisting of early testimonies (^Eduyyoth^} was put into order. Moreover, although the phrases Mishnath R. Eliezer b. Ya akob 8 and Mishnath It. Akibah g do simply signify the systems, styles, and views of these two eminent teachers, there can be little doubt that they and others besides them, presided over colleges in which the whole Halakhic matter was systematically treated and regularly gone through. Nor are Rabbi and his time for the composition of the Mishnah a terminus ad quern, for the Mishnah was not brought to a close till a very long time afterwards. Not only did R. Hiyya Rabbah, R. Hosha yah Rabbah, and Shime on bar Kappara redact Mishnayoth, ir&amp;gt; but in the Mishnah before us notices are actually found which reach to the end of the 3d century, if not even later. The statement that Rabbi was the first to write down the 1 The Hebrew spoken in the house of the principal editor of the Mishnah was- so correct that rabbis actually learnt the meaning of uncommon words of the Bible from the handmaidens of this house. See T. B., Rosh ITasshanah, 2Gb. As for Rabbi himself, he was not merely a fine Hebrew scholar, but a fine Greek scholar also. He was also a purist ; for in T. B., Sotah, 4Qb, he is reported to have exclaimed, &quot;Why should any one speak in Palestine Sursi ? Let him speak either Hebrew or Greek ! In using the word &quot; Sursi &quot; for &quot; Smith &quot; (Syriac), he no doubt makes a punning allusion to the mixed (cnt-up) c haracter of the language, corrupted from Hebrew, Chaldee, Persian, Greek, and Latin. 2 This was the teacher of St Paul. 3 In addition to such well-known AMC Mishniyyoth as those which are distinctly ascribed in Aboth to Hillel, see Mishnah Kiddiishin, iv. I ; and contrast it with the language and style of the Mishnah in general, and that of Massekhto Kiddvshin in particular. 4 Mishnah Eduyyoth, viii. 4. 5 See Mishnah Ma aser Sheni,. 7; Sotah, v. 1. 2; Nega im, xii. 5, 6, 7, &c. ; though it cannot be said that these passages preserve the teaching of the Sopherim in their original purity. c See Mishnah Kelim, in fine. 7 SeeT. B., Berakhoth, 2Sa : &quot; It is handed down orally (NJjn) that Edmjyothvas on that clay (when R. El azar b. Azaryah was installed as president) gone through,&quot; i.e., redacted. 8 T. B., Vcbamoth, 496. 9 Mishnah Synhedrin, iii. 4. 10 See Koheleth Rabbah on ii. 8 in media. Mishnah is untrue, because the thing is impossible. For the two Talmuds, of which that of Babylonia was not finished before the Gth century (if then), know, certainly, nothing of the writing down of the Mishnah. On the contrary, their language throughout presupposes the Mish nah in their time to have been what its name indicates, a repetition, i.e., a thing acquired by continual recitation, because, like the other works of the &quot; oral law &quot; ( Torah shebbeal peh), it was to be, and was, handed down orally. 11 As for the difficulty of keeping in memory such a stu pendous and vast work as the Mishnah, it is sometimes forgotten in this controversy that memory was aided by a great variety of mnemotechnic means, such as numbers and names of teachers, and by the existence of other works of the &quot; oral law,&quot; which, although they also were not written down, could be easily kept in memory because they rested on letters, words, and verses of the written Pentateuch. Anyhow, there is ample evidence, both nega tive and positive, that the Mishnah as we now have it was not committed to Avriting in the times of Rabbi or for long afterwards. But it certainly does not follow that no merit is due to Rabbi in connexion with the Mishnah. His merit in connexion with it is great in every way. For (1) Rabbi was himself a link in the chain of tradition, since he had &quot;received&quot; from his own father and so on up to his ancestor Hillel and even higher; (2) he gave in the Mishnah his own decisions, in most cases in accordance with those of the famous R. Meir, which are thus in a great part secured to us ; (3) in giving his own decisions he preserved to us also a good many decisions of the teachers of the 2d century ; (4) in collecting all these decisions he anxiously ascertained the genuine formulas of the older Mishniyyoth; 1 2 (5) he did not merely reproduce the formulas which he esteemed the best, but discussed them anew in his own college, which was composed of men of the highest eminence, as is well known ; (6) although he gave on the whole the very language of the teachers who preceded him, he gauged it, guarding it against the barbarisms which are so plentiful in the other works of the &quot; oral law &quot; ; and (7) he scattered the Mishnah broadcast (though only by word of mouth) over all Palestine and Babylonia by means of the disciples who flocked to him from all parts of those countries. If the Mishnah, as it now exists, is not entirely his, it certainly belongs to him in a great measure and in more than one sense. 7. Value and Appreciation. Whatever can be said in favour of the Agadah applies with equal if not greater force to the Mishnah, as the latter is a canonical and therefore more reliable work of the &quot;oral law.&quot; The Mishnah is one of the richest mines of archaeology which the world possesses. But it waits yet for the master touch to break the spell which holds it bound. Great, however, as the value of the Mishnah is, its popu larity has never been steady, but has been continually fluctuating, and that for various reasons. Even Rabbi in his time had to appeal for due attention to it. &quot;Yhilst it was neglected in troublous times by the masses, who ran after the Agadah, 13 which, besides being consoling, needed no particular study, it was, in prosperous times, neglected by the rabbis themselves through the study of the Bible and the Talmud. 14 And much more was this 11 See particularly T. B., Bobo Metsio, 33 and b ; and compare also Rashi, in loco. 12 See T. Y., Maascr Sheni, v. 1; and compare the preceding note. 13 See MIDRASH, p. 285, note 14. 14 R. Yohanan said, This Mishnah (Borailho), that no study can ex cel that of Gemara, was taught in the time of (and by) Rabbi himself. Then the people went after Gemara and neglected the study of the Mish nah. Whereupon lie again bade them ever run more after Mishnah than after Gemara. T. B., Bobo Mctsi o, 336, and Rashi, in loco.