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516 Baraita Baraita of the Forty-nine Rules

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Amoraim, and its unequal influence upon the development of the Halakah. The time of the first amoraim was a time of conflict between the Mishnah and the Baraita but at so early a period as that of the most prominent Palestinian amoraim of the second generation the rule had been established that of the



the teachings not officially delivered in the academies could not lay claim to authority (Ver. 'Er. i.

In the same spirit was the rule

19J).

Authority of the Baraita.

Babylonian Talmud that no reliance should be placed on Baraitas not in the

embodied in the collections of Hi^'j-ah and Hoshaya (Hul. 141a et seq.) for

these were the only Baraita collections taught in the academies (Sherira, First Letter, ed. Neubauer, p. But even these favored Baraitas possessed au15). thority only in so far as they did not clash with the Mishnah (for numerous instances see Sherira, ib.).

Cases in which the

Talmud

sides with the Baraita

Mishnah are Aery rare indeed, only one such case can be adduced with certainty (Lampronti, "Pahad Yizhak," i. 52). Nevertheless, certain amoraim gave special attention to the study of

in opposing the

the Baraita.

The



principal of these in Babylonia

were Sheshet and Joseph b. Hiyyah, of the third generation of amoraim, who prided themselves on their knowledge of the Baraita ('Er. i. 67u compare also the remark of R. Joseph in Git. 6b). In general, however, the Babylonians did not possess so intimate a knowledge of the Baraita as did the Palestinians, who could state the origin and development If, nevertheless, of each Baraita with exactitude. some Baraitas remained unknown to the Palestinians, though familiar to the Babylonians, it was due to the fact that independent Halakot collections were made in Babylonia, prior to the redaction of the Mishnah, which never became widely known in

Palestine (Sherira, ib. p. 16). Weiss, however, is not quite right in asserting ("Dor," iii. 32) that the many scholars during the amoraic period, who are called " Tannaim " and are referred to in the Talmud as "arrangers of 'Mislmayot' before the Babylonian scholars," were those who carried the Baraitas from Palestine to Babylonia (I. Halevy, "Dorot haiii. 4, 5; see also Tannaim). They, in were the very ones who transmitted numerous Halakot and halakic Midrashim, which remained wholly unknown to the Yerushalmi, and for whose sources the Palestinian Baraita collections might have served just as well as the Babylonian. In post-Talmudic times, " Baraita " came to be the general designation of those works which either originated or were claimed to have originated in the time of the Tannaim. Hence, in a wider sense, the word can be applied to the Tosefta and the halakic

Rishonim,"

fact,

Midrashim. It is probable that the Geonim and later generations of scholars were acquainted with some Baraita

now unknown.

Hai Gaon reports that he saw in the possession of an old scholar supplements to the Mishnah (" Sha'are Teshubah," 1858, No. 143). A Baraita on the stones in the "hoshen" (breastplate) and "ephod" and en the "degalim" collections

(banners)

was consulted by

monides, but seems

now

so late a writer as Maito be entirely lost (Epstein,

516

"Mi-Kadmoniyot," pp. 83-90; compare Mishnah, Midrasii, Tosefta. Bibliography

Z. Frankel, Darke ha-Mixhnah, pp. 218, 311313; idem, Melio, 22a et seq.; HolTmanu, Zur Etnleituuff in die Hahielusclreii Midrasehint, pp. J -3, 79-81 ; Abraham Krochmal, Yerusltatoim 1ia-lleimiiali,pp.<ietsefi.; idem, in He-Haluz, iii. lis et seq.: Nahman Krochmal, Moreh Nelmki ha-Zcman, pp. 2UII et seq.; Lampronti, Patiad Yizfyak, Oppenueira, 'in Bet' Tell1st ed., i. 52a et set/., s.v. np-»-i3 it}ud, ii. 318 et seq.; idem, in Kenesct Yisrael, ii. 50 et seq.; Sherira Gaon, First Letter; Weiss, Dor Dor we-Dorshaw, ii. 189 et seq., 239-241, iii. 3 ; Zunz, (J. V. 2d ed., p. 52.



T.

L. G.

SR.

BARAITA ON THE (TREATISE) ABOT (flUtO Xn^ia), called also Perek R. Meir ; and Perek Kinyan ha-Torah (" Chapter About Acquisition of the

Law

"):

A

Baraita consisting of eleven

paragraphs on the excellences of the Torah and on the right way to become acquainted with it. This Baraita claims to be » supplement to the treatise Abot, having as. a superscription the words; "The sages taught ["shanu hakamin "] in the language of the Mishnah." The first part of the sentence,

"The sages taught," shows that this section constitutes a Baraita which in the Talmud is cited with the formula, "The sages taught." The Baraita mentions, besides R. Mei'r, author of the first sentence (whence the Baraita is known by his name), Joshua b. Levi, Simon b. Menasia, Jose b. Kisma, and Simon b. Yohai, whose teaching was transmitted by Simon b. Menasia or, as some versions have it, by Simon b. Judah. The mention of the amora Joshua b. Levi in a work claiming tannaite origin justifies the supposition that the redaction of is of comparatively recent date, belonging to a time in which there, no longer existed an exact knowledge of the chronology of the Tannaim and Amoraim. Most of the sayings of this Baraita, with greater or slighter variations, occur in the Babylonian and the Palestinian Talmud, and in different Midrash collections, in such a way as to make it apparent that the Baraita de-Abot is more recent than these works. Coronel, in his " Hamishah Kuntresim, " published (Vienna, 1864), from a manuscript, a Gemara to this Baraita which was known to many of the old authorities (compare Kallah). In the edition of the Talmud by Romm, of Wilua, the Gemara is reprinted. In the middle of the ninth century, however, the Baraita already formed a part of the treatise Abot, and was recited with it in the synagogue on the Sabbath afternoon (Sar Shalom Gaon, cited in " Siddur R. Amram," 30a). This was the custom later, also, both in the Spanish and the Ger-

this Baraita

man

rituals.

For the criticism of the text special regard must be paid to the seventeenth chapter of the Tanna debe Eliyahu Zutta, in which the Baraita is given in its The entirety, but with different textual readings. following two sayings may servo to illustrate its character: "Every day a voice goes forth from Mount Horeb and cries out, saying 'Wo unto the creatures [mankind] for the insult they offer to the Law " (ii.). " Seek not greatness for thyself, and desire not Lust not honor. Practise more than thou learnest. for the table of kings for thy table is greater than their table, thy crown greater than their crown and faithful is thy taskmaster who will pay thee the

'





wage

of thyr

work

" (v.).