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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

BARAITA DE-NIDDAH

(rrm

Kima)

This Bavaita, expressly mentioned by Nahmanides, and probably known to the Geonim and the GermanFrench Talmudists of the thirteenth century, was until recently supposed to be lost. It was not published until 1890, when it was edited and provided with an elaborate introduction by H. M. Horowitz. Ik- gives it in seven recensions, most of which contain only portions of the Baraita, only one manuscript containing the complete Baraita.

The Baraita consists of Haggadah and Halakah relating to the Biblical and post-Biblical precepts in regard to the Niddah (Lev. xv. 19-33). The prolix, and in a certain sense exhaustive, introduction does not succeed in clearing away the obscurity which envelops everything concerning the Baraita. The Baraita mentions about twenty -five tannaim and as manyamoraim, among whom, it is noteworthy, there is not one Babylonian. Its origin, then, is assured as Palestinian but this is the only certain point. There

are facts mentioned in the Baraita which clearly indicate a time when any idea of the chronology of the

Tannaim and Amoraim was

Akiba

lacking.

is

rep-

resented as conversing with Babbi Hanina b. Dosa with Hiyyah and so on. In the present condition of the Baraita it is almost impossible to decide what is of early and what of recent times. Consequently, the question must remain unsettled as to the originality of the various citations which this Baraita has in common with other Midrashim. Horowitz, however, regards this Baraita as the original in every

fort-on-tbe-Main, 1890 Hi. 338-343.

Baraita of the Forty-nine Rules Baraita on Salvation

compare also Schechter,

in

Jc w. Qu a rt.

Rev. J-

SK.

L.

G.

BARAITA OF R. PHINEHAS B. JAIR (TN" p DnJS "IT NJV-a): 1. See Midrash Tadshe. 1

A Baraita printed by Grtinhut, in "Sefer haLikkutim," ii. 204-21«. It contains the sayings of R. Phinehas b. Jair and R. Eliezer ha-Gadol on the Messianic times and on the various degrees of piety given in Sotak ix. 15. The character of these say2.

ings vividly recalls that of the apocalyptic writer. This, together with the fact that the aphorism on the degrees of piety is ascribed to Phinehas b. Jair, who may be correctly designated as an Essene, gives likelihood to the assumption that the passages in consideration are really the fragments of a Baraita collection with Essenic tendencies in apocalyptic manner. The doubt that exists whether or not the sayings of Phinehas b. Jair on the degrees of holiness belong to the Mishnah (see Lipmann Heller, ad loc.) strengthens the supposition. saying derived from the Baraita collection of so holy a person as R. Phinehas may have been considered worthy of incorporation into the Mishnah (see Brilll, "Jahrbucher," iii. 125).

A



point.

Only

this

much must be conceded

a large part of the Baraita



viz.

,

that

of ancient origin. of the Baraita is to oppose the lenient halakic rulings of the Hillelites and of Akiba, and to take a standpoint which, on the one is

The pervading tendency

hand, touches the Sadducean Halakah, and, on the other hand, the strict interpretation of the Essenes. The wellpoint, known story of the Talmud ('Er. 13ft; Yer. Ber. i. 3b) that a heavenly voice decided in favor of the Hillelites, runs in the Baraita These as well as as follows: " Blessed be the strict those [the Hillelites as well as the Shammaites] speak the words of the living God but we must regulate ourselves according to the teachings of the school of Shammai" (p. 21). The old Halakah, probably influenced by the Essenes and abrogated for the first time by Akiba (Sifra, Mezora', end), by which a woman is virtually prevented at a certain time from all intercourse with the outer world, is declared to be binding in a number of passages in the Baraita

Sectarian Stand-

!



(pp. 13 et

seq., 21).

The medical and

physiological rules in the Baraita

(twenty -six, according to the enumeration of Horowitz, Introduction, pp. 56, 57) give rise to the supposition that it originated in a place where medicine was studied assiduously. The Baraita, not unknown to the Geonim, gradually came to be forgotten in its many points of contact with the teachings of the Karaites, who also accepted the old Sadducean view of Lev. xii. 4 et seq. for such similarity tended to bring it into disfavor.

consequence of



Broil, in Jahrhticlier, ii. 134-126, v. 99 idem, in Central-Anzeiger flir JIMimilie Literatur, pp. il, 3b; Cb. M. Horowitz, Tmefata 'Attikata, fv. (containing the Introduction) and v. (containing the text ot the Baraita) Frank-

Bibliography:



,

J.

sn.

L. G.

BARAITA ON SALVATION njWH)



A

(Nn"-Q

haggadic Baraita, which Schonblum

(Lemberg, 1877) published for the first time in the collection "Sheloshah Sefarim Niftahim." It enumerates twenty-four sins which delay the [Messianic] salvation and prolong " the end " (" ha-kez ") i.e., the destined redemption. For each of these sins a Bible verse is quoted, which illustrates its gravity. In most cases haggadic narratives are adduced for the same purpose. These are taken from the Talmud and from Lam. R. It is questionable whether the Baraita availed itself of Num. R. as is assumed by the editor. The citation which might imply such a fact may have been derived from a source common to the Baraita and Num. R. Every clue is lacking for a determination of the exact age of this Baraita. At all events, a very early Palestinian origin is indicated by the frequent use of Yerushalmi and Lam. R., and the possible lack of all citations

from Babli.

Some kinship must exist between the Baraita and the enumeration by Alfasi (Yoma, toward end) of twenty-four hindrances to repentance. This catalogue of sins Maimonides ("Yad," Teshubah iv.) reduced to a system in which every point was accompanied by an illustrative commentary. In Maimonides' time the source on which Alfasi drew was no longer known, and Maimonides merely supposes that it was of recent origin ("Peer ha-Dor,"No. 12). Joseph Caro (in his Commentary on Maimonides, or "Yad," Hilkot, Teshubah, iv. I), however, gives information of a manuscript, according to which the twenty-four hindrances to repentance formed an independent Baraita, "in small tracts" ("bc-massektot ketanot " see Briill, " Jahrbftcher, " ii. 127). The Baraita on Salvation and Alfasi agree not only in regard to the number of the things that prevent

the salvation of mankind in general as well as of the individual, but also in regard to the nature of these obstacles. Thus, both enumerate seduction to evil,