Mishnah Topics

• bar kochba revolt
• rabbi akiva
• rabbi yehuda
• rabbi judah
• jewish revolt
• oral torah
• mishneh torah
• five generations
• tannaim
• biblical verse
• margolies
• shas
• zvi
• tanna
• danby
• sages
• talmud
• hanukkah
• upheaval

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Mishnah, Mishnah

It was debated between 70-200 CE by the group of rabbinic sages known as the Tannaim The plural term (singular tanna ) for the Rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah; the period of the Tannaim is also referred to as the Mishnaic period and followed the Zugot ("pairs"), preceding the period of the Amoraim.

The term Shas is also used to refer to a complete Talmud, which follows the structure of the Mishnah.

The period during which the Mishnah was assembled spanned about 170 years, and five generations.

According to Maimonides (Introduction to Mishneh Torah), after the tremendous upheaval caused by the destruction of the Temple and the Bar Kochba revolt, the Oral Torah was in danger of being forgotten. It was for this reason that Rabbi chose to redact the Mishnah.

Because of the proliferation of earlier versions, it was deemed too hard to retract anything already released, as such, a second version of certain laws were released. The Talmud refers to these differing versions as Mishnah Rishonah ("First Mishnah") and Mishnah Acharonah ("Last Mishnah"). David Zvi Hoffman suggests that Mishnah Rishonah actually refers to texts from earlier Sages upon which Rabbi based his Mishnah.

There are also references to the "Mishnah of Rabbi Akiva", though this may simply mean his teachings in general. This theory was held by David Zvi Hoffman, and is repeated in the introduction to Herbert Danby's Mishnah translation.

But an alternative form, organized by subject matter instead of by biblical verse, became dominant by about the year 200 CE, when Rabbi Judah haNasi redacted the Mishnah. In general, all opinions, even the non-normative ones, were recorded in the Mishnah and subsequently the Talmud.

To correct this, Rabbi Yehuda haNasi took up the redaction of the Mishnah.

Reuvain Margolies suggests that as the Mishnah was redacted after the Bar Kochba revolt, Rabbi could not have included discussion of Hanukkah which commemorates the Jewish revolt against the Syrian-Greeks (the Romans would not have tolerated this overt nationalism). Similarly, there were then several decrees in place aimed at suppressing outward signs of national identity, including decrees against wearing tefillin and tzitzit; as Conversion to Judaism was against Roman law, Rabbi would not have discussed this.

Many medieval manuscripts of the Mishnah are vowelized, and some of these contain partial Tiberian cantillation. Jewish communities around the world preserved local melodies for chanting the Mishnah, and distinctive ways of pronouncing its words.

The commentary is designed to make the Mishnah widely accessible to a wide spectrum of learners of all ages and all levels of experience in Torah study. It is popularly referred to as "The Kehati". Each tractate is introduced with an overview of its contents, including historical and legal background material, and each Mishnah is prefaced by a thematic introduction.

Source: Wikipedia > Mishnah