A recording of the class can be found here.
Thank you for joining Decoding the Talmud's second lesson, The Mishnah. Here’s a recap. (Visit myjli.com/talmud for lesson videos and more.)
The Background
The Torah’s Oral tradition was never meant to be written down. Oral transmission helped ensure its authenticity. But in the times of Hillel, Herod massacred the sages, the Jewish judicial system ceased functioning, and disputes cropped up. Then, Roman rule brought war, first in 68 CE, then again in 117 CE, which resulted in the destruction of the Temple and the decimation of Judea’s Jewish population.
With scholars afraid to gather in a single academy, two schools emerged—Beit Hillel and Beit Shamai—with differing opinions on matters ranging from the minimum value of a wedding ring to the lighting of Chanukah candles. In time, consensus consolidated around Beit Hillel, but Roman persecution made arriving at a united consensus increasingly difficult. And with the Jewish people dispersing worldwide, they increasingly lacked the thousands of scholars required to maintain a strictly oral tradition.
Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi’s Work
In the late 2nd century, Hillel’s great-great-grandson, Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi, an exceptional sage and leader, undertook the vast task of assembling all extant Halachic teachings, arriving at as much consensus as possible, and publishing a single, authoritative text all Jews could refer to. For the first time, the Oral Torah would be written. They called it the Mishnah.
The Mishnah
The word Mishnah implies something that is reviewed or studied well and something secondary (to the Torah). Its 200,000 precise words, 500 chapters, and 63 sections were written to be easily memorizable. It arranged all Jewish law into six orders, each with a broad theme: Zeraim (seeds), Moed (appointed times), Nashim (women), Nezikin (damages), Kodshim (sacraments), Taharot (purities).
Its Features
With this background, we explored the Mishnah’s laws of the seder night. We noted five primary features of the Mishnah:
1) It never introduces the need to conduct a seder—it assumes the reader knows this. It records laws in response to assumed knowledge.
2) The text is highly concise. In just seventeen words, we learn that (1) we recline at the seder, (2) even poor people recline, (3) we drink four cups at the seder, and (4) food banks must provide the poor with these four cups.
3) If one word was chosen, it means a second word was not chosen. We eat a festive meal on every Shabbat and holiday, so when the Mishnah says, “Don’t eat on the eve of Passover,” it’s understood as saying, “You may eat on the eve of other holidays.”
4) Every word adds new meaning. If the Mishnah includes the words “until dark,” it’s telling us that the matzah of the seder night is specifically eaten after dark.
5) Although written to reach a consensus, the Mishnah includes multiple opinions. The sages saw value in studying and remembering minority opinions.
Its Spiritual Significance
The Talmud teaches that G‑d’s covenant with the Jewish people revolves around the Oral Torah. A written text lives on a parchment. But an oral code lives in the minds of the people who study it. In the Maharal of Prague’s words, it “exists together with the person” and is “bonded to the Jewish people” instead of simply existing “on a parchment.”
The Hebrew word Mishnah shares its letters with the word neshamah—soul. The Arizal, Rabbi Yitzchok Luria, taught that daily Mishnah study should be undertaken in the hope that “from this Mishnah you should have a neshamah.” This connection underpins the widespread Jewish custom of studying Mishnah to elevate the soul of a passed loved one.
Thank you for joining us. I look forward to seeing you next week at 7:15pm on Wednesday, February 19th at The Shul for Lesson Three, Decrypting the Mishnah—How the sages studied, debated, and understood the Mishnah.
Warmest regards,
Rabbi Tzvi Tornek
