Oxford Annotated Mishnah

The Mishnah (“repetition” or “teaching”), the first rabbinic book, composed in Hebrew in the Land of Israel and edited around 200 ce, is an anthology primarily about matters of Jewish practice, ritual, and law. In addition to statements, whether anonymous or attributed to named individuals, the Mishnah contains other literary forms as well, notably lists, disputes, anecdotes, maxims, Scriptural exegesis, and descriptions of the rituals of the Jerusalem Temple. The Sages named in the Mishnah (called collectively tanna’im, “teachers,” sing. tanna) are customarily assigned by modern scholars to distinct generations; the bulk of the named mishnaic Sages belong to either the generation of Yavneh (ca. 80-120 ce) or the generation of Usha (ca. 140-180 ce). (Yavneh and Usha are the names of towns in the Land of Israel, Yavneh in the south not far from Jerusalem, Usha in the north in Galilee, in which the Sages are said to have gathered.) R. Eliezer, R. Joshua, R. Aqiva, and Rabban Gamaliel are some of the prominent Sages of the Yavneh period, R. Meir, R. Judah, R. Simeon, and R. Yose are some of the prominent Sages of the Usha period. Relatively little material is ascribed to named figures who lived before the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 ce. By convention we call the Sages “rabbis” and their work “rabbinic,” because the title “Rabbi” (abbreviated “R.”) regularly appears in their literature.

 

The Mishnah covers a broad range of topics and is divided into six sections known as “orders” (pl. sedarim, sing. seder); each order in turn is divided into “tractates” (pl. massekhtot, sing. massekhet). There are sixty-three tractates in all. The six orders are: Zera’im (“Seeds”), on the disposition of the agricultural products of the Land of Israel; Moed (“Festivals” or “Set Times”), on Sabbath, festivals, and pilgrimage to the Temple; Nashim (“Women”), on marriage, divorce, and family law; Neziqin (“Damages”), on civil and criminal law and judicial procedure; Qodashim (“Holy Things”), on Temple sacrifices and rituals; and Tohorot (“Purities”), on the maintenance of ritual purity and the removal of ritual impurity. Each of the sixty-three tractates, with exceptions, of course, is devoted to a single topic or cluster of topics. Perhaps the greatest exceptions to the overall pattern are tractate Avot, which has neither legal content nor thematic unity, and tractate Eduyot, a topical miscellany.

 

The Mishnah is full of legal material but is not a law code, or at least is not obviously a law code. It contains numerous disputes and unresolved arguments; it does not usually state the penalty for the violation of its prescriptions; its coverage is not complete, omitting many vital aspects of its subjects; at no point, except perhaps for the opening chapter of Avot which depicts a chain of tradition linking Moses at Mount Sinai to the mishnaic Sages, does the Mishnah advance a global claim for its authority. If the Mishnah is a law code, it is an odd one.

 

Edited by Shaye J. D. Cohen Robert Goldenberg Hayim Lapin

Oxford University Press, 2022. - 784 pp.

ISBN 978-0-19-284614-3 (Pack)

ISBN 978-0-19-923970-2 (Vol I)

 

Contents

List of Figures

List of Contributors

Introduction - Shaye J. D. Cohen and Hayim Lapin

THE MISHNAH

ORDER OF ZERA’IM

ORDER OF MO’ED

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