Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 19, scan section 6

ing to some ; a man, according to others) . And yet, in spite of this, during this very period, the Talmud became so popular that every town wherein Jews had their habitation possessed also a house of learning for the study of the Talmud ; so that everywhere it bloomed and flourished, and bore the fruit of the Mishna, as we shall see in the next chapter. * Sec our " Pentateuch, its Languages and Characters," pp. 16-17. THE MISHNAS. 13 CHAPTER IV. THE THIRD CENTURY — THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE MISHNAS — THE TALMUDIC COLLEGES OF PALESTINE AND BABYLONIA. The sages, the commentators of the Tahnud, differed in opinion as to the epoch when the Talmud began to be written down. The scholars of Spain, and their colleagues and disci- ples, said that it had been recorded from notes possessed since schools had begun in Israel, a long time before R. Jehudah the Nasi. The scholars of France, among them " Rashi," however, declared that not a line was written till the completion of the Talmud, before which its study had been oral. Each school adduced proofs in behalf of its assertion. Modem scholars have made a compromise between these various versions, by assert- ing that during the first centuries the commentators of the Tal- mud in the beginning had taken notes of their studies, and later had written them out in a permanent form. It would seem that as the persecutions had at their commencement been very severe, and the sages (see App. No. 7) felt that their lives were in peril, they decided to write its teaching in secret and to conceal it from its foes. No sooner had the Pharisees granted permis- sion for this (for till then it was absolutely forbidden to put in writing oral law) than the number of manuscripts became very great ; and when R. Jehudah the Nasi came to occupy the seat of his father and had been confirmed in authority (since he en- joyed the friendship of one Antonius, who was in power at Rome) , he discovered that from the multitude of the trees the forest could not be seen; that is, from the multitude of the Mishnas the people had lost sight of the Talmud. He therefore resolved to compile, selecting out of all the written and the un- written law, clear Mishnayoth, and to systematize them. Indeed, the period was very favorable to this imdertaking, for the Talmud enjoyed a respite from persecutors external and internal. The Jewish followers of the Messiah, Jesus, began at this time to gradually blend with the foreigners who adopted the new creed ; hence their influence on their brethren who per- sisted in the old faith was weakened. Still he met with many obstacles. The chief one was the division of opinion among the students of the Talmud themselves. For although his grand- 14 THE HISTORY OF THE TALMUD. father, Rabban Gamaliel the Elder, had succeeded in fixing the law in accordance with Hillel's school, and declared, with the consent of many of the sages of the Talmud, the school of Sham- mai of no validity when at variance with Hillel's, still the de- cree was weakened, when later he was deposed for a short time from his office of Nasi, and in his college were assembled four hundred students more, of diverse opinions. In view of this, and it was decided again that individual opinions, even those of the minority, should be considered, the differences between the students and the sages of his college were renewed with greater vigor. This state of things continued till the time of Rabbi, and in order that his Mishnayoth might be accepted he was compelled to give due weight to all the varying opinions, slighting none, even of those who were in direct contravention of the decision. The second difficulty was in selecting, from among the mass of incongruous doctrines and laws — many of which had become obsolete, and others found to be imnecessary or impracticable — those which were both practicable and of direct application (for a tradition relates that Rabbi found six hundred sections of Mishnayoth; and even if we admit that this number is greatly exaggerated, still if even one himdred existed, it was no light task to reduce them to six). The third difficulty was that as the subject had been studied in divers places, dilTering in dialect or language, all the JVIish- nayoth had to be made uniform in their dialect. xA-dded to all this, he was forced to clear the Mishnayoth from the insertions incorporated into it by the Messianists; for being many and considerable persons, and in close alliance with their colleagues the Pharisees during two centuries, they could not have failed to introduce into the Mishnayoth their own peculiar opinion and beliefs, many such passages, indeed, being found in the Gemara. Reason compels us to admit, at least, that there were pass- ages in the Mishnayoth concerning Jesus and his teachings ; for how is it possible that an occurrence which holds so important a place in the history of Israel, and which has spread its influ- ence among the nations for centuries, should not be even hinted at in the Mishnayoth? We must, therefore, conclude that Rabbi thought it well to clear the Mishnayoth of any reference THE SUBJECTS OF ITS SECTIONS. 15 to the occurrence itself, as well as to the adherents of the new faith. In this he acted wisely, for he knew beforehand that the Mishnayoth would be the foundation upon which Judaism and the Talmud should be built, and that the interpretations of it would be many, each interpreter following the bias of his mind. Therefore it was deemed best by him to avoid all mention of the new event, to treat it as though it had no existence. Nothing can withstand a strong will. When once he had resolved to carry out his project at any cost, all difficulties vanished. He went from college to college, in cities far and near, in places where the great masters taught and learned ; and though they " surrounded him as cocks of Beth Bukia," he was not shaken in his resolution, and with the help of his many friends and sympathizers he was finally enabled to arrange in order six sections of Mishnayoth, condensed from hundreds. Each sec- tion is given up to a general subject, and is subdivided into tracts dealing with matters which come naturally within the scope of the section. The tracts are further divided into chap- ters. The subjects of the sections and the tracts are as follows : 1 . The Section of Seeds. — The general subject of this section is the law relating to vegetables, heave offerings, tithes, the sabbatical year, Kilaim, etc. ; and at the head of this section he placed the tract on benedictions which man owes to his Maker every morning, beginning with those of the evening, which com- mences the day according to the Jewish custom. 2. The Section of Festivals. — This treats of the Sabbath holi- days (to each holiday being devoted a separate tract), and in-