Midrash, Mishnah, And Gemara: The Jewish Predilection For Justified Law

Midrash, Mishnah, and Gemara Midrash, Mishnah, and Gemara The Jewish Predilection for Justified Law David Weiss Halivni Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England Copyright © 1986 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America This book has been digitally reprinted. The content remains identical to that of previous printings. Library of Congress Cata/oging-in-Publication Data Halivni, David. Midrash, Mishnah, and Gemara. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Jewish law-Philosophy. I. Title. 296.1'206 85-17676 BM520.6.H3 1986 ISBN 0-674-57370-6 (alk. paper) As God drove Adam and Eve out of paradise and saw them leaving, His heart went out to them and He gave them the smile of a child. When God took away prophecy from Israel, He felt pity for them and gave them the Talmud. Acknowledgments like any other major human activity, requires the assistance of many individuals in different capacities, from the one who initially encourages the author to write the book to the one who helps him complete the technical details. All deserve to be publicly thanked. In order to avoid an inordinately long list, I will, however, content myself here with singling out for thanks only a few, those who have most tangibly and concretely contributed to either the writing or the publishing of the book. They are the following: the administration of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where, during my tenure as a fellow in 1980-1981, this book was conceived and partially written; Professor Steven T. Katz of Cornell University, who, with his characteristic camaraderie, took an interest in the manuscript as soon as he heard of it and offered valuable suggestions; Margaretta Fulton, Senior Editor at Harvard University Press, who helped me forge the final manuscript; Mary Ellen Geer, Manuscript Editor at Harvard University Press, who edited the manuscript and supervised the book through the various stages of proof; Emily Biederman, who, during my teaching year in Jerusalem in 1984-1985, proved to be (and I hope will remain) an invaluable friend and assistant. Her enormous patience and sensitivity made what otherwise would have been an arduous task into a joyous adventure. To all others, my heartfelt appreciation. WRITING A BOOK, Note on Transliteration The Hebrew letter het, often transliterated as h with a dot under it, is here transliterated throughout as ch. Contents Introduction 1 1. The Biblical Period 9 2. The Post-Biblical Period 18 3. The Mishnaic Period 38 4. The Amoraic Period 66 5. The Stammaitic Period 76 6. The Gemara as Successor of Midrash 93 7. The Legacy of the Stammaim Appendix: On the Lack of Uniformity in the Use of the Word "Halakhoth" 117 Notes 120 Index of Passages Cited General Index 159 156 105 Midrash, Mishnah, and Gemara Introduction THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN at a time when my critical commentary on the Talmud (called Sources and Traditions) had achieved half its goal: it covered half of the Talmud text. That commentary discusses in great detail more than a thousand different subjects and touches fleetingly in the notes on ten times that number. It avoids being disjointed because it follows the order of the Talmud and thus has a consecutive thread. It is further united by the several very important historical facts it implies, principally that the present text of the Talmud most often evolved from a different preceding text, and that in the process of evolution the present text absorbed both transmissional changes and redactional changes. I became very