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MISHNAH

(Heb. mišnâ)

One of the earliest collections of rabbinic oral traditions set into writing, and probably the most influential. Redacted by R. Yehuda Ha-nasi ca. 200 c.e., it is distinguished from the other early collections, known as midrashim, by its organization. Whereas Mekilta, Torat Kohanim, and other such midrashim organize their material to follow the order of Pentateuchal texts, the Mishnah’s teachings are abstracted into a topical scheme of six broad categories (sedarim, “orders”) which divide into topics (masektot, “tractates”). Tractates are further subdivided into chapters, which in turn are composed of several individual mishnayot, “teachings,” the smallest unit. Thus, the first order Zeraʿim, “seeds,” the agricultural laws, contains tractates such as Peʾa, which deals with the requirement to leave the uncut corners of fields for the poor, and Šebiʿit, treating the laws of the Sabbatical Year when normal farming was proscribed. Similarly, the second order, Moʿed, “festive times,” contains the tractates Šabbat and Roš Haššana, as well as other tractates dealing with the special laws of the individual holidays; the third order, Našim, “women,” dealing with laws of marriage and divorce, contains the tractate Qiddušin, “betrothals”; and so with the latter three orders which deal, in order, with the civil criminal code (Nezikin), the laws of sacrifices (Qodašim), and the laws of purities (Toharot). Within this scheme, the Mishnah encompasses the entire range of Jewish law.

The Mishnah is concise, usually citing only accepted decisions and major dissents, both in summary form. Its language is similar to yet distinct from Biblical Hebrew, and it is used with much technical precision. As its aim was to preserve and enhance the oral tradition rather than supplant it, it assumes a familiarity with the teachings it epitomizes; thus the two senses of the name Mishnah, “teaching” and “recapitulation.”

Bibliography. A. Steinsaltz, The Essential Talmud (1976, repr. Northvale, N.J., 1992); P. Blackman, Mishnayot, 7 vols. (London, 1951-56).

Shmuel Klatzkin

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MISHNAH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)