The Mishnah Introduction

The Mishna

• Yehuda Ha-Nasi compiled the Mishnah to preserve Jewish learning and practices after the Bar Kochba revolt.
• The Mishnah is part of the Talmud, a smaller, older version that helped oral practices be remembered.
• Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Nasi redacted (assembled) and edited the Mishnah.

Writing down the Oral Law

• Rambam wrote that Yehuda Ha-Nasi compiled the Mishnah, which had the Oral Law in text.
• Before the Mishnah, the Oral Law was only taught and never written.
• Yehuda gathered all the traditions, enactments, interpretations, and expositions of every portion of the Torah.
• The Mishnah made the Oral Law universally known among Jews and helped them learn Torah again.
• Yehuda taught the Mishnah publicly during his life.

The 6 Orders of the Mishnah

• The Mishnah was systematically created to be a guide to the Jews and to easily find laws of practices.
• The 6 orders of the Mishnah are:
• Zera'im (seeds) - crops, farming, offerings
• Mo'ed (festivals) - Shabbat, festivals, holidays
• Nashim (women) - marriage, divorce, oaths
• Neziqin (civil laws) - civil/criminal laws, judiciary systems, rabbinic authority
• Qodashim (sacred things) - Temple, sacrificial worship
• Tohorot (purity) - rules of purity

Babylonia in the Period of the Talmud

• After the Bar Kochba revolt, many rabbis went to Babylon.
• The Resh Galuta (Exilarch) was a Jewish political leader/head of the diaspora that maintained a relationship with the Babylonians.

Rav and Shmuel's Contributions

• Rav Abba Arikha:
• Died in 248 CE
• Founder of school in Sura
• Introduced the prayer Aleinu into daily services/musaf
• Said that someone who wants to be judged for a case, and forgiven from their sins should go to the Exilarch (Resh Galuta)
• Shmuel:
• Contributed to the academy in Nehardea (which moved to Pumbedita)
• Was a doctor and astronomer
• Died in 254 CE
• Said the statement "Dina de-Malchutcha Dina" (The law of the land is the law)

Dina de-Malchutcha Dina

• "The law of the land is the law" - Jews must pay taxes in the land they are in halachically and follow the laws of the country they are living in.

The Talmud

• The teachings studied by rabbis after the destruction of the second temple form what is known as rabbinic Judaism.
• Made up of the Mishnah and the Gemara.
• The Mishnah is an earlier work, compiled from sages after the destruction of the temple.