Mishnah

Questions on this topic? Just ask!

A philosophical law code, completed ca. 200 C.E., covering topics of both a theoretical and practical character. It was produced under the sponsorship of JUDAH THE PATRIARCH (nasi), the ethnic ruler of the Jews of the land of Israel. It comprises sixty-two topical subdivisions (tractates), divided by topics among six divisions, as follows:

In volume, the sixth division covers approximately a quarter of the entire document. Topics of interest to the priesthood and the Temple, such as priestly fees, conduct of the cult on holy days, conduct of the cult on ordinary days and management and upkeep of the Temple, and the rules of cultic cleanness, also predominate in the first, second, fifth, and sixth divisions. Rules governing the social order form the bulk of the third and fourth. Of these tractates, only Eduyyot is organized along other than topical lines, for it collects sayings on diverse subjects attributed to particular authorities. The Mishnah as printed today always includes ABOT (sayings of the sages), but that document reached closure about a generation later than the Mishnah. While it serves as an apologetic, insisting that the Mishnah has the status of revelation, it does not conform to the formal, rhetorical, or logical traits characteristic of the Mishnah overall.

Focus of the Mishnah: The stress of the Mishnah throughout on the priestly caste and the Temple cult points to its principal concern, which centers upon sanctification, understood as the correct arrangement of all things, each in its proper category, each called by its rightful name. The Mishnah thus takes as its model of holiness the condition of the world at the time of creation, as portrayed in Genesis Chapter 1, and the image of the Temple cult, as set forth in Leviticus. In line with this view of holiness, the thousands of rules and cases that comprise the Mishnah express in concrete language abstract principles of hierarchical classification, that is, of the proper order of all things. These principles define the document’s method and mark it as a work of philosophical character. Not only this, but a variety of specific, recurrent concerns, for example, the relationship of being to becoming, actual to potential, the principles of economics, the politics, correspond point-by-point to comparable ones in Graeco-Roman philosophy, particularly the Aristotelian tradition.

This stress on proper order and right rule and the formulation of a philosophy, politics, and economics, within the principles of natural history set forth by Aristotle, explain why the Mishnah makes a statement to be classified as philosophy, concerning the order of the natural world in its correspondence with the supernatural one.

The Mishnah’s Philosophy. Method and Propositions: The system of philosophy expressed through concrete and detailed law presented by the Mishnah consists of a coherent logic and topic, a cogent worldview, and a comprehensive way of living. It is a worldview that speaks of transcendent things, a way of life in response to the supernatural meaning of what is done, a heightened and deepened perception of the sanctification of ISRAEL in deed and in deliberation. Sanctification thus means two things, first, distinguishing Israel in all its dimensions from the world in all its ways; second, establishing the stability, order, regularity, predictability, and reliability of Israel in the world of nature and supernature in particular at moments and in contexts of danger. Danger means instability, disorder, irregularity, uncertainty, and betrayal. Each topic of the system as a whole takes up a critical and indispensable moment or context of social being. Through what is said in regard to each of the Mishnah’s principal topics, what the system expressed through normative rules as a whole wishes to declare is fully expressed. Yet if the parts severally and jointly give the message of the whole, the whole cannot exist without all of the parts, so well joined and carefully crafted are they all.

The Mishnah’s system therefore focused upon the holiness of the life of Israel, the people, a holiness that had formerly centered on the Temple. The logically consequent question was, what is the meaning of sanctity, and how shall Israel attain, or give evidence of, sanctification? The answer derived from the original creation, the end of the Temple directing attention to the beginning of the natural world that the Temple had embodied. For the meaning of sanctity, the framers therefore turned to that first act of sanctification, the one in creation. It came about when, all things in array, in place, each with its proper names, God blessed and sanctified the seventh day on the eve of the first Sabbath. Creation was made ready for the blessing and the sanctification when all things were very good, that is to say, in their rightful order, called by their rightful name. An orderly nature was a sanctified and blessed nature, so dictated Scripture in the name of the Supernatural. So, to receive the blessing and to be made holy, all things in nature and society were to be set in right array. Given the condition of Israel, the people, in its Land, in the aftermath of the catastrophic war against Rome led by Bar Kokhba (see MESSIAH) in 132–135 C.E., putting things in order was no easy task. But that is why, after all, the question pressed, the answer proving inexorable and obvious. The condition of society corresponded to the critical question that obsessed the system-builders.

This is the complete article, containing 1,277 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page).

View More Summaries on Mishnah