User:Wolf2191/Sandbox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The study of the Oral Law may be one of the biggest enterprises in the history of mankind. Spanning over two millenniums and several continents, the study of the Mishna and Talmud has always been the principal occupation of the majority of the traditional Jewish populations. Tens of thousands of books have been written for the sole purpose of their elucidation. Despite all this, a most curious and important facet of both the Mishna and Talmud has been left without any complete exposition. The question that remains is as follows- What exactly was the role of the Rabbis in their exposition of the law? Were they innovators or preservers? Were they simply putting on paper a centuries old tradition that had heretofore been transmitted orally? Or did they have a much more active role in deciding the Law?
It is likely that there is no single answer to this question. The Mishna and Talmud may consist of a combination of oral traditions, new laws developed through the applications of various hermeneutic principles (which themselves are subject to the same question – to wit were they handed down or is there a logic behind them?) as well as various enactments as changing times brought new problems to the fore.
In the case of the Talmud there is a still larger difficulty that has been barely addressed at all. In their exposition of the Mishna, the Amoraim make what appear to be entirely arbitrary changes. Names are switched around, whole lines are added in, and similar changes without any justification provided. Were the changes made based on variant texts that the Amoraim had in their possession? Or was the Mishna at that time still transmitted orally and the difficulty lies in the faulty memory of the Rabbis?
While these and other questions have been discussed in part in various books[1], a comprehensive exposition of the rabbinic methodology is still very much a desideratum. As the old adage goes “A wise man’s question is itself half an answer” Though I lack the ability to gather and arrange all the various information that exists on this subject, I hope that by raising the proper questions we are already one step towards the answer.