THE MISHNAH IN RABBINIC CONTEXT: TOSEFTA AND SIFRA
Bard College
Alongside Scripture, the Mishnah stands at the head of the canon• ical documents of Rabbinic literature in the formative age, partic• ularly those of the Halakhah. After Scripture, no document of Rabbinic J udaism reached closure prior to the Mishnah. Its near• est companions, the Tosefta and Sifra, provide perspective on the character of the foundation-document. They cite the Mishnah ver• batim and gloss its words. Each forms a response to the Mishnah, a systematic reading thereof. A process of comparison and contrast between the Mishnah and the Tosefta, or the Mishnah and Sifra, shows how the character of the Mishnah represents a set of deci• sions. It emerges as the realization of a policy of law and theology, to which heirs of the document would respond in time. From the comparison, the Tosefta stands forth as a commentary and comple• ment, amplifying the language of the Mishnah and also supplying legal statements that complete the Mishnah's account of matters. Sifra, for its part, takes up a position of criticism of the Mishnah's generative logic. What the Tosefta and Sifra in relationship to the Mishnah demonstrate is the capacity of the heirs of the Mishnah both to take up the Mishnah's intellectual discipline and to frame a critical, analytical program in response to it.
I. THE MISHNAH AND THE TOSEFTA
A single instance suffices to show that the Mishnah declares the law, the Tosefta gives the reasons, clarifies the details, and otherwise complements and supplements the Mishnah's statements. We deal with M. Ber. 8: 1fT., given in bold-face, and the Tosefta's comple• ment, in regular type: M. 8: 1 In reciting the sequence of blessings for wine and the Sabbath, one blesses over the wine, and afterward one blesses over the day. 92 ]ACOB NEUSNER
T. 5:25 The reason is that it is [the presence of the cup of) wine [at the table] that provides the occasion for the Sanctification of the Day to be recited. The benediction over the wine is usual, while the benediction for the day is not usual [and that which is usual takes precedence over that which is infrequent]. M. 8:2-4 In preparing to recite the Grace after the Meal, they lIlix the cup and afterward wash the hands. He dries his hands on the cloth and lays it on the pillow. They wash the hands, and afterward they clean the house. M. 8:5 The sequence of blessings at the end of the Sabbath is: Light, and spices, and food, and Havdalah. T. 5:29 One who enters his house after the end of the Sabbath recites the benediction over the wine, the light, the spices and [then] recites [the] Havdalah [benediction]. And if he has but one cup [of wine], he sets it aside until after the meal and strings together all [these benedictions] after it [i.e., after the benediction for the meal]. One recites Habdalah at the end of the Sabbath, and at the end of festivals, and at the end of the Day of Atonement, and at the end of the Sabbath [which immediately precedes] a festival, and at the end of a festival [preceding] the intermedi• ate days of the festival. One who is fluent [or, accustomed to doing so] recites many Habdalot [i.e., enumerates many kinds of sepa• rations in his Havdalah benediction, e.g., "Praised be Thou, 0 Lord ... ( 1) who separates the holy from the profane, (2) who sepa• rates Israel from the nations, (3) who separates light from dark• ness ... ," and one who is not fluent recites one or two. Ifwe read the Tosefta as though there were no Mishnah, we should have no formidable problems in understanding the Tosefta. But that begs the question. We do have the Mishnah, and we do have am• ple evidence that the framers of compositions located in the Tosefta responded to the program and detailed contents and wording of the Mishnah.
The Problem of Mishnah- Tosifta Relationships
How does the Tosefta relate to the Mishnah? In completed research, I I maintained that the Tosefta forms a problem in the unfolding of
I A History if the Mishnaic Law ifPurities (Leiden, 1974-1977: I-XXII); A History if the Mishnaic Law ifHoly Things (Leiden, 1979: I-VI); A History if the Mishnaic Law