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The Halacha in the Targum to the Torah Attributed to Yonatan Ben Uzziel

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The Halacha in the Targum to the Torah Attributed to Yonatan Ben Uzziel THE HALACHA IN THE TARGUM TO THE TORAH ATTRIBUTED TO YONATAN BEN UZZIEL Harris Samuel Freedman University College London PhD Thesis September 1999. 1 Dedicated to the Memory of Michael Weitzman my Teacher and Supervisor Scholar, Sage and Most Gentle of Men □tft? nnnK -its* rani an not? ABSTRACT The halachic interpolations and expansions in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan are derived either from the Targumist’s independent reasoning, or from his use of rabbinic traditions and compilations. All the halachic material can be classified in one of three ways: 1) that which is intended to clarify the meaning of the Masoretic text; 2) material which results from Midrashic and exegetical techniques; 3) material which explains how a particular law was carried out. The Targumist made significant use of Mshnah, Mechilta, Sifra, Sifrei Numbers and a text similar to Midrash Tannaim. There is also regular use of Halachic Targumic Traditions. There is no evidence of use of Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer. A few halachic comments were identified which cannot be attributed to any known rabbinic source, and which do not seem to have been derived independently. The number of these comments is no more than one would expect to find in a Palestinian work of this period. We suggest that when the Targumist used his independent reasoning, this was either because he did not have relevant rabbinic material available, or because he felt that the information presented by the sources was inadequate for his purposes. Once the Targumist’s techniques are understood, there remains no evidence which suggests a pre-Mishnaic origin of any of the halachic material in the Targum. We can support the results of Shinan and others who have investigated the aggadic content of the Targum and propose a date of seventh or eighth century. We have no evidence to support Shinan’s claim that the author of PsY wove his own material into a single extant Palestinian Targum. The author may have had several targumic versions available in addition to his rabbinic sources, and selected material as he felt appropriate. The information that he provides concerning the application of the law is moderated by the constraints of the biblical text; whilst his frequent agreement with minority opinions suggests that his intention is not to produce an authoritative manual on religious law and practice. The probability is that the Targum was written for the school house, as a tool which allowed the student to see the relationship between the Pentateuch and practical law. 2 CONTENTS ABSTRACT.______________________________________________________________________________ 2 INTRODUCTION_________________________________________________________________________ 4 MATERIAL THAT SHOWS AN AFFINITY WITH RABBINIC SOURCES OR TARGUMIC TRADITIONS____________________________________________________________________________ 24 Clarification of Text.................................................................................................................................... 24 Midrash-type and Exegetical Interpretations......................................................................................29 Descriptions of how the law is applied in practice................................................................................. 37 a) Material in PsY that correspond to opinions in halachic sources.....................................................38 b) Material that bears some resemblance to known rabbinic traditions, but which differs to some degree. ..................................................................................................................................................................79 c) Selected quasi-legalistic material.....................................................................................................101 Targumic Traditions....................................................................................................................................105 Red Heifer Tradition....................................................................................................................................115 Targum Pseudo Yonatan and Pirkei d ’Rabbi Euezer.......................................................................... 129 MATERIAL THAT DOES NOT SHOW AN AFFINITY WITH KNOWN TRADITIONS, BUT THAT IS ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE TARGUMIST’S INDEPENDENT REASONING.______________ 139 Literal Translations...................................................................................................................................139 Clarification of toe Text........................................................................................................................... 140 Midrash-type and Exegetical Interpretations....................................................................................150 Descriptions of how the law is applied in practice................................................................................157 TRANSLATIONS AND EXPANSIONS OF UNCLEAR ORIGIN_____________________________ 167 CONCLUSION__________________________________________________________________________ 175 APPENDIX I- CLASSIFICATION OF VERSES____________________________________________ 192 APPENDIX H- THE HALACHA IN PRE__________________________________________________ 201 BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ABBREVIATIONS________________________________________________219 3 INTRODUCTION The Targum to the Torah attributed to Jonathan ben Uzziel and known as Pseudo-Jonathan (henceforth PsY) is the most expansive and interpretative of all the surviving Pentateuchal Targumim. PsY contains a phenomenal number of aggadic and halachic additions, interpolations and interpretations which are woven into the translated text, sometimes clumsily, sometimes with great literary skill. As a genre, Targum (the translation of the biblical text into Aramaic) dates back to the earliest public readings of the Torah. According to the Talmud1 following the return from Babylon, Ezra read the Torah, together with a Targum, to the assembled masses. Mshnah Megilla Chapter 4 includes the rules of targumic delivery in the synagogue. The earliest Targumim were not to be read, they were delivered orally. Today all the surviving Targumim are written. One of the questions surrounding PsY, as with other Targumim, is whether it started out as an oral Targum which later was written down, or whether it was composed as a written work. As a result of its inclusion alongside other commentaries in many editions ofmikraot gedolot, the “rabbinic bible”, PsY has become widely known in Jewish academic and religious circles. Its expansive nature has fascinated both general readers and scholars. Nevertheless, it appears that the interest in PsY is comparatively recent; there is very little evidence that PsY was considered to be a significant work by medieval scholars. The first recorded mention of PsY is by the early fourteenth century Italian Kabbalist Menahem Recanati in his commentary to the Torah. His quotations from a Targum to the Torah written by “Yonatan ben Uzziel” correspond to those found in PsY. The Italian author Eliyahu Bahur (1469-1549) laments the loss of the Targum that Recanati knew but Azariah di Rossi (1511- 1578) claims to have seen the manuscript, which he refers to as Targum Yerushalmi2. The first printed edition, editio princeps, of the Targum appeared in a rabbinic bible published by Asher Forins in Venice in 1590-1, under the name “The Targum of the Holy Yonatan ben Uzziel”. The mysterious Yonatan ben Uzziel3 is traditionally considered to have composed the Targumim to the books of the Prophets. It is surmised that our Targum became attributed to 1 B. Megillah 3a, citing Nehemiah 8,8 “And he read in the book of the Law clearly (tSHISD). EHtflD-this is the Targum”. 2 M. Ginsburger, Thargum Pseudo Jonathan ben Usiel zuin Pentateuch. (Berlin, 1903). p. VIII; D.M. Splansky, Targum Pseudo Jonathan- its relation to other Targumim. use of Midrashim and Date, (unpublished dissertation, Cincinnati 1981), p. 17; W. Bacher, “Taigum” in Jewish Encyclopedia Vol X I1, (New York, 1916), 60. 3 “When he was sitting and occupying himself in Torah, any bird that flew above his head was burnt”, B. Babba 4 him because of a scribal error, reading v'n as Targum Yonatan rather than Targum Yerushalmi4. Today the Targum is generally referred to as Targum Pseudo -Jonathan. Only one manuscript of the Targum survives. This was noticed at the end of the nineteenth century in the British Museum. Manuscript Add. 27031 is of Italian provenance, and dates from circa 1590. This manuscript and the editio princeps are the only primary sources that we have of Targum Pseudo Jonathan. There are minor omissions in the text of each. “The difference between the lines missing from the editio princeps and those missing from the London manuscript shows that these are most likely to be scribal errors which were simply not “filled in” by correctors.”5 The absence of any reference to, or direct quotation from, our Targum prior to the 14th Century suggests, as noted above, that it was a little known work, that had either been lost at an early date, or consciously rejected by early scholars. Shinan argues that its popularity today is a direct result of the decision of Asher Forins to include it in his printed Bible of 1590-15916, from where it was copied and re-copied in dozens of subsequent editions of printed Bibles. One of the most prominent features of PsY is its aggadic content. “.. .PsY contains hundreds of (h)aggadic expansions that are not found
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