Who actually wrote the Mishnah, and why?
The Mishnah confirms this attitude.
Jacob Neusner comments:“ The Mishnah provided Israel's constitution.
Maimonides defined these principles in his Commentary on the Mishnah, Sanhedrin 10: 1.
The Mishnah stood on its own,
not seeking justification on the basis of Biblical references.
Although created as a work complete in itself, the Mishnah had now been dissected.
The Mishnah classifies writing as“ work,”
but it defines“ writing” as leaving a lasting mark.
Mishnah By then everyone would be sure to see their piety and marvel at it!
The Amoraim of Palestine and Babylonia had set out to study, or analyze, the Mishnah.
The Mishnah and the Gemara are together called the Talmud,
of which there are two types.
The Mishnah says:“ Inside the Temple Mount was a latticed railing(
the Soreg), ten hand- breadths high.”.
These laws are recorded in the Mishnah, which devotes ten chapters to the details of the mikveh.”.
In A History of Judaism, Daniel Jeremy Silver calls the Mishnah“ the constitutive text of rabbinic Judaism.”.
And prophets handed it on to the men of the great assembly.” - Avot 1:
1, the Mishnah.
In fact, he further comments:“ The Mishnah replaced the Bible as the core curriculum of continuing[ Jewish] education.”.
The formulation of the Mishnah as a separate text paved the way for the complete
independence of the Babylonian academies.
Neusner observes that in this way the rabbis“ shifted the orbit of the Mishnah from one path to another.”.
But in the Mishnah we find a list of 39 activities forbidden
by the rabbis on the Sabbath.- Shabbat 7: 2.
Rather than being the final word on Judaism, then, the Mishnah became a new foundation for religious discussion and debate.
The rabbis of the Talmud set out to prove that the Mishnah was from the same source as the Hebrew Scriptures.
According to the Mishnah, anyone who utters God's name will have“
no portion in the world to come.” - Sanhedrin 10: 1.
According to Maimonides, the Mishnah refers to a leather table covering(skortia),
probably designed to protect the table from the elements(Mishnah Kelim 16:4).
Yevamot 16: 7, the Mishnah Additionally, to protect a divorcée, Gamaliel introduced a number
of restrictions into the issue of a letter of divorce.
Avot 1: 1 The Mishnah claims to deal with information handed down to Moses at Mount Sinai-
an unwritten part of God's Law to Israel.
Referring to Leviticus 5: 1, The Mishnah explains:“[ The law about]‘ an oath of testimony'
applies to men but not to women.” - Shebuoth 4:.
For more information on the development and content of the Mishnah, see the article“ The Mishnah
and God's Law to Moses” in The Watchtower of November 15, 1997.
One opinion quoted in the Mishnah stated:“ If any man gives his daughter a knowledge
of the Law it is as though he taught her lechery.” - Sotah 3: 4.
In the third century C. E., the Mishnah declared that“ he who pronounces the divine Name
as it is spelled out” has“ no portion in the world to come.”- Sanhedrin 10: 1.
That they lost this battle is demonstrated by the Mishnah itself:“ Greater stringency applies to[
the observance of] the words of the Scribes than to[ the observance of] the words of the[ written] Law.”.
If they find him alive they may clear it away still more from above him; but if[ he is] dead, they leave him.” - Tractate Yoma 8:
7, The Mishnah, translated by Herbert Danby.