Avodah Zarah 013

5:
The attempts by the Gemara and, in its wake, most of the classical commentators to explain our mishnah are at best unconvincing and leave too many holes that just cannot be plugged. However, salvation is nigh! Let us take a look at how the Tosefta presents the material in our mishnah. But, before we do that perhaps we should preface a short note about the Tosefta itself.

6:
It is customary to say with mendacious simplicity that Rabbi Yehudah the President of the Sanhedrin (Rabbi Yehudah ha-Nasi) wrote the Mishnah. Slightly less problematic would be a phrasing such as Rabbi Yehudah compiled the Mishnah. Some even claim that Rabbi (as he is affectionately known) edited the Mishnah. All such descriptions are misleading.

7:
The Mishnah is composed of individual mishnayot - the Talmud of Eretz-Israel more accurately calls them individual halakhot. We must bear in mind that until the time of Rabbi it was not acceptable to set the halakhot down in writing; they had to be passed on from teacher to student orally. (A sage was permitted to set down his own notes in what was called megillat setarim, a secret scroll, but this was for his own personal convenience: he was forbidden to use it in his teaching and it was supposed to be destroyed after his death. (However, there is evidence that some students did lay their hands on their former teacher's notes.)

8:
Thus it was that as each generation of sages passed the next generation inherited everything that their teachers had inherited together with all the new halakhot that had been created in the preceding generation. By the time of Rabbi (at the very beginning of the 3rd century CE) the mass of material was completely unwieldy. So, using the authority that he had as one of the great scholars of the age, and the authority he had as president of the Sanhedrin, and using the enormous clout that he had as being one of the richest people in the land, Rabbi made an eclectic selection from all the versions of each halakhah that had reached him. He then arranged them into a more or less coherent order, utilising a broad arrangement already promoted by Rabbi Akiva nearly a century earlier. This work is what we call the "Mishnah", and it was published some time before Rabbi's death which occurred in the year 217 CE.

9:
It should now be easier to understand the nature of the Tosefta. Actually, the Tosefta is just another collection of halakhot, just like the Mishnah is. However, whoever compiled it (and tradition says it was put together by a student-colleague of Rabbi Yehudah, Rabbi Ĥiyya) often selected a different version of a given halakhah to include in the work. Comparison of the two works, Mishnah and Tosefta, can help us understand the texts.

10:
Having given this brief explanation of what the Tosefta is we can now set down here the text of the relevant halakhah as it appears in that work [Tosefta Avodah Zarah 1:3].

If there is a fair in a town we do not go either to the town itself or to nearby villages because it would appear as if we were going to that fair. This is the opinion of Rabbi Me'ir. But [the rest of] the sages say that it is only forbidden to visit that town itself [nearby villages being permitted]. When the fair is [being held] inside the town it is forbidden, but outside [that town] is permitted [for Jews to trade]. When it is held outside the town it is outside the town that is forbidden but inside it is permitted [to trade]. Shops that are decorated are in any case forbidden. If a person is travelling from one place to another with a caravan and it enters a town in which there is a fair he need not be concerned that he will seem to be going to the fair. If the fair is organised by the imperial government, the local government or private enterprise it is permitted [to visit the fair and trade there]. The prohibition is only against a fair organised [in honour of] idolatry.

11:
The fair may well be a market, but the meaning of the halakhah is the same. Most of the great markets were organised in honour of some god or other and, of course, the relevant deity was displayed in all its glory in some prominent place. It was for this reason that a Jew was prohibited from visiting such a market or fair, even at the possibility of great financial loss. But there was a certain leniency: if the market was inside the town the Jew could do business outside it, and vice versa.

12:
If the Jew arrived at such a place inadvertently he should not be suspected of idolatrous practices. In the Tosefta this is illustrated by someone travelling in a caravan which stops for the night in such a town. Our mishnah uses the example of someone travelling along a road which leads to such a fair: if it leads only there the Jewish traveller must make a detour, but if that road also leads to other places he may continue on his journey.

13:
Those shops and market stands that are specially decorated in honour of the presiding deity must be avoided; but undecorated shops and stands may be visited because presumably the proprietors are not interested in the religious aspect of the fair.

Gideon Weisz writes:

Along with Avoda Zara 012, you included a response to my comment about gilulim, where I had written, "where in Deuteronomy we find gilulim explicitly, so in any case the association is documented", and you wrote: "The Hebrew word gilulim occurs only once in the Torah [Leviticus 26:30] " Where I mentioned the Deuteronomy example, I should have given the citation (29:16), and in the future I'll be sure to do that, for convenience and to prevent accidents. Apologies. So, anyhow, that should be "twice in the Torah".

I respond:

Gideon is absolutely right and there is no need for his apologies. Indeed, it is I who must hang my head in shame.