Sotah 094
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BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI
of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel
RABIN MISHNAH STUDY GROUP
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I will not be afraid of tens of thousands of people who have set themselves against me on every side. Arise, God! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek. You have broken the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to God. Your blessing be on your people. [Psalm 3:7-9]
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The decapitated calf [declaration] must be in the holy tongue, for it says: "If a corpse be found on the ground … then shall your elders and judges go forth" – three [justices] from the Supreme Court would go forth. Rabbi Yehudah says [that] five [would go forth], for it says "your elders" – two, "and your judges" – two, and [since] a court may not be of an even number we add on yet another.
EXPLANATIONS:
1:
Before we continue we must refer back to Chapter 7, mishnah 2. That mishnah gave a list of ritual statements and declarations which must be made on the holy tongue, Hebrew, only. One of the eight items in that list was 'the decapitated calf'. 2:
If a body be found slain in the land which God gives you as your possession, lying in the field, and it isn’t known who has struck him; then your elders and your judges shall go forth, and they shall measure to the cities which are round about the corpse: and it shall be that the elders of the township which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn’t been worked with and which has not drawn in the yoke; and the elders of that township shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall decapitate the heifer there in the valley. The Levitical priests shall come forward (for it is them that God has chosen to minister to him and to bless in God's name, and according to their word shall every controversy and every stroke be). All the elders of that township, who are nearest to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the decapitated heifer in the valley; and they shall speak up and say: "Our hands have not shed this blood neither have our eyes seen it. Forgive, God, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood [to remain] in the midst of your people Israel." The blood shall be forgiven them. So shall you put away the innocent blood from the midst of you, when you shall do that which is right in God's sight.
To be continued.
DISCUSSION:
Some time ago David Morris sent this question and I have held it over until a suitable time. He asks: How do we know which Rabbi named Yehudah the mishna is referring to when it refers to 'Rabbi Yehuda'?
I respond: In today's shiur our mishnah mentions Rabbi Yehudah as being in dispute, as it were, with Tanna Kamma concerning the number of justices who go forth to deal with the 'John Doe' corpse. This Rabbi Yehudah is Rabbi Yehudah bar-Ilai – and not, for instance, Rabbi Yehudah the president of the Sanhedrin and editor of the Mishnah. David could have equally asked his question concerning Rabbi Yosé or Rabbi Shim'on. These names are so recurrent that it is appropriate to ask how we know to which sage the appellation really refers. Fortunately – as is usually the case – there is a kind of built-in system at work. In the Gemara [Sanhedrin 86a] we find a most useful key:
Rabbi Yoĥanan says: an unattributed mishnah is by Rabbi Me'ir; an unattributed Tosefta is by Rabbi Neĥemyah; an unattributed Sifra is by Rabbi Yehudah, an unattributed Sifré is by Rabbi Shim'on – and all of them reflect the teaching of Rabbi Akiva.
What the great Amora of Eretz-Israel, Rabbi Yoĥanan, means is that wherever in these Tannaïtic works an item is not attributed to any sage in particular we may assume that the author (or arranger) is as mentioned in this passage. Now, all of these scholars were students of Rabbi Akiva – who thus is discovered as being the real 'organizer' of the Tannaïtic oral Torah. From many other sources we know that of the students of Rabbi Akiva to whom reference has been made are as follows: Rabbi Yehudah is Rabbi Yehudah bar-Ilai, that Rabbi Shim'on is Rabbi Shim'on bar-Yoĥai and that Rabbi Yosé is Rabbi Yosé ben-Ĥalafta.
Also, the chain of tradition identifies scholars. For example, in his commentary on Bava Batra 56a, Rabbi Shelomo ben-Me'ir [Rashbam], a grandson of Rashi, writes: "an unidentified Rabbi Yosé is always Rabbi Yosé ben-Ĥalafta". (Another Rabbi Yosé, for example, is always referred to as Rabbi Yosé ha-Gelili – the Galilean Rabbi Yosé.) Similar references abound as regards all these sages – all of whom lived in the middle decades of the 2nd century CE. |
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