The Mishnah: An Introduction: Jacob Neusner: Jason Aronson, Inc.

The Mishnah

An Introduction

The Mishnah

An Introduction

Description

In his brilliant introduction on the Mishnah, Jacob Neusner asks:
How do you read a book that does not identify its author, tell you where it comes from, or explain why it was written – a book without a preface? And how do you identify a book with neither a beginning nor end, lacking table of contents and title? The answer is you just begin and let the author of the book lead you by paying attention to the information that the author does give, to the signals that the writer sets out.
As Neusner goes on to explain, the Mishnah portrays the world in a special way, in a kind of code that makes it a difficult work for the modern reader to understand. Without knowing how to decode the Mishnah, we may read its works without receiving its message.
Neusner, one of the world’s foremost Mishnaic scholars, demonstrated that the Mishnah’s own internal logic and structure form a solid foundation on which to build an understanding of this vitally important Jewish work. Using examples of how the Mishnah’s language, logic, and discourse associate and categorize behaviors, events, and objects, Neusner opens the Mishnah to readers who would not otherwise be able to grasp its most fundamental concepts.
Since the Mishnah forms the basis of both the Babylonian and the Palestinian Talmuds (which are, in Neusner’s elegant terms, “the core curriculum of Judaism as a living religion”), study of the Mishnah is essential to an understanding of Judaism. Drawing on his own new translation of the Mishnah and displaying the enthusiastic dedication that has sparked a whole new body of Mishnaic research, Neusner allows readers with no previous background to join Jews who have studied, analyzed, and delighted in the wisdom of Mishnah for centuries.
In addition to giving us a thorough exploration of the Mishnah’s language, contents, organization, and inner logic, Neusner also provides us with a broad understanding of how it communicated its own world view – its vision of both the concrete an spiritual worlds. The Mishnah: An Introduction gives us a tour of this sacred Jewish text, shedding light on its many facets – from its view of life to its conception of God and His relation to our world.

Table of Contents

Prefaceix
Acknowledgements and Permissionsxiii

1. The Mishnah as Literature 1

Identifying the Mishnah1
Mishnah Tractate Berakhot 1:12
Mishnah Tractate Uqsin 3:112
Using the Evidence in Hand6
The Contents and Organization of the Mishnah10
An Outline of the Topical Program of the Mishnah13
The Rhetoric of the Mishnah: Patterning Language17
The Logic of the Mishnah: Proving Propositions26
The Meaning of the Mishnah’s Rhetoric and Logic34
The Purpose of the Mishnah: Law Code or Schoolbook?37

2. The Mishnah as Religion40

Defining a Religion and a Judaism40
The Mishnah’s Judaism before 70 C.E.42
The Mishnah’s Judaism after the Destruction of the
Temple: 70-132 C.E.45
The Mishnah after 135 C.E.: The System Seen Whole51
The Judaism of the Mishnah53

3. The Mishnah’s Social Vision: Means of Production, Market, Wealth61

The Building Block of Society in the Mishnah’s Social Vision61
The Household: Baba Batra Chapter 364
The Market: Baba Mesia Chapter 479
Wealth: Baba Mesia Chapter 597
The Steady-State Economy in a Static Social World118

4. The Mishnah’s Social Vision: Woman and Caste121

Women in the Household121
Women: Yebamot Chapter 10123
Case Structure: Qiddushin Chapter 4131
The Social Vision of the Mishnah140

5. The Mishnah’s Theological and Philosophical Vision149

History and the Laws of History: Rosh Hashanah
Chapter 4, Taanit Chapter 4, Zebahim Chapter 14,
Sotah Chapter 9149
Israel and God, Partners in the Land: Maaserot Chapter 1172
Intention: Makhshirin Chapter 4181
Humanity in Crisis: What Can Israel Do?198

6. The Mishnah and the Torah: The Impact of the Mishnah
on the Formation of Judaism200

The Problem of the Mishnah200
Tractate Avot Chapter 1206
The Mishnah and the Torah: The Theory of Tractate Avot211
The Yerushalmi Talmud’s Theory of the Mishnah214
The Mishnah and the Judaism of the Dual Torah220
The Relevance of the Mishnah to Judaism in the
Twenty-First Century227

Structure of the Mishnah230

Index231

Product details

Published	01 Oct 1994
Format	Paperback
Edition	1st
Extent	256
ISBN	9781568213583
Imprint	Jason Aronson, Inc.
Dimensions	229 x 163 mm
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

“For 70 years I have studied Mishnah virtually every day of my life. Yet there is hardly a page in Professor Neusner’s monumental work, The Mishah: An Introduction, that did not reveal for me a new and often exciting insight.”
-Emanuel Rackman
Chancellor, Bar-Ilan University

Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, Bar-Ilan University
“Professor Neusner offers us far more than an introduction to the Mishnah. With the patience and shrewdness of a detective, he guides the reader through the text to uncover the presuppositions and intentions of its unknown authors.
“Neusner is a master teacher. He goes to the text itself and under his skillful, inductive probings, allows it to reveal its autonomous logic. Following him, the reader gains insight into the interdependence of ‘ethos, ethics, and ethnos’ that supports the intellectual structures of Mishnah Judaism.”
-Harold M. Schulweis
Rabbi, Valley Beth Shalom, Encino, California

Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis
“This is a great book, a major contribution of exceptional magnitude to Jewish learning and to the scientific study of religion. As a remarkable introduction to the Mishnah, it is yet another tribute to Jacob Neusner as the mature Herculean scholar who revolutionized rabbinic scholarship in the twentieth century. In it he soars to new heights of brilliance as an interpreter of the rabbinic mind, and as a writer of unusual beauty and style, as a prophetic voice in the wilderness.”
-Samson H. Levey
Professor, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion

Samson H. Levey, Professor of Rabbinics & Jewish Religious Thought, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles