Transmitting Mishnah: The Shaping Influence of Oral Tradition

by Elizabeth Shanks Alexander

Departing from the conventional view of mishnaic transmission as mindless rote memorisation, Transmitting Mishnah, first published in 2006, reveals how multifaceted the process of passing on oral tradition was in antiquity. Taking advantage of the burgeoning field of orality studies, Elizabeth Shanks Alexander has developed a model of transmission that is both active and constructive. Proceeding by means of intensive readings of passages from tractate Shevuot and its Talmudic commentaries, Alexander alerts us to the fact that transmitters and handlers of mishnaic text crafted both the vagaries of expression and its received meanings. She illustrates how the authority of the Mishnah grew as the result of the sustained attention of a devoted community of readers and students. She also identifies the study practices and habits of analysis that were cultivated by oral performance and shows how they were passed on in tandem with the verbal contents of the Mishnah, thereby influencing how the text was received and understood.

264 pages, Hardcover

First published July 31, 2006

Reviews

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of these dense academic books that I can't pretend to completely understand or intelligently evaluate. However, I will try to do my best to describe it.

The book consists of several essays about the Mishnah. One of the more accessible essays discusses how the Talmud treats the Mishnah, suggesting that just as the Talmud treats every word in the Bible as significant, it treats every word in the Mishnah as significant. Another essay rejects the idea that the Mishnah's sole purpose is to be an easily memorized law code, by discussing its focus on improbable and borderline cases. The author suggests that like the Talmud, the Mishnah is thus designed to "help develop skills of legal reasoning."