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:
Table of Contents Preface ix Acknowledgements and Permissions xiii 1. The Mishnah as Literature 1 Identifying the Mishnah 1 Mishnah Tractate Berakhot 1:1 2 Mishnah Tractate Uqsin 3:11 2 Using the Evidence in Hand 6 The Contents and Organization of the Mishnah 10 An Outline of the Topical Program of the Mishnah 13 The Rhetoric of the Mishnah: Patterning Language 17 The Logic of the Mishnah: Proving Propositions 26 The Meaning of the Mishnah’s Rhetoric and Logic 34 The Purpose of the Mishnah: Law Code or Schoolbook? 37 2. The Mishnah as Religion 40 Defining a Religion and a Judaism 40 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 Whole 51 The Judaism of the Mishnah 53 3. The Mishnah’s Social Vision: Means of Production, Market, Wealth 61 The Building Block of Society in the Mishnah’s Social Vision 61 The Household: Baba Batra Chapter 3 64 The Market: Baba Mesia Chapter 4 79 Wealth: Baba Mesia Chapter 5 97 The Steady-State Economy in a Static Social World 118 4. The Mishnah’s Social Vision: Woman and Caste 121 Women in the Household 121 Women: Yebamot Chapter 10 123 Case Structure: Qiddushin Chapter 4 131 The Social Vision of the Mishnah 140 5. The Mishnah’s Theological and Philosophical Vision 149 History and the Laws of History: Rosh Hashanah Chapter 4, Taanit Chapter 4, Zebahim Chapter 14, Sotah Chapter 9 149 Israel and God, Partners in the Land: Maaserot Chapter 1 172 Intention: Makhshirin Chapter 4 181 Humanity in Crisis: What Can Israel Do? 198 6. The Mishnah and the Torah: The Impact of the Mishnah on the Formation of Judaism 200 The Problem of the Mishnah 200 Tractate Avot Chapter 1 206 The Mishnah and the Torah: The Theory of Tractate Avot 211 The Yerushalmi Talmud’s Theory of the Mishnah 214 The Mishnah and the Judaism of the Dual Torah 220 The Relevance of the Mishnah to Judaism in the Twenty-First Century 227 Structure of the Mishnah 230 Index 231