Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

Aramaic Literature - Part 20 - The Mishnah

Part of the discussion of Yadaim has to do with when the Scriptures render the hands unclean. The idea seems to be that the extreme holiness of the Scriptures is such that touching them makes the hands unclean, and they must then be washed before continuing with other tasks. Section 4.5 says, “The [Aramaic] version that is in Ezra and Daniel renders the hands unclean. If an [Aramaic] version [contained in the Scriptures] was written in Hebrew, or if [Scripture that is in] Hebrew was written in and [Aramaic] version, or in Hebrew script, it does not render the hands unclean. {The Holy Scriptures] render the hands unclean only if they are written in the Assyrian character, on leather, and in ink.”

To unpack this, the following things must be noted. Translations of the Scriptures do not make the hands unclean. Since the Aramaic parts of Daniel and Ezra are original, they make the hands unclean. But any other portion rendered into Aramaic is a translation of the original, and does not make the hands unclean. The “Hebrew script” referred to is that which appears, for example, in the Siloam and Moabite inscriptions. It was thus considered a common script, and confined to secular uses. The “Assyrian character” referred to is the immediate precursor to the modern “square” character, and was used for copying the Scriptures. Thus, the handling of the Scripture scrolls in the synagogue would have rendered the hands unclean, because they met the strictures defined here.

The final treatise of Tohoroth is Utzkin (stalks). To quote from Danby, “The tractate treats, mainly, of the various parts in plants, defining which are susceptible to uncleanness, and which parts serve as ‘connectives’ for uncleanness (so that if such a part suffers uncleanness it conveys uncleanness to the rest, or if the rest suffers uncleanness it also suffers uncleanness); and which parts can be included together with the edible parts to make up the egg’s bulk which is the minimum quantity of foodstuff that suffices to convey food uncleanness” (p. 785, n. 5).

Thus ends the Mishnah. But the discussions of these things are endless. So the Gemarah followed. The Gemarah together with the Mishnah make up the Talmud. The Mishnah was written in Hebrew. The Gemarah was written in Aramaic, and currently is found in two forms, the Babylonian and the Jerusalem. These probably date to about the sixth century AD. They contain extended discussions of the matter discussed in the Mishnah. The existence of both the Mishnah and the Gemarah serve to illustrate the point that no codification of law is adequate to cover every possible situation. Hence, laws and law-books multiply ad nauseam.

In the following weeks, we will begin a more detailed exploration of the Gemarah, and the subsequent rabbinic discussions, following them, as far as is possible, down to the modern era.

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