The Tosefta *

Tractate Avodah Zarah * - Chapter 9

A Preface from the Editor of the Seven Commandment Pages  (based on Maimonides' Code, Introduction – Preface)

All the commandments which were given to Moses at [Mount] Sinai were given with the details of their observance and their meaning.  This is what G-d said to Moses:  ". . . and I will give you the [Two] Tablets of stone, and the Torah, and the commandment — which I have written — to teach to them [the Jewish people]"  (Exodus 24:12).  The Torah refers to the text of the written Scriptures, and the commandment refers to the Oral Tradition of explanations.

We also see this in the last words of the verse.  "Which I have written" is distinguished from "to teach."  The Oral Tradition of the revelation at Sinai needs to be taught in order for us to be able to read, understand, and fulfill the written scriptures.

For about 1500 years, from the time of Moses until Rabbi Judah the Prince, none of the Sages published any books on the subject of the Oral Tradition.  While each one kept notes of what he had heard and of new enactments, the actual teaching consisted of lectures and discussions in the academies.

However, Rabbi Judah the Prince lived in the era after the destruction of the Second Jewish Commonwealth.  The Romans had destroyed not only the Holy Temple in Jerusalem but also the political and economic structures of the Jewish people.  Jewish life in the Holy Land was precarious.  From time to time, the Romans would disband the central Sanhedrin * Academy and suppress Torah study and Jewish observances.

Rabbi Judah saw the diminishing numbers of Torah students.  He saw new tribulations on the horizon with the Roman Empire expanding and entrenching itself.  The world's Jewish population was increasingly spread out into an expanding Diaspora.

Therefore Rabbi Judah the Prince compiled, consolidated, and organized the entirety of the Oral Tradition and published it in the Mishnah so that there would be one standard text in the hands of every teacher and student.  He and the Sanhedrin Academy publicized and taught the Mishnah and promoted its acceptance by Jews everywhere so that the Oral Tradition from Sinai would not be forgotten.

Once this was accomplished, Rabbi Judah's foremost students, the Sages who succeeded him, took upon themselves the task of supplementing the succint style of the Mishnah with texts of their own.  After Rabbi Judah's death, the central Sanhedrin Academy decreased in stature, and many of these students took positions as the heads of Torah academies elsewhere in the Holy Land and even in Babylonia.

One of these students of Rabbi Judah the Prince was Rabbi Hiya.  He published the Tosefta, The Abridged Rules of the Mishnah, in order to explain the ideas of the Mishnah.  He retained the structure of the Mishnah – sixty-three tractates which are organized into six "orders" (divisions).

The fourth order deals with civil and criminal matters.  Within this order, matters pertaining to idol worship and interactions with idolators are presented in the eighth tractate, called Avodah Zarah.

The name of this tractate means "foreign worship," which is the Hebrew term for idolatry.

9:4.  Noah's Children [Noahites] were commanded concerning seven commandments:

• concerning a legal system,
• concerning blasphemy,
• concerning idolatry,
• concerning sexual immorality,
• concerning murder,
• concerning theft,
• and concerning [eating] a limb torn from a living animal.

How [are they commanded concerning a legal system]?
Just as Israelites [the Jewish people] are commanded to establish law courts in their neighborhoods,
so too, Noahites are commanded to establish law courts in their cities.

How are they commanded concerning idolatry and blasphemy?
[This is the case of] a Gentile who actually worshipped an idol or who actually cursed G-d by name.
The death sentence of a Noahite is only carried out by being beheaded by sword.

Authority and Tradition: Toseftan Baraitot in the Babylonian Talmud, by Yaakov Elman
(Hoboken, New Jersey: Ktav Publishing House, 1994)
ISBN 0-88125-425-8

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. Review of Past Research
3. Variation and Identity in Toseftan Baraitot
4. Baraitot in Oral Circulation
5. The Fruits of Oral Transmission
6. The Baraitot in the Babylonian Talmud
7. The Use of Toseftan Baraitot by the Babylonian Talmud - I
8. The Use of Toseftan Baraitot by the Babylonian Talmud - II
9. The Question of Authority: Parallel Matrices
10. The Babylonian Talmud and the Tosefta as a Composition
11. Conclusions
Appendices
Bibliography
Index

Pronunciation