Egyptian-Hebrew stream·Babylonian Talmud·Introduction
Vol IX — Introduction (closing apparatus)
Closing introductory apparatus to the final tractates of Vol IX.
Source context
- Theme
- introductory framing of Talmudic tractate Vol. 9-15 within the broader corpus of rabbinic literature
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Jewish (Talmudic) hermeneuticsTalmudic introductions function as meta-textual frames establishing interpretive authority, chain of transmission, and the scope of halakhic or aggadic content — a structural feature shared across the Mishnaic and Gemoraic layers of the Babylonian Talmud.
- KabbalahCross-tradition congruence appears in the Kabbalistic practice of prefacing exegetical works with a statement of intention (kavvanah) and lineage, paralleling the Talmudic introduction's function of locating a tractate within a continuous spiritual-legal tradition.
Introduction
INTRODUCTION.
THERE is no Gemara to this Tract. However, it forms a part of the section Jurisprudence, and is usually printed with the commentaries of both Maimanides and Rabad.
Although these Mishnaioth are almost each of them repeated in some of the six sections of the Talmud (thus a number of them already translated by us), yet we could not omit them because of the significance they attain in view of the fact that the contents of them all were testified before the Assembly of the sages. The first chapter, however, of this Tract, which was not testified, is significant for its showing (a) the cases wherein the sages establish the Halakha without adopting the views of either Shamai or Hillel though expressed by each of them personally; (b) wherein the school of Hillel after deliberations abandoned their view to adopt that of the school of Shamai; (c) the reasons for the rule that the opinion of an individual is mentioned though the Halakha prevails with the majority; (d) where the school of Shamai do not agree with Shamai, their master.
We have translated this Tract almost literally, referring the reader who may be confronted with some difficulties to places where detailed explanations are found, as to explain these here would necessitate a whole volume for itself.