[Avodah] Division of Mishnayos

[Ezra Chwat]

From: Yisrael Dubitsky
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 11:26 AM

Replying to (Avodah 22.11.11 v28n236 #5) R Elazar Teitz's assertion that
"The individual mishnayos would appear to be the decisions of printers":

In the generations initially following RI Ha Nassi's canonization of
The Mishna, there is already an awareness of subdivision of chapters
into mishnayot, then called "Halakhot". This is evident in Beratha
Kinyan Tora (commonly known as Pirkei Avot chap. VI) "Ha-lomed pereq
ehad o Halakha ahat". Yerushalmi in a number of places specify a text
unit called "hilkhita", such as in Berakhot II 6 we hear from Shmuel:
"that Hilkhita which is at the beginning of the chapter", indicates that
the subdivision is accepted and known. (See RYN Epstein, Mavo LeNusakh
HaMishnah, 5708 pp. 999-1000)

In the 10-11th century complete Mishna manuscript in the Kaufmann
collection (http://kaufmann.mtak.hu/en/ms50/ms50-coll1.htm), not only
are the chapters subdivided into numbered mishnayot, but some of these
"Hilkh[ot]" are counted at the end of each chapter, like the masora
counts psukim at the end of each parshah.

In Rambam's preparatory drafts of perush ha-Mishnah we see short phrases
of mishnah signified by an overline, that are clearly not diburei
ha-mat'hil, rather the words that start a new mishnah. (Hopkins,
Maimonides Commentary on Tractate Shabbat, Jerusalem 2001; Chwat &
Sabbato, Yeshurun XV (Nissan 5765), pp. 15-30). Rambam follows this
example in Mishneh Torah, as he mentions in the introduction, after
stating his intention to imitate the literary scheme of the Mishnah,
he justifies the subdivision into Halakhot: "And each chapter I will
[sub]divide into smaller Halakhot so that they should be [easily] arranged
(=memorized, digested) by heart". (The numbering of the halakhot in MT
is not the Rambam's own numeration per se; in his drafts he signaled
a subdivision by three dots, but it was a printer's convention to add
the numberings. Hence, differences in where the halakhot division and
numbering often varies by edition; see Kafih and Frankel editions for
common differences).

Dr. Ezra Chwat, Yisrael Dubitsky
The Department of Manuscripts/
Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts
E.J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram POB 39105,
Jerusalem 91390, Israel
Tel: 972-2-6586232 fax: 972-2-6584606
http://jnul.huji.ac.il/imhm/index.html
blog: Giluy Milta B'Alma: http://imhm.blogspot.com