A Digital Synopsis of Mishnah and Tosefta
Final Report Abstract
The joint research project "A Digital Synopsis of the Mishnah and Tosefta" aims to develop a digital research tool based on a combination of computer driven and hand edited analysis, that will provide academic and lay persons alike with access to the manuscript traditions of the Mishnah and the Tosefta, and more significantly to their parallel and interrelated traditions. This tool enables a better understanding of the formation of both the Mishnah and the Tosefta through the identification of textual building blocks that function as sources, from which the Mishnah and the Tosefta were constructed. Furthermore, it provides a map of the interrelationships between the two works, including passages that are nearly parallel, those that appear independent of one another, and those where the works share common material and will reward further analysis. The “dry” results, significant in their own right, further enable scholars to reconstruct cultural choices: Do textual differences or revisions reflect internal conflicts of rabbinic ideology and society? Did rabbinic authority meet resistance? What are the “roads not taken” and why were they not taken? Here, the work we outline takes on significance for the cultural and political history of Roman Palestine more broadly.
