TORAH 101: Mishnah Commentary, Heuristics, and Appendices + 2026 TORCH Fundraiser

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We are up to the last installment, the final installment in our study of Rambams, Magisterial

Introduction to his Magisterial commentary to Mission, of course, Mission is the foundational

book of Oral Torah, that's one of the most consequential decisions of writing down

of canonizing the Oral Torah, Rambam, when he was a very young man, wrote a complete commentary

to all of Mishna, and we were going through his introduction to his commentary to Mishna,

and either too, a lot has been covered, he sketches out for us the history of Oral Torah,

how it worked, and how it works, and he has this very long essay, this treatise on prophecy,

how prophecy works, how to differentiate between real and fake prophecy, and the various

different components of Oral Torah, the laws of Moshe at Sinai, disputes and how they

originate, why dissenting opinions are included in the Mishna, we had a brief overview on the

six orders of Mishna and all the different books of Mishna, and finally, last time we had

the analysis of the further development of Oral Torah, the different books that are of Mishna'it

era, the Talmud and what's included in that, and the last part, this is actually part 11 for those

of Yalcounting, Rambams going to focus on his own contribution, why did he write his commentary

to Mishna, and he ends with a fascinating set of appendices and heuristics, very interesting,

very fascinating, a lot to cover, so let's begin. The Ramam writes that there's a great need to

author my commentary to Mishna, of course, the commentary to Mishna is the Talmud, Talmud itself,

he told us is a commentary to Mishna, and the Talmud explains and elaborates upon the Mishna,

but unless you read the entire Talmud, there are many different ideas, laws, contests of the Mishna

that are found in the Talmud, that if you just read the Mishna, even if you have all the logic in

the world, if all you have the Mishna, you would not know all the conclusions and all the explanation

and all the elaboration found in the Talmud, so if someone wants to read the Mishna and they want

a commentary and they don't want to read the whole Talmud, there is a need to plug that void,

for example, the Talmud very often, it tells us something about the Mishna that we wouldn't know

unless we have the Talmud, for example, this is very common, Bamed Varma Muram, that's the words,

when is this Mishna applied? This Mishna applies in this in this case, the Talmud very frequently

identifies a specific case to the exclusion of a different case in which the law of the Mishna

applies, if you just read the Mishna, you wouldn't necessarily know that. Similarly, very often,

the Talmud tells us that the precise text of the Mishna needs to be altered in order to

truly understand its meaning. Now, this is a unique concept, the Talmud very often tells us

Rasuri Mishra, there is no way to understand the Mishna unless you amend or tinker with the text

of the Mishna. And by the way, the Ram doesn't say this, but one of the reasons offered for this

fact, like why would the Mishna omit words? Why would it, why does the Talmud say you need to add

words and understand the Mishna? One of the answers, very interesting, given to explain this

phenomenon, is that the Mishna was designed to be memorized. And sometimes, a Seamsand that will be

used to memorize the Mishna, it just wouldn't rhyme or wouldn't match with the amount of words of

the Mishna. So they would deduct some words from the Mishna and they would maintain an oral tradition,

oh, in this particular Mishna in order to truly understand it, you have to add this in this words.

And the Talmud spells it all out, of course, but if you just read the Mishna, you don't have that

tradition and you don't have the Talmud, you wouldn't know what the Mishna is referring to.

Similarly, very often, very, very often, the Talmud identifies the author of a Mishna. This

Mishna is in accordance with this and this opinion, implied, there are other opinions that disagree.

So if you want to read the Mishna and understand it, and you don't want to study all of Talmud,

you're going to be missing a lot of context. And that's why I wrote this commentary to Mishna,

so you study Mishna, and all the things that Talmud tells you about that Mishna without resorting

to read the Talmud. And there are four main benefits or four main purposes of my commentary.

Number one, to explain the Mishna, to explain the words of the Mishna.

And he tells us very interesting, because if you spoke to someone who's very intelligent,

a great genius, and he said, here's the words of the Mishna, explain to me this Mishna.

Unless they know all of Talmud by heart, and unless they actually open up the book of Talmud to

read it, they wouldn't know what the Mishna means. Because the Mishna, unless you have the explanation

of the Mishna, can often be quite indeciferable. And how many people can we expect to know all of

Talmud by heart? You often see, like today we have the books of Talmud, and you have four lines of

Mishna, and four pages, or five pages of elaboration, of analysis, of debate, of discussion,

of investigation in the Talmud. So how are you supposed to understand the Mishna without the Talmud?

Which is the clear explanation of that Mishna? You have to be completely well versed in the Talmud

in order to understand the Mishna. Moreover, says the Rambham, very often, the explanation of one

Mishna relies on many different teachings in all of Talmud. So unless you really know all of Talmud,

you very often will not know the interpretation, the explanation of a single Mishna.

And therefore, the first purpose of my commentary says Rambham is to explain the Mishna. Number one.

Number two, the second benefit of my commentary is to identify the Halacha. Very often, you have

it dispute the Mishna. Rabbi, so-and-so says acts, Rabbi, so-and-so says why? Or maybe there are three

opinions, or even four opinions. Well, what's the Halacha? Which opinion do we follow? Very often,

the Talmud itself would say that. I'm going to include that says the Rambham in my commentary to

Mishna, and that's the second benefit. So you know what's the bottom line, what's the Halacha,

the Halacha follows whom? Number two, number three, my commentary will serve as an introduction,

says Rambham, for someone who is beginning to study the depths of wisdom. I will teach you the

methods of how to investigate words. I've had to understand explanations. You will be trained in

how to engage in Talmudic analysis and deductions. There's a word that we use for this. It's a very

common aphorism you hear in the Great Yashivos. The first, you have to learn how to learn. And once

you learn how to learn, then you to learn. There's a certain training that's needed to prepare a person

for how to understand the intricacies and the profundities of the Talmud. And with my commentary says

Rambham, I will help you to do that. And that'll be the third purpose of the book. And finally,

even someone who studies all of Mishna and studied all of Talmud and is an expert and I want to

be able to quickly review it. So you can study just a Mishna and my commentary and that will serve

as a tool, as a means to make sure that you remember it. In my commentary says Rambham, I will select

only the true interpretations. Very often the Talmud has a very long debate. It doesn't mean this,

it doesn't mean that. And it will investigate to the end of all the investigations, both opinions.

And ultimately, it will select, this is the more favorite opinion.

It says Rambham, in my commentary, I'll cut just to the chase. We'll follow only, I'll

delimitate only the true explanations and I will repel all the explanations that appear to be

rejected by the Talmud. But I'll also explain to you the reasonings and the background,

the bad story of the disputes amongst the disputes. What's the reason for the debate? And in

accordance to whom does the law follow? I will be brief in my words, I will not confuse the reader.

Brevity is a hallmark of this commentary. And if your heart is like stone, I'm not trying to

explain it to you. I'm only trying to explain those whose heart are open and receptive to understand.

And I will include the full text of every Mishna. And only then will I explain that particular

Mishna, that particular law following the objectives of my commentary. And once I finish one law,

I'll move into the next one. And that's one and that's one and so on until I finish all the laws

of the Mishna. What if the words of a Mishna are easy, they're self-explanatory? In that case,

I will simply write down the Mishna and it will not add any commentary because it's self-understood.

What about when there's a dispute between the academies of Shama and Hilo? We know that invariably

the law follows Hilo, not Shama. With the exception of a few well-known instances.

If you see a dispute in a Mishna between the academies of Shama and Hilo, I don't need to tell you

that the law follows the academy of Hilo, that's a well-known rule of thumb. It's a heuristic,

whenever this is a dispute, can it be Shama and Hilo? The law follows the academy of Hilo? And only

in the cases in the few rare instances where the law follows the academy of Shama only then will

I spell out, oh in this case it's an exception, here the law follows the academy of Shama.

When there is an unattributed Mishna, it doesn't say rabbi so-and-so says,

it just says a law. Well then you know the law follows that unattributed Mishna. I don't

need to spell that out for you. Everyone's a little wild though, you have an unattributed Mishna,

but the law does not follow. In those Mishnas, I will explain, oh this is an exception to the rule,

typically unattributed Mishnas we follow, here is the exception.

What about when there's a dispute between an individual and the masses? There's a rule we follow

the rabbi, the masses. If you have all the sages of the academy are saying one thing and there's

one individual who's the Decentre. Typically there's a rule, Yachid, Verabim, an individual versus

the masses, the law follows the masses. Nevertheless, says the Rambam, I'm going to actually identify

that the law follows the masses in those cases. These are the rules that he lays out for himself

and he ends off his introduction with a prayer, the Almighty directs us in the path of truth,

distance us from the opposite of truth with the help of the lofty and glorious God.

That's his commentary and that's his rationale for the commentary and those are the rules that he's

going to employ in his commentary. And then he says, okay, I want to add some more thing to my

introduction. He has ten appendices that are very interesting and very useful for someone who

wants to study this properly, but he tells us, he tells the reader, these are useful but not quite

as useful as what I wrote in my introduction, hitherto. But if you want to understand

Mishna completely, truly in its entirety, here's some good information to know. I find it absolutely

fascinating what he chooses to include in his list of appendices at the end of his introduction.

He starts up by saying there's ten different subjects I want to address. Number one, enumerating

the sages who are mentioned in the Mishna. How many sages are there? Who are the sages?

If you polled a hundred Shiva students, I imagine unless they read this, none of them will know the

answer to that question. How many sages appear in the Mishna in the context of a law that they taught?

That's the first appendice. The second appendice is the enumeration of sages who are mentioned

in the Mishna but not in the context of a law rather than in the context of an event, a story that

happened or a lesson that they taught or a homily that they preached. Okay, that's appendice number

two. Appetite number three is identifying the various pedigrees of the sages of the Mishna.

Number four, organizing all the sages of Mishna into different blocks of sages based upon the

different generations of sages. The period of the Mishna, it goes from the beginning of the

second temple era, that's four hundred and twenty years, up to about a hundred and fifty years or

so after the temple's destroyed. So it's one of the five hundred years of history. And all the

sages are including this one grand corpus but they didn't obviously all overlap with each other.

So the Ram does, he identifies for us 11 different cohorts, 11 different generations that span

these 500 plus years, which of these sages are in the first block, the second block, and so on.

Identifying the teacher student relationships amongst the sages. This was very interesting.

The different naming schemes, the so many different names and types of names that are found in

the Mishna, that are organized all different types of names and why they're given those types of

names. The stature and titles of the sages of the Mishna, the different lands and different

professions and occupations that are included in the titles of the sages of the Mishna.

Number nine, opinions number nine is identifying which sages are most likely to be disputants.

Of course, sages of a given cohort are more likely to have overlapped with other sages of

the same cohort, but which sages typically dispute with each other in the Mishna, and he lists them

by the order of how often they dispute. And finally, organizing the different sages by amount of

times that they appear in the Mishna. How many sages appear a lot and it gives a whole list of

almost ages that appear only once in the Mishna. And it identifies in which books do those sages that

have only one appearance appear. These are the ten appendices that he offers us, and I find it to be

absolutely fascinating because it's like this complete reference book for Mishna, all done a thousand

years ago. It's a reflection of Ramams, just absolute mastery of all Talmud and all of Mishna,

and this incredible ability to organize and to index all this information.

How many sages appear in the Mishna in the context of a law that they taught?

I don't know what I would have guessed if I had to guess, but the Ramam lists them all by name.

All of the sages are all the Mishna that appear in the context of a law. It's 91 different sages.

And he starts to list them. Rabbi Eliaz, there's son of Hurtinus, there's son of Jacob, there's

son of Rabbi Osi, the Galilean. Yehoshua, ben-Prakhi, and so on. Yehoshua, ben-chanani,

Yehoshua, ben-Karcha, all these great sages, one after another. And he says, I'm not organizing it

by chronological order, by alphabetical order, I'm just giving you all the sages.

91 different sages. Now, if you count them, you find it's only it's only 90.

Presumably, it's because the architect of the Mishna was

Rabbi Trude the Prince, who is mentioned, but it's not included in this list. He

included 90, but him, when you include him as well, if 91. Okay, that's the first section.

I'm lists the names of the 91 sages that appear in the Mishna in the context of a law that they

taught. The second section, that's the number of sages, who were mentioned in the Mishna,

not because of a law that they taught, but rather because of an event that happened,

or because of the teaching, like a moral or an ethical teaching, or a homily that they taught.

So Rama himself says, we have a book of Mishna called Pirkeavos, ethics of the fathers,

chapters of the fathers. And there are many sages that appear in that book. They teach an ethical,

a moral, a philosophical lesson, but they don't appear anywhere else in the entirety of Mishna.

How many sages teach lessons, but don't teach any laws anywhere else in the Mishna?

It's a total of 37. And of course, he lists them, again, not by chronology or by any of the

system. It's just a list of 37 names. So the total number of sages mentioned in Mishna is 128, 91,

plus 37. And then he adds, there are two more names of people that maybe could be confused as

sages that appear in the Mishna. But I'm not including in my list, because one of them is Alicia

Benavoya, otherwise known as Acher. He was the one sage that went awry. He became a heretic.

And therefore, even though there isn't teaching in his name, it's not appropriate to include him

amongst the rarified list of 128 sages. Ehent, there's someone named Menachem, a friend or a

colleague of Shamae. There's no teaching or lesson that's taught from him. So he's not part of our

list. So these again, appendices, very interesting. 91 sages that appear in the Mishna

in the context of a law, 37 sages that teach a lesson, but not one that is law-based.

Okay, the third section, pedigree. Some of these 128 sages are from royalty, from nobility.

Of course, rather than the prince, he was the prince. And he's from one of the most important lines

in our history. His son is Robbongamlil. His father is also Robbongamlil. And his father is

Rabishimul. And his father is Rabishimul. And his father is Hilo. And these were all presidents or

princes of the Jewish people. And Hilo, the famous Hilo, the Babylonian, we know Hilo, he's the

founder of the Academy of Hilo. And these are all descendants of King David.

So this is one section of sages that stem, that originate, that hail from royalty.

Okay, there's a different set of sages that have a different pedigree.

There are four of these 128 sages that are either converts or come from families of converts.

And they are Shamaya, Aftalion, Rabbi Akiva, and Rabbi Mayer. He's like organizing the

different sages by the different groups of pedigree. How many of the 128 sages are priests,

are Kohanem? Again, most people have any idea to, some of them are identified as Kohanem,

like Rampaghanena, Skana Kohanem, Rampaghanena, the device Kohengadal. He's one of the sages of

the Mishnah. But how many of them are there? So, the Rabbi says, I'll give you the total list.

There are 14 different sages that we know to have been priests. And again, some of them are

identified by name. Most of them, which is because the Talmud happens to tell us the story about them,

the Talmud happens to reveal, we know in some fashion, in some way, that they have priestly pedigree.

So, we have the family of the Prince, the family of Hillel, we have the sages who were converts,

or from families of converts. The 14 sages who were priests, and the rest of the sages,

we don't know anything else about their pedigree, they are Israelites. Again, that's an appendix.

The next appendix are the various different generations of sages. As a point to know,

like which sages overlap with which other sages? And how do we categorize the different generations?

So, he tells us that the first generation of sages included in the Mishnah, it starts with

Shimon Hatsadik, Shimon the righteous, and he overlapped with Dosa, son of Hartinus, or higher canus,

people builds it, or Hurtinus. And what's interesting about this is Rabbi Dosa Ben Hurtinus,

he lived a very long life, because he also overlapped with Shimon the righteous, who was at the

beginning of the second temple era, and he overlapped with Rabbi Akiva, who was after the temple

of the story. He lived a very, very long life, and there's a very famous and dramatic episode of

the Talmud, where Rabbi Akiva has an interaction with a very, very aged sage named Rabbi Dosa Ben Hurtinus.

That's the first generation. The second generation is Antignaus, Man of Sochro, and Rabbi Dosa Ben Hurtinus,

and the third and the fourth and the fifth and the sixth and the seventh, seven generations,

and all the various different sages, that were the first seven generations of sages, whose names

are mentioned in the Mishnah. And these seven cohorts, these seven generations were all in the

second temple era, and they weren't there past its destruction. And then he lists the generations

that were following the destruction of the second temple, and he lists four generations of sages,

a total of 11 different generations of sages, that is another appendix. And again, I'm not going

through all the names of the sages. You could read it inside, but he lists all the names of all the

sages in each respective generation. What about teacher-student relations? Who was a teacher,

who was a student? So, I'm going through the prints, the architect of the Mishnah. He was also a student

and also a son of the previous prince, Robin Gamelil. So, there's a successive line of father's

sons, who doubled as teachers, students. We know that Rabayativa had five famous students. You

recall, perhaps, in the ethics of the father's chapter two, there's a long list of teachings

where Rabayativa interacts with his five students. Rabayativa, he's a student of Rabayativa,

but he's also a student of Rabayativa, but they were more like colleagues than teacher-student,

which is why Rabayativa would honor Rabayativa, and he would call him as teacher,

and Rabayativa would simply call Rabayativa by his first name, Archiva, because he was half a

colleague, but also a student, but also an underlink, but they still had disputes amongst them.

Now, Rabaymere and Rabayativa are students of Rabayativa, but Rabayativa also studied Rabayativa

and also studied by others, and Rabayuhuda was a student of Rabayativa in Azaria. Again, he's trying

to organize for us the tree, the coaching tree, if you will, of the sages of the Mishnah.

When the Mishnah says, Rabay so-and-so, said in the name of Rabayso-and-so, which happens many,

many, many, many, many, many times, all over the place, it happens. The Mishnah is identifying

for you a teacher and a student. A student said a teaching and the name of a teacher, he was obviously

a student of that person, and so on. Okay, names and naming steams. We have so many sages that

have the same first name. There's lots and lots of Rabayatis, there has been Shamu, there has been

Yaqro, there has been Horkinus, what if the Mishnah just says Rabayatis, which one of them is it?

So there are certain rules of thumb. When it says Rabayatis, it invariably refers to a

Bennhorkinus teacher of Rabbi Tiwa. When it says Rabayahushua there are many Rabayushua, Rabayushua,

Bampraqah, Rabayushua, Belaivi, Rabayushua, Banchani, Chananiah, but when it says Rabayushua without any

Appalachians, it's the Revens of Rabayushua, Banchaniah. Who is the student of Rabayahohana Mitzak?

One of the five students who are Bachhama Zakai. Rabayahudah is lots of Rabayahudah, Rabayajudah.

That's invariably a reference to Ryudah, Bar Ilai, son of Ilai, but sometimes the

mission identifies him in a different way. When the mission says there was once a

pious person, remember it talks about a pious person, and it doesn't identify

which pious person has been mentioned, that's always a reference to Rabbi

Ryudah, also known as Rabbi the son of Ilai, also known as the pious one. What

about when it says Rabbi Al-Azza, not Rabbi Al-Yesa, Rabbi Al-Azza? That's invariably

reference to Rebellion Shubu, Rabbi Shumulans invariably a reference to

Rebellion Son of Ilai. The three bends, sometimes it says Ben Azai, Ben Zoma, Ben

Nanas, doesn't identify who the person is, just who their father is. The three

bends are all Shimmones, Shimon Ben Azai, Shimon Ben Zoma, Shimon Ben Nanas. Ben

Bissera, that's Rabbi Shua Ben Bissera, Ben Bag Bag, that's Rabbi Yohanan, Ben Bag Bag.

When it says Yohanan the High Priest, when that name appears in the

mission, oh that's a very famous Yohanan the High Priest, that's reference to

Yohanan son of Matis Yoh Mavias, famous for the Hanukkah story, for the Hasmanine

Revolt, we know that story. That great sage is the same Yohanan High Priest

featured in the mission. And the Roman identifies some of the reasons why some of

the nicknames were given in the mission. There was an episode the Roman

informs us, and it's too long to give you the details, but there's an episode

where Rabbi Mayer and Rabbi Nusson, they tried to, they did something inappropriate

to Rabbi Gamelil, the father of the Prince. And because of this episode,

Rabbi Gamelil banished them from his academy. And therefore, whenever these

sages are mentioned, Rabbi Mayer, Rabbi Nusson, it often conceals their

identity as almost like a punishment for that unmentioned episode. And therefore,

when it says Acherim Omim, there are others that say, who are these others that

we don't know who they are, the mission is others Acherimum, others say, that's

invariably reference to Rabbi Mayer. And when it says Yoh Omim, there are those

who say, that's reference to Rabbi Nusson, and again, they're both, they have their

identities sometimes concealed because of this other event that the Roman does

want to tell us too much about. And there are other ways in which Rabbi Mayer's

identity is concealed. Sometimes it says, Mishum Rabbi Ishmul Omartamad-Echam, the

Rabbiteva, which translates as, in the name of Rabbi Ishmul, someone, some

students said in front of Rabbi Tiva, whenever it gives that introduction to

a teaching, that too is reference to Rabbi Mayer. When it says, Haddanin

Lafneha Khumim, those learned ones, in front of the sages, it's reference to

five different people. And again, it delineates those five people. Oh, and you

should know that Rabbi Mayer is the same person as Rabbi Nehoryi, the word

mayor means light, the word Nehoryi means light. His actual name is Rabbi

Nehamiya, but because he brought so much light, he was given these two

nicknames of Rabbi Mayer and Rabbi Nehoryi. Okay, what about when the

Mishum says Khumim, which means sages? That can refer to lots and lots of

different people. Sometimes it refers to an individual. Sometimes it refers to a

group of sages. Sometimes the time which tries to identify which sage is being

referenced to the Mishuna when it says sages. Now, why would an individual be

labeled as sages? Sometimes there's a teaching taught by one individual, but again

such universal acceptance that it became adopted by the masses. And therefore,

even though it's a teaching that originally, that originally by one person, it is

called Khumim as if the entire masses have taught that teaching. The Academy of

Hillel and Shama in Hebrew, that's called the Academy of Hillel and Shama is

called the House, or the household, base Shama, base Hillel. Why would the Academy

of Shama in Hillel be called the House of Shama in Hillel? Oh, that's because a

person's students delight members of their family. And that's why it's like his

houses. These are like his household members. That's how close the

teachers and students. When the Mishuna uses the term rabbi says, well, we're

rabbi. We have 128 people that could qualify. When it just says rabbi, it's

referenced to Rabijuta the Prince. He's also known as Rabay Nuhakadoj, our holy

teacher. When it says just rabbiomer or rabbi says, it's reference to him. When

the Mishuna uses the framing, the MS Amru, in truth, they said, that's reference

to a law taught by Moshe from Sinai. It means a law that you will not find or you

will not find a clear indication of in the text of the written Torah. And finally,

in this section, the Ram Talzas, again, rules of thumb of Mishuna, Mishuna,

heuristics. If there is an unattributed Mishuna, Mishuna just says a teaching. So is

there a particular sage that taught that teaching? It can mean all sorts of different things.

It can mean the law that all the sages agreed to derive that particular law. Or it can mean

a law that all the sages have a tradition since the times of Moshe for that particular law.

Sometimes an unattributed Mishuna is the teaching of Rabay mayor alone. And there are sages

who disagree with it. And sometimes it can refer to a teaching of a sage other than Rabay mayor

and the Talmud will identify, okay, this Mishuna in accordance with whom does it follow.

Next appendix, titles. If you stand these 128 names, you'll find different

titleings teams. Some of them are called Rabay, like Rabay Akiva, Rabay Tafun, Rabayoshu and so on.

Some of them are called Rabun, which is also like Rabay, but it's not spelled differently. It's Rabun.

And some of them don't have any title at all. Hillel, doesn't say Rabayil, Shamae,

doesn't say Rabay Shamae, Shimon Hatsodak, Shimon Hatsodak, doesn't say Rabay Shimon Hatsodak.

Why is there these different naming teams for the different sages of the Mishuna?

It says the Rambam, the highest level, the greatest sages are simply called by their first name.

So Hillel is just Hillel, Shamae is just Shamae because of their amazing greatness. An amazing stature,

there's no title, there's no honorific that can possibly fit their greatness. Just as we don't

have names for prophets, we don't call, you know, we don't call Rabbi Samuel, Rabbi Samuel. He's just

Samuel the prophet, Moshe, it's just Moshe, it's not Rabbi Moshe because there's no name that we

can conceive of that can possibly fit their greatness. The highest name is just their name. And that's

the highest degree of greatness of a sage. And there are 22 different sages in the Mishuna that are

in this class. And there are lists all those sages. And then he tells us anyone in the Mishuna that

has a first name, but doesn't have, but it's not part of our list, then there's some other reason

why their title is omitted, but they're not on this highest level. Then that's highest level

is Rabban. It's harder than Rabbi, it's Rabban. And typically that's reserved for the leaders of

the academy, the president of the Sunnation. So all the sages in the family of Hilo,

they're known as Rabban, not Rabbi Gumballil, Rabban Gumballil, Rabban Shimon and so on.

I believe that with the exception of one sage, the title Rabban is reserved for the family of

Hilo. The one exception to that is Rabban, Yohanan, Benzaka, he was not part of that family,

but he was on this level of this second cohort. And the third level are the ones called Rabbi,

like Rabbi Meirabbi, you don't so on. But then there are other terms like Abba, Abba means Father,

but it means like a beloved one, Abba Shal, he's always known as Abba Shal. And there are times

where there's no honor or fricking, and that's okay. So for example, Shimon Aghi Azaria, Shimon

Brother Abbasaria, not Rabbi, and it's not any other title, it's just Shimon Brother Abbasaria,

or Elazar Man of Bartusa. Okay, there's just the different names that are featured in the

Mishnah. And sometimes they're called by their profession, Nochum describe. I mean, Shimon,

the spinner of threats. He doesn't mention this, but Rabbi Yohanan Sandler, Rabbi Yohanan, the shoemaker.

This was a common, or this is a common scheme in the Mishnah to name some of the sages after their

particular profession, or some are attributed for the place that they come from. Man of Ono,

Man of Bartusa, Man of Khadad, Man of Tareed, Man of Jerusalem. And the reason why these

particular sages are given that title is because they were the most outstanding person of that

particular city, it's like the first citizen, the first citizen of Jerusalem, first citizen of Ono

and so on. Some of the sages are known by the names of their father, like Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yohai,

Rabbi Elazar, Bar-Shimon and so on. And some are known by the name of their brother, the brother of

so-and-so. And some are known as like Rabbi Yohsi Hako'in the Ko'in. Okay, the Ram was just kind of

laying out for us. All the different naming teams found in the Mishnah. And then, and then that's

the pen that he organizes the batches of disputes by order of frequency of disputes. The most

common disputes in the Mishnah are Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yuhuda, Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Yohsi.

And sometimes they argue with each other. And sometimes they argue one against another, sometimes

all four have a dispute. And sometimes there are others that disagree with these four. So, for

example, Rabbi Elazar, you'll find them very frequently. He disagrees with these of these four,

but not as often as they disagree with each other. And then the next batch, Rabbi Thiva,

Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Yoshua, also disputes between these three. And then comes the disputes between

Rabbi Kiva, Rabbi Yishmal, Rabbi Tarrfon, and Rabbi Elazar. But it's not common, but not quite as common.

And next, in frequency of disputes, the academies of Shama'in, Hilal. And then the disputes between

Rammelil, Rabbi Shomukumelil, and Rabbi Yuhunasi. And with the exception of a rare instance,

these are the most common disputes in the Mishnah. And finally, the last appendix is identifying the

sages by their various instances of appearances in the Mishnah. So, some sages appear very often,

like Rabbi Meir, like Rabbi Yuhuda. Some of them appear very infreetually.

For example, Rabbi Elazar Benyakov, the Talmatel Zas, that his teachings are Kav Vinaki.

They're few, they're small, but they're clean. Whenever there's a law, a teaching from

Rabbi Elazar Benyakov, in those few instances, the law always follows his opinion.

And then he gives us a list of 37 sages to appear only once in the entire Mishnah,

and the books in which they appear. And with that, he ends his introduction to the Mishnah.

When you have all these dependencies, it might not be as valuable for someone who may be never

studied Mishnah. We'll study a little bit of Mishnah. But if you really have this panoramic

overview of all of Mishnah, you can really fit these lessons into the various different

understandings of the inner dynamics of the Mishnah. We have concluded, Rambams, sprawling,

magisterial, introduction to Mishnah. Now you have everything you need to study the Mishnah

yourself. We understand the contents of the Mishnah where it fits in. The history of Oral Tower,

how it was, how it was developed, how it was organized, sits orders of Mishnah, sits the plus

books, the mechanics of the Mishnah. Now we know all the different names and different sages and

the different disputes and so on. We have whatever we need to become experts in the Mishnah. And

of course, once we take a deep dive into the sea of the Mishnah, we develop an urge

to go into the oceans of the Talmud. This is a very foundational work. Rambams,

introduction to his commentary to Mishnah. He spends a lot of the mechanics and the inner

workings of Oral Torah. Please, God, we will continue our study of great foundational works on

Torah and Jewish philosophy. I already have a plan of what we're going to do next. Stay tuned.

This is a project of your friends here at the Torch Center in Houston, Texas. We want to know

more about the Torah and how it works, the philosophy of the Torah and how it works. And please,

don't we'll continue that to become experts in Torah 101 with the help of your mighty together

from the Torch Center in Houston, Texas. My email address is rabbiwobieadjima.com. Please send me your

questions, your comments, and your feedback.