Q&A: Mishnahs, Baraitot, Toseftot
Mishnahs, Baraitot, Toseftot
Question
“Those who issue Jewish law from their Mishnah are destroyers of the world.” Does this mean that the Mishnah was never originally intended or suited for direct halakhic instruction, or that once Jewish law continued to “develop,” it was no longer possible to rule directly from the Mishnah? Like how the Geonim ruled directly from the Talmud, whereas today someone who issues halakhic rulings directly from the Talmud and skips over all the medieval authorities and later authorities is seen by many people as destroying the world. In Egypt, presumably, in the generation after Maimonides they ruled directly from Maimonides, but today we have the Magen Avraham, Pri Megadim, and whole worlds of material that one does not ignore.
Answer
From the Mishnah itself it is very clear that it was not intended to issue halakhic rulings. Otherwise, why did they bring differing opinions rather than the opinion that was ruled as Jewish law? In general too, almost no Mishnah contains a final ruling.
But there is more here than that. Issuing rulings from the Mishnah without understanding its interpretations and without discussing how to apply the material to the circumstances of the question—that is what “destroyers of the world” means. Maharal discusses this at length in Netiv HaTorah, chapter 15.
By the way, at least according to Maharal (and also in my humble opinion), this is not specifically about the Mishnah. It refers to anyone who issues halakhic rulings from some fixed text (even if it is the Mishnah Berurah), rather than from his own judgment.
Discussion on Answer
In my humble opinion, the intent of the Mishnah in Horayot is that the Mishnah was meant for discussion within the study hall [as a basis for discussion], and not as books of finalized Jewish law. In that context it is less fitting to say, “What you heard was the view of so-and-so,” and more fitting simply to decide that the Jewish law is such-and-such.
Thanks
Just a small note: the Mishnah explains why it brings differing opinions: “Rabbi Yehuda said: If so, why are the words of an individual mentioned among the majority for nothing? So that if a person says, ‘This is the tradition I received,’ they can say to him: ‘What you heard was the view of so-and-so.’”