Toronto, MS. Friedberg 9-001

Toronto Mishna

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto Library (Toronto, Canada)

Codex

Parchment

Brown (iron-gall)

Calamus

There is ruling

Hard point

Grid of single vertical and horizontal lines

36

36

260

240

230

185

[...]אה וחמשין ותרתין שנין לשטרי

841

9th Century CE

The parchment is unfortunately damaged, and the date is only partly preserved. The preserved text mentions the day of the week, the day of the month, the decades and units of the year as well as the dating era: לשטרי, “the era of the documents” (Seleucid era). Line two of the colophon ends with the word חדש, “month”. Therefore, the name of the month was written at the beginning of line three. The lacuna in the parchment allows space for the name of the month as well as for the introduction of the year. In the usual dating formula, the year would be introduced by שנת, “year of”, or בשנת, “in the year of”. This must have been followed by the word אלפא, “one thousand”. The next word, the hundreds, is partly legible, and can only be reconstructed as מאה, “one hundred”. Thus, the manuscript was written in the year 1152 of the Seleucid era. The available space excludes that there was another numeral between אלפא and מאה, giving for example three hundred, four hundred, etc. The year 1152 of the Seleucid era corresponds to AM 4601; depending on the month, it corresponds to 840 or 841 of the Julian calendar. In that year 1152, the only month of which the 29th fell on a Friday is Tammuz. Thus, the date of the completion of the copy is probably the 22 July 841.

Iraq

Orient

The manuscript contains Babylonian vowels.

• Hebrew
• Aramaic

Mishna

This is one of many fragments from the same Mishna codex found in the Cairo Genizah. This fragments contains the end of the Order Toharot, tractate 'Oqtzin.
The list of the preserved fragments and their text:
- Order Nashim: Jerusalem, NLI 577.4.15 (Ketubbot 5,6 – 7,6) (Sussmann, n° 7662); Cambridge, T-S E1.81 (Ketubbot 8,1, v. 8,7 – 8) (Sussmann, n° 1703); New York, JTS ENA 3655.7 (Ketubbot 11,1-3 v. 12,3-4) (Sussmann n° 6751); Cambridge, T-S E1.89 (Ketubbot 13, 7 – Nedarim 2, 4) (Sussmann n° 1708); Cambridge, T-S F6.4 (Nedarim 3,1-8; v. 3,11 - 4,3) (Sussmann n° 2492); Cambridge, CUL Or 1080.1.36 (Nedarim 4,4 -5,1 v. 5,4 - 6,3) (Sussmann, n° 565); Cambridge, CUL Or 1080.1.38 + CUL Or 1080.2.60 (Nedarim 6,6 – 7,2, v. 7,5 - 8,9) (Sussmann, n° 1567 and n° 1577); Oxford, Bodl. MS Heb d 63.10 (Nedarim 8,5 – 9,1) (Sussmann, n° 885); Cambridge, T-S E1.90 (Nedarim 9,9 - 11,10) (Sussmann, n° 1708); Philadelphia, Katz Center for Judaic Studies, Halper 76 (Nedarim 11,10 – Nazir 3,2) (Sussmann, n° 6996); Cambridge, T-S E1.92 + T-S AS 62.409 (Nazir 3,4 - 4,4; 4,5-5,5) (Sussmann, n° 1710); Cambridge, T-S E1.93 (Nazir 5,5 - 6, v. 6,7 - 7,1) (Sussmann, n° 1710); Cambridge, T-S E1.94 (Nazir 7,1 - 8, v. 8,4 - 9,5) (Sussmann, n° 1710); Cambridge, T-S E1.83 (Gittin 1 - 3,3) (Sussmann, n° 1705); Cambridge, T-S E1.84 (Gittin 3,4-5,6) (Sussmann, n° 1705); Cambridge, T-S E1.85 (Gittin 5,9-7,6) (Sussmann, n° 1705); Oxford, Bodl. MS Heb d 64.88 (Gittin 7,7 - 9,4) (Sussmann, n° 882); Cambridge, T-S F6.16 (Gittin 9,4 – Sotah 1, 9) (Sussmann, n° 2500); New York, JTS, ENA 3593.5 + T-S AS 62.351 + T-S E1.154 (P1) (Sotah 4,1 – 7,3);
- Neziqin: St. Petersburg, RNL, EVR III B 483a, fol. 1 (‘Eduyot 5,9 – 8,2) (Sussmann, n° 8677)
- Qodashim: St. Petersburg, RNL, EVR III B 483a (Antonin) 483a, fol. 2 (Zevahim 1,1 – 3,6) (Sussmann, n° 8677);
Toharot: Cambridge, T-S E1.154 (P3) + T-S AS 62.489 (Nega‘aim 3,8 – 5,2); T-S E1.154 (P2) + T-S AS 62.532 + T-S AS 62.272 (Parah 2,5 – 4,3) (Sussmann n° 1763); Cambridge, T-S E1.138 + T-S E1.140 (Parah 8,9 - 9,1 (138r); 9,3 - 10,1 (140r); 10,1 - 10,7 (138v); 11,1-6 (140v) (Sussmann, n° 1749 and n° 1751); Toronto, Friedberg MSS 9-001 c. 2 (Niddah 6,1 (end)-9,5 (beginning) (n° Sussmann, n° 8458); Oxford, Bodl. MS Heb c. 17.35-43 (fol. 35r-v: Niddah 9,5 - ‘Oqṣin 3,3) (Sussmann, n° 759); Toronto, MSS Friedberg 9-001 c. 1 (‘Oqṣin 3,4 – 3,12) (Sussmann, n° 8458).
- Lastly, a small unidentified fragment, T-S AS 62.352, is written by the same scribe.

Colophon

The preserved lines of the colophon read:
ברוך שהחיינו וקיימנו והגיענו ל[זמ]ן הזה ברוך שעזרני.
נעתק הדפתר הזה יום ששי בשבת [...בע]שרים ותשעה [ימים] בחדש
].[...מ]אה וחמשין ותרתין שנין לשטרי לחיי [...] לעלם [..

“Blessed be the One who has given us life, sustained us and brought us to this time. Blessed be the one who has helped me. / This fascicle was completed on Friday […] on the twenty-ninth of the month / […] one hundred fifty-two of the era of the documents for the life […] and for eternity.”

Complete

Babylonian

I. Yeivin, The Hebrew Language Tradition as Reflected in the Babylonian Vocalization (in Hebrew), 2 vols, The Academy of the Hebrew Language, Jérusalem, 1985, I, p. 194, defined the vowels of the manuscript as belonging to the 'Middle Babylonian' group.

From the Cairo Genizah

Toronto, MSS Friedberg 9-001: online catalogue:
https://librarysearch.library.utoronto.ca/discovery/fulldisplay?context=L&vid=01UTORONTO_INST:UTORONTO&search_scope=UTL_AND_CI&tab=Everything&docid=alma991106248762206196
I. Yeivin, The Hebrew Language Tradition as Reflected in the Babylonian Vocalization (in Hebrew), 2 vols, The Academy of the Hebrew Language, Jérusalem, 1985.
P. Kahle, J. Weinberg and T. Weinberg, “The Mishna Text in Babylonia: I. Introduction and edition of the texts”, Hebrew Union College Annual 10 (1935), pp. 185-222.
Ch. B. Friedmann, “Zur Geschichte der ältesten Mischna-Ueberlieferung. Babylonische Mischna-Fragmente aus der Alt-Kairoer Geniza, veröffentlicht und kritisch untersucht, 1927”, in Jahrbuch XVIII der Jüdisch-Literarischen Gesellschaft zu Frankfurt a.M., 1927.
Y. Sussmann (with Yoav Rosenthan and Aharon Shweka), Thesaurus of Talmudic Manuscripts (in Hebrew), 3 vols, the Friedberg Genizah Project and Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem, 2012.
S. Emanuel, Hidden Treasures from Europe (in Hebrew), 2 vols, Mekize Nirdamim, Jerusalem, 2015-2019, II, p. 33, note 60.
J. Olszowy-Schlanger, “The oldest Hebrew manuscript dated by its colophon: a leaf of a Mishna manuscript with Babylonian vocalization in Toronto”, in Fragment of the Month (June 2023) (https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/taylor-schechter-genizah-research-unit/fragment-month/fotm-2023/fragment-4)