Rabbinic Popularity in the Tosefta
December 6, 2020Introduction
Nearly a decade ago after having counted up all the sages in the Mishnah and seeing how many times they appeared,[1] I got curious: what about the Tosefta? So, I began tallying up all the appearances of stages in the entirety of the Tosefta just as I had done with the Mishnah.[2] One thing I noticed was that there are a lot more sages mentioned than in the Mishnah.[3] Moreover, the most frequently-mentioned sages were mentioned a lot more than they had been in the Mishnah. For instance, only the top ten most frequently-mentioned sages in the Mishnah had 100-plus mentions, whereas the top fifteen most frequently-mentioned sages in the Mishnah had 100-plus mentions.
Top Fifteen
Here they are:
1 – Rabbi Yehudah – 911
2 – Rabbi Shimon – 549
3 – Rabbi Yossi – 539
4 – Rabbi Meir – 466
5 – Sages – 462
6 – Rabbi Eliezer – 348
7 – Rabban Shimon, son of Gamaliel – 316
8 – Rabbi Akiva – 285
9 – Rabbi – 270
10 – Hillel’s Academy – 222
11 – Shammai’s Academy – 213
12 – Rabbi Shimon, son of Elazar – 196
13 – Rabbi Yehoshua – 184
14 – Rabbi Elazar – 126
15 – Rabbi Yossi, son of Rabbi Yehudah – 105
Just as with the Mishnah, Rabbi Yehudah appeared far and away more frequently than any other sage, with over 900 appearances in the Tosefta, with the next two having fewer than 600 appearances. At number two and three are Rabbi Yossi and Rabbi Shimon, who were also quite frequently appearing in the Mishnah, although Rabbi Yossi had appeared more frequently than Rabbi Shimon in the Mishnah; here, they flipped. Following them is Rabbi Meir, rounding out all top four most frequently-mentioned sages in the Tosefta being in the same generation as each other. The Sages dropped from second-most in the Mishnah to fifth-most in the Tosefta, with Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Akiva then appearing, similarly to how frequently they appeared in the Mishnah, although Rabban Shimon, son of Gamaliel, as well as Rabbi have now broken into the top ten.[4] Also noticeable is the dropping of the Academies of Hillel and Shammai, as well as Rabbi Yehoshua, all of whom had been in the top ten in the Mishnah. It is worth noting that Rabbi Shimon, son of Elazar had only seven mentions in the entirety of the Mishnah, and Rabbi Yossi, son of Rabbi Yehudah had only nine mentions, so both of them had huge boosts in the Tosefta (Rabbi Elazar appeared the 17th-most frequently in the Mishnah).
Subsequent Nine
There were nine further sages who appeared between 50 and 100 times:
16 – Rabban Gamaliel – 83
17 – Rabbi Elazar, son of Shimon – 76
18 – Rabbi Elazar, son of Tzadok – 70
19 – Rabbi Tarfon – 67
19 – Rabbi Yishma’el – 67
21 – Rabbi Nehemiah – 60
22 – Rabbi Natan – 59
23 – Rabbi Eliezer, son of Ya’akov – 55
24 – Rabbi Yohanan, son of Noori – 50
Rabban Gamaliel had fewer appearances in the Tosefta than he had in the Mishnah (92 appearances in the Mishnah), which seems peculiar, which happens to Rabbi Yishma’el, as well (72 appearances in the Mishnah), although, similar to the Mishnah, Rabbi Yishma’el and Rabbi Tarfon appear close to each other (13th and 14th-most (respectively) in the Mishnah, whereas they are tied at 19th in the Mishnah). It should also be mentioned that close to this list of nine are Rabbi Ya’akov and Rabbi Yishma’el, son of Rabbi Yohanan, son of Brokah, with 36 appearances, tying them for 25th-most frequently-appearing sages in the Tosefta.
Cautions
Similarly, as I had noted with regards to my tallying-up of the sages in the Mishnah,[5] this essay is not intended to be the definitive writing on this topic. I believe that these numbers should be taken as a first step in understanding the frequency of mentions of sages, as it was not a perfect system, which I mention for a few reasons. The first of these reasons is that I only went through the Tosefta once over (and, occasionally, I would go back and catch a missed tally or an extra tally), so it was an imperfect system to begin with, regarding the tallies. On top of that, there may, in the course of my tallying up, I may have accidentally omitted a tally of a name here or there. Finally, a third issue with this present set of data is that I did not delve into critical texts for the Tosefta, so there may be issues with some of the names counted (e.g. Rabbi Eliezer vs Rabbi Elazar).
Reflections
However, it is my hope that, at the very least, this helps further the study and understanding of the Tosefta and the various sages. The clear take away is that, far and away, the most mentioned sage in the Tosefta is Rabbi Yehudah. Also, quite curious are the frequency of mentions of his colleagues Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Shimon, and Rabbi Yossi, who are also in the top four of the mentions. So, the top four, and possibly the top five,[6] all derive from the fifth generation of Tannaim, pointing to a high degree of awareness of their generation, possibly by editors/arrangers who were in the subsequent generation or two. Furthermore, the decreased influence of the Academies of Hillel and Shammai also seem to point to this, as well, especially as even later sages (e.g. Rabbi, as well as Rabbi Yossi, son of Rabbi Yehudah) gain in prominence.
Looking Forward
I’m looking forward to further research into this topic, as my laying of the groundwork on this matter should help guide further inquiry, with better texts, better methodologies, and, more. In the meantime, I hope that this work should be helpful in gaining a foothold of a sense with regards to both the sages mentioned in the Tosefta, as well as the broader text of the Tosefta, as well.
[1] See my “Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah I: סדר זרעים”, Drew Kaplan’s Blog (28 March 2011) [http://drewkaplans.blogspot.com/2011/03/rabbinic-popularity-in-mishnah-i.html], “Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah II: סדר מועד”, Drew Kaplan’s Blog (29 March 2011) [http://drewkaplans.blogspot.com/2011/03/rabbinic-popularity-in-mishnah-ii.html], “Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah III: סדר נשים”, Drew Kaplan’s Blog (30 March 2011) [http://drewkaplans.blogspot.com/2011/03/rabbinic-popularity-in-mishnah-iii.html], “Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah IV: סדר נזיקין”, Drew Kaplan’s Blog (4 April 2011) [http://drewkaplans.blogspot.com/2011/04/rabbinic-popularity-in-mishnah-iv.html], “Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah V: סדר קדשים”, Drew Kaplan’s Blog (29 April 2011) [http://drewkaplans.blogspot.com/2011/04/rabbinic-popularity-in-mishnah-v.html], “Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah VI: סדר טהרות”, Drew Kaplan’s Blog (27 June 2011) [http://drewkaplans.blogspot.com/2011/06/rabbinic-popularity-in-mishnah-vi.html], as well as “Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah VII: Top Ten Overall [Final Tally]”, Drew Kaplan’s Blog (5 July 2011) [http://drewkaplans.blogspot.com/2011/07/rabbinic-popularity-in-mishnah-vii-top.html].
[2] See my “Rabbinic Popularity in the Tosefta I: סדר זרעים”, Drew Kaplan’s Blog (25 July 2011) [http://drewkaplans.blogspot.com/2011/07/rabbinic-popularity-in-tosefta-i.html], my “Rabbinic Popularity in the Tosefta II: סדר מועד”, Drew Kaplan’s Blog (8 August 2011) [http://drewkaplans.blogspot.com/2011/08/rabbinic-popularity-in-tosefta-ii.html], my “Rabbinic Popularity in the Tosefta III: סדר נשים”, Drew Kaplan’s Blog (26 September 2011) [http://drewkaplans.blogspot.com/2011/09/rabbinic-popularity-in-tosefta-iii.html], my “Rabbinic Popularity in the Tosefta IV: סדר נזיקין”, Drew Kaplan’s Blog (3 November 2011) [http://drewkaplans.blogspot.com/2011/11/rabbinic-popularity-in-tosefta-iv.html], my “Rabbinic Popularity in the Tosefta V: סדר קדשים”, Drew Kaplan’s Blog (2 January 2012) [http://drewkaplans.blogspot.com/2012/01/rabbinic-popularity-in-tosefta-v.html], and my “Rabbinic Popularity in the Tosefta VI: סדר טהרות”, Drew Kaplan’s Blog (25 July 2013) [http://drewkaplans.blogspot.com/2013/07/rabbinic-popularity-in-tosefta-vi.html], as well as my “Rabbinic Popularity in the Tosefta VII: Top Twenty Overall [Final Tally]”, Drew Kaplan’s Blog (26 July 2013) [http://drewkaplans.blogspot.com/2013/07/rabbinic-popularity-in-tosefta-vii-top.html].
[3] In the Mishnah, I counted 138 different sages, whereas the Tosefta had 267 different sages, nearly double the number of the Mishnah.
[4] Rabban Shimon, son of Gamaliel appeared the eleventh-most times in the Mishnah, whereas Rabbi appeared the 19th-most frequently in the Mishnah.
[5] See my “Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah”, Textual Insights (4 December 2020) [http://texts.rabbidrew.info/rabbinic-popularity-in-the-mishnah/]
[6] Since Rabbi Meir was clearly the most frequently responded-to sage by The Sages in the Tosefta, it stands to reason that The Sages were overwhelmingly mentioned from that generation; see my “Versus Whom Did the חכמים Argue in the Tosefta I: סדר זרעים”, Drew’s Views (4 February 2014) [http://drewsviews.info/toseftasagesversus1/], my “Versus Whom Did the חכמים Argue in the Tosefta II: סדר מועד”, Drew’s Views (18 February 2014) [http://drewsviews.info/toseftasagesversus2/], my “Versus Whom Did the חכמים Argue in the Tosefta III: סדר נשים”, Drew’s Views (4 March 2014) [http://drewsviews.info/toseftasagesversus3/], my “Versus Whom Did the חכמים Argue in the Tosefta IV: Looking at the First Three סדרים”, Drew’s Views (25 March 2014) [http://drewsviews.info/toseftasagesversus4/], my “Versus Whom Did the חכמים Argue in the Tosefta V: סדר נזיקין”, Drew’s Views (8 April 2014) [http://drewsviews.info/toseftasagesversus5/], my “Versus Whom Did the חכמים Argue in the Tosefta VI: סדר קדשים”, Drew’s Views (29 April 2014) [http://drewsviews.info/toseftasagesversus6/], and my “Versus Whom Did the חכמים Argue in the Tosefta VII: סדר טהרות”, Matters of Interest (19 August 2014) [http://mattersofinterest.info/toseftasagesversus7/]