Our Gemara on Amud Aleph tells us that If one died on the first day of a Festival, gentiles should attend to his burial. Now the Gemara mentions an interesting phrase to refer to gentiles, “amemim”, literally nations. This is an usual phrase and not frequently used. Usually “Akum” or “Nuchri” is used. Is there any significance to this particular language?

Linguistically, the term “Amemim” means “nations” and throughout halakhic and Midrashic literature it is used in reference to the Seven Nations that occupied Israel before the conquest and during the years following. The use of this term suggests that this segment of Oral Torah that Rava was quoting was part of an oral tradition that stemmed back to the original inhabiting of Israel. The Mishna was merely a more organized step in collating various oral teachings, but this little snippet indicates that there were phrases and “Mishna-like” teachings that long preceded the Mishna.  This would explain the use of “amemim” in this teaching, as that was the term used at those times.

Another example of a remnant from pre-mishna Torah comes from the Fifth Chapter of Mishna Zevachim. The Tiferes Yisrael (Zevachim 5:24) noted that in this chapter, when discussing the boundaries of where certain sacrifices are to be eaten it mentions the word “Kelaim”. Now kelaim are the cloth partitions between the Mishkan’s courtyard and the outside, and the Mishna could have used the phrase “chomas hazara”, which is the walls of the courtyard of the Beis HaMikdash. Tiferes Yisrael suggests that this shows that this oral teaching goes all the way back to the generation of the wilderness who had kelaim instead walls. 

It is exhilarating and fascinating to find possible historical remnants of early Torah.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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