Learning a Mishnah

In his words

With a Mishnah he moves from the words to the case, then digs for the source. Who is the man bringing the get? An agent. What does the Mishnah assume you already know? That an agent may deliver a get. What is new? That this agent must also testify. Then the key question: Where is this halacha coming from? 47:28 Because But the Mishnah doesn't make up stuff. 47:21

The same pattern opens the beginners' Mishnah on leket: the Mishnah is assuming that we know that before we begin the Mishnah 4:05, and the question is what objective sign tells us the poor have given up hope.

Worked example from a class

Gittin's first Mishnah (40:40): the pasuk in Ki Seitzei says the husband writes the get and gives it into her hand; another derasha allows an agent. So why must this agent say "it was written before me and signed before me"? A mailman delivering a gas bill doesn't testify that it's valid (45:21). That question, where it comes from, is where the Gemara begins.

Hear him teach it

50 moments found so far in 49 transcribed classes; more appear as transcription continues. Tap one to play from that moment.

1. Westwood · Beginner class, Dec 12, 2011 · 53:20“In other words, Mishnahs are written very cryptic. Very, almost like a code.”Because the Mishnah is terse, the Gemara reads in the facts that the binding halachos require.
2. Westwood · Beginner class, Dec 14, 2011 · 17:33“The answer is, yes, that it's not, the reason why the cases are listed is not to teach me a new rule. I know the rule.”Explains why the Mishnah lists many cases: each one shows that item fits under the known rule.
3. Westwood · Beginner class, Dec 28, 2011 · 24:05“we know through Biblical injunction, that means it's a pasuk in the Torah”Supplies the background the Mishnah assumes: what leket is and where it comes from.
4. Westwood · Beginner class, Jan 2, 2012 · 4:05“The Mishnah is assuming that we know that before we begin the Mishnah, that if all the poor people give up hope, then anybody is allowed to take it.”Spells out what the Mishnah already assumes before it begins (leket belongs to the poor; yiush makes it hefker).
5. Westwood · Beginner class, Jan 4, 2012 · 1:57“This is from a Mishnah. Good, and what does the Mishnah begin by asking a question?”He identifies the source as a Mishnah and sets out the background assumption: leket belongs to the poor until they despair.
6. Westwood · Beginner class, Jan 9, 2012 · 7:43“The same one who wrote our mishra wrote this mishra. And his language is very simply, harielu shalom.”Asks why the same Tanna switched from 'harei eilu shelo' to 'mutarin mishum gezel' and draws the meaning out of the change in wording.
7. Encino, Feb 28, 2012 · 35:26“It doesn't teach by rules. It teaches by cases from which we extrapolate rules.”How a Mishnah teaches: through cases, from which rules are derived.
8. Encino, Mar 20, 2012 · 3:44“Now here's a Mishnah that is what we call Torah Shabal Peh, which is like the oral law, which explains beyond just what's written in the Chumash”The Mishnah expands the Torah mitzvah of hashavas aveidah by setting its parameters.
9. Westwood · Beginner class, Apr 25, 2012 · 25:36“Let's take a look at this brisa, which is clarifying this aloha that I just read to you from the possic”Grounds the Braisa in its source pasuk ('ki yutan mayim al zera') before explaining it.
10. Westwood · Beginner class, Jul 18, 2012 · 6:38“That's the halachah, but what's the case? What happened?”Before the law, state the case in the Mishnah: who found what, and where.