Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: סִפְרָא, romanized: sip̄rā, lit. 'document') is the Midrash halakha to the Book of Leviticus. It is frequently quoted in the Talmud and the study of it followed that of the Mishnah.[a] Like Leviticus itself, the midrash is occasionally called Torat Kohanim,[1] and in two passages Sifra debbe Rav.[2]
Authorship
I.H. Weiss attempts to support this.[4] His proofs are not conclusive, though neither are the opposing arguments of Friedmann,[5] who tries to show that the expression Sifra debbe Rav does not refer to the midrash under discussion.[6]
Malbim wrote in the introduction to his Sifra edition that Hiyya bar Abba was the redactor of the Sifra. There are no less than 39 passages in Jerusalem Talmud and the midrashim in which expositions found also in the Sifra are quoted in the name of Ḥiyya,[7] and the fact that no tannaim after Judah ha-Nasi are mentioned in the Sifra supports the view that the book was composed during the time of that scholar. If Ḥiyya was its author, the title Sifra debbe Rav is to be explained as indicating that Sifra was among the midrashim accepted by his school and which came into general use.
Sources
Traces of R. Judah bar Ilai's influence are less evident. The fact that the views expressed in some "setamot" agree with R. Judah's views[8] has little significance. Such seṭamot may be opposed by others that contradict R. Judah's views.[9][6]
All this, however, is no reason for attacking the above-mentioned assumption that the Sifra in its principal parts is a midrash of R. Judah's.
R. Ishmael's midrash; and in this connection must be considered the question whether the citation of certain explanations of Leviticus introduced by the formula תנא דבי ר"י and actually found in Sifra is not in part due to confusion.[16][6]
The Sifra was divided, according to an old arrangement, into 9 "dibburim"
Babylonian Talmud[20] are missing in the present Sifra, and, on the other hand, there are probably passages in the present Sifra which were not known to the Babylonian Talmud.[21][6]
The Sifra frequently agrees with the Judean rather than with the Babylonian tradition;
halakah to different authorities),[26] but unnecessarily, since it is possible to harmonize the apparently conflicting sentences and thereby show that they may be assigned to the same authority.[6]
Many errors have crept into the text through the practice of repeating one and the same midrash in similar passages.[27][6]
Sifra or Torat Kohanim. Edited by Finkelstein, Louis and Morris Lutzki . New York: JTS, 1956. (Facsimile edition of Codex Assemani 66 of the Vatican Library)
Sifra on Leviticus I-V. Edited by Louis Finkelstein. New York: JTS 1989–1990.
Sifra: An Analytical Translation I-III. Translated by Jacob Neusner. Atlanta: Scholars Press 1988.
Sifra on Leviticus, with traditional commentaries and variant readings. Edited by Abraham Shoshanah. Cleveland and Jerusalem 1991 onwards.
28d must be added, according to Levy in Ein Wort, etc., p. 1, note 1
Ḳid.
1:4
^e.g., Sifra, Neg. 2:1, compared with R. Judah in Neg. 2:1; Sifra, Neg. 10:8, compared with R. Judah, Neg. 10:10; comp. also Tosafot Niddah 28b, s.v. הא מזכר.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bacher, Wilhelm; Horovitz, S. (1901–1906). "SIFRA". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Retrieved Jan 17, 2017.
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography:
