A Fortiori Arguments in Halachic Give-and-Take Conversations in the Mishnah and Tosefta

Abstract

In halachic give-and-take conversations in the Mishnah and Tosefta, the sages-interlocutors use the a fortiori (qal-vaxomer) arguments. Following the previous description of a fortiori arguments that appear in the halachic give-and-take conversations in the Mishnah (Shemesh-Raiskin 2019, pp. 132–164), this article presents a corresponding description of those arguments in the Tosefta. Chapter 2 presents the inventory of arguments in both compilations. In the various sections of Chapter 3 the discourse features of the arguments are described: elements that precede the a fortiori arguments (3.1), additions to the a fortiori arguments (3.2), responses to the arguments (3.3), and additions that appear after the arguments (3.4). In general, it was found that these elements are used more in the Tosefta than in the Mishnah. Chapter 4 presents the syntactic patterns of the a fortiori arguments in the halachic give-and-take conversations in the Mishnah and Tosefta. From the patterns which were found by Azar (1991) in his article about the a fortiori arguments in the Mishnah, most frequent pattern in the arguments in both compilations is מה אם + מ 1 + אינו דין + ש-מ2 ([= (and) what if + S1 + is it not logical + that-S2]), whereas the pattern מה) אם + מ 1 (חיובי) + מ 2 (שלילי: לא + יפעל) ) ([= (what) if + S1 (positive) + S2 (negative: no + Yif‘al)]) is frequent only in the Mishnah. Another structure that appears in both compilations, is used to reject arguments, and is the most frequent of all the structures – ? לא, אם אמרת/אמרתם ב+צ"ש 1 + ש-מ 1 + תאמר/תאמרו ב+צ"ש 2 + ש-מ 2 ([= No, if you (sing./pl.) have said in+NP1 + that-S1 + will you (sing./pl.) say in+NP2 + that-S2]).